on the road...part 3...

this is the third (and final) part of what i sometimes referred to to my friends as my 'midwest tour'. it had been four years since my last trip to the midwest, so i decided to take advantage of the work assignment by staying an extra week and see my friends that live in the area. another perk of traveling for work. if i didn't travel for work, i wouldn't get to see a lot of people that i know.

first stop, Dayton, OH. while Dayton isn't exactly a tourist hot spot (but my friend John sure likes to talk like it is), i like to visit Dayton because of that fact. little traffic, clean air and a sense of safety. of course, if John and his family didn't live there, i would never go there, but that's besides the point.

the highlight of Dayton isn't the Wright Museum, but playing with the kids. sorry John and Ellen, it's all about the kids. it's amazing how much they grow up in four years. the last time i was there, Matthew could barely talk and Brooke was still in a cradle. now Matthew is throwing spirals and Brooke is on her way to becoming the mini golf queen.

i elected to drive because it's cheaper and i get to see the different sights and small towns along the way. did you know that Mexico is located just a half mile off of highway 31 in Indiana?


hitting the road lets me see things that i wouldn't normally get to see. like the Point Betsie Lighthouse


or the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes


but the best part is hanging out with my friends. i even got to see an old friend that i haven't seen in over 15 years! she found me on facebook. so i got to meet her husband and two kids and explore the small town of Holland, Michigan. something i would have never thought of doing if she didn't live there.

the final stop of my midwest tour was Chicago. it has been over 10 years since i last went to Chicago. a few things have changed, but much is the same. the difference now is that i have a friend with local knowledge to show me around! nothing beats local knowledge. especially when it comes to local cuisine.

if you like vodka and you like spicy, you gotta try the Horseradish Vodka at the Russian Tea Time or any of their 50+ house flavored and premium vodkas. it packs a hell of a kick! or if you need a snack, Wow Bao should do the trick. this ain't your typical bao from sam woo's. spicy kung pao chicken, thai curry chicken or spicy mongolian beef are da bomb! and nothing beats a Bailey's and hot chocolate at the Signature Room Lounge located on the 95th floor high atop the Hancock building with it's breathtaking city view. sorry, i didn't bring my camera. shocking, i know.

this is a reflection of my friend (and tour guide extraordinaire) Wendy and I in the Cloud Gate sculpture aka: 'the Bean' designed by Anish Kapoor.


it's a very interesting sculpture. if you go underneath and look up at your reflection, it's difficult to figure out which one is you. unless you cheat, like i did, and use the flash on your camera, then you discover that there are more than 30 reflections of yourself!


while we were at Millenium Park checking out the Bean, i told Wendy i wanted to go check out the train station that i heard in the distance toward the lake. what i thought was a nearby train station turned out to be just the sounds of a train station blaring from a multitude of speakers mounted to the arches that criss-cross over the grassy field at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.


Wendy and i got a good laugh out of that.

so in addition to going to Raleigh, South Bend and Pittsburgh for work, i managed to see my friends in Dayton, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Holland (MI) and Chicago for fun. so even though traveling can be a pain the butt, sometimes it can also be a trip to remember. hopefully it won't be another four years for the next midwest tour.

happy travels!

on the road...part 2...

as i stated earlier, traveling for work is just that...work. for most people, when they hear i'm traveling for work, the first thing out of their mouth is usually "that's cool". i always wonder what they're thinking. do they think i'm on vacation and i get to go sightseeing and do all the touristy stuff? i hate to burst that bubble, but that is NOT the case. i have to work.

when i'm at home, i don't have to go to an 'office' and fight with traffic. woo hoo! i have the luxury of staying up late (2am) and sleeping in (9:30am). but on the road...and worse yet, on the east coast...i have to comply with other people's schedule and unfortunately for me, sleeping in is usually not an option.

with my body clock on the west coast, the first couple of days are usually the hardest. taking a red-eye flight usually works to my benefit. due to the limited amount of sleep i can get on the plane, i'm usually pretty tired the first night and tend to go to sleep early, usually by midnight EST/9pm PST. that's reeeally early for me! but it helps me get on east coast time faster.

but, as i alluded to in my last post, on the road, there are bonuses. while visiting tourist hot spots usually isn't part of the work day itinerary, that doesn't mean there isn't time to do a little sightseeing, even if it's only for a half hour. so whenever possible, i try to get out and see at least one cool place where i'm working.

at the University of Notre Dame, that one place was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.


as a former architecture major, i was amazed by the details and the beauty of the interior. with it's Gothic Revival style, French stained glass windows (1870-1887) and murals by Italian painter Luigi Gregori, the Basilica is truly a sight to behold. these photos do not even come close to capturing the awe that one feels in the midst of such beauty.

whenever i go on the road, one of my rules is to eat at restaurants that i can't find in LA. regardless of how much you have to work, you still have to eat, so finding some place worthwhile is of the utmost importance. you don't want to waste a chance for a good meal at a mediocre place.

so where do you go to get advice on local restaurants? i find that the best source is the locals. in Pittsburgh, the trusty doorman at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel proved to be the right source. his recommendation? the Grand Concourse.


located in the old Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Train Station, the Grand Concourse features some of the finest steak, seafood and poultry dishes in the Pittsburgh area. with it's historic setting and romantic view of the Smithfield Street Bridge, the Monongahela River and downtown Pittsburgh, it's a great place to end the day with good food and good company.

if you haven't figured it out by now, one of the things i like to do is try new things. new food, new restaurants, new outings. even in LA, i have my favorite places, but a creature of habit i am not. if you ask me when the last time i went to them was? the answer won't be last week or even last month.

so while i got to try new restaurants on this trip, i also decided to try a new hotel - Hyatt Place.


while the Hyatt name is nothing new to the hotel industry, Hyatt Place is a new brand of stylish living. with a comfortable sitting area and a 42" plasma tv, the room was bigger than your average hotel room and felt a little more like home.

downstairs in the lobby, they have complimentary continental breakfast as well as ready made sandwiches and desserts and a 24 hour cafe where you can order food cooked to order from the menu. for a low maintenance guy like, me, it was perfect! i don't need a mint on my pillow, turn down service or a fancy restaurant. just give me a clean room and towels and linens that don't feel like sand paper and i'm a happy camper. =) and the best part is that they are reasonably priced!

the number of Hyatt Places is still growing, but i hope they catch on. i know for sure i'll be back.

on the road...

while traveling for work appears glamorous to those that don't do it, trust me, it is not all that it is cracked up to be. while i won't say it's a horrible thing either...there are some perks and silver linings (which i'll cover in my next post)...traveling for work is still just that - work. making travel arrangements, arriving early, security checks, picking up rental cars, checking in to your hotel and finding your work location can all be a challenge depending on who is on the other side of the counter. sometimes it's a breeze, other times you just wonder where the heck do they get these people from?

having done more than my fair share of traveling, i have seen a lot of the good and the bad and have learned to prepare myself for the worst. i'm not a pessimistic person, but being prepared for the worst is what makes traveling easier. at least for me it does. not only are you prepared for the worst, should it happen, but you place yourself in the mindset that you're prepared for anything and everything, which is a much better place to be in mentally than hoping for easy travels only to be disrupted by a flight delay or customer service agent in training. i've seen irate passengers scream at gate agents over a delayed flight. it's not the gate agents fault people. i've seen a passenger cry over a delayed flight. it's not the end of the world. stuff happens. be prepared.

i just got back from a 2.5 week trip that criss-crossed the country. i spent 18 nights in 9 cities and a MD-80 (red eye flight). the first half of the trip felt more like i should have been following the election, spending 8 nights in 6 cities and a plane. instead, i photographed my friend's family and then flew out of SFO to work as a lighting assistant on the college preview issue for sports illustrated. which, by the way, is on the newsstands now!

i was looking forward to the shoot because i got to work with Robert Beck, and his number one side kick Kohjirro Kinno (aka:Kojo). i owe a lot of where i am today to Beck. back when i was a punk kid freelancing for Volleyball Monthly, he helped me out, taught me a few important things, asked me to be his assistant a few times and introduced me to a few people that eventually led me to my Lighting Technician job at Sports Illustrated.

anyways, back to the shoot...had this been a normal cover shoot, i probably would not have been called to fly across the country. normally they would hire local assistants to help out on shoots. however, this was not a typical cover shoot. periodically, SI runs regional covers. for this particular issue, they were running six different covers that would run in 6 different regions. the cover in atlanta would be different than the cover in chicago which would be different than the one in los angeles.

for the covers, Beck shot one of the leading players from the men's and women's basketball teams at U Conn, U North Carolina, Pitt, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Arizona State. i worked on UNC, Notre Dame and Pitt. these are the covers that are being used...


because of the tight schedule, i was the one-man advance team. my job was to prep each location and ensure that the shoot ran smoothly. in addition to being the lighting assistant, i served as the equipment coordinator, location scout and prep person for UNC, ND and Pitt. i helped to arrange for the two sets of 15+ cases of lighting equipment to be shipped from Samy's Camera to UNC and Notre Dame.

i arrived a day early at each location to meet with the Sports Information Director (SID), arena personnel and to make sure all the equipment arrived and checked it all to make sure it was all working properly so that on the day of the shoot, there were no equipment surprises. i also took photos of the location and emailed them to Beck so he could see the location before he and Kojo arrived. i also had to make sure there was enough power available for the lighting equipment because you can't just run a power strip from one outlet to plug in 6 power packs. that would be too easy. instead, each power pack has to be on it's own circuit...otherwise, you'll likely blow a circuit and then you'd have two (or more) lights that wouldn't be working, not to mention a very perturbed photographer, an SID wondering if we knew what heck we were doing and two impatient student-athletes standing around in the dark while we scrambled around looking for two (or more) new outlets. needless to say, it may seem a small issue, but having enough power is pretty essential. most arenas are well equipped, but at one location we were put in the practice gym, which usually aren't as well equipped. this one happened to work out fine.

at UNC, i never saw the dynamic duo of Beck and Kojo as i had to leave for Indianapolis to pick up so more equipment at Robert's and drive it to Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana. after the Notre Dame shoot, i elected to drive the equipment to Pittsburgh rather than ship it to ensure that all the equipment arrived. it eliminated the shipping expense and the anxiety of wondering if it all would get there on time. if it didn't, we'd be screwed because the shoot was scheduled for saturday morning (but changed to the afternoon) and there would be no time to get replacement gear shipped in.

i didn't mind the driving so much. it wasn't all in one day (14 hours total) and i got to see the changing colors of fall in the midwest.


getting to see things outside of Southern California is one of the bonuses of traveling for work.

when i got to Pitt, the SID was surprised at the amount of gear i arrived with. not just because it was 15 cases, but that i was actually able to pack it all in my SUV rental. he, as well as most people, didn't realize how much equipment was needed for a cover shoot. sometimes it amazes me. but we bring what we need and then a little extra, just in case, because you never know what might happen. part of being prepared for the worst.

so why doesn't SI hire photographers who live near the location of the shoots? they could save so much money on travel and shipping expenses. the simple answer is for consistency. as you can see from the covers, they are all very similar. there may have been a little retouching done on the background to clean it up, but for the most part, the cover is the way Beck shot it. if you were to send a detailed lighting diagram, a sample image and hire six different photographers, you would still get six different photos of varying quality that would require more post production work to create a consistent looking cover.

the other obvious answer is that SI has the best sports photographers in the world and even though the price tag to ship equipment and fly everyone around the country may be high, the consistent result is worth the expense. using the same photographer, the same set-up means getting the shot right in the camera and ultimately very little post production work for the art department. quality is of the utmost importance. this is why SI is the best sports publication in the world.

if you want to see the covers bigger, click here to see a multimedia show.

or you can see them here in the SI vault.

be like water...

after some very serious introspection and soul searching, i have found that new direction that i alluded to in my last post. for those that know me really well, you know that my two passions in life are being creative and helping others. for over half of my life, i have taken pictures to quench my creativity and volunteered my time to many worthy causes to help those that are less fortunate.

but for the past few years, i seem to have lost that edge i used to have. the fire that once burned inside had dwindled to a mere flicker. like the pilot light on a gas stove. perhaps it had even burned out. maybe i was burnt out.

this past week, however, someone (or something) turned the knob to high. perhaps it was the ghost of Bruce Lee in the East West Players recent production of Be Like Water. A story of a 13 year old gung fu fanatic tomboy who is visited by the ghost of Bruce Lee and learns the true meaning of strength and water.

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

many of my philosophies on life turned out to be the same as Bruce Lee's. as a kid, i loved watching his movies. Enter the Dragon, Fists of Fury...perhaps subconsciously his words stuck in my head. too bad his skills didn't magically manifest themselves in me as well.

somehow, Bruce always seems to make an appearance in my life as well. 13 years ago, i was on assignment in Athens, Greece and i was taking pictures of the local gypsy people near the harbor and one man came up to me and said i looked like Bruce Lee, and then he struck a martial arts pose.

earlier this year, i was in Japan on vacation and my friend and i were wandering the streets near chinatown in Yokohama and we came across a red roll-up door with a couple of portraits of Bruce Lee painted on it. well, i had to take a picture with my own martial arts pose. the Greek guy did a better pose than i did.

as you can see, it looks like Bruce is ready to knock my head off for having such bad form! ha ha!

after watching Be Like Water, and being very impressed by the production, it really made me think about what i was doing and where i was going. the past few years i have been trying to find a project that i could really get involved with. one that would combine both my passion for creativity and helping others.

that project has now become quite clear now...Hibakusha. Hibakusha is a Japanese term often used to describe the people who survived the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. the literal translation is "explosion-affected people". loosely translated, the term also refers to others outside of Japan who have also suffered from the fallout of atomic bomb testing and exposure to radiation.

the average age of Hibakusha in Japan is over 75 years old. as time marches on, many Hibakusha don't have much time left.

so i have made it my mission to photograph 65 (or more) Hibakusha from around the world and exhibit the prints in LA and Hiroshima in august, 2010 to mark the 65th anniversary of the bombings.

nobody really knows how many innocent lives were lost, but estimates place it at well over 200,000 while countless more lives were changed forever.

despite the atrocity of the bombings and the tragic losses, the threat of a nuclear war still looms. while North Korea has begun dismantling its nuclear reactors, other countries like the US, Russia and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons with the added fear that other nations like Iran are trying to develop their own. [May 2009 update: NK has resumed nuclear and missile testing]

so the ultimate goal is to not only have the the exhibit travel around the world, but to also publish a book to be sent to the leaders who possess the power to disarm. the book would not be one filled with too many words...let's face it, the world leaders probably won't take the time to read it. but instead, it will be filled with pictures of the survivors and each will be accompanied by a quote from the survivors.

the book will hopefully serve as a reminder of the horrors that a nuclear war can unleash. nuclear warheads today are far more powerful and destructive than the two that were dropped on Japan and no one should have to experience the pain and suffering that the Hibakusha have had to endure for the past 63 years.

i'm not exactly sure what lies ahead, but i will have a new perspective on the world and i predict it will be life altering, not just for me, but for many others. whatever difficulties i may encounter, surely it will be nothing compared to what the Hibakusha have endured. and if times get tough, i'll just have to ask, "What would Bruce say?" "Be like water."

friends, family and kids...

ok...it's been almost four weeks since my last post. my apologies to those that have this on RSS feed and think i fell off the face of the Earth! but i'm still here, just been a little pre-occupied with finding a new direction for my photography. with the economic slow down, photography is one of the first things that is cut from the creative budget. but that is part of my life as a photographer. while it's not always glamorous, i still think it beats working 9-5. =)

so this past weekend, i got to photograph my cousin, her husband and their one year old daughter. often times my family or friends will hire other photographers to shoot their wedding or family photos and they often tell me they don't want to bother me or they want me to enjoy myself at the wedding or something like that. to that i say, PHOOEY! not out loud, just in my head. and then i pray that they found someone good who didn't charge them an arm and a leg.

so for the record...since only my friends and family read this anyways...IT'S NOT WORK to me. =) in fact, it's FUN! even the time i photographed my friend's daughter for their christmas card and it took 8 hours to get 24 pictures on film (and we used the last one for the card *phew*). despite the fact that she was fussy, she had to take a nap, she had to eat, she went poop, etc...it was still fun. i got to hang out with my friends for 8 hours doing what i enjoy doing, taking pictures. on top of that, i know they'll get some nice photos at a reasonable price. how great is that?!?!?!

ok, back to my cousin...so after scouting out the perfect location, i go to their house so we can all drive together. well, sometimes all the planning in the world can go to waste by forgetting one small bag in the trunk of your car. the battery powered strobe head was in that bag but we carpooled in their car. well, there really wasn't anytime to go back for it, so i figure i'll just use my on camera flash (my back-up plan...always have a back-up) and battery pack.

when shooting kids, you never know what will happen. remember my friend's christmas card? well, this weekend, was the exact opposite. sometimes the stars line up and everything just works out. the beach was fairly empty. *phew* no photoshopping people out of the background. the light was perfect. and Liya didn't make a fuss once. not even a peep. she was the perfect angel.

the first shot i had planned in my head was a shot of them walking up and down the shore and getting their reflection in the receding water using available light.

check.

then, a closer shot.

check.

now that i have the two must have shots...now it's time to play and get a little more creative. so i let them just do their thing and just shoot them interacting together. as i walk around them, i see the light. the rim light that is. how beautiful it would be in black and white. so i shot it and after converting it to B&W, i decided to sepia tone it as well.

better than black and white...

after that shot, i backed up more and decided, as overdone as they may be, a silhouette might look cool. if you position yourself just right, when the sun is just peeking around your subject, you can get a nice starburst effect. =)

hee hee...now i'm giddy with the results.

by now, the sun is just about to set and usually i would have been setting up a sunset shot. but since i really don't like the look of an on-camera flash and i had forgotten the strobe in my trunk, we're not doing one. but at this point, i had plenty of shots for my cousin to choose from.

but the lighting has changed from the beginning of the shoot, so i decided to shoot a few more of them walking up and down the surf line. and as they walked away, Liya turned around, gave me a brief glance and that was the final set of photos.

sometimes kids just do the right thing at the right time.

and even though i set up my camera with a bracket and an on-camera flash, it turns out, it was just dead weight. mother nature provided all the light i needed. woo hoo! sometimes everything works out just fine, even if you forget the strobe in the trunk of your car.

search my archives...

you can now search my PhotoShelter Archives from my blog. that's right! see that box on the top right? enter a name or keyword, like michael phelps or hawaii, and click on 'search' and you can see all the photos related to your search. it's that easy.

i still have a lot of photos to add, but right now there are currently over 5000 photos in my archives that are searchable. it's not a large number, considering i have over 40,000 on my hard drive, but i am currently adding photos every week.

if you're searching for something in particular and can't find it in my archive, then send me an message and i'll let you know if i have something or not.

happy searching!

patience...

i am back from paradise...back to reality.

part of the reason i went to Hawai'i was to teach at Paradise Workshops with my friend Cory Lum. it was our first workshop and sort of an experiment to see whether or not the local photographers would welcome a series of photography workshops to help them take better pictures. Cory and i have talked about this off and on for over a year now and it was finally time to actually do it.

part of the workshop was a class "assignment". we sent everyone to the Honolulu Family Festival (i.e. carnival) to take pictures of the fair. 2 hours later, they had to edit and submit 3-5 of their best photos to be part of the final class critique.

during the critique, i asked one photographer how many frames they shot of a particular photo. the answer? one. i was a bit surprised. i was even more surprised to hear it again from another photographer. one of the advantages of digital is that it doesn't cost any more money to shoot one or one hundred photos. it just takes a little extra time to edit. back in the film days, i could understand only taking a few photos, because each one costs money. but one?

this was the perfect segue into teaching them about patience, 'working' the situation and taking chances.

as photographers, our instinct when we see something interesting is to take a picture and then move on. but why just take one? why leave right away? maybe something more interesting will appear? maybe not. sometimes we have to take the chance that something more might appear.

while i was walking around, i noticed these hands grasping on to the safety bar inside the caged enclosure of a ride. to me, the hands were interesting and the lines of the cage made it more graphically interesting. so i took a picture.


the picture was interesting and kinda cool, but rather than walk away, i decided to see what else might happen. so i stood there with my camera to my eye and waited. while i waited, the ride began to rotate toward me and the two pairs of hands became three pairs.


and then, the magical moment came and the joyful face of a happy teenager appeared.


woo hoo! there's the picture.

i didn't know it was going to happen. but i took a chance in case something did happen. i took some more pictures once the ride went into motion in case something else might appear, but nothing did. so yes, sometimes you don't always get rewarded.

in all, i hung around the ride for about 5 minutes, 3 of them with the camera to my face, and took over 50 pictures. instead of walking away with an interesting picture after 5 seconds and 5 frames, i now have a much more interesting picture in 5 minutes.

sometimes patience will pay off, sometimes it won't. sometimes it may take 5 minutes. sometimes it may take an hour, or even longer. but if you don't even try, you'll never know. that is the chance you have to take.

gone fishing...

it was 4:50am sunday morning and not only was i awake (sort of), but i was riding in the backseat of my friend's car half asleep. with Renee at the wheel and Bill riding shotgun, we were heading to the windward side of O'ahu to go shoot the sunrise from Lanikai Beach.

when we got to Lanikai, we walked toward the end of the beach because Renee wanted to shoot the half dead palm tree. the sun hasn't risen yet and there isn't much color in the sky, so i switch to tungsten balance and pick a long exposure, not because i want the maximum depth of field, but because the wind is blowing and i want the palm fronds to blur so you won't see how pathtic looking they are!



i don't want to spend too much time with the palm tree (there is only so much you can do with an ugly subject) so i shoot a few frames and then it starts to rain. so out comes the plastic bag to cover the camera. a few minutes pass and so has the rain. after wiping the filter, i shoot a few more frames and start looking for other photos to take. while the colors in the sky start to emerge, i notice the reflections and patterns in the receding water, so i shoot a few frames of that and then start shooting the sunrise.



i made sure to get the reflections in the sand as well to add a little more color and dimension to the photos.



after shooting the sunrise, i remember seeing some locals walking by with fishing gear. so i go down the beach a little farther and find them all standing in a line fishing in the surf. well, that looks cool. so i shoot a few frames of that.



once i get something i'm satisfied with, i decided it's time to get wet. i borrow Renee's 15mm fisheye lens and get knee-deep in the water behind the fishermen. i hold the camera just above the water level, and shoot some frames. i had the live view feature on my 40D on so i could compose my shot, but i also had to keep an eye on the surf because my camera is just above the water level, so any incoming waves could be hazardous to my camera, Renee's lens and ulimately, my wallet.

eventually i get lucky and capture a frame while one of the guys (2nd from left) catches a fish and mother nature provides some rays of sunshine.



yes, there is a fish at the end of his line and while the diminshing effect of the fisheye lens will make things appear smaller than they are the farther away they are, that fish really is that small. maybe 3 or 4 inches in length. needless to say, i don't know why these guys get up so freakin' early to stand in the surf just to catch some bait.

maybe it was male bonding. maybe they really were catching bait. i should have asked, but my brain was still sleeping.

at least i caught a few pictures.

going to great heights to get the job done...

aloooooooha!!! i arrived in Hawai'i a couple of days ago and the weather is beautiful!!! since my body is on california time (or somewhere in the pacific) i woke up early yesterday morning (i'm not a morning person), before the sun came up (when mother nature calls, you answer). since i was awake, i decided to go down to Ala Moana Park to just hang out and enjoy paradise.

i had forgotten that the Honolulu Family Festival is happening right now. so Magic Island is filled with tents and rides. but i decided to walk around anyways and went to the end of the peninsula and was lucky enough to come across the Flying Maltese, a trapeze act from Venezuela and KGMB 9 doing live teasers promoting the HFF on its morning Sunrise show.



props go out to reporter Ramsay Wharton and weatherman Jeff Booth who were reporting live on-site. these reporters/daredevils didn't just report from the ground, they both braved the rickety ladder and climbed up 30' to the trapeze platform and did a segment perched high above the ground eye-level with the palm fronds.

Members of the Flying Maltese (L-R) Jordano, Dali, Saul and Gamal pose on the trapeze platform with KGMB reporter Ramsay Wharton (seated) during a break while shooting a live teaser for the Sunrise show at the Honolulu Family Festival at Ala Moana Park.

Jeff even had the cajones to take a flying leap!


as a photographer and journalist, i think it's important to look at things from different perspectives, not just visually, but with everything. life doesn't revolve around us. there are many other differing viewpoints and 1000 ways to use duct tape and skin a cat.

visually, you can get low or go high, shoot wide, shoot tight. while it's important to get the standard shots, you have to push yourself to get something different. what sets the great photographers apart from the masses is there vision. i'm not talking 20-20 vision, but there ability to 'see' things that other people don't.

so hats off to Ramsay and Jeff for literally going to great heights to get the job done.

(L-R) KGMB cameraman Jon Yasunaga, Jordano, Dali Maltese, KGMB reporter Ramsay Wharton, Producer Donna Smith, Gamal Maltese and Saul pose for a photo after shooting a teaser for KGMB at the Honolulu Family Festival at Ala Moana Park.

me and my first blog...

i'm jumping on the blogging bandwagon. why? i'm not sure. but i'm jumping on anyways and hoping that i don't fall off.

do i really have something important to say, i don't know. of course i like to think i do, but i suppose it really doesn't matter does it? if paris hilton and the kardashians can have a reality tv show, then i think i can at least have a teeny tiny portion of the world wide web.

while the majority of what i will write about is photography and my life as a photographer, since that seems to be the thing i have the most experience at, there are times i may talk about life in general. i think it's important to keep things in perspective and keep an eye on the big picture.

and since this will be photo oriented, i supposei should at least post a picture to accompany my first blog.

this photo was taken in Hawai'i, my favorite place in the whole wide world. two young kayakers prepare to head toward the Mokolua Islands off of Lanikai Beach, which is often voted the best beach in Hawai'i by the Travel Channel because of its soft sand and calm waters.

enjoy and mahalo (thank you) for reading.