Honolulu Archives - Page 3 of 8 - Marco Garcia Photography

wain wumbling reather!

Around 9pm or so last night, lighting flashed across the sky like an AC/DC song. A few seconds later, a low in the distance rumble rattled the windows. It really felt like a bomb. BOOM. I saw my lanai windows shake and rattle. It was awesome. I figured I’d pull the camera out and snap a few images.

I had a hard time with the lighting as it seemed the storm was actually right above our building or rather, just close enough but not in my camera view. I can’t go out to the street because there are way too many high rises around me and a late night trip up to Tantalus for a view risks myself and cameras being subjected to a tax by the locals in the name of reparations. Besides, it was raining. So, with my limited views, I set up my camera and walked away. I set up in a few locations in our condo finding the lanai shot was the most graphic and luckily I got a strike.

By far, my favorite shot was from last night through a closed window in the bedroom. The rain was pouring through so I shut the window but as I did, my camera fired off a frame and I caught the rain drops and purpled lighting sky. I like this shot. It doesn’t have a strike but for me, it has all the elements of living in a Honolulu tower at night…during a storm.

NOTE: I am no longer going to allow discussions or comments on my blog. In the last year, I’ve gotten over three thousand spam emails offering me everything from viagra, porn, gambling, and dating a nice girl from China. Its too much to bear, rather wade through just to see what you got to say. From now on, keep it to yourself.

2012

It wasn’t anything special other than having a camera at hand and a Nikon adapted 500mm lens. I quick burst and an interesting shot for the 2nd day of 2012.

Another Photo EtC

The APEC Summit has come and gone. To me, and to probably loads of other photographers, APEC was just Another Photo, EtC…

What a pain! 3AM call times so Secret Service could sweep you and your gear, the suspicious stares from foreign security guards, the endless traffic congestion due to heighten security and dignitaries’ motorcades, the endless waiting for someone to make an appearance. It just goes on and on.

Yet, I’ve gotten to photograph the three most powerful men in the world…Medvedev, Obama, and Hu Jintao. No to mention Hillary Clinton, just about every APEC nation’s leaders landing at the airport. I was no further than a very short stone’s throw from two of the most powerful men whose mere presence can shake the course of history. Do I exaggerate? Anyone who holds the US debt plus possibly the EU’s? No. I don’t exaggerate.

Yet, its all just Another Photo, EtC. Really. Images to catalog, to burn on a disc, and to file away. After its all over, all you have left is the lingering rush and adrenaline still pumping from the job.

The Associated Press was happy as I got a “Thanks for the good work” email from Tom Stathis…and that means a lot. I got to be a part of something important although I was just on the outside.

Here are a few of the selects from the APEC hell week.

Above you see Mr. Obama through the bullet proof glass of his pimped out Caddy. As he drove up to the tarmac and I spotted him in the rear seat, I couldn’t help to be struck by the fact that he’s the US President.

The toughest part of the week was being stuck on arrival duty and having to be cleared to enter Joint Base Pearl Harbor/Hickam at 4am on Friday and 3am on Saturday. Those days were tough yet I got to see the smiling Dimitry Medvedev exiting his crappy Russian state plane. The Sultan of Brunei had the BIG PIMPIN’ 747 ride that was just as big as Air Force One, or so it seems. Hu Jintao was rumored to hit Honolulu’s Chinatown but since I live a few blocks away, I would have probably been alerted to the super security that would have surrounded the Chinese presidents’ present, no? He, Medvedev and and Obama had full on security detail meaning they could shut down the city when they rolled. I saw no such action in Ctown the week they were here.

One rumor I read was the Russian delegation demanded the bars at the Modern Waikiki (hotel) remain open 24 hours a day. Stoli on the rocks at any time, no?

The Hu Jintao photo op was mired in constant “meiyou meiyou” and suspicious glares. The Chinese security forces around the President clearly were doing their job but seemed awfully unorganized and never believed anything the American handlers would tell them. Constant badgering, criticism, and attitude. Constant confrontation and getting into people’s faces. Not aggressive like Westerners but like Chinese…a mildly aggressive badgering. Bad haircuts and bad suits. At the end, we were hosed by the State Run media which got the better pictures and we got sidelined for cheaper and faster images. And when I say State Run, I refer to China, not our government media complex.

Speaking of bad suits, we had a run in with Russian security. As we were waiting in media line to enter Hickam for the arrivals on Friday, three guys in cheap suits got in line with us and tried to enter the base. They drove a black US sedan (which you knew stunk of Russian cigarettes and vodka and probably had a dissident tied and bloodied in the trunk) and got out of the car eyeing all of us suspiciously while sauntering over to the military police to get onto base. Medvedev was arriving and they had a job to do. They were young and didn’t look all the menacing but you knew if you screwed with them, you’d end up in the trunk with that dissident. I looked for bloody knuckles and blood smears on their jackets to no avail. The Cold War lives on.

Security was insane…but who can blame them. Imagine the fool who could get close enough to knock off a world leader. Their names would line the history books! I remember when I worked as an assistant and being left alone in a studio with Bill Gates for like 15 minutes. Boy did my mind drift to those c stands in the corner and how I could use it as a bat. We all know who assassinated Lincoln, Lennon, Kennedy, and Reagan, no?* Gates? Well, it didn’t happen. Your kid won’t learn about me in the history books and they’ll still have to deal with Windows crashing.

*Booth, Chapman, Oswald, Hinckley.

And for my last image, all I have to say is the 60’s live on. Most of those protesters, God bless ’em, who demonstrated in anti-APEC protests across town and in the country do have a point. Banks, politicians, media, etc…are in need for reform. I myself can’t help but to wonder how members of Congress are able to dance around insider trading laws, how millionaires like Michael Fat Boy Moore and P Diddy can hob nob with the protesters, and how the Democrats claim to support the peoples when they are the 1%. Obama didn’t fund raise at Disney’s Aluani with the homeless out living on the Waianae Coast. He charged $1000 per head and pix with the Commander in Chief were $5000. I wish AP paid me what those donors paid for a simple snap with Barack. I’d be big pimpin’ with da Sultan in no time.

Again, back to the pits…the harry hippies of yesteryear haven’t disappeared. Their indelible stain on society protrudes on our lovely siren holding a most important bed sheet while splashing around Waikiki’s warm waters. Yet might it be the marketing and the romance of the hippie culture which sells the image of revolution? No doubt the younger generations have copycatted the protest movements, clothing, music and chants of those stinking masses of yesteryear. The chants of “Hey Hey Ho Ho (add your chic cause here) has got to go!” are no different than those chanted by those who spit on my uniformed father when he returned from ‘Nam. The attraction of free love and free living along with being free of all society’s constraints is just too great. And to think those sandal wearing pot smokers went on to sell their wares in the capitalists markets. Now you can find hippie attire and culture all neatly packaged at Urban Outfitters or other such chain stores. And lets not skimp on the irony that its made by our comrades in China.

The scarfed, tent dwelling, cardboard waving sandalnista is no more than a carbon copy of old grainy film stock images of 60’s hippies. Except they use the the 1%ers Twitter, Facebook and web devices to carry on the message.

The message is correct to some degree but 1969 has come and gone. Vote them out I say. We elected the hope and change and got nothing. Vote them out. That vote weighs more than some scrawled message on an old cardboard box. But if we are not careful, we might not even have a vote. Then we’re gonna need to do something much more than occupying a city park and smoking dope.

I’m back on FIVE O!!!!

Yo! Danno! You looking at my photo?

So I’m Back. Well, I wasn’t exactly acting, but Hawaii Five O wanted me behind the camera this time. I guess my acting from before was so good, that no one could really replace the irreplaceable, no?

Me and “Jesse’s Girl!”

Production hired me to photograph the beautiful actress Tania Raymonde, who plays a suspect in a murder scene during HI Five O’s second season show, “Ma’ema’e.” Tania is famous for playing Alex Rousseau on ABC’s Lost. Since I never really watched Lost I can’t tell you more other than she was Benjamin Linus’s daughter.

My photographs of Tania would be used as EVIDENCE on the show.

Tania, who plays a college volleyball player, is suspected in the murder of her coach when racy photographs of her are found in her dead coach’s possessions. Melanie, as her character is named, takes erotic photos during an ad campaign and her coach is trying to sort out the problems. With a few twists and turns, Five O finds that Melanie wasn’t romantically involved with her coach; however, the coach was linked to…well…just watch the show.

My very difficult job was to photograph the very good looking Tania in a very unsubtle yet tactful (and tasteful) sexy way. As the photos would be on network television, the photos couldn’t be that provocative but the art directors needed to push the envelope until the photos bordered on the fetish. The art direction called for the actress to be in several different costumes including a skin tight volleyball uniform and a cut up halter top that would make any college boy sweat. The ripped, collegiate uniform, her sweaty body draped in a bath towel…bada bing!…all found as evidence. Talk about coaches behaving badly!

So as McGarrett and Danno case the casa where the coach lived, they find the racy photos and quickly point their suspicions towards Melanie. The photos are displayed all over the episode as the projected on their computer screens, snapped on their iPhones, etc. But as the episode pointed, out the coach wasn’t the photographer and the photos were a red herring.

Danno snapping pictures. I wonder if he saved them?

Daniel Dae Kim over looking all the evidence on the big screen.

As Tania walked onto the set (gray seamless, Elinchrom Octabank, Profoto 7a 2400ws pack) I had no doubt photographing her would be easy. It is never hard to photograph a good looking woman. Yet the actual posing and positioning proved to be fairly difficult. As I’ve said earlier, it became a struggle to find the right type of poses, lascivious enough to arouse the Five O viewers, yet tame enough for the network to give the green light. The art team, hair and make up, and the rest of the crew helped create the right balance and feeling. Tania looked more like a supermodel with her hair and makeup but she played well with the camera. We had a great rapport. During our lunch break, the crew and Tania all sat on the floor eating pasta and salad all the while talking about Hawaii and LA, acting and really nothing more.

I have to say I enjoyed seeing loads of my images being used all over network television Monday night. The images are not the proudest part of my career but whattya gonna do? Its a job but anytime I get a chance to practice my craft, its a great day. Especially when its all over the television, and when its a good looking girl.

The police and you!

Note on above picture…

The date in the exif info states photo was taken August 3, 2003. Happy anniversary!. I hope you’re outta jail…or maybe better said, I hope you’re not back in jail…but recalling the types of people these guys were, we can only hope for the best.

More…it was taken with the Canon 10D. What a horrible file. Probably shot with the 20-35mm 2.8 lens. How far we’ve come!!!!

I was a budding street photographer walking around Jersey City when I ran into a horrible Dominican Republic Pride Parade where mayhem was on the rise. Mayhem usually was hand in hand with ethnic pride parades. I found national pride in many ethnic groups equated fighting and cussing (and in some cases raping) for the good of the nation you fled or had very little connection.

I was just walking along when I saw a ruckus rushing towards me at full speed. Red tried to escape from the clutches of the JC police but was quickly apprehended and arrested. Of course I snapped away until a burly officer got in my face with that firm and polite rudeness that most cops have about me being in the way and letting the police do what they gotta do. I recall his words as something like we got a job to do here and we don’t need citizens in the way recording our actions.

Fast forward to 2011.

My Canon 10 D is now replaced by a Mark IV and my surrounding have gone tropical from urban. (Alas, I miss those days…)

Load of videos are popping up on YouTube and other media sites showing citizens and supposedly members of the media being arrested for simply videotaping police in action. While I should note my brother is currently a police officer in Texas, I do have my feelings on both sides of the fence for this matter.

Here are three videos where you can see citizens being harassed and arrested by the men in blue.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

In all three videos, we see two citizens and one supposedly freelance member of the media being harassed and arrested for simply videotaping a crime scene or police action. The police, or as I will refer to now as the cops, overreact. They overreact BIG TIME. The two civilians were on their property and the police should have never harassed them for observing and recording the police. The freelancer was completely harrased and arrested with no real premise other than he didn’t obey.

Should any of them have been arrested? Probably not. Should the cops be retrained in understanding how to deal with the public using easily accessible recording devices? Indeed. Should the cops involved be duly punished? Surely.

Everyone has a camera or video recorder in their phone. Everyone has a phone. Has our privacy been eroded? For sure. You can’t go anywhere without seeing some idiot with a camera snapping a picture these days. Its almost as if we can’t avoid technology as somewhere somehow we are being recorded. Would you be happy if your bosses watched your every move via a video above your desk? I should think not. I would assume the police feel the same way.

If you do see the videos, clearly the civilians mouth off to the cops in the first and second vids. They both quickly get combative and argumentative about their rights, “I’m not doing anything wrong” blah blah blah. But in reality, what are the civilians taping? What is so important they need to stand their with a camera pointed at the police? Where is this video gonna end up? How will a civilian paint the picture of the police’s actions? Are they just looking to be the next George Holliday hoping to cash in on a new Rodney King video? Are they hoping to be confronted by the police and get arrested so they can sue? What is the point of doing what they are doing?

SURE–many great (horrible, really) things have come up like the King video or the transit cop who killed an unarmed black man in San Fransisco. Yes, I would prefer to have the public videotaping more police action so as to combat possible wrong doings of law enforcement. However, how important is it risk irritating the police and getting arrested?

On a daily basis, the cops have to deal with the scum of the earth. Drug dealers, pimps, crooks, thieves, murderers, liars, jackasses and possibly donkeys. EVERYONE hates the police until they need one. I don’t know one cop who would say he’s a loved and respected member of society. Everyone wants to piss on a cop. We all love the police when they come to save us all but when they pull us over for pushing down the pedal on yellow, we hate the men in blue. My brother bears scars of having to deal with us a-holes, both physical and mental. I remember he once told me that the worse people to arrest and deal with are the “educated types like me.” We all know our rights, scream of lawsuits, and spit in their faces any chance we get. We’re all lawyers when we stumble out of bars and try to get behind the wheel at four AM. Derelicts and hookers have more manners than we-know-it-alls.

Ever seen the TV show Cops? The public is horrible. I sometimes wish the police would just shoot a few of us so we’d learn to respect one another. Come live on my street on any First Friday and hear all the degreed hoi polloi screaming down Nuuanu at 3am. The hookers on Kukui St are as quiet as meeces, as they should be.

Anyway, the civilians get combative and in some ways the cops have very little options other than to arrest them for not “obeying” their commands. Again, what the hell was so important for those idiots to be recording the police? I mean what was happening in front of them that they risked arrest? Was it worth it? It sure is now they got the police department by the short hairs and Harry the Luuaawwwyyahh will be taking your tax dollars. The women in Rochester should have gone into her house and shut the hell up. Opened a window big and wide and continued. She was a dummy that talked her way into being a rich victim of a cop who made a mistake. The idiot in Nevada first lied and said he didn’t live there, then he did say it was his house. He wouldn’t put the camera down and again, knew his rights, etc…If it was his house, he should have gone in and recorded from his window, rooftop, etc…Sure he got roughed up, but probably no more than if he had played a game of tackle football in the park. The knucklehead got the video he somewhat hoped to get, sadly, it was him and not the other guy.

The freelance cameraman showed to be the most professional. He did exactly as a member of the media should behave. He clearly asked the police politely why he had to move, moved as much as the cop demanded, left when it got to hot, and when elsewhere. By leaving and following the cop’s directive meant defusing a volatile situation. This is the difference between a jackass with a videophone or a part timer versus a person who makes his living with a lens. He left as he was commanded to do and clearly the police had no right to push him away but he left. He knew what it was worth. He went a block away and continued his job but the hotheaded cop needed to flex his authority and arrested him. Wrong! Bad cop. The video guy probably won’t sue but the cop will be reprimanded as he deserves. Clearly the cop had no right to abuse the freelancer. In the beginning of the conversation, you see the cop looking at what only could be the freelancer’s credential. If its legit, he should have left him alone, pushed him back but left him alone.

Once again, the cops were wrong. Clearly wrong. Were they provoked? YES. But they should be better trained. I recently ran afoul of the police at a school shooting we had a few months ago. Mark Niesse and I stumbled onto the crime scene and were quickly cursed at and and escorted off the area by a pretty hot cop. We clearly were somewhere we shouldn’t have been. We politely identified ourselves, said our “yes sirs” and “no sirs” to avoid having someone interfere with our job.

I can only guess the police are afraid of creating sensationalism as they created by trying to stop a civilian from taping them. Mix in testosterone, jackass know it all ‘tudes (both sides, of course) and a camera and you have viral video gold. So many of the comments are so filled with hate towards the police, pure vitriol and disgust which is understandable. Yet if a crime was being committed against you, would you want the police to come to your home and sweetly ask the criminal to “please sweetheart, put the knife down so we can chat over cookies” bit? We walk a fine line if we de-fang law enforcement.

Now the scary part is when the government and corporations get together and truly stop us from being able to record and witness reality. I always figured technology would be built with (or have the ability to insert) a Trojan horse. Apple (read this) is working on a patent that will allow sensors to “automatically disable the iPhone camera, temporarily, preventing any footage from being recorded.” Might Canon and Nikon be next? Might your Android have a kill switch that could be activated by a corporation, law enforcement, or an individual? Supposedly the tech is being created to protect musicians and movies from being illegally recorded and bootleg distributed. When might Michelle Obama have this tech so she can disable a camera from taping her eating fries? Or Lindsay doing coke at a LA club? Or the police when they arrest and beat a citizen?

Might then Senator Obama have loved to stop me from snapping his photo of him and his daughters on Kailua? Maybe…who knows? He screamed at me. He was so upset I shot him but he was just a man on the beach. A public beach for that matter. Secret Service knew not to mess with me. They knew what my rights were and saw I respected Senator Obama’s rights. I had already identified myself to the police and secret service and they even ran my name to make sure they knew who I was. When asked for my ID, I politely produced my Hawaii issued, smiled, said my “yes, sirs,” and that was that. I never got in the Senator’s face. I shot with my huge 400mm lens and stayed a good deal away from him. Even after Obama screamed at me, Secret Service told me to back off a bit which I did. I walked a good 20 yards further out and gave him more breathing room. Obama and the Secret Service knew they couldn’t interfere with my news gathering rights. Now might things change? Might the government enact said Trojan device to stop the public from witnessing the truth?

Technology only knows…