The End

Quietly the year slips away. Grey skies & rain usher 2013 to it's conclusion. The Christmas holiday has come & gone and all that's left to do is to welcome the approaching New Year with open arms.

All said, the year may have not been a banner year for business but it has, however, been a far better year than the previous three or four. If the last couple of months are any form of reliable indicator, the coming year promises to see things back on track.

Meanwhile, the last couple of weeks have sent me around the island completing end of year assignments photographing Diva Chefs, makers of fine cheeses, secluded Oahu beaches, luxury vacation hideaways, outrigger canoe paddlers, aging folks in need of professional home care and the ass-end of a herd of asses milk goats. The New Year will begin with a balance in the black column. Even better, my stock agency Photo Resource Hawaii logged the best year of licensing sales ever, most recently licensing an image for a AAA Hawaii guide book cover. I's always a special treat to go to the mailbox and find these unexpected checks waiting for me!

Contacted a week or so ago by the corporate art director for a major international resort chain to inquire about a license arrangement for an image shot around this time last year. They wish to use the image for a one to two year partnership rewards campaign with a major airline. Not wanting to scare this potential client away and at the same time, not wanting to sell myself short either, I have enlisted the assistance of a producer with the company Wonderful Machine. Together, we were able to arrive at what we both believe to be a reasonable fee. Producer Craig @ WM is handling the negotiations with this client on my behalf and hopes are high that a deal will be struck quickly in the coming days.

All in all, the year end on an upbeat note. Highlights include the trips to Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Jakarta & Seoul made during the summer months, the settling into and productive use of the new studio space now attached to my home, the increasing workload seen in recent months, the expansion and transmitting power increases I was able to oversee at the small, non-commercial radio station I manage as a labor of love in my limited free time and the luxury of having time and funds to participate in a very serious art class on color relationships theory concluded late last month. I am looking forward to what the New Year will bring and wishing all of you the best in 2014!

We end the year with a smile and a jingle in our pockets. 

HAPPY NW YEAR!!!

The Final Push

It's on... the final push to wrap things up for the year. Less than two weeks to go before the New Year arrives and we're still up to our necks in work.

Three new editorial assignments have come our way in the last couple of days. Tight deadlines, of course, and the need for much coordination and cooperation from the subjects & subject matter involved. Things get a little more complicated due to the arriving hordes of holiday island visitors that begin their annual arrival this weekend. Everyone will be jammed up until after the New Year starting friday afternoon. This leaves little time to attempt to get a lot of images from all over the state lashed together to make our editors happy. 

An early morning boat excursion tomorrow will wrap up one project, an all day advertising project for a Health Care company will occupy friday with the weekend spent editing. On monday, we start with wrangling goats and end up shooting food and Diva Chefs to partially fulfill another project that will still require a trip to Hana, another to the Big Island and quite possibly another to Honolulu before that one is wrapped up. Then there's a day of architecture & interior photography, followed by another 1/2 day shooting from a rented helicopter for another mainland client. 

Negotiations are also on with an international resort company and a major airline interested in licensing an image for a North American "partnership" advertising campaign.

Thankfully, most of the pre-holiday domestic preparations have been completed today, thanks mostly to the enormous effort on the part of the Missus. The tree is trimmed, most of the holiday shopping is completed, cards and gifts to the mainland delivered to the postal clerks yesterday and today & a fat turkey in the freezer for the holiday meal. C is also putting the finishing touches on the massive antique Javanese door purchased in Asia last summer and delivered here a couple of weeks ago, making it ready for installation as the new fortress garden gate sometime this weekend. Fingers crossed on that one!

Last week we also wrapped up a two day lifestyle effort at a yet-to-be-disclosed resort on the island's South Shore. Spent last weekend hunkered over the edit workstation and delivered previews to the client on monday.

Thanks to Daryl & Alison for the great effort as talent, great art direction & prop styling by Sae. All went smoothly.

Chances are I may have no time to drop 'round here to update until early next year. I wish you all a most joyous holiday season and the best in the coming New Year! 

Stairway To....

Here we are again in the full thrust of the holiday season... tree trimming, gift shopping and various other seasonal home projects that must be completed in the next couple of weeks before things shut down completely for a week or more during the Christmas & New Year's holidays.

Today has been spent around the studio finishing up the editing and delivery of a couple of projects from last week, finalizing last minute details on a couple of projects online for this week and printing a few images as gifts for family & friends.

One of those projects from last week, an architectural assignment to photograph a beautiful staircase recently installed at the brand new Andaz Wailea Beach Resort, was commissioned by Brooklyn, New York based design, engineering & fabrication firm Workspace 11. 

An amazing bit of engineering, the staircase is built of beautiful, rich bent-wood mahogany of amazing organic form & curvature, now a "feature" showpiece of the resort.

Within hours of uploading the final edit to the client in NY, this lovely email appeared in my inbox:

Thanks Tony

The shots look great!!,  exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

I'll wire the balance to you today

Thanks again 

Best wishes

Thank you! It's notes like that that make my day!