I received my tearsheet from the recent edition of American Way Magazine which should be on all American Airline flights. As I mentioned in my previous post, Hawaiian Cowboy…err girl, the photo editor’s art direction was very straight forward as she wanted the subjects on a gray seamless background. It would be up to my discretion on any secondary shots. Luckily, everything presented itself visually…the sunny weather, the blue sky green grass background, and the big Hawaiian belt buckles both Troy and Shelby wore on the day of the shoot. I’m glad I got to see it all and happy the magazine ran worked with my creativity from the shoot. It goes to show, no matter what a client claims they want, its always best to ensure you have backup plan and surely to think out of the box. Creativity pays off.
Last month, I had a great opportunity to photograph a travel piece on shopping in Kauai for the New York Times. Story can be found here. My assignment took me all over from Hanalei to Hanapepe.
One funny incident involved me and actress Jennifer Aniston. While at Kong Lung Trading Company in Kilauea, I was minding my own business snapping pictures of the store when all a sudden Ms. Aniston, Jen, as I’ll call her now, whose hairstyle launched a nation of Rachel-look-alikes in the ’90s, waltzed into the shop and stopped my photo shoot. I did hate that Rachel haircut…I dated a girl…actually I stopped dating her when she got that cut. I couldn’t bare it. I never liked Friends. Of course, being the non paparazzi photographer that I am, I couldn’t go against the good graces of the store owners who surely didn’t want to loose a customer, especially Jen, who is, as we say, is a celeb. So I had to stay back and wait patiently as her and her entourage went from rack to rack of clothing and the likes, all the while I whittled my thumbs waiting for her to go. I wanted to rush up to her with cameras ablazing and take that great front page shot for the travel piece but I didn’t. I imagined all these readers rushing to the store cause “Rachel'” er, Jen was there…I mean if its good enough for her, well…
Her publicist bodyguard marched up to me immediately and confronted me about what I was doing with a camera. I stared her down and explained I had nothing to do with Jen and that was that. I can give stink like the next person. We then chatted about all the inside info I had about shopping on the island and I actually became the shopping hero to the publicist as she took Jen to the shops the Times would write about.
Finally Jen saunters past me and gives me a nice Hollywood smile so I gave her my Clark Gable grin and she left. I must say, she is a very beautiful woman in person, more so that TV. From top to bottom, she’s a good looking broad…as some might say…well the Situation might say, not I…well…she did have nice legs.
Shelby Rita is a real cowboy…but I’m not sure if she’d call herself a boy, though. Shelby is a Hawaiian rodeo star on the North Shore of Oahu. You ask…cowboys (girls) in Hawaii? Well…yes. Cowboys, or the paniolo, were first introduced from Mexico in the old days to help develop the cattle industry in Hawaii. The culture and clothing stayed and now small pockets of ranchers ride around the range on horseback in the beautiful Hawaiian sun. Shelby comes from a long line of ranchers so naturally she grew up riding horses, raising cattle, and competing in state and national rodeo events.
American Airlines Magazine commissioned me to shoot her along with her riding partner Troy Gomes for an upcoming article featuring the two young riders. The catch is they wanted a shot on a seamless gray background. Its not often I get to shoot in a “studio” as Hawaii is its own beautiful background; however, my assistant extraordiniare Tammy and I were given the task of setting up a seamless in the great wide open. We succeeded in finding a nook in Shelby’s garage where we carefully set up the background, flew an Octabank and snapped away. Luckily, the windy North Shore didn’t spoil our “Studio 59” and we were able to capture some wonderful pictures. Shelby’s a beauty and our images came out fantastic!
Though, Shelby upstaged her partner Troy (am I bias?) Troy held his own. He naturally would stand with that cowboy swagger, thumbs hooked into his big belt buckle. A real classic image.
Funny enough, the mag chose a secondary shot out on the range. I somewhat argued with the editor about the background as an outdoor Hawaiian blue sky beats any gray seamless any day but the art direction called for a seamless. How surprised they must have been when they got the secondary shots of Shelby and Troy on horseback with the green Hawaiian mountains and blue sky in the back. The ed fell over backwards! Nonetheless, the seamless were not chosen. The American Way issue will be on planes sometime soon. If you happen to fly, please take a look.
Now on the issue of Shelby calling herself a girl…I saw her ride off on the back of a horse at full speed. She controlled the beast with grace and power. I’ll let her tell you if she’d prefer to be called a girl.
After a few weeks away and doodling with my new website and the likes, I’m back on track with my site and blog.
I’m trying out wordpress for a bit to see if I like this over blogspot so we’ll see how all turns out.
As far as work is concerned…I just had Wonderful Machine help edit and redo my site and branding. I’ll be sending out emails with links to the new site probably beginning next week so everyone can see how great Sean over at WM help recreate my portfolio and how Peter created my new logo and feel to my site.
Much mahalos to you two for working so hard. The official launch will be soon but those who want to see now can go to www.marcogarciaphotography.com.
I’m still using NeonSky and template for my website and super happy with their content. Its my galleries that have been changed and worked over to create a new feel and design for my work and self. Sean over at Wonderful Machine along with the rest of the staff helped define my character and shooting. I didn’t like many of the choices they made only because of my self view of myself but its sometimes not that easy to edit yourself. In many ways, editing is sometimes best left to the professionals.
A natural born citizen...
Leave your thoughts, comments and criticisms on my site and blog if you wish.
As far as work is concerned, things finally picked up. I’ve shot several large jobs for the New York Times on the art scene in Maui, shopping on Kauai, and furlough Fridays on Oahu…not to mention garbage and the birther’s bill giving the State the ability do ignore the repeated requests for Comandante Obama Hawaiian birth certificate. The poor state was getting thousands of requests and the poor state workers were being harassed.
The cool job I shot at the end of April for the Times was a travel piece on the art scene in the small hippie town of Paia on Maui. The town is no more than a few blocks long as deep. The story can be downloaded from here as a pdf or see as a link here.
One of my favorite shots was this guy sitting on the beach.
On the beach...
What kills me is the hair and the leaves on the tree. The Times loved the pic as it seems to be their lead.
Thanks for being patient with me and hopefully I will restart my regular blogging for those who follow.
