1728 miles into the deep heart of Texas. Like a crossword puzzle, up and down, left and right.
We had the best barbeque in two small Texas towns. Saw the rarely seen or known Branch Davidian memorial outside of Waco. And we got great seats at Rangers Stadium to see Darvish pitch and win against the A’s.
There’s a lot more I’ll be covering including the massive disappointment of a town called Austin and other tidbits of this and that.
Its been a very busy few weeks and I just wanted to post a few new tear sheets to my growing list of clients and images.
The above shot was the Spring issue of Modern Luxury. I sat atop a secret hill top and shot the city at dusk and waited for magic. I had to do this three times as one day was good, the second day was cloudy, and the last day was magic. Its just amazing how much we can’t control when we do outdoor shots. A cloud rolls in and the day is over. These things take time, luck and a little skill. Not much skill, but a little.
I’ve had the chance to photograph the owners from Fighting Eel a few times and this shot happens to be one of my favorites. I’ve not had the easiest time photographing them as they seem at times, slightly uncomfortable with themselves (or maybe it was just me) and I haven’t nailed a great shot of the pair. But this pix seems to really be what I would call the shot. I like it. Thanks Rona and Lan.
Having been dressed by the Hawaii Five O duo for my shining start on the Rick Springfield episode, Five O costume designers Michelle and Anthony, were surprised I put them behind the camera this time. Erika, the handler of all handlers, coordinated a great time, location, and helped set a great image of the two. I think of the shot, along with the Fighting Eel girls as a portfolio piece. Its another great environmental shot. Both shots were for the Spring issue of Modern Luxury.
My last tear sheet is actual an image from the LPGA Lotte Championship Golf tournament held in April at Ko Olina. The winner happened to be Japanese golfer Ai Miyazato. She led the last round and kept steady and focused. She stayed par the entire time but nailed the last few holds to win the four day tourney. Unbeknown to anyone, even her, she started doing a hula with the hula dancers during the award ceremony. She danced really well and surely deserved the dance.
Just a quick posting of tearsheets from a travel piece I shot for the LA Times and the new travel trend of Agrotourism in Hawaii. Well traveled tourists are now recognizing the value of eating off the resort and eating and shopping locally. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and produce can be pretty good albeit rather pricey at times. But on an island, everything can be pricey.
So some have asked how much certain things cost here so here is a quick rundown:
gallon of milk: around $6 for mainland, $8 to $9 for locally produced.
gallon of gas: HNL: $4.45, outer island $4.70+
lb of bananas: local apple bananas are about $1.30, imported are around $1.09
pineapple: Costco price is $3.29 or so, tourist price at fruit stand, $6
lb of ground beef: $3-4
locally grown tomatoes: $5/lb, imported are about $2.99/lb
But some of these costs didn’t surprise me from New York but they are shocking when you go to a place like San Antonio where you pay like $1 for 10 limes/lemons where at Safeway locally you get a lemon for like $1.29 EACH.
But to get back to the shopping locally at local farmer’s markets, things are obviously fresher and more unique and you will get a taste of the small farm as opposed to the corporations growing produce on the west coast. You can’t buy mangosteens or rambutans at Safeway but you’ll pay for it at the farmer’s markets but the tastes and joy of eating something exotic really do make you feel like you are in the middle of the Pacific.
Lots of the exotic fruits and produce grown here are not native but they do add flavor to the local cuisine. Its great tourists are now recognizing the value of having a sustainable trip where things are sourced locally rather than imported at high costs. This creates local jobs, demonstrates we shouldn’t convert every inch of ag land into condos and resorts, and sustains a better way of life for everyone one on the Islands. The drawbacks…well the major one is the costs of doing business, and the costs of labor. Hawaii has no access to cheap immigrant labor to work in the fields, labor laws are strict and surely add to the costs of doing business, and Hawaii is clearly not business friendly. Costs and taxes are high enough to drive small and start ups off the Islands. Historically, the plantations took advantage of the labor here which drove a rise in unionism and now housekeepers at the big hotels are paid as much as the night managers. How the hotels survive is by passing that cost onto you.
Regardless of my ranting, locally grown whatevahs is the trend across the country. I’m glad we’re pushing more of this into our lifestyle even if it does costs a little more. A locally grown avocado is pretty tasty. Locally grown greens are crisper and its always neat to know I got an egg from a local chicken and not off a boat.
Oh, the above picture of the farm girl, Norah Hoover. Ah, what a beauty. She was working on the Kauai farm that produces stuff for Common Grounds in Kilauea. As the staff was walking me around showing me parts of the farm and gardens which produce a good portion of the food for their restaurant, Norah walks over, barefoot no less, to plant kale into the field. I immediately was drawn to her as her off the shoulder shirt, overalls, and bed head red hair fit my image of what organic farming and life is like on Kauai. Sure enough, the LA Times and others have used that picture to be the lead for the story. She made a great picture.
Jason was Ducky; Larry was possibly the not-so-smart jock; Brenda was the alternative rebel chick; Chris was totally Bender, spray paint and all. Hong was the token Asian; Paul was the nerd turn cool with age white guy, Diane was the sweetheart, Katie was the one who wore too much makeup, Amy was the teacher’s daughter…and me…well, let someone else describe in a Hughesian definition.
Was I Bender, nah…not even close. Ducky? Well…I wasn’t that nerdy? Jake Ryan? No that was more Diego but he didn’t go to school with us. Keith Nelson? Maybe a combo of Keith, Ducky, some of Ferris humor, and a little bit of Bender mixed in (well…thats a leap!) Who knows…maybe the guys above should describe me in not so nice terms. There was the girl I couldn’t have, the musical soundtracks to those sweaty spring nights at NIOSA, the great parties where I tried to climb a flag pole with the then Mayor’s daughter, the girls at Driver’s Ed, gosh…so much. Our lives were Hughesian.
Oh, there was also Sant was the crazy Asian exchange student. Oscar was the heartthrob, Diana was the heartbreaker, who else? We could go on forever.
I guess we kids of the 80s all had our Breakfast Club/Sixteen Candles/Ferris Bueller moments. I had just broken into my self awareness period when Hughes was hip and Ringwall was hipper. I still remember Molly dancing on the staircase during detention. I mean she said it all…well at least all I wanted to be and wanted when right before the start of Thomas Jefferson High School.
I do remember seeing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at Santiko’s Northwest 14 (or was it 12) Theater with Steven Mayer. I don’t think he fit into our Hughes definition as he was a Jehova’s Witness. Never bore witness to me. Cool guy, I guess.
I remember watching the Breakfast Club at Jess’s house. It was recorded from HBO onto a video tape. I think Lisa someone or another gave it to me. And God knows how many times I’ve seen Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink in recent times. Its like on TV constantly. I actually saw an episode of Whatever Martha and Molly was a guest. Her and Martha were making something…again, God only knows what.
So on to the picture…
We walking east in midtown when my jaw dropped open. My heart rate spiked. My god…its Ferris Bueller. Well I knew not to call him Ferris as he was in the middle of great success with the Producers musical. But still…this was Ferris Bueller to me. He wasn’t anything else.
I fumbled for my then Yashica T4 point and shoot and gave it to Yukako to snap a photo. I was so damn happy. I still am. Diane loves this picture. It took me a while to find the neg as it was buried under a ton of other negs. I knew I had to find it and scan it as my small memorial to John Hughes. Hughes make Broderick into a superstar.
He knew the drill He put his arm on my back. I think he was filled with a mild annoyance or maybe depression as he knew from my age that I only knew him as Ferris, nothing more. Well what the hell did he expect? So I joked with him, took the photo, and sent him off. Typical New Yorker. We just kept walking away but chatting. I told him he should have named their kid Ferris. HA. I got the last laugh.
Out of all the celebs I met, photographed, talked to or just ran into, this is the only guy that really had me star struck. Major. I saw and worked with all sorts of celebs in New York and Hawaii. I was once in a room with Bill Gates. Alone. I mean I could have been in the history books. I also remember standing on 43rd and 9th Ave next to Harrison Ford. He had a beard, wore a baseball hat, and glasses. Sorry Indiana, you were so recognizable. I was only a few days into New York on that cold winter morning. He looked a bit homeless. So did I. For the first few months in Manhattan, I wore two coats as I wasn’t sure I was gonna make it through the following winter. I wore a green wind breaker and some Goodwill Special tweed coat. I was a mess.
Sadly, Hughes, the guy who set the definition of high school and teen life for me and millions died a year short of my 20th high school reunion. Going? Hell no. Not even close. All the people I know and want to see are where they are. I don’t need to find them. And I surely don’t want anyone finding me.
Check out this great Hughes youtube vid.
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.