Friday, May 29, 2009

Here It is

The first "official" piece of cover art to grace the to be released any day now single by The Throwdowns. Catch them live tomorrow night in Wailea at Mulligans On the Blue as part of the "Sirens of Rock" show. I'll be there. You should be too!

Big Mahalos to Scott Johnson of Dogtown Design for the great work!

Playlist For Tuesday, May 26


Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Does This Sound Familiar?

Thanks to Leslie at Burns Auto Parts Blog for the find! I love the part where the guy tells the chef "... but you'll have to show us how you did it so we can make it in-house next time..." Priceless!




Thursday, May 21, 2009

Playlist For Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A little late, but here it is... Tuesday's show playlist for the Academy of Errors program on listener-supported Manao Radio, 91.5 FM for those of you living on the Valley Isle. Live streaming over the internet Here for those of you elsewhere. The program airs Tuesday mornings from 6-10am CPT.

This week I was feeling the love...


Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Culinary Delights




Monday afternoon and well into the night spent photographing the exquisite culinary delights and sophisticated decor of Lahaina's newest dining venue, David Paul's Island Grill. The restaurant marks the return of chef wizard David Paul Johnson after a ten year absence. 

Here's a few of the results to wet your appetite.

Friday, May 15, 2009

End Of The Week Wrap-Up


Yesterday's efforts involved making architectural photographs of an historic old 1920's mansion & estate originally built as the home of one of Maui's founding missionary families. To paraphrase author James Michener, those missionary families came to the islands to do good and ended up doing very well.

Since the mid-1990's, the estate has been owned by the family of the late William E. Simon, former U.S. Secretary of State during three years of Nixon's tenure in the White House. The property has seen several renovations over the years, a major interior renovation completed just a few years ago.

Situated on 42 lush acres in Haiku, the property includes guest & staff quarters, a lovely pool, orchard, gazebo and magnificent rolling lawns and gardens filled with trees of banyan, eucalyptus and exotic palm.I have driven past the place almost daily for over ten years and always wondered what was up there. Unfortunately, I am unable to share pics from the shoot until the commissioning entity, Maui No Ka Oi Magazine publishes the work.

Chef extraordinaire David Paul Johnson has returned to Maui and has just opened a brand new restaurant on Front Street in Lahaina. David Paul's Island Grill features and ever-evolving and daily changing menu of exquisite island cuisine, complete with signature DP southwest flourishes. All reports from the first week of operations is that the place is doing it right. I head up there this evening for a meeting & scout with DP himself, prior to an all day shoot scheduled for Monday. I'll report my own finding as soon as time permits.

Andrew Hetherington of What's the Jackanory? blog fame has posted video of a new portfolio by one of my favorite photographers, Dan Winters. Thanks to Andrew's enabling the video to be embedded, I have added it below. Great work by a great photographer.

OK... that's all the news for now. Have a great weekend one & all. Over & out.

Dan Winters new book from andrew hetherington on Vimeo.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

After The Prostelytizing Comes the Rock & Roll...

After that ambitious bit of prostelytizing posted earlier in the day and in lieu of a playlist this week, I bring you a great little video by Jack White & Brendan Benson's project The Ranconteurs performing Level.

This one's for you David...




Psycho Palm

Playlist for Tuesday May 12, 2009

I regret to announce that Tuesday's Academy of Errors radio show playlist is unavailable for posting this week. 

My dog ate it. 

Words To Live By

"When the gong gets weird, the weird turn pro..."

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson first committed that phrase to print many moons ago. Though he was talking about the profession of journalism, these words of wisdom seem equally applicable to the professional photographic industry. And the going has been pretty weird around these parts for some time now... slow times for most of us... increasing attempts at rights-grabs from publications trying to capitalize on our fears, self-doubt, fragile egos, insecurities, and the ever-pressing need to keep eating... advertisers demanding buy-outs of copyright for no additional compensation and a hungry mass of colleagues either uneducated in the business practices that were long ago established by organizations like ASMP, APA and other trade groups or willing to toss them aside in hopes of landing an assignment to keep the bills paid.

It's quite a pickle we all find ourselves in these days. Do we knuckle under and give in to the demands in hopes that we keep on working, cut our fees in hopes that the low bidder wins the assignment?

The only wisdom I can dispense on the matter is this: There is absolutely no value in being known as the cheapest guy on the block. While a low-pricing strategy will, in some circumstances, win you an extra assignment or two... in the long run, you will end up working harder for less, you will find yourself displeased with the end results because you've been forced into cutting corners production value-wise, and worst of all, you will end up pigeonholed as the guy that works for cheap. Next time that client calls for an assignment, don't ever count on getting a better fee because you did it for less the first time out. Is that how you want client's to remember you?

Sure, times are tough for everyone these days. It makes a little sense to attempt to work with art buyers, cutting expense items where it's possible to do so without compromising the quality of your work. I encourage you to make sure you're not the only one involved in the project that has to make those cuts. There are several options available to us when it come to negotiating fees, use licenses, etc. If you're forced out of necessity and a need to pay the mortgage to cut your fee, try to limit the licensing period or media inclusions in exchange, try to get a substantial deposit prior to commencing production on the project or an agreement for payment immediately upon delivery, try to get commitments for future projects... you get my drift here... tit for tat. Otherwise, it's the photographers that end up being the chumps.

You must act like a pro, even when times get weird, if you want to be taken seriously when this economic shitstorm eventually passes. Get thee over to the ASMP website when you have some downtime and scroll through the free, printable papers on business practices for the professional photographer. You can find them here. You'll find lots of helpful info regarding business practices, negotiating, copyright registration, self-promotion, digital workflow, keywording & meta-data, legal issues, forms, etc. You owe it to yourself to spend a little time either re-reviewing some of this information, if for no other reason, to remind yourself that you have chosen a profession... it's a business and as a business, has it's own sets of practices, legalities, etc, unique to that profession. Those of you relatively new to the business of professional photography... I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for you to make yourself familiar with this information.

Over at the APA website, there is also a wealth of information on these matters found here.

So... when YOUR going gets weird... make sure you deal with it like a pro!


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Trip To Hana

Old DC pal and superstar Smooth Jazz keyboard artist Gregg Karukas has been in the islands for the past few days to play a gig in Waikiki last saturday night. Besides having several great jazz bands back in the DC days, Gregg was also the original keyboardist for The Rippingtons, the band leader for the old Gary Shandling Show on HBO, has scored several feature films, toured with drummer Alphonse Mouzon, Melissa Manchester, Boney James and a host of others. Gregg has also released 11 of his own very fine recordings, his latest, GK just about to be released. You can get it online here.

After wrapping up his saturday gig on Oahu, Gregg hopped a plane Maui bound has been hanging around my house for the past couple of days relaxing, getting into the Maui vibe (can we expect a maui tune on the next release?) and catching me up on old friends from the east coast.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed out east along the Hana Coast to check out the waterfalls, secluded beaches, jungle foliage and roadside homemade banana-coconut ice cream (thanks Coconut Glen!). Here's a couple of pics from the outing.

Gregg at Twin Falls:

The old Catholic Church on the Wailua Penninsula:

The old church's interior:

The Keanae Coast looking towards Wailua:


Friday, May 8, 2009

Orderly Debris

                  ©2007 Tony Novak-Clifford

Neighbors

   Antone By A Window ©2007 Tony Novak-Clifford

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Venus Envy

I had the opportunity to catch the Robyn Hitchcock & Venus 3 documentary Sex, Food, Death... & Insects on the Sundance Channel last night. I'd forgotten just how much I love this stuff even though the fairly recent album "Spooked" has been a regular resident in my CD player for the past couple of years.

Venus 3 is made of Robyn and REM members guitarist Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey on bass and percussionist Bill Rieflin (also former Ministry drummer). The music is just what you would expect from Robyn, no matter what company he keeps... quirky, whimsical, arty, folkie, punky, psychedelic... so if you're not familiar with Robyn's career, you owe it to yourself to check out this film or pick up a disc or two.

Sex, Food, Death... & Insects airs at least four more times during the month of May on Sundance. Check your local listings for dates and time and then set your DVR to record it. You're going to want to watch this one more than once.

In the meantime... here's a little clip of the band captured live at the Fleece in Bristol performing Authority Box. 



Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A Visit With Royalty

His Highness, King Paris, made a surprise royal visit to the studio monday. While in his magnificent presence, I was able to persuade him to pose for a couple of photos. His Most Exalted Poohbahness graciously complied and even bestowed upon me the gift of a few courtly raga-surf guitar licks. All Hail To The King!

Playlist For Tuesday May 5, 2009


Playlist for tuesday morning's Academy of Errors radio program on listener supported Manao Radio, 91.5FM if you're in Maui... live streaming here,then click on the :listen" button, if not. Catch the show every tuesday morning 6-10am Central Pacific Time.