Los Angeles Times Archives - Marco Garcia Photography

The blue-green “see” from a different angle.

After living in Hawaii for sometime, its easy to forget about the beauty that surrounds us. The blue-green sea, the white (eroding) sandy beaches, the food, the weather, the mountains…I can go on and on describing wonderful Hawaii. So its always a challenge when clients ask for something slightly different for as an opening shot.

At any moment, somewhere somehow is snapping a picture, whether it is a family shot or professional shot, around Waikiki. It is one of the most photographed pieces of real estate in the world. There are thousands of professional pictures available on line and clients can easily pick a beautiful stock shot for pennies over a custom shot (uhhhh….for pennies—I digress!) Why hire when there is so much available? Because a custom shot gets you a unique, dare I say signature, vision from a professional photographer that no other client will have.

The Los Angeles Times asked me to shoot a full page image of Waikiki for their travel story illustrating a budget friendly vacation in Honolulu. The editor sent along few images taken by the writer and wanted me to capture a similar feel. My only parameters were to shoot from above, keep it vertical, and ensure I had a killer image at the end of the day. Jobs like this really get me fired up because no amount of money really accounts for all the time and effort it takes in finding a shot as such. But the outcome is completely worth the input. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else as the challenge of my craft is not work, it is just an extension of my life.

The pictures taken by the writer were photographed from one of the better hotel balconies on the beach. All the elements lined up and and made a pretty different view of Waikiki. Oddly enough it seemed the picture wasn’t from one of the budget hotels in the story so my challenge was not to present my image as such. The art direction was to capture Waikiki, not illustrate the story.

Fabulous views command big money and hotels rates are based on the amount of ocean and beach seen from the room. I could easily have called up one of the beach front hotels and asked to shoot from a room but hotels tend not to help you unless the story relates directly to them. I don’t have the budget to shoot from a rented hotel room and a helicopter view was not the perspective the client was after.

After living here for some time, I learned it is possible to enjoy Hawaii without blowing too much diñero and having a great time along with tourist who are taping out their credit cards. I also know how to find the big dollar views without having to shell out big money for hotel rooms or fancy restaurants. Sometimes just wandering around a big hotel looking like a tourist can help you gain access to views you might not be able to if you wandered in full camera regalia and reeked of the decisive moment. Looking like a clueless tourist with a Best Buy camera bag will keep housekeepers and bell hops off your tail.

So without revealing too many tricks of my clandestine trade, I got into a hotel, shot down at the beach and made a marvellous shot. I won’t reveal my location but a Waikiki sleuth might be able to pick it out based on what is in front of them. Needless to say, the Times editor Tears for Fears (I’m feeling overly cheeky tonight!) over the images as she had a large variety to choose. In an email after the article published, she stated “everyone LOVED the photos.”

That kind of praise makes the hours and time put in completely worth it. Again, it doesn’t take much to sea…err…see things from a different perspective. I just awaken my paradise slumber and look around.

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times hired me a few weeks ago to spend some time with Hawaii ukulele legend Eddie Kamae as they were to feature him for an upcoming travel piece to Honolulu. As far as Hawaiian legends go, Eddie is on top of the list. He might not be as famous as Don Ho, Bruddah Iz or for that matter Elvis when it comes to that distinct Hawaiian sound, but Eddie, along with band mate Gabby Pahinui, introduced traditional Hawaiian music to the world via the post war tourists flooding the Hawaiian Isles. At the time, traditional Hawaiian music wasn’t played in the tourist districts as most local musicians catered to mainland musical tastes. But once their band The Sons of Hawaii took off, the music found commercial footing which opened the door for Hawaiian music to be heard world wide.

The duality of my job had me creating a portrait of Eddie and then turning around to document Eddie’s Honolulu and the places that helped create the Hawaiian legend. Development and time has erased some of the old town but lots remain such as the Hau Tree Lanai bar at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel where he once played under the massive, century old tree in the 1970’s. Kamaka Ukulele, which made a few of his ‘ukes, still cranks out hand made and custom instruments since 1916, and time seems to have stood still in some areas of Chinatown, Eddie’s childhood stomping grown where he hustled newspapers and fish he caught in Nuuanu Stream.

Making of portrait of him proved to be the most difficult because Eddie isn’t well known to follow directions. He’s a legend. You don’t make him do much of anything as he’ll do what he wants when he wants. But with the prodding of his wife Myrna and their assistant, I got Eddie to the water’s edge at Waikiki Beach at sunset and made a magical shot of Eddie playing a few old standards on his “box.” I knew I had a few minutes to get this done before his mid 80’s patience would wear and I’d have to plan another time to get him in front of my camera.

After our quick photo shoot, we retired to one of his daily spots at the Hilton Hawaiian Village to enjoy a few Kona brews, some pupus and listen to the young musicians play music for the tourists. During our shoot, we had tourist coming around and listening to Eddie play. No one really knew who he was but people knew he was important. Eddie could still command a crowd as he crooned away. A young Japanese girl stood and watched from the beach and probably would never remember she saw a famous ukulele player on her first trip to Hawaii. Eddie doesn’t often play live any more so we got a rare and intimate concert.

Photographically speaking, I must point out a few tricks of the trade that I’ve gotten notice on. Negative space is positive. Shoot loose a photo editor once told me long ago and I took it to heart. If you shoot too close, you don’t give an editor or a page layout person space to work with. I knew to shoot Eddie with lots of space around him, especially head space on my verticals as there was a good chance it would be an opener. I thought about text and headline space and and my in-camera framing worked. Sometimes this approached is ignored as many photographers crop for themselves, not for the end product. You can always crop or shoot tight on your own frames but once you take away negative space, you image can quickly turn negative.

Below are the pdf files from the times. I have my opening shot on top mostly because the pdfs are so washed out. The editor assured me the images were wonderful in the newspaper and on line.

Los Angeles Times goes organic.

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.