Here’s more on that local 30A project (includes press release):
http://www.southwaltonscene.com/blog/2010/01/beach-properties-of-florida-real-estate-brokerage-santa-rosa-beach-watercolor-shane-reynolds-shane-o-travel-channel-hilton-sa.html

In 2009, Beach Properties of Florida alloted me the proper time and budget to produce some high end promotional videos showcasing their company and the hidden gem area known locally as 30A. We worked on it off and on throughout the year and it is finally posted. An online article at www.30a.com features a story about the project with links to the final videos. Otherwise you can see each of them at www.beachpropertiesofflorida.com/30a-video-series.php or see them infused within to the companies site the way they were meant to be seen at www.beachpropertiesofflorida.com These were shot with an EX-1, Letus extreme 35mm adapter and an indie dolly. Quite a beautiful area!

As you might know, we have been producing a ton of shortform content for Travel Channel for the last couple of years and most of it has gone unseen until now. Travel Channel is relaunching their website as more of an interactive guidebook for travelers. This includes all of the material we have made for them as well categorized under specific destinations and acting as a “how to” a “where to” or a “what to.” The site seems to be up and running, although the contect is being uploaded bit by bit, so as it shows up, I’ll post links to it. Check back every so often. Here’s the first link (Cayman Island shows): http://www.travelchannel.com//Places_Trips/Destinations/Caribbean/Cayman_Islands/Grand_Cayman/Shane_Os_Grand_Cayman_Island

It’s hard to imagine that this journey is actually coming to a close. After 28 HARDCORE days we’ve come to get used to the hectic lifestyle of traveling in Egypt. Being out of time and signal we haven’t had a chance to update the blog, so now that we are getting settled into our friend Dave’s house in Cairo before heading to the airport I can get caught up. We flew through Cairo and saw the Pyramids by horseback and then a walking tour to see them up close. Having seen them last year it was amazing seeing them for a second time. This time there was no construction around the Spinx and the haze wasn’t as bad so the footage was better. We took a Felucca ride on the Nile backlit by the nightlights of Cairo, then crashed at Dave’s after a night of beer, pool and food. The next day we headed into Sinai and did some kiteboarding on the Red Sea. I am humbly reminded of how complicated that sport is. After that we headed into Mt. Sinai and climbed Moses’ Mountain at St Catherine’s Cathedral.  break- So I had to get going to the Cairo airport only to discover our flight was cancelled with Air France completely MIA to rectify the problem, so instead of leaving at 1:40 am we got off at 7:30 am. We now sit in the Paris airport on layover to Atlanta. Airports really suck these days…anyway, as I was saying…the climb up Moses’ mountain took a few hours and cashed almost every leg muscle possible, but the view was SPECTACULAR! Sinai is a magical place. Treacherous mountain desert terrain, rich religious history and as picturesque as the Sahara. We made it to Sharm that night and actually got to do three dives in the Red Sea the next day. Edgar hooked us up with our own boat and we did two dives on Jackson’s reef, which was absolutely beautiful. The reef is so thick and intricate. The night dive off the house reef was my favorite…tons of life and even glowing phosphorus to dance around in with the lights off. definitely a world class dive destination. The nightlife isn’t bad either. We had a fun night out at the Little Buddha with overpriced drinks and decent music. Even though BlackJack at the Casino nearby ate up my $20 US in about 5 minutes, it was very cool to see this modern and fun side of Egypt. Sharm is probably the one place I would consider living in. It sound like tourist hell on paper, but we all agreed it was WELL worth seeing. –break- sitting at my house now and what a relief to have the airport experience behind me. Basically 2 straight days of traveling…but nothing comes easy. Egypt lived up to every expectation and then some. We are so lucky to be able to see it the way we did. I can’t wait to start editing!!

After a series of logistical setbacks, today we FINALLY dove the Mediterranean of Alexandria. This is not a world class diving destination by any means…horrible visibility, challenging currents, sparse marine life, etc. But it is VERY unique in that it is the most historical diving you can do. We dove the oldest lighthouse ever (fell in over 1500 years ago) which was just off the Quatbay Fort, and the ruins of Cleopatra’s Palace/Marc Anthony’s office (just in the Alexandria Harbor). It was a tad cold but definitely like no other dive I have done before. Thank god I had a light system for my underwater camera because it would’ve been unshootable without it. Tomorrow we’re off for Cairo to do some establishing shots (horseback at the Pyramids/Fellucca ride on the Nile) then we are quickly off to Sinai to climb Mt. Catherine to see the monastery and then we dive the pristine waters of the Red Sea. ALong the way we plan on doing some kiteboarding and maybe hit a couple of casinos in Sharm. Living the dream!!

Still new to this format of blog, so I apologize for some of these posts being out of order (accidentally “saving draft” instead of “publish”), but I think I straightened it out now. SO…….after much anticipation we finally went into Siwa where we were able to dive three well, two of which had fish in them and one seemed to have something to the effect of a praying altar at the bottom (Bride’s Well). Siwa was as enchanting as I remember it. Sandboarding was amazing as I remembered it. We saw much more of the great sand sea this time. We were the first to ever kiteboard the salt lake, buggyed some epic dunes and even had a local band in Siwa perform a special concert for us, UNREAL. After that we packed up and trekked ober 1500 miles offroad through the desert, camping for 8 nights straight. We summited the Gilf Kebir Plateau and hit a couple of long golf drives from the ledge. After that we saw the cave of swimmers (for the English Patient) and then saw a new discovery called the Mistikawy Cave, which has been recently renamed the “Cave of the Beast” which has 10,000 year old human wall art etched everywhere showing that this was once a fertile land. Surprisingly there was a team of German Archeologists there that spoke with us about what they were studying. Just seeing other people in that trek was amzing enough, but to get a scientists point of view was serendipitous. After leaving the Gilf we had a string of setbacks…we lost the turbo in our car which cut over half the power and made diesel smoke cloud the interior, which was awful, but we rearranged and rode in a different car. We dragged along at half speed for hundreds of miles but stayed on schedule somehow. We finally made it to the Dahkla oasis and bathed in a spring (first in over a week), then camped outside of the oasis where we awoke to a wind storm that virtually buried us. It sucked at the time but it’s part of the experience. It also provided GREAT photos and video. After that we finished our desert expedition with a perfect night in the White Desert which is one of the more alien landscapes I have EVER seen. Can’t wait to start editing. Seems the window of diving in ALexandria is upon us so we pushed Cairo back to return to ALex and do some diving (tomorrow). Just learned that they may have discovered the lost persian army that was buried in the Sahara some 2500 years ago on the day we were cutting through it. If confirmed this would be one of the biggest discoveries of all time. We are discussing a return to the desert to film this if we can get confirmation and a green light from the powers that be. We’ll see…if not we will do our establishing shots in Cairo and move on to Sinai for some more adventure, including some dives in Sharm. Either way we’re in for a whole lot more beauty and fun. Getting great stuff! We’ll keep you posted!

So after trucking through the Sahara, camping on the border of Libya, golfing off the gilf Kebir plateau, sandboarding the Sea of Sand, Kite boarding the Salt lake, etc. etc…we have found ourselves in the Dakla oasis whee I fund this primitive internet connection with tricky keyboard so pardon any mistakes we are in a hurry. Just thought I would drop a quick ine to l et yo know we are alive and getting GREAT stuff…we’re off to camp in the white desert. will check in in a few das to update when we reach real civilization. over and out

So the surf finally came in! Head high with well overhead peaks! A little side shore but clean and fun. With that checked off the list we held onto as much optimism as we could regarding our dives in Alexandria, but we have faced reality and decided that it’s better to not lose time in the desert trying to force something that’s not going to happen…at least for now. If the weather cooperates we still have a chance at the back end of the trip to make it up. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. For now we are packing up to head into Siwa, from there we go deep into the desert…so it may be that we are out of all communication for the next 10 to 15 days. Guess I’ll have to go old school and write in a journal and catch the blog up when we get back into civilization. No sodas, no showers…can’t wait!

Still waiting on the surf to either hit hard or go home. Looks like a pretty big swell coming through so our guide Tim and I are studying the maps, swell direction and wind forecast to determine the best place to catch it. Looking pretty hopeful to catch some rare epic surf in the Egyptian Mediterranean. The swell should lay down sometime tuesday which mean wednesday or Thursday we could be diving as planned, then we will head into the desert just a day behind schedule, but plenty of buffer already in place to make up for it there. Couldn’t surf slop again today so we took a tour of Alexandria and took in the sights. Crazy & beautiful city. Probably the craziest city I would consider living in. Swell hits tomorrow…we’ll see what happens.