Long & Winding Road

On the Road to Hana

Yesterday, despite stormy, inclement weather, we found ourselves crawling around steep jungle cliffs, hairpin turns and one-way bridges to produce the first assignment of the new year... the final shots for an editorial piece begun a couple of weeks ago for Washington State's Journey Magazine. My destination was the Travassa Hana Experiential Resort, tucked away in the small, remote east-side town of Hana. The goal... a handful of food shots & a portrait of new Executive Chef Derek Watanabe. 

I admit to being somewhat skeptical at my editor's insistence on including this venue in an upcoming "Hawaii Farm to Table" movement feature. I had eaten here several times in the past and completed each meal completely underwhelmed. A quick look at reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp indicated that the place be best avoided.

Still, we made the drive, despite frequent downpours, some minor flooding and a parade of rental cars also intent on reaching Hana.

Immediately upon arrival and loading gear into the dining room, I was met by Chef Derek, taking over Executive Chef duties only four months ago. Previously, Chef had worked at the illustrious Alan Wong's in Honolulu. This alone indicated that things may have changed for the better in terms of resort dining at this hotel. Derek was quiet, industrious and brought out the first dish promptly as I had just finished setting up the camera. A salad of local grown pohole fern, cherry tomatoes and colorful watermelon radish resting on a block of ice made of Hana citrus juices and sweet peppers. It was beautiful and I went to work quickly to capture an image before the ice block melted.

Next up, a platter of samples of local beef preparations... equally as beautiful. One of the preparations... a stew made of braised short ribs and poi topped with salted lomi lomi salmon was quite incredible! House prepared brisket wrapped around local-grown hearts of palm and a lilikoi-glazed tenderloin rounded out the platter.

After the food, Chef stood humbly and dutifully for his portraits in a glass enclosed and airy lanai area at the rear of the dining room. Fifteen minutes later, the assignment was wrapped up and I packed gear and loaded the car as the skies opened up with a torrential downpour.

I had planned on meeting friends & Hana residents Tad & Dean to deliver a bag of fresh-picked starfruit from my yard & for a little lunch before taking the road again to return to the studio. On the way, the rains increased as the road narrowed. A recently repaired bridge at Venus Pools, just past Hana, transported me over a brown, raging torrent where there is usually only a dry stream bed or a trickle. Looking up towards the mountain, I could see a deluge high above with no place to go but down the mountain and towards the bridge.

On arriving at Tad & Dean's, it was obvious that they had been detained in their errand running. Prudence indicated that I best leave the fruit I had brought and get back on the road, heading for home before the roads flooded and bridges became impassable.

Arrived back at the studio around 4pm and downloaded the images and worked until 8:30pm editing, retouching and uploading previews to my editor in Washington. Rains continued here through the night & morning but the assignment is now complete. 

Via Magazine

A new day, new week a new year. 

The tearsheet above was found in my mailbox on the final day of last year. An assignment that found us soliciting tourists at the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout to be photographed with windblown hair and several trips up the Waianae Coast to Makaha & Yokomama Beaches in search of long stretches of sand and clear blue skies.

One of the images made the magazine's center spread, always a treat when they run 'em BIG. Thanks to No. Cal. Via Magazine's PE, Maggie Perkins, for sending us out on another fun one!

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!

A Time For Thanks

It's that time of year again... a time for counting our blessings, for feasting with family & friends and for giving thanks. Not that giving thanks shouldn't be a year round activity; we do set aside one day at the end of November of each year specifically to count all of the many blessings bestowed upon each of us through the year & offer our thanks. That day is quickly approaching... only three days away!

Childhood friends from the mainland and members of our Maui family will all descend upon our household on thursday afternoon to share a home cooked meal and raise a glass (or three) in gratitude. Two turkeys thaw in the chillbox awaiting their eventual fate. Various fruits from the yard and neighborhood are being gathered to add local flavor to the meal.

This year, as with each previous one, I am grateful for so much... for a devoted partner who continues to tolerate my eccentricities, a comfortable home which the bank continues to allow me to occupy, a recovering economy and increasing assignment load, for Nikki - a great assistant, for the opportunities for extensive travel in exotic locales, for wonderful friends old & new scattered around the globe, for good health, great neighbors, and so, so much more!

Thank you cosmos... thank you all!

Backyard Harvest

Autumn in Hawaii, at least in the area where I live, means citrus in abundance - tangerines, oranges, lemons, limes... starfruit too! The growing season is virtually year round but the citrus comes on strong just before Thanksgiving most years and I am happy to say that the trees outside my home & studio are fully loaded. 

I've been working on new food images for the portfolio and the idea of limiting myself to things harvested either from my backyard or nearby or easily found around the house I found appealing. I've been obsessing over these tangerines ever since they began to ripen. Also in the final weeks of the class in color relationships, these beauties were just screaming to sit on the piece of oxidized copper I've had laying around for a long, long time.

Bon Appetite!

Tangerine Dream