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.