The new web site I designed for Liz Anah.

Liz Anah escaped from New Jersey at a young age, never looking back. Her spare, smoky vocal style and simple but unforgettable songs grew out of a journey that included stops in Michigan for school, a pilgrimage to an Ashram in India, and serious hard time teaching in the Oakland public schools. Liz Anah’s music has a kind of gritty innocence. Her songs are direct, potent stories of real-life heartache and shattered love, powered by an indomitable optimism that demands attention. (Excerpt from her website bio).

Liz's new CD realease 'Fade to Black' Photography by K.Stokes

I met Liz Anah through other local coastside musicians, namely Montara locals and good buddies Mark and Mike (The Fourth Street Experience). One night at Cafe Lucca open mike, Liz and I got talking after her set, she knew that I designed Mike McCalls CD ‘The Lone Cypress’ and worked with him on several photo-shoots. She told me that she had a new CD nearly ready for release and that she needed a design for the cover. We took it from there and agreed that I would shoot her for some promo shots and her CD cover and re-design her website to fit in with her new look. I’m really pleased with the result (so is Liz)! Visit the website www.lizanah.com it features several shots from the photo session taken one very cold day around the HMB boat yards. Liz wanted a gritty urban look, but also wanted to retain a feminine feel, I think we achieved what she was looking for. The final CD cover image was taken toward the end of the session in the afternoon light. ‘Fade to Black’ is Liz’s first CD release and you can get hold of a copy on her web site by clicking this link.

Here is the second installment on my ‘Waves and Riders’ surf photography series, this time the shots are mainly from sessions shot during the big storms that have been hitting the NorCal coast. I hope you enjoy (be sure to click on the ‘Fullscreen’ button in the middle of the image box to enjoy the work at full size).

This is my latest photographic project, I hope you enjoy my work, I had much fun making it. Big shout out to by buddy/photographer Michael Winokur for lending me his badass Canon 300mm lens. Most of these shots where taken either from Montara Beach or Surfers Beach. Make sure to click on the window and view full screen to get the full effect.

A while back I started to bug my good friend guitarist Mike McCall to write an instrumental song with Montara Beach as a theme, the reason being that I wanted to shoot some video of the beach and set a soundtrack to it. He came up with a beautiful original Spanish flavored piece called simply ‘Montara Song’. So this weekend I finally got around to filming and editing, I hope you enjoy it.

Click this link Montara Song to view the original Music video. © Music & film – Mike McCall & Kevin Stokes 2009

©Wildlife Studios

This looks like a great place, I wish them good luck with the studio. Come on all you talented local musicians give these guys some support!

Check out the web site by clicking here.

New studio opens its doors to Coastside musicians : Half Moon Bay Review

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Surfers Beach in miniature. ©KStokes 09

Playing around in Photoshop, I love the ‘Tilt Shift’ lens effect , looks like a tiny model scene. Click the photo to view full size and get the full effect.

Premiere tonight at La Costanera 6-11.00pm movie starts at 7.00pm, no cover. Come and support our local film makers.

Over the last couple of years I have been building custom made Cajón Drums for myself and local musicians. Each drum is unique with one-off hand painted designs, click the link below to browse an electronic brochure of some of my work.

The Fourth Street Experience at Montara Lighthouse

Montara has many talented and creative inhabitants. Among them are Mike McCall (right) and Mark Kostrzewa (left) individually talented musicians, collectively known as ‘The 4th Street Experience‘. You can catch these guys performing their live acoustic set all over the coastside. But right now they have 10 Montara Life questions to answer…

How did you guys meet and how long have you played together?

We first met at the local gym, Coastal Lifestyles, back around 2000. At that time, the term “12oz curls” meant something. We started jamming and playing music together about 3 years ago and have been “gigging” together since July of 2007.

What style of music do you guys play?

We classify it as “creative acoustic”, since there is really no other description for music that spans many different styles. How else do you describe a set list that includes latin music, brazilian music, blues, bluegrass and slide guitar? A lot of our songs are original compositions by one of us. We have a great a great classical style player (Mike) and a strong slide guitar player (Mark). It’s an unusual combination of music styles that works great in a live environment. [Read more →]

Redwood carving of the moon takes shape.

I was given a fantastic slab of nicely figured redwood by my neighbor Bill, first thought was to turn it in to a side table. On reflection it was way too thick and heavy for that, so I thought why not have a crack at carving something? This is the biggest project of this sort that I have attempted, it seems to be turning out OK so far, I’ll post again when I have a little more done. No idea what to do with it afterwards, hang it on a wall maybe?