Category: Oahu

The Transmission

From my recent story shot for The New York Times, I spent behind the scenes time with Ryan and Jen Ozawa, creators of ABC’s Lost podcast “The Transmission.” Although not affiliated in anyway with ABC or Lost, the couple as spent the better part of every season (sans the first one) producing a weekly podcast for a legion of followers who download and comment on the Ozawa’s post show discussions.

Story is here.

I preferred my selects over the newspaper’s selections so I posted my outtakes. Jen and Ryan, two who couldn’t be more visually different, were hard to place. I wasn’t sure how to fit them into a frame and make sense of who they were and the environment. I mean this was a story about two podcasters, not the people standing in front of me.

We met way out in Waialua at Camp Erdman, aka, the Other’s Village. Dusk sank quickly giving a strange glow to all around and the sickly yellow walls of the camp lent to that eerie Lost feeling.

What was hard about snapping the couple together is that they didn’t say “Lost podcast.” Jen has a motherly school teacher vibe while I felt Ryan was going to lecture on derivatives or something very cerebral. I think my problem was Jen showed up in a red dress that seemed out of place and I think she knew it. Ryan showed up in Hawaiian work attire…an aloha shirt. Funny, once we got back to their home, Jen put on a green tee shirt and jeans transformed into a totally different person. That red dress stopped her, and for that matter me.

However, I stopped doubting myself and moved forward working with my awkwardness and placed them in juxtapositions. In the fence shot, I was thinking of Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting.

My awkwardness visually placed them into an interesting place.

I was very happy with the shot. Nothing says American Gothic…yet maybe it does. Sadly, the eds didn’t see it as such but it gives me a moment to write about it for my blog.

The Ozawas pushed me to make a tough story into a really great shot, at least for me. I really appreciated working with them. They were amused…well maybe annoyed with me…using the word “interesting” as I posed them in different situations and poses. It wasn’t so much they were making my job hard, I made it hard for them. I just couldn’t find what it was to make the image work. But it did. I think they were one of the better jobs I’ve shot as it allowed me to think out of the box and do something slightly different than the usual shtick for a portrait job.

Striking to me is how the couple have grown a small home based project into an international sensation all from the den of their home. Two mics, headphones, a bit of software, and the solitude of nighttime help them create a very interesting show.
Sadly, I’ve never heard it. For that matter, I’ve never watch Lost. I don’t know anything about the show other than I’ve photographed Lost red carpets events and cast members over the years.

I shot Daniel Dae Kim and restaurateur DK Kodama at the Counter Hamburger joint for Modern Luxury and

Michael Emerson for the cover of Hi Luxury Magazine. He loved the issue and images and signed a copy which I framed and am very proud of. I should have been watching the show. Thank goodness for reruns.

pdf of Star Bulletin

Just a quick post to show the actual page that ran on Sunday along with the original file I sent to AP. Nice use of space and text with the image. The page designers used the empty space well and anchored the rest of the paper on the bottom in the sand.

Did I preconceive this shot before hand thinking of a layout or page use? Not really but I did have an idea of what I wanted to illustrate. As I said in my last post, I wanted to convey the idea of Hawaii getting back to normal after the tsunami warning was rescinded. The use of the empty space, the whitewash pointing at the surfer, the board shape, the shape of the surfer, the color of the sand…it all works. I would have never guessed this image worked the way it did however; harking back on that subconsciousness of photography, it worked well.

"We dodged a bullet…"

Friday night in Hawaii turned out to be pretty intense. Well, more than intense. Around 10:30pm that evening, George called me to tell me of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that rattled Chile. We quickly discussed a possible tsunami which turned out to be a reality and fears abounded. I started charging batteries and getting camera gear ready as I knew work would start quicker than I imagined.

Sure enough, around 12am, Jaymes, the local AP chief, sent out a text putting local AP staff and contractors on red alert as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center released a tsunami warning for the State of Hawaii based on the massive quake across the Pacific. I couldn’t help but to think about the tragedy experienced in Banda Aceh in 2004 and feared, for good measure, the same might fall upon Hawaii.

The shot above is from my 2005 series of work from Banda Aceh a week after the Asian tsunami destroyed many coastal cities around the globe. Amazing the power of water and the destruction it can do.

Jaymes sent me out to shoot the PTWC and the operations monitoring the tsunami waves traveling across the Pacific. Before I went out to work, I made sure to fill up with gas, purchase bottled water and a few cans of soup as I knew once dawn broke, the citizens of the state would be on the go and would make a run on supplies. As expected, as I was entering Ewa, I saw how insane the lines were at the gas stations and how people were flooding the 24 hour grocery stores. Hundreds of cars lined the roads at gas stations stocking up on gas in the event a disaster hit.

I got to the PTWC, got my shots, transmitted, got confusing orders to get on a plane to Hilo but glad I didn’t as the Hilo airport shut down around 6. Got back home, shot a few shoppers at the grocery store and waited for dawn. Heard the tsunami sirens blow at 6AM. I was shaken by hearing that wail break the silence of the dawn. I knew at from the sirens, as canny as this sounds, it was no drill. We were up for the real deal at this point.

I ran back out to the Waianae to shoot the homeless being pulled off the beach. That was tough. Many of those people have no where to go, no way to get there, and in most cases, faced loosing all they owned if a wave were to wash away their tent camping sights. Star Bulletin photographer Jamm was brought to tears after spending some time with a homeless guy on a wheelchair. The homeless man refused to leave the beach and his makeshift tent because he was afraid other homeless would come and steal his canned food and small possessions from his home on the beach. Jamm felt, by leaving this man, he was leaving this half blind, chair bound man to his fate on a beautiful beach in Makaha.

The homeless fascinated me as so many of them felt they were being pushed off the beach and wouldn’t be allowed to return. Many ignored the sirens and bullhorns announced evacuations from the beach. Strangely one woman told me she didn’t believe the state, and as she raised her hands to the heavens, she said if God wants to take me, I can’t stop him. I’ll leave when God wants me to. Fatalism echoed deeply in her words and it became apparent many of the homeless mirrored her feelings. Being homeless and owning nothing seems to makes one believe in nothing other than the hand of God. Another man and his family waved off the idea their tents would be lost if the waves came. He said, “what do we own? Nothing we can’t replace.” My materialism was questioned. Yet, having some sort of desire to live or better your situation might be a higher goal to achieve than waiting for the God to deal you a better hand.

After a bit of time in the Waianae, I rushed off to Ala Moana Beach park and captured empty beaches and quiet streets. I ran into into a lone Japanese family sunning on the beach and I tried to warn them of the danger but they couldn’t speak a word of English. I said tsunami, pointed to the ocean, and declared “abunai!” meaning dangerous. They clearly got my message and started off for their hotels. I kinda thought they would have figured it out seeing all the police, hearing the sirens, and how empty the beach was.

As the zero hour approached, I rushed off to the balcony of the Illikai Hotel where I waited for something to happen. I planned ahead before I left the house as I put my bike in the back of the car to make sure I could get around if things got sticky. I parked on the second floor of Don Quixote grocery store and rode down to Waikiki. I surely feared for myself if waves really were to wash up as they did in Banda Aceh. I can only guess that I might not have been as safe as I thought exposed on that balcony if waves and debris has washed up that close…or for that matter, that high. I was only feet away from loads of boats in the Hobron harbor.

I linked a video put together of the Banda Aceh tsunami waves washing through the city. I feared we were destined to the same fate.

Video here.

I really feared a situation where all of the beach were to suck out and push in with me on a bike and the world lapping at my feet. I didn’t take my situation lightly as I had to weigh what I was doing…am I a journalist or a citizen? Several professionals rushed out of the danger zones fearing the worst. No story is worth your life but as Mark Niesse said, as journalists its our job to be in the middle of it all. He rented a ocean front room in a top hotel and awaited the waves. He surprised me at his dedication and audacity to push it to the limits. Phone in hand, he was ready to report to the world all he saw. Well, its really not a surprise as he seems to always be at the ready.

At the last second before the waves hit, I got pulled out of the danger zone and was sent to the Civil Defense bunker at Diamond Head in the event of massive damage to the state. I was chosen to fly out with Governor Lingle on a Blackhawk helicopter as she would fly out to assess the damage. Luckily, it didn’t happen.

Around 2pm, the state called off the warning signaling an all clear. We did experience some inundation of waves in some areas but there was no reported damage or loss of life. The TV news broadcast from Hilo showed water ebbing in and out of the harbor giving viewers a sinking feeling a rush of water was next…but it just didn’t happen.

As much as we were in a complete danger zone, we, as a scientist from the PTWC stated, dodged a bullet. A bullet I am glad to see not hit us. The damage would have left scars for years to come.

I do have to note my joy in waking up on Sunday morning from a deep sleep (imagine, I worked roughly a 15 hour day with no sleep on Friday) and seeing my shot on the front page of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. As luck has it with me and my camera, the surfer just so happen to be walking on the beach just below me from the Diamond Head lookout. I had just left the bunker after the all-clear was issued. I needed a shot to show life was back in order, at least life back in order, Hawaiian-style.