Category: Uncategorized

Waikiki, 2008

Summer time in Hawaii brings the sweet sounds of Japanese folk singing and taiko drumming from the many Buddhist temples around town. The traditional obon dance is a Japanese Buddhist tradition honoring departed ancestors and the Japanese community comes together for this special event.

I walked down to the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin temple with a digital camera and the Leica. I participated in an Obon dance when I stayed in Yokohama many years ago and found the dance a bit odd. The dance is very regimental and has limited moves where you more or less dance around a yagura or bandstand. The dance moves, practiced before hand, consist of slight hand movements and waves along with the waving of a fan or snapping of wooden “candy cane” sticks.

Most of the participants wear very colorful kimonos or yukatas and everyone is having lots of fun. The temple sold hamburgers, shaved ice, and lots of local Japanese fare.

These three ladies eating a quick bite ended up being dance instructors at the dance. They were quite important and were not all to keen with me snapping their photos.

The dance brings together the old and the young and lots of kids participate in the dance. Usual kimono wear doesn’t really mandate black Converse but rebellion will always sneak into tradition among the young.

The dance was enjoyed by all. These kids laughed the entire time. It wasn’t hard to snap good photos of these two.

Even those who might be a bit shy…

Today…I walked the Leica down the street and encountered…well… found two interesting subjects to yap about.

Dodo…I mean if someone has to handwrite a warning sign about poop…err dodo…well, i googled dodo and its a bird. I don’t know if there is a proper spelling of doodoo. I guess its understandable. But the poor souls who were forced to put this sign up in their front yard. I’d hate to see their shoes!

I mean, who do I feel sorry for here? Fag, Satan, or the teacher who taught this devout fool?

Another image from the olds days….

circa 1998

Just a quick post on some old thoughts. Here is a large format (4×5) shot of a whiskey glass from my first days in New York. I shot it at Dick Frank’s studio…this crusty old Jewish guy from the Bronx who was one of those guys that defined photography back in the day. I assisted him for about 8 months full time. We did a food shot one day and the stylist made really awful looking enchiladas. I mean really off base…they were East Coasters making Mexican food. To a fresh off the boat Texan, they looked terrible! The dish was for some major food company.

We set up his 8×10, pulled around this huge light box powered by Ascor strobes. I think the Ascor company made lights for lighting up airports and other massive areas. So these power boxes dated back to the sixties. And you could really get some power out of this set up.

To make it short, we shot roughly 6 sheets of film in about two hours. He had this uncanny ability to move the f-stop exactly to where he wanted it and knew photography like the back of his hand. He was a really old timer that saw his career end by the new digital world pushing his old world ways aside. He was quiet amazing.

His buddies used to stop by and talk about the old days. Peter Eisenmann would stop by all the time. Pretty neat to meet that guy.

Anyway…we shot about two hours and after the shoot he turned to me and say…”thats how quick it takes to make $20 grand in this town.”

That was that…those were the good old days of photography in New York. Big lights, big cameras, and fast money.

Here is my homage and his lessons for still life photography.

Shot around 1998? Can’t remember but it was on film!