Clay Duda

Posted on August 3, 2023August 3, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Mostly FIlm, Mostly Punk Rock

Some Gritty Black and White Photos of Days N’ Daze Playing Live in Homer, Alaska

Days N' Daze play live at Alice's Champagne Palace in Homer, Alaska. July 30, 2023. Photo by Clay Duda. — ^{Days N’ Daze play live at Alice’s Champagne Palace in Homer, Alaska. July 30, 2023.}

Dude, I used to love concert photography. Back in the day when I worked as an editor at Creative Loafing Atlanta (RIP), I used to go photograph shows weekly, sometimes more. It wasn’t really in my job description as “Digital Editor” or whatever, and I made salary so they didn’t really pay me to do it, but I got to see a lot of really cool shows for free and got to meet and hang with some pretty cool people.

That’s one of my biggest peeves about now living at the end of the road in Alaska — there’s not very many touring bands coming through. Probably because there is no “touring through.” You get to Homer, and you either stay or you turn around. I prefer to stay.

Posted on July 13, 2023August 3, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Fish Stories, Mostly Alaska

Rena’s Photos from Fishing on the Diamond Cape — Fall 2022

Biting the 'but aboard the Diamond Cape. Photo by <a href= — ^{Capt. Clay on a rainy day. Fishing on the Diamond Cape, September 2022. Photo by Rena Spears www.countrysinnovationnation.com.}

I won’t lie, when you fish every day, well, the days start to blur together after a while. It’s not that I forget them, it’s just that the waves start to overlap in my memory bank. We catch a lot of fish, and we take a lot of people fishing, and I’m way better remembering faces than I am with names.

When Rena Spears sent me an email this spring saying she had photos from a charter fishing trip she took with us in 2022, I was pretty excited. My memories of that late-season trip on Sept. 15, 2022 were pretty hazy, but once she sent along the photos everything came crisp into view.

Posted on June 26, 2023August 2, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Fish Stories, Mostly Alaska

That Time Lori Caught a 70-Pound Halibut in the Chugach Islands and I Made a Video About It

Lori was a super cool client I had on the Diamond Cape in the summer of 2021. I rarely have a chance to do videos like this, but I’m always happy when things come together.

Posted on June 8, 2023June 8, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Book Reviews, Just For Fun

A Brief Review of the Book ‘Endurance’ by Alfred Lansing

^{Frozen in ice and frozen in time, an iconic voyage aboard the Endurance to the Antarctic Beyond.}

What’s the point of reading a book when you already know the ending? Rarely is a story so compelling and unbelievable that it couldn’t past muster as a work of fiction. No one would believe the odysseys captured in the pages of Endurance if they weren’t true. The fact that 28 men sailed into the heart of the Antarctic ice pack, had their ship crushed in heavy flows, fought off the elements and madness for more than a year existing on the ice, and all escaped and lived to tell about it is, quite frankly, beyond belief.

Posted on May 29, 2023May 29, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Fish Stories, Mostly Alaska, Mostly FIlm

Goofing Off and Winning the 2023 Captain’s Invitational Halibut Tournament in Homer, Alaska

One of my very first fishing trips when I arrived in Alaska more than 6 years ago was with my friend Jordan, who invited me to join a bunch of guys competing in the annual Captain’s Invitational Halibut Tournament in Homer, Alaska. We did not win the tournament that year, but I started to find my sea legs and understand a little bit about what drew such an eclectic group of guys together with a love for the ocean.