Category: Photography

ITS NOT BROKEN!!!!

AHHH….After waiting for like forever at the hospital to see the specialist, the diagnosis was not a crack, just a major strain with torn ligaments, blah blah blah. Bad part is I gotta wear this silly boot like 24/7 for 10 days or so. I don’t know if I can handle it.

I gotta wear the storm trooper boot for like 10 days to bed, to eat, to whatever…i am already getting batty. I really am. My hip is hurting from like standing all uneven, gimpy-like.

9 days to go. Hey, I still got all that vicodin, though!

What a difference nine holes can make!!!!!

You just never know how life can turn itself around in moments. I mean, the picture above was going to be the shot of Michelle Wie’s first LPGA victory. She was well on her way to making a victorious win in her first tournament after becoming part of the tour. Alas, experience, pressure, and age all seem to drag a all but guaranteed win to an absolute train wreck. Well…thats harsh…but, as we said on the field, the wheels fell off at the last second and Michelle finished in second place.

I shot that victory fist pump while Michelle birdied the fourth tee. With global deadlines, and what seemed to be a looming victory for Michelle, AP moved that shot global linking the story with that photo betting she’d win, and that one image would capture the entire event.

But by the 11th green, Michelle shot a a double bogey and life fell completely apart.

Angela Stanford chased down Michelle and got a two point lead over her but the rainy weather seemed hint at a comeback. After a great fairway shot on 15, Michelle had a little over a three foot putt to cut the lead to -1 and put massive pressure on Angela to choke herself. Sadly, Michelle blew the putt and sank in grief. Cameras chipped away from all around and i got a great shot to replace the victory shot that said it all.

Never assume you got the shot cause you never know how an event will change. Nathaniel Welch gave me a great piece of advice once on why its never a good idea to be a sports photographer. You career will depend on what type of game, event, or score your subject will do. My first shot, as amazing it is, tells a completely perfect story if Michelle had won. She didn’t and if I had just gone back to the media center and cheerily watched from an air conditioned room, drink in hand, my work would have been worthless. I had to hump out to the course, walk 10 plus holes with the leaders, hoping to tell the story. And my hard work, and sprained ankle, tell the story with the second shot.

AP made that photo an APTOPIX. When all over the world.

Oh, and for Michelle, we shouldn’t feel too bad for her. A three day tournament and a Pro Am date lead to a second place prize of $108,000. Not bad for a 19 year old.

Adios 2008!

As the sounds of firecrackers rip the rainy night sky in Honolulu (I can imagine Gaza probably sounds like this right now) I though I’d reflect on 2008 as a photographer. I know most of you probably will read this on January 1st, but as I write, we are still a few hours short and a second of the new year.

My career again expanded as my experience and client list expanded. Work has taken me from the itchy grass of the Sony Open…

to Beckham

to lava

to Waikiki Sunsets

to portraits for the NY Times

to pissing in the park

to Japan

to tough guys

and girls on film

and so much more…

as far as life goes, we purchased a condo, my bike got stolen, got to shoot in Japan, Texas, Molokai, and Lanai. Life was great in 2008 despite politics, and the other bull in life. Things were not all that bad. Got famous cause of my Obama on the beach pictures, and shot way too, too many pictures.

I blew a shutter on my 1Ds, broke a 14mm, got storage, got long hair, got a flat screen, a M6, a Drobo, a few new books, a few new friends, and things beyond description.

Thanks to everyone. I can’t believe I am where I am in Hawaii. I am making a career here where I didn’t think I could make it. I live in Honolulu. Not LA or NY. Things are good. Lets hope they last.

Many years (and less lbs) ago!

Digging through old boxes finds all sorts of treasures from the past. I found an old polaroid taken by a photographer I worked with on occasion, Gilles Bensimon. We were photographing the model/actress Milla Jovovich (5th Element, fashion mags, etc…) for the cover of Elle Magazine. After a long day of setting up lights, pulling 8×10 polaroids, and roll after roll of 120mm film, we got to the end of the day where the photog photographed the crew.

I am standing next to Milla (holding a dog) and I was so much skinner and younger, and in many ways, naive. I don’t mean that in a good way or bad way but just attesting to a state. I was really to stay and live that life but life didn’t have it that way. We ended up in Honolulu. Is it better, well…no…if I had made that life in NYC work…but things are better in their own ways. A new condo and balcony make life so much easier.

Life in New York was a different place for me and a different time. But enough of that. I remember setting up six Profoto 2400ws packs just for the background. Sean was the other assistant and Jeff was the boss. I never fit in but I wasn’t sure if it was just me or the crew. Sean and I stayed friends for years on and we found each other on Facebook recently. Jeff, from what I figured out, is doing his fashion thing in New York. He had that life down. I just couldn’t, as much as I wanted, manage that…just couldn’t be fakey. Maybe they saw threw me. I wasn’t one of them.

I always attributed the high end photography life to being one of the cool kids in high school. No matter how hard you tried, you just didn’t have that je ne sais quoi that it takes. Don’t get me wrong, I was a pretty cool kid. Maybe not the coolest but cool enough. The parties revolved around Paul, Diane, and me…in one way or another…or maybe it was because we knew Diane’s sisters were gonna take care of us. Who knew…you might if you knew me back then.

Either way, I was priming myself for the life of studios, models, big lights, and a life of eternal black/dark clothing. It was hard to shake the black shirts for rubba slippas, but it happened.

Jeff is the guy holding his thumbs up. Life was up at the time. Not as much as I would have liked as I always felt I was just on the edge of making it in the assistant world. No long stints with Annie, Michael, Steven, or Gilies. Just day players with the biggies and dailies with Nathaniels and Stephanies. Life was good at the time but I always wanted more. But now looking back, it was enough. Nathaniel emailed me to congratulate me on the NYT story last week. He’s told me in the past I’m the only past assistant that made something of myself…and to think I made it in Hawaii.

I can’t complain too much but a man can dream…

And to think, I am wearing an old vintage Duran Duran tshirt…maybe thats why I wasn’t cool. Or maybe too cool for the fashion crowd.

Time Magazine Barack Obama

I got several emails in the last few weeks from friends and strangers alike telling me of my back page shot of Obama and his kids in the Time Magazine Nov. 17, 2008 issue…seems its a commemorative issue and many many many people are gonna be looking at my picture. Actually, the cover, back cover, and back page, imho, are probably the most important…back cover usually an ad so the back page is just as good.

The shot of Obama and his kids on the beach is starting to become legendary. Lets hope my royalties are just as legendary…HA!

Here’s the page…click on the Time Magazine above and it will take you to the actual page.

I also wanted to also make special notice of a picture I recently scanned…its a picture of me…and I don’t usually like to brag on myself but I do say, Patrick Sison took a nice photo. Its not so much me but the fact that his psyche captured a mirror image of me. Patrick is probably the most unsung talented image maker I’ve ever encountered…even in college, Patrick was is the best. I think he has always been in touch with his inner self to capture really amazing pictures. And to think, the bastard was fiddling with my camera at the time on the streets of NYC. I really do miss New York…and Patrick for that matter.