New Hawaiian Airlines TV Spot Reels

Very happy to have had a hand in both of these...








Hats off to the creative team at LCA-Anthology & to the other photographers involved.

Tear-Sheets, Reels to Come & More Good Stuff...

So much good stuff going on, I can hardly contain myself. Returned early Saturday afternoon from three days on Oahu shooting for Prince Resorts Hawaii. Big thanks to assistant Barry Frankel for keeping me organized, caffeine-fueled & entertained, not to mention the schlepping of 7 overfilled flight cases of gear, one bursting-at-the-seams camera bag & laptop case thru two airports, one rental van and numerous hotel hallways. 


Highlights of the trip included watching an entertaining homeless guy foraging for used ciggie butts from hotel ashtrays, Mr. Spugi-san eyeing up Barry's legs at every opportunity, house fried rice at Side Street Inn, the Kakaako hole-in-the-wall hangout of Hawaii's top chefs and an impromptu dinner of, perhaps, the finest in Japanese Cuisine I've ever had the privilege of eating courtesy of HAPA founder Barry Flanagan & his lovely bride Leslie. Thank you & don't mind if I do eat that last piece of Uni! 


Once off the plane, safely & exhaustedly ensconced in my comfortable mountain land-fort, the Missus queued up all three Hawaiian Airlines television commercials that had just aired during the Merrie Monarch Hula Competiton, broadcast from the Big Island. You may remember a few weeks ago, I was busy chasing teens thru the jungle, jumping off rocks, hurling themselves in the air on trampolines... organizing talent for other scenarios... four different photographers, yours truly included, worked hard producing still images to be used as TV spots for the airline. I can't speak for the others, but I wasn't entirely sure how the spots would all come together. Having now seen the finished commercials, I'm ecstatic! They are all lovely and my work is prominently featured in two of the spots... one of the spots even opening & closing with some of the images we captured during a day spent working at OGG Airport. Nice work produced by all the other photogs involved and BRILLIANT editing and piecing the images together into three beautiful, poignant and at times, even comical 30 second spots by the awesome creative team at LCA-Anthology. Reels of the spots will be posted here once I receive them...


And... if that wasn't enough to rejuvenate me from the Honolulu shoot, it was off Saturday evening to attend a listening party at the fabulous digs of Throwdowns drummer Ian Hollingsworth, where the new CD we've been working on packaging images for was debuted to the young, hungry Hawaii music press & band followers... well-over 100 attendees by the time I arrived. Ran into the MOTH team of James & James, "Jewish Jesus" Smith, film-maker Brian Kohne, Dishy Trish, finally got to meet scene blogger "MauiZan" and others. Alas, already barely standing was I by this time, and having to be up again at 4am the following morning, I made the rounds, pressed the flesh and amicably chatted with friends old & new before excusing myself & rushing home to bed.


Up early the next morning, I am immediately treated to viral video of El Presidente pointedly roasting thedonald and Fux News attendees during the annual White House Press Correspondent's Dinner, followed by early evening reports of the death of OBL and finally, El Presidente's address on the matter, timed precisely to pre-empt thedonald's celebrity slave TV show. Bitch-slap a trois! Hey Don... you're fired.


Ah... it's been a good week!


To finish things off, the new issue of MAUI NO KA OI Magazine hit news stands today with the tear-sheets posted above, (& others) included between it's pages, complete with cheeky text by author Paul Wood.


But we're not done yet... two days of large-format, fine-art reprography for expat artist Avi Kiriarty begins in the morning, just after I conclude my duties as tuesday morning radio host. Friday's there's another venture out to the Ulupalakua Winery for almost final work on the new image campaign and then Sunday, my new BFF, BF & I head for a three day architectural & food session at two more of the properties in the Prince Resort's Hawaii portfolio. 


In between all of that, there's plenty of editing still to do...


While working in H-lulu, I came across this post at former PE Rob Haggart's APE blog titled "Photographers Hiring Help-Old vs New (School). This entry deals with the hiring tactics of two very well-known photographers... most notably, Nat Geo's Steve McCurry, best know for his NG cover portrait of the Afghan girl with the piercing eyes a few years back. One response to McCurry's ad for dedicated, unpaid interns - posted on Craigslist and since removed after the exposure and rash of rude comments, had me rolling on the floor laughing:

Be sure to read the comments left by readers at the blog too... oodles of fun!


Ta...

The World Has Changed Since Last We Met

Let's see... so much has transpired since last time we met here. There was a BIG earthquake, in some places a BIG tsunami - other, smaller tsunamis elsewhere, but tsunamis nonetheless. Somewhere to the northwest of me, a nuclear reactor has gone all meltdown on us and far, far to the northeast of me, the US has begun to embark on yet it's third war in a place where we have no business... that is, if you exclude the business of OIL. Limbaugh & Coulter remind us daily of the overwhelming health benefits of a little radiation. After all, what's a few sub-molecular sized bullets amongst friends, eh? Populations of entire cities in Japan scramble for shelter, food and a safe place to begin the process of recovery, while radical US Governors seek to quickly transfer that last remaining vestiges of public wealth of any form into the hands of private greedheads under the ruse of budget balancing. FUCK YOU Milton Friedman & your whole theory of ecomonics! Just like Karl Marx, you forgot to consider the individual greed factor when devising your revolutionary ideas.


Here on the home front, I'm both sad & extremely happy to say that there's been precious little time to take the events of the last week or so in, much less to process any of it in any meaningful way. The work situation seems to be rebounding with a sudden fury... selfishly good news in the midst of an otherwise global shitstorm. 


Art Maui, the island's annual juried exhibition is again open to the public through April 2nd. Your's Truly has again bamboozled the judges into accepting work for this year's show.


Work has begun on new images for an advertising campaign for one of the island's most popular tourist attractions, another campaign begun for our island's one & only vineyard & wine producer, an editorial, "at home on Maui" profile of one of our better known-international musical celebrities now in the can & destined for the future pages of MAUI NO KA OI Magazine and today, two editorial pieces shot a couple of months ago appeared in the pages of Modern Luxury Hawaii Magazine, now on a newsstand near you.


Yesterday, after a busy day of gallery sitting during the weekly resort gallery exhibitions at The Four Seasons Resort, it was off to Lahaina until late in the night to work on a new music video to coincide with the soon-to-be released second album from THE THROWDOWNS. Cover art for that project is scheduled to be produced in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

On the video set with THE THROWDOWNS

And, there's ongoing imaging for Hawaii recording stars HAPA and side projects for HAPA founder & friend of many years, Barry Flanagan.

Ron Kaualau & Barry Flanagan / HAPA, Mach III

Tomorrow morning, there's a conference call with the creative team of Hawaii advertising giant, LCA-Anthology to finalize pre-production details on a new campaign for one of the two Hawaii based airlines. This one is going to be both extreme fun and very challenging, very conceptual in nature... something to really sink my teeth into! Early next month takes us to the Island of Kauai for what is beginning to look like a 9 to 10 day architectural project at several resorts.

To all of the above, you can add coverage of an all day outdoor music festival held at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center last week and the usual & never-ending stuff one is forced to do when running a business... all of those end of the year tax preparations, bill paying, bill collecting.... it never ends.

Mark, Steven & Kathy framed.  Mark & Steven, members of a tech crew without peer & Kathy, poplar MC,performer and guiding light of Manao Radio

So today, after a long night of video production and a very full previous two weeks, I am exhausted. I should be shooting wine bottles in the studio instead of typing. It will have to wait until tomorrow... the brain muscles need flexing of another sort for the moment.


Lastly, allow me to lead you to a very fine editorial piece written by Maui News SCENE editor Rick Chatenever from last week, eruditely stating - in the public prints no less - a sentiment most of us within the Maui Art Community have been saying amongst ourselves for some time now. Rick's column was welcome contrast to another review on the matter appearing between the pages of a competing exercise in fish-wrap journalism, penned by an author sharing the same initials with the revered peanut butter, jelly & banana sandwich & instantly recognizable by the brown stain surrounding his lips whenever he takes up pen to heap accolades on the artist who's true medium is the Art of Noise  Oh well, the squeaky wheel will always get the grease & Rick's piece, "Art. Or not", found HERE, was a delightfully unexpected greasing, well deserved & long overdue.


Well said, Rick. One man's cutting edge is another's batshittery...


Let's not forget to take a moment to remember those people around the world suffering from tectonic upheavals, military might, corporate greed, the politicians highly paid to pimp for them and the very real possibility of atomic exposure to large portions of our planet... oh wait... that's good for you, right?


Selah.

Workin' Week

                                     New Private Banquet Room

                                            Tomato Ginger Bisque

                                     Fresh Prawns from New Caledonia

Here we are again, the start of a new week. The week past ended on a high note with good assignments shooting portfolios for a private/personal trainer and a day spent at the always fabulous Mamas Fish House here on Maui's North Shore. Mamas has added a new private dining/banquet room as well as expanding their regular seating areas. In keeping with the spirit of the place, designer Bill Kohl has salvaged unique machine parts and scraps from the old Paia Sugar Mill to incorporate into both the structural and interior design of the place. Eye-candy everywhere you look! Chef Perry Bateman kept the food to be photographed coming, beautiful as always. He kept my assistant and I well fed too.. one of the more unique offerings I had the chance to sample was was a dish of steamed clams topped with kalua pig & the spicy Korean pickled cabbage dish known as kim chee. Sounds a little weird but let me tell you, this stuff rocked! An unbelievable mix of very compatible flavors & textures... simply delicious!

Now, we begin the week with booking travel... The Island of Lanai on Wednesday for a shoot, travel to & from via the ferry out of Lahaina Harbor. Friday we return to the Big Island for an early morning shoot in Hilo on the east side, then a mad dash across the island, through the volcanoes and over the Saddle Road (deja vu?) to South Kona on the southwest side and a three hour or so drive from Hilo for a shoot at the City of Refuge. Then, another mad dash to the airport to return to Maui on friday evening. Next monday, another ferry excursion to the Island of Molokai for a shoot  which I have received precious few details so far. All in good time, I suppose... and hopefully a little time to shoot stock images on each island between assigned sessions.