Category: Sports

No Still Photography Allowed

No Still Photography Allowed

If that were only the truth!

I just finished my nine day odyssey at the 2012 Sony Open in Hawaii.  I’ve had my complete fill of sun, pollen, sunburn, Old Spice, pesticides, idiot volunteers, and sensitive golfers.  Oh how we marched and humped the flat yet hot course out at the Waialae Country Club chasing Ryo-kun and any golfer who dared to stray into first place for those few 100 yards or so.

I’ve shot the Sony Open in Honolulu for the last several years and it never seems to get any easier with all the running around and struggles of the course and not to mention the hours of being out in the sun.  Every year at the end of the tourney, I get what I call a sun cold…better yet, a golf cold.  I have my face down in the grass for multiple days inhaling all the pollen and pesticides I could ever want in a long drawn out week.  Come wednesday, I get sneezy, congested, and irritable.  The irritability just might be my irascible personality run afoul by the incomprehensible logic of volunteer marshals, the errant golf balls from the Pro Amers, and a weighty 400mm F2.8 lens digging into my neck muscles.

 Golf is one of those sports that just begs to ask why anyone would pursue such a unreasonable game where a putt depends on whether the grains of the grass are facing towards or away from you, or whether your ball will slice or hook on the based on how your hands grip the driver.  How ironic that basketball players get booed and screamed at when doing free throws from the line but golfers can’t take even a bright shirt if its in their eye sight.  A gentleman’s sport, indeed!  Especially when you hear certain golfers swearing like sailors when a ball goes off course or a putt doesn’t fall just like they envisioned.

Regardless of my own prejudice of the game (note…I’ve been know to roam the cloudy cool hills of the Pali golf course so I’ve no real complaints) I truly enjoy shooting the sport.  The anticipation, the surprises, the reactions are all so great.  Its completely boring most of the time as so many of the players possess that calmness the sport demands which doesn’t allow them to showboat or hoot and holler when sinking an eagle.  Sure you get the fist pump but you’ll never get the true “jube” shots you’ll find in other sports.

Whether its pure madness to follow the Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa, who I truly think looks like an real life anime character, I’ll never truly understand.  I think its the pack mentality of rushing around with a dozen or so photographers from the US and Japan, all struggling to capture that unique image of the golfer in pure rapture or total disbelief in his ability to make a two inch ball land in just the right spot.  Even though you can’t communicate with each other due to a language barrier or a sensitive golf caddie, we share the same sweat, pain, sunburns, and struggle.  One big unified mass chasing a bunch of dopes chasing a little white ball.

I do have a favorite shot of the week and its of this guy David Hearn hitting out of the bunker on the ninth green.  I just found his expression of fear, worry, hope, and more fear more appealing than most of the stuff I shot that day.  He fizzled at the end of the tournament allowing moustached Johnson Wagner to win all the marbles.  Do I dare say Mr. Wagner’s prowlness is due to his hairy lip?  We’ll never know.

 

 

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.

Recent publishing.

Today’s post concerns publishing! I sometimes forget to see where my photos end up. It can be a mystery at times as images are sent to editors on the mainland never to be seen again. The wireless age creates apathy as images are ftped to a far away place never to be seen again. I had two sports images end up in Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News this week. My hard won photos although not peak telling of the story action are stock images and clients and magazines do care for what I describe as “stock” images.

Peak sports images are most essential to any sporting event but since I live in a different market, Hawaii sporting events are usually off the radar of most people. Mainland writers will focus on stock images of sport stars and athletes and to me, many could clearly care less of any important impact plays. Clean sharp images are what counts.

I’ve showcased this images in a past blog but this image was used to illustrate UH’s 12-0 season for SI. It ran on a page with two other images at about 2×3, hardly worth me paying for the mag at Borders.

The University of Hawaii football team performs a Maori “haka” or war dance before their football games at home and away. The controversial performance does make some upset (namely Maoris as Hawaiians are a different “tribe”—and a good portion of the players are not even Polynesians) but the dance does make for interesting photos. My image showcased on the back page of The Sporting News.

I borrowed Jamm Aquino’s Canon 15mm lens for the shot and lined up the image just right. The 15mm is a tricky not an every day use lens which gives a fisheye effect. On a cropped Canon Mark II body, the fisheye is limited but there is very high distortion. The lens is a bit too distorted but it worked well for the shot.

The layouts below come from Modern Luxury’s summer issue. I did a story on hip Chinatown spots in HNL. Margie the ed assigned me the job just days before I was to leave the country. I was my first story for the magazine and I had to work to impress. I worked tirelessly for two days straight going to different spots around Chinatown/downtown to get the right images. It was tough but I managed to pull it off. Margie liked the images and called me for more work.

It was tough but I made it happen. Its always fun to challenge myself visually…meaning when you see something day in and day out (I live just outside of Chinatown) you forget to “see.” You get so used to looking at everyday life that it just becomes routine. Photographers get so excited thinking of making images far away from home but always forget their backyard has some of the best places to make pictures. We just have to open our eyes a bit wider!

Life is never routine.

Enjoy.