"I think They All Suck..."

"I think they all suck. The picture I was hoping for is never the picture I get, but yeah, I think they fail all the time."
"It’s amazing, but it’s weird to be on the far side of a learning curve. And it’s always like that. If you learn how to use a Deardorff, you’ll always know how to use every 8×10 camera. You’re good to go. But if you learn how to use the 5D and then the 5DMKII, each one is a little bit different. They have different focus points. If you want to switch from Aperture to Lightroom, you have to learn how to do all that stuff. It’s a constant learning curve which I hadn’t signed on for. I wanted to grow in terms of making pictures, not adapting to new software and technology. But that’s the game now."

- Gregory Heisler in an interview with Grayson Schaffer

Find the entire interview HERE

It's always nice to find that your heros feel the same about their work as I feel about mine most days. Thank you Mr. Heisler.

It's been a week of weird here at the farm... weddings... suicides.. comings... goings. Two mornings spent archiving fabulous free-form wood vessel-sculptures created by reknown artist Derek Bencomo, an afternoon spent documenting the nuptial bliss of strangers (we are nothing if not versatile!), several hours spent lashing together estimates and the ongoing reorganization of all things transported from old surroundings to new. 

In between shots it was running errands for builders & painters, pleading and cajoling with county building inspectors over on-the-fly structural permutations to architectural plans for the new screened conference room, multiple runs to & from the old work digs to the new and the sad discovery that neighbors took the final exit using the shotgun route. 

But today is another day... structural permutations receiving initial approval as of this morning just as nuptial retouching was wrapping up, priming and painting begun on the conference room, which should, with any luck and decent weather, wrap up tomorrow. Roof, screening and door installation should finish up next week, bringing to an end PhaseII of construction. 

Inside PhaseI, what once seemed an immense space is filling up quickly as old studio is emptied & valuables transported to new. Gallery installation genius Uncle Darrell dropped by and lent a hand to the hanging of the flash and the place is beginning to shape up nicely. 

Entrance & Command Console

Gallery & Shoot Space

Photography Exhibition & Lecture At Schaefer International Gallery/MACC

©Wayne Levin

Big Island Photographer Wayne Levin will be

featuring luscious prints from his time

spent at Molokai's legendary, isolated, windswept

peninsula & leper colony in the soon-to-open exhibition

A REFLECTION OF KALAUPAPA

PAST, PRESENT and Future

The exhibition opens this Saturday at the 

Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Schaefer International 

Gallery with an artists' reception beginning

at 5pm. The show runs through Sept. 30th,

so there's no excuse to miss this rare

installation primarily featuring photographic

art.

The following monday, August 20th, Wayne will

be on hand for a walk-thru and lecture from 

3:30 - 6pm. This lecture is open to the public & 

admission is free. See you there!

New Work - Resort Redesign

Results & outtakes from a recent editorial foray... resort redesign/remodel. Selects from the project should be out sometime later next month...

Legends & Heros... Settling In

There was a lovely video posted yesterday at A Photo Editor; excerpts from a documentary of Albert Watson, one of the truly great photographers of our time. Iconic fashion, celebrity & fine art photographer Watson's career continues after nearly 40 years in business, the work continues to inspire and the humble, thoughtful man with the impeccable eye portrayed in the documentary leaves you in awe of a great, great talent. Albert Watson IS a legend & hero. See your yourself HERE.

All that said, I'm delighted to be sitting at a temporary, makeshift desk surrounded by four walls that involve no lease, no property manager, no rent... are fresh and smell of new paint and early evening light slips thru tall windows to dance upon. Studio phase of construction is now completed, or nearly so. The past two days have been hectic, compounded by a head & chest full of mucous & a slight fever. There were terse meetings with soon-to-be former property managers to attend to, the packing up and moving of the majority of the office gear, camera cases, lighting & grip cases... the loading of my former darkroom (right down the the sink & copper plumbing) into the pickup bed of it's new owner How I will miss you, morning fixer smell...!

Returning with my load at the new digs, it was time to untangle a Medusa's coif of cables, hard drives, computer bits, then reconnect all of them in a way that they actually would work as carpenters installed the final doors, baseboards & trim, painters prepped said doors, baseboards & trim for tomorrow's final coat of paint... and Oila! Not a moment too soon either, I might add. First shoot in new space is scheduled for friday morning. As soon as the paint brother's leave tomorrow, it will be a quick stashing of accumulated gear piling up in the center of the floor, light set & test tomorrow evening and we can start paying for these new walls!

Chester Likes the View

Evening Light