You know when you’ve done something right when the chefs crowd around your photo shoot with iphones in hand to snap pictures.
Doing something right!
Tag: www.marcogarciaphotography.com
Two versions, two languages.
Halekulani Living Magazine, the hotel’s in-house publication, published my spread on the beautiful Valley of the Temples in Kaneohe for their most recent issue. The magazine is published both in English and Japanese hence I have two spreads in two languages published. Its always impressive to see your work with unfamiliar text and scribbles.
Of course the top spread, my favorite, is the Japanese version while the other is the more prominent English version. I found my shot of the Rev. Hosen Fukuhara in the doorway graphically more appealing to me but the photo editor loved the idea of having the bokeh’d temple ceiling as the text page. Its a hard edit to make but both spreads are fantastic.
Lining up just right.
In the last few weeks, my cameras have covered everything from hydrogen cars, tennis action, a financial planner at the beach on the Big Island, whale researchers on a boat in Maui, and a party at Chai’s Bistro. I’m still patiently waiting for the sun to appear as I have another job in which I need to shoot a house and attempt to have some blue skies in the shot. My head is still spinning with all the variety of images that were flowing out of my computer. Of course, I can’t publish and of the images I’ve shot (except for some tennis) as a majority of is for future publication.
Oh and I also shot makeovers given at a big name make up shop.
One of the more interesting shots I made last week was of a tennis player at UH serving. Jamm Aquino told me of the spot to spot a certain type of shot and I did so. Clean shots and background (dare I say ground) made this a cool moment.
Its not often I shoot sports. The time, effort, and hassle is sometimes too much to bear for my impatient self. I really loved it in college as I shot loads of UT football, basketball, swimming, and the likes. It was great fun. Now…eh.
But those times when everything just lines up perfectly, a good shot is worth that small paycheck at the end of the day.
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.