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.

Party fun


My colleague Hugh G has nicknamed me the Patrick McMullan of Honolulu as I always seem to end up shooting lots of the socialite parties here in town. I don’t shoot many but those I do shoot end up in the local glossy mags. The parties are lots of fun and and I recognize many of the people are they are the same faces at all the different functions. Like I said, I really don’t shoot many…mostly four or five a year and that’s plenty for me.

The party I shot on Friday was for the Parc Hotel and it was a neat shindig. DJs, artists, food, lights and lasers, and drink. The party also had as I can only describe as water dancers. To describe, two girls dressed as flowers and they floated around the pool and did a slow moving water ballet. Pretty neat.

My focus was off but that element gave the image a deliberate slow and dreamy feel. Dreamy…how many times does that come up in a description of an artistic photo? Not dreamy but rather, an unexpected entrance into solemnity. Dare I say Degas?

I opted to shoot with my Canon 1D Mark II over the 1Ds just to give the 1Ds a rest. I shot raw varying the iso between 400-1600 depending on the quality and feel I wanted to pull from the image. Looking at the newer tech on the market right now, the Mark II is slowly obsoleting itself from existence. In many ways, most jobs can still be shot on the tinny Mark I with that small 4 mg file. Hell, the original Nikon D1 with the small 2.7 mg file was pretty incredible. But the computer war took over the camera battles and now we all have to face an increasing pull of more megapixels for more money.

The Mark II is a great camera…fast and quick on the focus. Jacques made a claim not too long ago he longed for a Mark II over the III. Its hard to say which is best. No grain or digital noise in a high iso image must be nice but not always the best. Natural or enhanced depends on your preference.

Parties are usually loud so I can sneak around and take some neat pictures of people when they are not really paying attention. I mean its hard to sneak around people when you have a big Canon, lens, and flash on a hand/face combo. Nevertheless, when the drinks are flowing and conversation is shrilling away, its neat to sneak around and snap the unexpected.

The laser lights were flashing and casting everything blue.

This last shot was part of the dance troupe except she wasn’t in the water. I can only describe her as a living flower and she’d pose around the party flipping her pedals above and over her head. Although my last image doesn’t quiet show the experience, the uniqueness of the image overall makes the image.

Enjoy.

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.

New York Times

CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY!

I got a chance to shoot portraits of female surfers on the North Shore for the New York Times. I can’t post the story here other than list the link. I have been doing stories for the NYT for a bit now and they’ve all worked out well. This story was a bit tough because I had to work around a videographer and keep in mind all the stuff that goes on with multimedia.

The video time really shortened the time I had to shoot the surfers. The story was about the changing of the guard with the “older” surfer chic being replaced by the younger babes in the waves. I had to shoot Layne, a 36 year old surfer babe, who the 7 times world champ and I also had to shoot the up and comer Carrisa Moore, a 16 year old HS girl, who is making waves on the waves.

Nice job…reallyl quick, and I had to really had to rely on past knowledge, my sense and instinct to knock out a few good shots. I look at the shots and recall all the stuff I did as an assistant…running up and down with some photographer and a model jumping up and down. So much to remember and so much to define who I am.

The pictures, although not my favorite, really show my growth as a photographer. Its nice to see how I am constantly learning how to be me.