Blog

Bali: Dispatch 2

When I land in a country, my modus typically consists of a calculated scramble to develop and capture content. It is rare to know in advance whether what one experiences right off the jet, is going to be a non repeatable event. So typically, I throw myself 100 percent into work immediately. Such was the case here this time on Bali. Indeed the featured image was shot within my first 20 minutes swimming a reef break off the coast of East Bali. I had not even met the surfer yet, but have since become friends with 18 year old Lempog

Echo Terminus: Bali

This place is odd, in that as we begin get ready to leave for the US, the island of Bali ramps up it’s serenade and little glimpses of hidden treasure sparkle from behind shadow realities. Just what it does. When that happens, this is what it means. Bali has you. You don’t have it. Gusti made it by today and we got caught up on all the “guy things” he and I typically discuss. Then he told me about his Mother’s passing, in intimate detail, and we both teared up. Some of the scenes from the burial ceremony day are

Of Mice and WOmen: Bali

To be clear, I am here on Bali at the invitation of my wife Donna, and working under the auspices of her Company, Betty Belts-Betty B doing art and project development. One of the more well traveled people I know, where in the course of her life, she has been to so many far flung parts of the world, that one would never suspect she could learn more than she had prior to our meeting. But in fact, she has, and continues to do so. This charms me completely. On the heels of a divorce over a decade ago from

Running and Gunning

Whew, just off a series of e mails with Lorenzo De Stefano, who is Director of the film Hearing is Believing which I am the Director of Cinematography on. The crew will be down at the Blue Whale in LA filming a performance by Rachel and the remarkable Taylor Eigsti for the project Thursday night. I on the other hand, will be on Bali working on some development projects for my wife’s company, and meeting up with a couple film makers there to possibly create something rather exotic. Life is hectic in a good way. This week saw a fantastic

The Value of Story: Mavericks

I am just back from witnessing the spectacle which is the Mavericks Invitational big wave event at Pillar Point, Half Moon Bay, Ca. There are a huge number of stories surrounding this event, and I must select a few, and share those in Editorial. I worked this event with Deniece Watkins Smith who is a budding Photographer, sage Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent and wife to Cary Smith of the Pillar Point Harbor Patrol. We shot the event together. It was a lot of fun, challenge, and rich with story! Here is a great piece on the value of Story.

Risk Perception

The image above was shot during the 2010 Maverick’s Challenge where I worked as support and Photographer for K38 Rescue, who ran Event Ocean Safety and in process was in charge of training a cadre of local watermen to be a Rescue team. That local team was headed up by Vince Broglio. It was a big and perfect day. Possibly the biggest, best surf, ever paddled into for a competitive event. The quote is something Shawn said in one of our project groups this week. And I immediately turned it into an Oceanlovers Blue Note. Blue Notes are wisdom gleaned

Surf Photography and the Super Telephoto

A few of us have been discussing the declining economic validity of Surf Photography and ensuing demise in editorial based content for awhile now. Recently, changes to baggage rates by air carriers have added yet another challenge to those Photographers and Cinematographers whose content topics require super telephotos in the attainment of the rather high bar required in action sports imaging. The image above was shot with the Canon 5DM2 and the 600F4 IS lens with 1.4x v2 teleconverter on a monopod. Add up the original equipment cost of these items (all recently serviced by CPS BTW) and you come

Waking Dream

Ever have one of those mornings where you awaken to an exceptionally pleasant reality? The scenario could be anything. But everything in your emergent diorama, is as a sensory massage. A persistent tap-tap-tapping drew me as a man on a rope, to emerge from a rich and multi-hued pool of color, which slid warmly across my skin, as head to toe, my body emerged into the dimness of a small room. I have dreamed in color for a long time now. It is no coincidence that in my craft as an image maker, the principle endeavor is

Waves: Neo Creative

I needed to shoot more wave and water surf work after the past couple months like, umm, well let’s just say, I did not need any more work to satisfy my commercial or editorial clients. But right now I am buried in post production work from multiple back to back swims over the course of several days. My feet have a couple ulcerous sores which are oozing blood. Caused by not having time to rinse some gravel out of my Da Kine fins in between sprints after a promise. I have probably shot close to 10,000 winners in this genre.

Blog

Categories