Grant Ellis Portfolio

This is a shot of Dave Rastovich in Indo. I actually shot this on black and white film. I really like the composition of this shot—you have the local guy in the foreground and Rasta in the background. We had a great crew on this trip: Occy, Andy, Rasta, Luke Egan, it was definitely one of the best trips I’ve ever been on and this is one of my favorite photos from that trip.

Here’s Andy at Sunset. I think this was shot in 2002 when Andy was really coming into his own. This shot is actually a favorite of Andy’s. For this photo, I made a point of trying to set myself away from the pack of the rest of the photographers and for this image it really seemed to work. To me, it’s a great moment and a super special image where everything—the wind, swell direction, and surfer—just came together.

I shot this image of Jack Johnson about five or so years ago in Ojai, California. Jack and Chris Malloy were working as the guest editors for Surfer and I drove up to Ojai to show them some prints of the layout  and stuff like that. While I was there, Jack did this little mini impromptu concert and his son went and sat in his lap. Overall, I think it’s a really great moment.

In 2007 I went on this quick strike mission to Nicaragua with Cory Lopez and some other guys. It was a pretty amazing trip but the thing I took away the most was just what an animal Cory is in the water. He was the first one in the water and the last one out every day. It’s cool to see someone that’s still super pumped.

I think I took this image of Uppers in 2004. That winter, we had a lot of rain in Southern California and it created these really good banks. What I love about this photo is that it doesn’t really look like Uppers because you can’t see anyone else out, everyone’s sort of hidden behind the wave in the background.

Here’s another shot of a place called Colorado’s in Nicaragua. For me, all of the different elements are what makes this photo special: the color of the water, the foreground, the rain cloud in the back, I think it’s just really unique and sort of sells the dream. It’s really moody. Middle left: I took this photo on a whim this year at Snapper. I was just walking down the beach and Coco Ho and Laura Enever came up and sort of posed real quick and I just snapped off a shot or two. Not really much to it, but it kinda says a lot about their personality. Lower left: This shot’s of Julian Wilson and was also taken in Nicaragua last year on a trip I went on for the filming of Julian’s movie, Scratching the Surface. Kolohe Andino was also on the trip, and both those kids are pretty much everything they say they are. Above: This photo was taken from one of my favorite trips. Nate Tyler and I went to Australia, rented a car, and just drove around looking for waves. It was super fun, no pressure, really relaxed. This shot was actually taken on a really bad day, but there was this one ramp and Nate went for it. What I really like about this shot is how he’s positioned above the horizon and you can see his shadow in his spray.

This one was taken of Greg Long at Dungeon’s a few years ago at the Red Bull big-wave Africa event. This is when Greg and Twiggy and all of these crazy paddle-in guys were first starting to break out. They were charging just as hard back then as they are now.

The Eddie this year was a really special event and the surf was pretty amazing. While I was shooting, this huge set came in and I snapped this shot. This barrel is so huge, I can’t help but look at this shot and not wonder what it would like if someone was pulling in.