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The martini shot

The past few weeks have been slightly tough with work and personally. My father in law sought refuge with us after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. He lives in Tokyo so there was no damage to his house or anything around him. Minor broken dishes and the likes but life went on. However, with dwindling food supplies, continuous aftershocks, and the fear of a radiated Godzilla returning to strike Japan, it was best to have him come and sun in Honoruru. Having a third person in our condo isn’t bad but its not holiday time so work must go on.

As far as the tsunami is concerned, I must say its been tough not going and documenting the drama unfolding has overpowered my desire to travel to the wasteland. We figured its best not to have a retrospective on my life after going.

Before and during all of this I had a hectic shooting schedule which had me shooting numerous jobs and as it always seems, all at once. One of the most intensive jobs shooting a travel piece for Delta Sky magazine. Sky assigned me to travel to several islands and I got to shoot everything from horseback riding to a celebrity chef. The spread was published in their April 2011 issue. I’ve already had a few flying friends send me notes they are seeing the Delta line across the friendly skies…no wait that United.

The pdf spread can be found here.

Sky tasked me to document multiple locations around Hawaii within a short time and lots of freedom. I got to pick and choose from a list of locations and venues and decide which would make great art versus what could be picked up from hotel stock. We figured there would be very little value in shooting hotel rooms and beautiful sunsets because most hotels have libraries of that stuff. So I concentrated on the unique, rather, the more editorial view of most of the locations.

One of my favorite images came out of the Halekulani Resort in Waikiki. The Resort has numerous gorgeous stock images of their hibiscus signature pool but the images sell corporate beauty, not what its like to actually see it. You see an idea, a concept, not the reality of a pool filled with tourists. I scouted the pool before I realized dusk and above would get me a great shot. I asked the hotel to get me a room above with a balcony overlooking the property. It didn’t take long to see the images I wanted to capture.

The mag loved it. They actually wanted to use it as the opening spread but the higher ups wanted a different type of image showcasing Hawaii a bit more.

The opening shot of the spread ended up being, again, at the Halekulani. I got a really nice room at the hotel and tried to shoot the model, Cindy, slung sexily over a lounge chair with Diamond Head in the background. Sadly, the sun decided not to cooperate. We had NO sun…the entire day was cloudy. At the end when we gave up, we popped a bottle of wine and Cindy went out onto the balcony to enjoy the view from the $7000/night sweet…errr…suite at the Halekulani. Diamond Head, the night sky, and the beautiful girl drinking wine on the balcony all lined up into a perfect martini shot. Delta was extremely happy as was I. This is the second major spread in their magazine in so many years. I’m fond of this shot and all the work it took to make all of this work out…actually what little work we did to get this shot.

37,000 plus…and a shaka!

37,000 plus images

482.38 gigs to be precise. I’ve been re editing all the work from Japan. I’m worn. I can’t believe I took that many pictures.

So as I edited through some of the outtakes and non assignment locations, I found a few little gems here and there. I’ll be posting individual images in the next few posts.

After being in Japan for sometime, I got tired of eating Japanese food. Yeah sure, I eat that all that Japanese food back in Honolulu but I can easily go to get a cheeseburger (not like a Texas burger mind you) and fries anytime I want. I do have to declare Tanaka Saimin makes a mean cheeseburger with fries.

With that in mind, a month is a long time not to eat, well, as they say, comfort food. I don’t need that much comfort in food as I am very quick to adapt to the local food wherever I travel to (I mean what is American food? burgers, pizza, and chicken wings?) so I never have too much of a breakdown. And besides, Japanese food, including the stuff they make from other countries (Japanese croissants are amazing!!!!!) is mostly near perfect. Yes, there are loads of interpretations (pizza with natto?!?!?!) but we are in a global market so nothing is never or not available. (yes…double negs)

But its still hard to be in Japan and not have a good grasp of Japanese. Most menus in Japan are mostly written in….anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller? …. in Japanese. If I was by myself, I was resigned to pointing at pictures on the menu to order or sadly dragging a willing waiter/waitress outside to the front of the restaurant where I could point at the little plastic food models. Ah, my big mouth taking a back seat to my index finger… (T_T) it is a bit intimidating for me to be on my own and try to get into the swing of functioning in Japanese. Loads of misunderstood nods, hai’s and wakaranai‘s! I let on I don’t really understand too much but I’ve gotten better. Japanese is just a tough thing to learn.

So when I had the quick chance to pop into a McDonalds in Osaka for a quick bite, I knew I’d get something pretty good (if you consider McDonalds good) and the menu would be in Engrish. The meal might come with a side nori (seeweed) but it’d be a good ol’ processed quality controlled food. Yet, as I read over the menu ( as children and old ladies stare at me from all angles) I couldn’t help but to stick to the Japanese style food and go for this one item on the meal called the Shaka Shaka Chicken.

Hmmm…What might this be? Chicken with pineapple? Chicken wrrapped in spam? Nothing of the sort. It was a fried chicken patty served in a little paper bag in which you’d sprinkle a package of this peppery salt into the bag and then then…shaka shaka! (see instructions on bag) HO…brudda that was way cool and really GOOD. Crispy, spicy, and so American in that unique Japanese way.

I guessed the reference to the shaka was McDonald’s clever way of saying shake shake. They couldn’t (I assume) state shakey shakey because Shakey’s Pizza is still alive and well in Tokyo (hmmm….) and using that term would warrant a nice little law suit. Hence, Micky D’s borrowed the lovable, yet misunderstood, shaka from the Aloha State’s aloha spirit.

Now if we could only get McDonalds US to adapt something as tasty and cool.

How about a badonkadonk burger?

(that killed me…)

A sort of wedding…

I’ve done a handful of wedding in my career. Mainly friends, actually almost all friends. One or two were actually paid gigs by clients but its never been part of my business plan. I don’t really care to do wedding but I’m finding I’m pretty darn good at capturing moments.
The New York Times hired me to shoot their Vows sections…which is actually their society wedding page…and shot a couple from the East Coast on Kauai on Secret Beach. Its online here.

The Times editor emailed me today and stated “…LOTS of compliments for the photos.” I guess I did the right thing.

The above photo is of tonight’s spectacular voggy sunset. Everyone was out at Magic Island and I watched a Japanese wedding photographer (package deals where a wedding company books the entire lot into a set where they get dress, hair/makeup/church, flowers, and photographer for said amount) snapping photos of a Japanese couple’s dream wedding. They seemed young and pretty happy to have such a great sunset although I am not sure if they realized what they were doing as the photographer had them posing in all sorts of cheesy wedding poses. Flashing shakas, putting their hands together to form a heart…very cookie cutter images. Blah…just not my thing. Either way, the couple will go home with a nice photo book of memories that will get dusty over time.

A famous camera

I sadly have decided to part with my work horse Canon 1D Mark II as technology has moved quickly and need the larger, faster, and overall better Mark IV model. I placed the add on craigslist the other night and yet to have anyone with any real interest make an offer. I did get the ridiculously fictitious email from some kid in a third world internet cafe asking me if I’d sell my item (they got no clue what I’m selling) to them at a higher price and if I would ship it to their cousin who is attending Oxford. Uh huh…ok.

Funny enough, I spied myself on TV the other night during a news spot on a Japanese real estate developer here in Honolulu filmed about three years ago in Kahala. I was taking pictures with that trusty camera I’m hoping to sell.

The photos were shot for the Associated Press and they went around the nation. The New York Times ran the story on their metro section. That was a big story because this rich Japanese guy was going to let several homeless people of Hawaiian decent live in his multimillion dollar mansions in one of the riches parts of Honolulu. Needless to say he wasn’t too popular with the neighbors.

You can see the story here from the Times.

A bit of reminiscing about days past and time with that camera. It got me through a big portion of my growing career. How that camera got me through tough times and the easy days indeed. The camera has taken pictures of just about anything you can imagine. It has photographed Tiger Woods, Dwane “Dog” the Bounty Hunter, Felicity Huffman, actors on Lost, University of Hawaii football, Kobe Bryant and Michelle Wie. Its shot food, beaches, and girls. Its done everything.

One of the more pungent moments was the depression of Banda Aceh.

The shot above is of a group of Rescue workers organized in Mexico called TOPOS. I met and followed the group around Banda Aceh as they pulled bodies from the remains of that destroyed city. It poured like only a tropical city can at that decisive moment when they carried a body out of a decimated building. The camera rattled away. What a moment. What a time. It was really my loss of innocence at that point. More on the tsunami in the future.

As I researched through my photos for this blog I came across this photo of myself from 2005 while I stood in the mess of Banda Aceh’s destruction…my trusty camera at my side.

Why part with it? Well…its just a tool. Its really how you use it. Cliche, yes but absolutely true. I’ve gone through so many cameras in my relatively short professional career. Yet to depart with this one is like parting with the memories of said picture of me.
Eh…its just a camera.

You wanna buy it? Its a bit famous.

Here is the ad on craigslist.org

Geisha

Blurred images of kimonoed women, alabaster faces, geta shoes clacking down cobblestoned streets. Red stained lips. Paper umbrella. Eyes downcast. A hint of an ancient past. A unknown future.

Geishas…also called Geikos in Kyoto are one of Japan’s most iconic symbols. Once though of as prostitutes in Western minds, a geisha is a highly trained entertainer who sells her craft, often at high prices, to entertainment establishments via her geisha house, or okiya. During their performances, geishas, or maikos (who are often younger women who are still training) sing, dance, and play traditional Japanese songs using traditional string instruments. Geishas and maikos also sit with clients helping pour drinks and coyly flirt with customers.

I had a unique opportunity to spend time with a maiko in Kyoto and photograph preparing herself with makeup and getting dressed. I was helped by the Chika Yoshida at the Kyoto Tourism Federation. The Federation and Yoshida-san helped me accomplish most of what I set out to do in Kyoto and I owe them a great deal of appreciation for all of her hard work.

Picture courtesy from Chika Yoshida.

I will post more images from my shoot in the future. The first image is actually from a past shoot but I am still editing my current work.