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History, You, and Your Camera

Early on in my photography career, not sure what I was doing, yet knowing I both enjoyed it and had an aptitude for it, I began shooting my own brand development images for my Surf themed company on a Minolta system. Both on land and in the water. Larry Moore who would become my editor at Surfing took me aside and explained the significance of building a body of work over the arc of a career lifespan. He explained what a library was, and how to set a bar on my work, in order that I might become an image

Things You Should Know

I was down at California Street the other night to capture a few images of Malibu Surfer Brooke Carlson, the newest member of “Team Betty” for my wife’s company Bettybelts, when I saw someone headed into the water with what looked like a dive housing and a surfboard. It cracked me up. We call that sort of work where you ride and shoot or film another surfer: “board to board” work. It is tricky at best and amazingly difficult at worst. This image is the guy shooting. Again, hard to do. The lead image in this article is a shot

Samsung NX1: Throttling Up

The past week has been a blur of field trials and digital lab examination of an array of image files produced in a wide range of subjects on the Samsung NX1. Doing this, switching out from my amazingly detailed and efficient Canon system, to neophyte professional imaging contender Samsung, with it’s NX1, is a lot of work (and fun). In the middle of it all, my last shoot on Canon was published, along with a cute little videolog I produced, to illustrate better the texture of our day at the beach here. The feature is titled “Ventura Highway: Three Blondes”

Samsung NX1: We Have Lift Off

The above image and copy is a post I did to my Instagram and Facebook pages this week. This Post is the first in a series of pieces I will do on my transition from the Canon System to that of Samsung. My perception is that this one system could serve as a foundation for professional level content creation in photography, cinematography and audio production. In my career in imaging, these shifts are more like massive leaps, and occur very infrequently, but always for the same collection of reasons. Those reasons can be summed up in this statement. “I want

The Byproduct of War

I have been watching and studying the History Channel production titled “Vietnam in HD” recently. It is both informative and excellent work which documents via high resolution film scans and authentic narrative, the massive conflict, as a nexus for American warfare and culture. You can watch it on Netflix. The seeds for the Vietnam War were sown here. (It is a very good read) My Father was sent over to Indo-China as a member of an Army US Intelligence team, on the heels of the Korean War. He was charged with doing photography and map making, and his camera kit

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

High Definition

The other day, I ran across an innovative new little POV videocam, produced by Sony, and posted the info in a link to my Facebook page. It breaks ground in a number of very important areas, oh and check out the price tag. $200.00 Sony HDR-AS10 HD Action Camcorder The conversation that ensued on FB with some of my talented colleagues, underscores how we as content creators, are moving into a new arena, one where POV may be the simplest and most flexible to convey in the history of Cinema, and we are able to do it inexpensively and without

Cameraless

I was cameraless this week. It was great. Sort of. Okay, maybe not completely cameraless. I still had four 35mm stills film bodies, three mini DV cameras, and five high speed film motion cameras, all sitting on the shelf, along with the water housings for those. But I loaned my Canon 5DM2 system out and sold my Rebel T1i, in preparation for buying the new RebelT2i. (Wow, that Rebel was so new it had only seen 3000 frames before the new one was released.) Canon (along with Apple) has been blowing my mind the past few years. We spoke, they

Collateral Damage

I was 23 years old and saying a tearful goodbye to my wife of one month in LAX departures. As I slunk back in my seat moments later, and heard the soft thunk of the cabin door closing, I noticed Shaun Tomson sitting a few seats away. Dane Kealoha was nearby, and behind him I saw Mark Richards. We were all headed for Hawaii and what would be my first travel leg of the then IPS world tour. The next ten years or so of my life consisted of moments like that: traveling alone, or with some

Touch

It is not something I have any complete understanding of, but for some reason I recognize the touch of my friends and what may be affecting them. It often comes in the form of a subtle whisper. I have found that if I shut the heck up and just listen, the process applies quite dramatically in my work. I will experience new things as a result. That affects what I communicate to the world. It changes my perception, as the imprint broadens who and what I am. I need that. My life would be cold porridge without it. Last night

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