Marco Garcia Photography

HEY I AM OFF THE HOOK! NO OBAMAO WATCH FOR ME TOMORROW. I CAN ENJOY Christ mas tomorrow!

The Obama Tour is back in Honolulu for Christmas 2009.

He’s staying in Kailua and reports the home is worth about $9 million and is paying a pretty penny in rent. Or should we say we…well, no matter, he probably had to stick it out at the airport like the rest of us jerkwads worrying about delayed/canceled flights, etc…well maybe not. But what do you expect?

Either way, I got duty to sit on the beach for a few days and hopefully capture an image of him on the beach like the one above. I should arrive around sunrise and sit around for something or nothing to happen. And you never know, it could end up being very nice like the image above. I would hope so.

And besides, I am going to be on million dollar beach. I mean I’d have to be a president or have millions to have the office views I will have for a few days starting on Christmas. Sun, surf, sand, and Santa. Sand, oh…how you are the enemy of all cameras! Curse your golden softness and warm glow. And the Kailua blue slowly lapping at my feet.

I got my snacks, sunscreen, and sunglasses. Raybans, no less, water, flashlight, book (Warhol bio or maybe something else), iPod with U2 loaded. Cameras, long lenses, beach towel, and board shorts.

A good day at the office.

And to make this a great ending, I don’t have to worry too much about melanoma…Dr. Obama seems to be taking care of this.

So sorry, no pictures today, just a few words, and thoughts…

Today (rather Sunday) was a good day. I mean visually…I should have had a camera. Just a small one, you know, one of those new Panasonics, or Canon…just something to pop in the pocket without thinking about it. Maybe I should get an iPhone, or maybe just a new iPod. Just to snap away.

So today’s visual diary starts like this…

We had to shop a bit for a small Christmas Party Yukako is having on Tuesday. You know, a few of her work friends, some gossip, a bit of wine, and the doting husband to wash all the dishes. We sadly now have a membership to Costco (hell and a push cart to go with it) so we went to waist our money on a few bulky items. As we are there, shoppers were going mad, I mean crazy, over the free samples of whatnot this and that. People lined up stepping over each other to get a free sample of something they’d never buy or think of buying.

One of the funniest things was to see the madness over the strange tasting frozen tamales*

A camera would have been great…just something to see how mad people can get when they perceive to get something free. I tasted one…it was terrible. Rueben’s in San Antonio…thats all you need. I remember my father saying people lined up for hours to get a few dozen for New Years. Actually a store here in Honolulu run by a Chilanga makes ever second Saturday tamales. They are not Texas style but more of that real Mexican taste..expensive but good.

To you guys who go to Costco to get free stuff…there are no words to describe what an absolute moron you are. Too bad I didn’t have a a camera to capture you.

Speaking of tamales, President Ford, in a visit to San Antonio, tried a tamale, and sadly, the gringo didn’t peel it and tried to eat the corn husk. Its like eating the box the burger came in. It was funny…I don’t remember it but it seems funny now.

Hell…I even found an image on the internet.

so I lied about images…so what.

On the way back from Costco, we stopped at Ross and again, madness…shoppers and kids and more shoppers packed trying to buy whatever they could get there hands on. Poor people’s kids were running in and around the clothing racks, up the escalators, etc…with no supervision. The parents could have cared less. Madness. Maybe they weren’t poor but that seems to be the only people who were stuffed at Ross’s Dress for Less or whatever you call it. I can assume that only means we are poor as well. I’ll change my statement, the store was filled with ill raised children. Merchandise was strewn across the floor everywhere. Maybe it was the parents. I couldn’t stand it. I had to leave. But before I did…a small boy, probably about 5 or so was on the floor near the hats, toys, whatever section I don’t recall, and he was strumming away on a toy ukelele. And funny, he was pretty good. Even funnier, he had a full on mohawk. Here is this kid, dressed in decent clothing, a bit dirty from play though, sitting facing the ukulele and strumming and singing away…truly a Kodak moment.

Finally after leaving the madness of the shopping world, we made it back home but had to pass down the backside of our building when walking like a supermodel comes strutting one kine mahoo**. Ladies, he wasn’t afraid to work that stuffed tube top, nor the stuffed biker shorts that was filled with all the fat and giggle you could fit in. He wasn’t all that bad looking if you were desperate for a date, but you could spot that guy a mile away. Maybe it was the tube top and high heals. Again, no camera, no ability to snap a pix.

Alas, I need a small cheap digicam. I haven’t wanted to buy one cause they never take the perfect photos I want. I feel like they lack so much…yet I lack so much when I can’t take that perfect moment photo.

So if you are listening or reading Santa, Mom, or Yukako, stuff that present under the tree…and make sure it at least has 12 megapixels!

…no wait, we not gots a tree. Damn!

*for you gringos, a tamale is a corn dough stuffed with a spiced meat stuffed in a corn husk.

**a mahoo is the Hawaiian word for a cross dresser.

I got a cover of Michael Emerson from Lost. Quick, simple and a nice image. I had shot Mr. Emerson before for another job and I shot him quickly on the beach. He had just started Lost so he wasn’t too big of a TV star here yet but now, Emmy and all, he is a big star. True to his stage background, he was real and didn’t put on for anyone. No drama, no stress. Funny, I was more stressed out over it all.

Simple lighting…one umbrella, black cutter causing a neg fill. I directed him to be himself, not “Ben Linus.” He actually looked confused as he wasn’t sure how to act as most actors do but within minutes, he came out and we captured a great shot.

Here is my take.

The cover looks great. Thanks Gina.

FINALLY…after waiting months, Bon Appetit finally put my image to ink and I got a great tearsheet.

See the web page here.

I was assigned last year to shoot fishmonger Brooks Takenaka at United Fish Agency in Honolulu for the magazine’s Starter page. Creative direction was simple, strong light, medium to light background, and power. Immediately I thought Penn-ish and Avedon-ish and with Hugh G as my lighting tech and assistant, we nailed the shot.

I mentally created this shot days before I was scheduled to shoot. I searched my library of books and internet for ideas, lighting schemes, and inspiration and figured how to create my vision into reality. In other words, I went to this job with this idea in mind.

Yet all the planning in the world cannot create a shot as the one above. Never would I have thought or seen this shot days before. I love the graphic feeling of this shot and in many ways, it sort of what I see in dreams. No not fish tails and hands, but lines, dark, shadows, and graphic feelings. I love this shot. The veins in the arm mimic the lines in the fish as do the nails mimic the points of the tail and other points of the fish. Everything is like a mirror. See it? I see myself? Or at least those dreams.

I came across the history the Canon camera logo and found back in 1933, the original optical company which created the camera (some say copied from Leica) established themselves as Kwanon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. According to their website, “The logo included the word with an image of ‘Kwanon with 1,000 Arms’ and flames.”

Not to be ones who would isolate potential buyers with their eastern beliefs, the company changed the name to Canon and logo to the current logo.

Imagine having that Buddhist logo all over your cameras. Now that would be eye catching!

You’d blend it!