Bright Lights Big City

Early monday morning it was up before the sun and off to the airport to catch an early flight to Oahu, rented camera and big-ass waterhousing in tow. Upon arrival at the airport, I was surprised to see very little activity & no check-in lines or security screening back up. After an easy check-in and baggage drop, off to the lounge to await boarding. A quick, smooth, 30 minute flight later and it was off to collect the baggage and catch a rental car courtesy shuttle to sign in for my vehicle for the day and the 15 minute drive into Waikiki to meet my subjects for the day's assignment.

Changing from flight clothes into surf trunks in the car parked at the Honolulu Zoo, I then mounted the camera into the housing, checked & double-checked all the camera settings, flash card capacity, battery levels, etc., grabbed my pair of swim fins and headed across Kalakaua Avenue into the pristine sands of Waikiki beach, already beginning to get crowded with visiting tourists, predominantly from Europe as best as I could surmise from the conversations I overheard as I walked towards the water's edge. One more quick check of camera settings and into the drink and a 200 meter swim out to the edge of the reef fronting Waikiki beach where my subjects would soon be joining me. Low tide combined with the full moon meant shallow... very shallow water on the reef for the morning photo sessions. With only half a meter of water to maneuver in the surf, wave surges insured that I would be dragged over reef with each new set and there were bits of skin from legs & feet left behind after that morning session. Two hours later, back to the beach to download cards to the laptop, grab a coffee and then back to the water for another two hour session. Three sessions and a total of six hours in the water later, it was late afternoon and time to rinse off & dry the gear, quickly change and grab a bite before heading back to the airport. Time allowed for a brief stop at the park at the very end of the Sand Island Industrial area where great views of the Aloha Tower & Downtown Honolulu skyline & mountains could be seen from across the harbor. Here, I commandeered a picnic table and downloaded the final image files to the laptop, then headed back to the rental car baseyard to return the vehicle and catch the shuttle back to the terminal.

Unfortunately, I am unable to post images from the true mission of the assignment until they are published by the commissioning publication. In the meantime, here are some views rarely seen of the Waikiki shoreline.

Dropping In

Waikiki From The Reef

Diamond Head

Two-World View

Underwater Self-Portrait

Late Afternoon Stand-Up Paddle Session w/ Diamond Head Backdrop

                                

9 Subjects - 4 Islands

Regular readers will remember that I did quite a bit of traveling around the state last month... mad dashes to catch flights... rough, wet ferry channel crossings... Big Island circumvention... unfamiliar stylists, off-road adventures... 


All the action the result of being commissioned to photograph testimonial style portraiture of some really nice folks interested in seeing our, now, most senior US Senator succeed in his current re-election bid. Daniel Inouye seeks another term in office and has retained Honolulu advertising giant Laird Christianson Advertising, now known as LCA-Anthology to aid in getting out the word of all the great and essential projects the good Senator has successfully provided much-needed funding for, from Saddle Road reconstruction to agriculture to high-tech ventures around Hawaii. LCA-A, in turn, commissioned us to produce a bulk of the images for the campaign which have probably been arriving already in your mailboxes.


CTL would like to send out a big & hearty Mahalo to LCA-A, to Creative Director DC and especially to Producer Tai and Associate Producer Jennifer for trusting me to get the job done, for the outstanding coordination of subjects, schedules, travel arrangement and other asundry details. Another big Mahalo to all wonderful people I had the chance to meet & photograph. Your kindness, willingness, flexibility and cooperation made the assignment truly a fun experience. Special thanks go out to "Oboy" on Molokai for the tour of the slaughterhouse, the constant humor, the introduction to your family and the tasty watermelon eaten beachside! Molokai Stylee!

Big, Perfect Surf @ Honolua Bay

Wednesday afternoon I was over on the upper-west side of the island working on an assignment for Via Magazine. Needing to capture some dramatic scenic images of world-famous Honolua Bay, I was thrilled to find big, perfect, hollow waves also. After completing my assignment work, I joined several other sport photographers on the cliffside overlook where we were able to shoot straight into the breaking barrels... cool stuff!

The Deadline Doth Approacheth...

Regular readers of this blog should recognize the name Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua, law student, photographer's business consultant and author of the always excellent Burns Auto Parts website & blog, a place where there is no information about cars, auto parts or anything even remotely automotive related. What you will find there is lots of helpful advice and information about the business of photography.

Lately, you will even find a little bit more... as a few weeks ago, Leslie began the first of what promises to be a series of fictitious editorial "assignments" to participate in. The first one I missed, regretfully, and centered on the theme "PEACE". On January 29th, the second of these "assignments" was announced. For this assignment, Leslie borrowed a news story on the current mortgage crisis and asks readers of her blog to submit photography to illustrate the article. Submissions must be emailed to Leslie by the 11:59PM, February 27th deadline. You can find the details and submission guidelines for this "assignment" by clicking HERE. I'd love to see some of our local Hawaii talent and readers of this blog participate, so get cracking... there's only 8 days left to turn in your submissions.

I promised myself, after missing the first assignment deadline, that I would make a concerted effort to turn in a photograph for the current assignment. In fact, I turned in two, designating the fishbowl shot as my "official" entry. As the article this assignment was based on opened with and continually mentioned the idea of mortgages being "underwater", I felt this image was more true to the story the assignment was based on. What fun it is to attempt to wrangle a live goldfish into position. Goldfish are certainly NOT one of God's more cooperative creatures. (Disclaimer: No goldfish were harmed in the execution of this photograph. This one swims happily in his little bowl beside me as I peck out this screed.)

Another phrase constantly being thrown around by the media these days is "mortgage meltdown", on which the second image is based. This one was also fun... trying to figure out how to best melt those tiny plastic Monopoly® houses. First attempts using a propane blow torch ended up blackening the melted plastic too drastically, I felt. I finally settled upon a Pyrex® baking dish, the bottom sprayed with WD-40 (to prevent the melted plastic from sticking... sort of worked). Various times were tested with nuking in the studio microwave until the desired "melts" were achieved... the longest nuke time being about 20 minutes for the full melt.