September 15, 2011

I think I've neglected this thing long enough. It wasn't because I didn't want to write, or didn't have the best intentions of writing, updating the blog. The fact of the matter is that I've been busy... busy and exhausted. Ten consecutive days of shooting resort projects on Kauai's North shore kept my days & early evenings fully occupied, leaving little energy or time for anything but a quick dash into town for a meal, some post-meal evening post & upload work and finally, a crawl into bed to rest for the next day. 


Overall the project was fun, though tedious at times. Some of the units photographed were quite nice, one in particular approaching the level of very nice. A couple of them were sows requiring the "silk purse" treatment and lots of extra lipstick. After a few days, they all began to look the same as a routine became established, though each with it's own set of challenges - walls of tinted glass reflecting back like a mirror to reveal hidden lights, wrapping light that was both interesting and BELIEVABLE around furnishings rearranged to better guide the eye through the space...


Creative Directors back in Florida waited patiently each morning for uploaded previews of the previous day's efforts. All was approved as we moved through the entire Princeville Resort, shooting a different property each day.


None of this would have been possible without the stellar assistance of B, dragger of heavy equipment cases up many flights of stairs, illuminator of rooms and hider of light stands, guardian of the canned ice tea stash, breaker of wind, packer of equipment & organizer of the disorganized. It was a long & difficult assignment and B hung right in there, maintaining good humor and providing entertaining company at mealtimes. Thank you!


Now that we've been back nearly a week now, three days of post-processing has been handled and the project results tidily tucked into a FedEx Mailer now winging it's way to Orlando. Two out of three projects, immediately on the front burners for a client we hope to have a long and mutually beneficial relationship with, have now been completed and plans are underway for the final phase of Phase One to take place early next month on the Big Island.

Pristine lagoon between Princeville & Kiluea on Kauai's North Shore

Fresh water streams and rivers, originating high in the mountains behind, cut paths in & around Hanalei

Groovy Juice Bar

And immediately at hand now are a slurry of additional assignments... round two of a national print ad campaign for our local Visitors Bureau, a two day health care industry project, a stack of artwork piled up in the studio awaiting documentation, a potential creative meeting with an up & coming Oahu based band and this afternoon - a confrontation with mortality as I meet with legal counsel in pursuit of drawing up my first last will & testament.

The past few months have been SO busy that I've been forced to vacate my weekly resort fine art showings at the Four Seasons Resort & Spa, allowing me to reclaim my sundays which will now, for the next several months, be devoted to catching up on much needed domestic duties, house and yard maintenance. There is, however, an invitation to hang in a new gallery... location to be disclosed very soon. I'll keep you posted.

There is also the hope & plan to spend most of the month of December in Indonesia... though getting there these days is becoming quite a convoluted ordeal with no more H'lulu->Guam->Bali direct flights. Trying now to find the most expeditious/cost-effective routing thru Singapore or Manila or Tokyo or Taipei or Bangkok or Seoul or Sydney... oh, the choices. Meanwhile, I scrape, hustle and beg for assignments to work on while there to pay for my passage. Any Travel-Food-Lifestyle Ediitors & PE's out there reading this with space and taste for any number of interesting story ideas from S.E. Asia, contact me here. I'll bend your ear... promise!

One more bit of good news came in this week... a story I had hungrily pitched to a local lifestyle publication over a year ago, a story initially green-lighted but then had the plug pulled due to budgets just before production began, has been resurrected by a call from the pub's managing editor. It seems there is renewed interest in publishing the project as early as Spring of next year. There has been guarded talk of revitalized budgets and promises of 8-12 consecutive pages to get the thing to print and I am elated to once again move this one to the front burner along with having the funds to finally produce, what I think, will be a fantastic visual essay illustrating a part of Hawaii's lifestyle & cultural rapidly moving towards extinction.

So that's the haps on this end. We are now into the autumn season, my favorite time of year with light to still trade winds, cloudless morning skies, first arriving winter surf and balmy temperatures. Most of us have now returned from vacations and are settling in for the long fall/winter work seasons. New email and direct mail marketing efforts must soon come to fruition and another round of H'lulu portfolio showings need to be put in order & soon if we're to keep this past year-long assignment uptrend going...