A little over a month ago, I went back to Maryland to spend time with family. My father is a veterinarian, specifically, an orthopedic surgeon. He performs multiple surgeries per day, five days a week. While I was home I spent an afternoon with him, photographing what it is, exactly, that he spends his days doing. It was an eye opening experience.
Up until that moment, I never really grasped the intensity, nor the physical requirements that his career entails. When I was a kid, I did accompany my father to work on occasion, but I was not in the operating room, nor did I necessarily pay that much attention to what specifically was going on in the O.R.. This recent occasion was much different than my earlier experiences. That afternoon he performed two TPLO surgeries, while I photographed the entire process. The surgeries took about an hour each. They require precision, accuracy, and speed. Once that first cut has been made there is quiet intensity that alludes to, at the most extreme, that this is a life and death situation.
I learned a great deal about my father that afternoon and have a much greater understanding of who he is. Perhaps, it has helped me to be a more accepting person. I urged both of my younger sisters to accompany him into the operating room, just to get a little more insight about our father. For me, photography was what led me here.
Prepping for a TPLO
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Sergio and Don
I love working with a client that knows exactly what he or she wants. That’s not to say, I don’t like freedom to come up with something creative and unique. Instead, it is to say, it’s really nice when someone has a vision and my job, as the photographer, is to create that vision. I’ve worked with both extremes–those that are very specific, down to the most minute detail, and those that would fall into the opposite end of the spectrum. The dilemma that I feel when working without much direction is simply–I don’t know if I’m truly capturing what they want. Sure, I can create a great image (I hope), but does that mean it’s what they want? This isn’t a good feeling, especially when there are thousands of dollars on the line. It’s preferable, to me, to have specifics. On the last job I did with Rolling Stone I received great direction. By the time I was off the phone with the magazine I felt I knew what they wanted, and even more important, what they didn’t want. So, during the shoot, I was really able to hone in on doing a particular thing and find my own creative space within that context.
In the image above I was working directly with the artist, who happens to be a super talented designer as well. When we talked about the shoot, he was very specific with what he wanted. He knew how the image and the design were to fit together before we ever even picked up a camera. He showed me samples and communicated very clearly about his motivation and the look and the overall tone he wanted to achieve. It became a bit of a fun challenge to look exactly at the light and color scheme, composition, positioning, and lens choice to really nail what he was going for. And knowing that we could create exactly what he envisioned — and sign off on it, before moving on, was an absolute great feeling. And, without that kind of direction, I don’t know that I would have made all of those same choices. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have, but I’m glad I did. It all came together pretty wonderfully.
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In the late winter of 2006 I went to Hawaii for one of my last assisting jobs. After the shoot ended I stayed on in Oahu to surf and hang out for a bit. Eventually, I stumbled upon a personal project to shoot and write about. When I returned home I tried to see if anyone wanted to publish it, but so far it’s stayed right here in my file cabinets. I am now going to publish it right here on this blog… More images from this story can be seen here.
Houseless, not Homeless on the North Shore of Oahu
I ventured along the coast of the North Shore of Oahu in search of finding something interesting to photograph. Up to that point it had been raining for my entire trip, almost non-stop, so when I was sitting at lunch in Haliewa and the sun started to puncture through the clouds I immediately hopped in my rental car. I headed west knowing that it was probably going to be the most desolate stretch of the island in my immediate vicinity. I drove toward the edge of the island passing Skydive Hawaii among other things. Shortly after passing the runway, on the opposite side of the road, the beach side, I noticed a park with a couple dozen chickens running around, and several vehicles that appeared to be there for more than just a daytrip. I drove on.
I drove until the road ended stopping along the way for a few scenic photographs. At the end of the road there was one local sitting in his vehicle and a handful of rental cars belonging to curious tourists. After a brief look around, I got back into the car and headed back.
When I approached the park, the one with the chickens, I pulled in this time and as I passed the first group of parked vehicles I noticed a sign that said “Sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom.” I drove to the second group of vehicles, one of which had a tarp covering it; probably not a day-tripper, I thought to myself. There was a shade structure and picnic table at one of the campsites in the park with several children and a few adults hanging out. The chickens were there too. As I contemplated approaching these strangers to inquire about the sign, my phone rang. It was my girlfriend calling from Ireland and we talked for quite a bit. After the conversation I still couldn’t shake the thought there was probably an interesting story here and I, uncharacteristically, approached the strangers.
As I walked toward them they looked at me inquisitively, and I immediately asked what the sign meant. The lady, probably late 20’s, referred me to her father, an older gentlemen, with a full gray beard, dark sunglasses, and a cap with the Hawaiian Kingdom embroidered on it. His name was John Keawemauhili and he and his wife Marie had been living in that park for 14 years with their family. At this point the family included his two daughters, their husbands, and their many children. I cannot recall how many kids there were, but I believe one family had six, and the other had four, or perhaps more.
John explained that although he had been kicked out of the park many times, and most of belongings had been taken, they would keep returning to stay in that park. As I sat on the grass listening to John, I was keenly aware of a real sense of peace. They were the only family in this park. John explained that they were houseless, but not homeless. He said they are Hawaiian, and Hawaii is their home, but that unfortunately there is no housing that they can afford; especially given the fact that John lives on disability income. I got the idea that the Sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom is a multifaceted movement, and partially has to do with returning, or, at least, allowing Hawaiians rights to United States Government land that formerly was Hawaiian owned.
John went on to explain to me that on the west side of Oahu, there are many more houseless Hawaiians; he called them beach people. His daughter referred to the situation on the west side as Oahu’s version of the projects. Perhaps that is one reason the Keawemauhilis chose to stay in this particular park away from the dangers and drug-ridden parks of the west side. I have never been to the west side, but my Haole friends advised me to exercise caution if traveling that way, John’s family reiterated the same concern. As for the Keawemauhilis, over the years they have been in and of out of several housing situations, but for one reason or another things did not work out. For John, this park is the answer, at least for now. The police ticket John and his family every week, and they go to court, and there have been quite a few legal battles in the last few years, but he seems content to stay in the park. They have an attorney, or attorneys working with them. At this point, he’s searching for the original owner of the land that the park is located on and he hopes to prove the land doesn’t actually belong to the city or county.
I spent several hours with John and his family. They were gracious hosts and were genuinely pleased that I had stopped to ask about the sign and to find out about them. His daughter explained that most people drive right past and seem to regard them with a great deal of fear. I only felt compassion for and from the Keawemauhilis. I photographed them for several hours. They invited me to stay for dinner; it was a wonderful meal. After the meal, John’s son-in-law escorted me out of the park. As I departed, he urged me to stop by the next time I’m in Oahu. I hope that the Keawemauhilis are still there when I return.
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I’m throwing this one right out in front: I shot two jobs for Rolling Stone recently and they will run in the next issue, which comes out on the newsstand on Halloween (not the Obama cover, but whatever the newest one is.) I am stoked. Those were probably my best shoots I’ve had up to this point in my career–everything seemed to fall into place as the shoots went super smooth. No to mention that magazine is in my top all time publications to work for, so I’m elated.
The amazing thing to me was getting that phone call. I had met with Deborah Dragon at Rolling Stone over a year and four months beforehand. And I’d only had a few, sporadic correspondences since that meeting. An email promo about 8 months before I got the call was possibly the last thing I’d sent her. Regardless, she had a couple shoots in LA for this issue that involved portraits and cars and she thought of me—I’m thinking it was the cars that helped her to think of me. Whatever it was, I guess it just turned out to be the right job to try me out on. I’ll throw up some behind the scenes shots once it’s out.
In other news, I was able to find an editor. A photo editor at a major magazine, who I’ve known for quite a few years, answered my email saying that she would be in LA the following week and she agreed to help me put together a new editorial book. We worked it out in trade, which is a good deal for both of us, I’m thinking. So, for the past month I’ve working out how to incorporate her guidance into my website and into the exact horizontal layout for my portfolio. Things are finally pretty well handled…
Yesterday, I launched my new website (same address) with the help of the folks at aphotofolio, I can’t say enough good things about them. I also pulled an all nighter last week (well, almost) in preparation for a meeting I had on Wednesday to show my book at a local ad agency. It was fairly reminiscent of my last trip to New York, where I literally put the last image in my book 30 mins before my plane was set to take off— fortunately I live close to LAX and the cab was waiting outside. This past week was a similar situation, I finished getting the screws down in the book , which was no easy task, 10 minutes before the meeting, and that was 20 minutes away from my office. Not to mention, I didn’t even get to look at the book before the meeting and I had put it together on the floor, which is carpeted—-DON’T DO THIS. Every turn of the page seemed to display some sort of fur ball, hair, or general fuzz—luckily the meeting was with someone I have known socially for a few years, and I was able to explain the great tale of cramming to get this book together in 24 hours. I don’t plan on doing this type of stuff anymore. Then again, things just work out that way sometimes. In the end, the meeting went well, and he offered to contact some reps on my behalf and seemed genuinely impressed with the book, which confirms, once again, that my old website was just not cutting it, because this book is much more in line with my new site.
Things are looking up—that’s my general feeling.
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From my new work
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Writers have editors, musicians have producers, and directors have writers, editors, and creative producers—and this photographer could use the guidance of a photo editor/art buyer/art director or someone with a keen sense of how the heck I’m going to put my work together for the umpteenth billionth time.
This is what my desktop looks like at the moment.
I’ve done numerous on numerous versions of my portfolios and shared those with other photographers, photo editors, and a few reps as well. The one thing that is consistent (and you’ve probably heard this before), if you show your work to 25 different people, you’ll get 25 different opinions. That’s been the case in my experience thus far. Some like picture X, others like Y, some don’t like Z, while others would have me open with it. Unfortunately, when it comes to the reps and the photo editors, I’ve always had to show a “completed” portfolio. Though, as we all know, the idea of a completed portfolio is a farce anyway since it’s an ongoing work. Nevertheless, I was speaking with a fellow photographer yesterday, one who’s a bit farther along in the game than I am, and he asked me if I’d ever given my book to an editor. He said he once gave his work over to someone to edit and when it came back to him he couldn’t believe the work was his. Everyone sees things differently, and my juxtaposition of two images next to one another may not make sense to you, even though I was sure it was an easy read. I’ve got a friend who’s a VP of Creative at an ad agency here in town who offered to give me a hand so I think that will be my first stop, at least for the advertising savvy stuff. Maybe I’ll throw down the extra 3 bills for Mr. Haggert to put in his thoughts when I make my new website this month…
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I am aware that this blog has been less frequent lately, but I like to think that’s an indication that things are going fairly well. This summer has been busy and I’ve been shooting quite a bit and traveling too. I just returned from a 5 day trip up into Norcal to do some exploring and camping and a bit of shooting too. The farthest I’d previously been was into Marin, but this trip landed me all the way into the Humboldt Redwoods, which are probably the most magnificent forests I’ve ever seen. Pretty much drove most of the northern California coast starting at Point Reyes and finishing a bit before Eureka. I love road trips.
Anyways, I’m back home now for what appears to be an open schedule to start taking care of the stacks of papers, empty cupboards, and piles of laundry that have been awaiting my attention. More importantly, I’ve got a lot of new work to sort through, retouch, and print, a new website to build (looking into the aphotofolio sites), create and mail new promos, and finally get these portfolios filled with new images and to hopefully create some sort of real ad book. I’d like to go back to New York in the fall with something new to show.
Speaking of new work… here’s a quick scan straight of the contact sheet from my shoot in Carlinville, Illinois in July.
And yes, Nick (the guy who commissioned the shoot) and his brother Rob really did grow up at this very intersection…
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I prefer to shoot film.
Yes, digital is nice to look at the screen and see my images, and all that stuff, but when it comes down to the very end—after the shoot—I would rather take my film to the lab, wait a few days, pick up the contacts and start my edit. I am currently swamped with somewhere around 30 gigs of RAW files (from the Canon line, not from medium format mind you) that I must edit now and archive and adjust levels and contrast–and it’s my least favorite thing about photography. Honestly, give me 40 contact sheets and I can edit them in no time–I’ll have it narrowed down to 25 frames of my top picks with ease. On the other hand, if I’ve got 400 digital frames, I wind up staring at spinning beach balls, magenta skin tones, pixelated jpeg previews, and images that I really have to wait for endless amounts of time in order to check sharpness. Digital just takes way longer than film to edit. And when there’s no real post production budget, it’s up to yours truly to edit, process, color correct, and post… In these cases, I am the lab. At this level that seems to be the way photography is going. I am happy to be shooting though, I love that part!
I had a couple shoots in the last few days that went pretty well. Now I’m staring at spinning beach balls though… I would like a real budget job again very soon…
One other exciting thing: I made a holga lens for a digital body. That was fun.
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Ah, back to Westside and to a bunch of new work that I am busy going through editing, retouching, and all that good stuff. After a few flights and trains and taxi rides lugging my gear around Illinois for 10 days I’ve got a few new takes on the logistics of traveling around for a shoot.
First of all, shooting 100% digitally will probably save a lot of carry on space. I tend to carry film cameras and, perhaps, have a bit of camera ADD — meaning that I am constantly switching cameras. I do this mostly because I like the different effects of different film formats, lenses, looks of film, etc. Some, if not all of those effects can be re-created in the photoshop, but the amount of work required to each image to recreate those effects can cancel out any cost savings digital may create (depending on just how far you want to take your digital image to emulate certain film cameras and film stocks.) However, having one body or two and several lenses and a laptop would certainly be much lighter than an entire bag devoted to multiple cameras, lenses, polaroid backs, film backs, plus the laptop and digital body as well.
Secondly, with the airlines now charging for baggage under the plane, it’s pretty important to factor that into the cost of plane ticket. On this last trip I flew United and traveled with a 7B, a bleached white muslin, a c-stand, a light stand, tripod, several softboxes, and some miscellaneous grip—just about the minimal kit I like to travel with into an uncertain shooting situation (except for the muslin, that was for a specific shoot that I wound up doing in Champaign.) United gives you one free bag under the plane, the second bag is $25, and the third is $100. And each bag has to be 50 lbs. or under–no more media rates for bags up to 100 lbs. No more negotiating. In the end, it turned out that shipping back my body bag with the stands and tripods and grip saved quite a bit and kept me from having to lug 5 bags around Chicago.
I guess if you really want to keep costs down, go digital and shoot it all natural light. Unfortunately, that can be a bit limiting, so if you have to bring lighting, look into shipping options for your gear, and also the baggage policies and costs specific to your airline.
The heartland at 70 mph on my Lomo
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Rob Haggert posted the other day about toy cameras and the Holga–my absolute favorite toy camera of choice. See the post.
As for me, I am currently in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois visiting my mom, who recently moved here. The commissioned shoot for my friend, that brought me out this way in the first place, went well really well. We took the redeye to from LAX to O’Hare on Friday night. Got in just before 6am and drove the 4+ hours to Carlinville, Illinois—population 5700 according to the sign. Carlinville is truly small town America– and if you take exception to the flora, I think I could have been in just about any small town east of Colorado.
Nick, Rob (his brother and a close friend of mine), their mom, Janet, and I arrived at the house around 11:00 am where their younger sister Katie, and dad, Phil were already there. Nick and I did a walk through of the house and it was immediately apparent that there was plenty of to shoot and any associated stress of wondering just what the heck I was going to shoot immediately disappeared. The house is over 130 years old, sits 2 stories high with 10 foot ceilings—it had plenty of character. Beers were cracked and mimosas poured sometime before noon—and I thought, okay, so this is how it’s going to be.
I started my first shot sometime around noon—using my Holga, lomo, RZ, and an old 35mm Mamiya Sekor (the one with the uncoated lenses). Nick is a big fan of my Holga images and asked me to bring that sort of nostalgic feel to these images. He stayed with me throughout the day, breaking away periodically to sit and hang with the family. We continued shooting exteriors as well as a portrait of the family too until about 7 that evening.
Sunday, I got up just past 6 am to check the light on the front of the house. The front of the house faces East, and when we arrived the sun was fairly high overhead. I shot it the first day, but I wanted to try and get a more front lit shot of the house as well. Unfortunately, the morning was socked in with clouds, so instead, I lit for another family portrait on the screened in porch. By 9 am we had finished that shot and Nick and I moved on to set up for an interior portrait of his mom and then a separate one of his dad. The sun busted through the clouds sometime while setting up and we got the front of the house hero shot (with the morning light this time) and also finished both portraits as well.
All in all, I was in Carlinville for about 28 hours, but somehow it felt much longer (in a good way)–and complete. I never felt rushed and we were able to cover more shots than either of us had initially imagined. Most everything I shot was on film, with the exception of the individual portraits of his parents.
Here’s a rough jpeg [quickly processed using my laptop -- no real monitor for color/density corrections] from the images of his father—Phil, that I wanted to share…
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Things have been pretty busy recently, which is great. I know when my office is messy, clean laundry sits on my bed for days on end, and I’m generally out of the many different staples in my pantry that life is probably on a bit of an upswing. I had 2 shoots last week that took up a lot of my time. And I’ve been trying to knock out a new portfolio to bring with me when I head out of town for about 2 weeks — leaving on the redeye tomorrow night. In fact, if Samy’s were open right now, I’d probably be absorbed in printing and cutting down new images for my book, but I’ve got another 45 minutes or so to go.
On Wednesday I shot an up-and-coming pop/club/dance/ singer on Interscope records — Lady Gaga. It was for a small, no budget magazine, but I own the rights to the images, so I figured it was worth the gamble for syndication purposes. I had a great team of hair, makeup, and a great assistant and we powered through four setups in about 90 mins including some makeup and wardrobe changes. I’m pretty stoked on the images and will probably use a couple in my portfolio once they are touched up and printed. Saturday was a shoot for a small catalog that I’ve been shooting for just under a year and this seemed to be our best shoot yet, so that was nice too.
As for my upcoming trip, I’m pretty stoked on it. A friend of mine has commissioned me to go to his lifelong childhood home and photograph the house before it is sold. He’s a painter and a bit of a sentimentalist and he asked me to shoot it for him and his family. It’s a great chance to get out of LA for a bit to do some shooting and to have it paid for, which is even better. So, we leave tomorrow and head to Carlinville, Illinois for a couple days. Serendipitously, my mom just moved to another part of Illinois about five months ago, so I’ll spend a week with her, and then head to Chicago for the 4th to see friends and hopefully put together some meetings with ad agencies in Chi-town before I come back to LA.
Before I get out of here to go pick up more ink and paper and immerse myself in photoshop for the rest of the day I wanted to address something mentioned on Shawn Records Blog a little bit ago. In this post he says
“• band photography: is there a way to photograph a group of painfully self-aware 20 somethings in their hipster finest and not have it reek? Please, let’s talk about band photography- show/share. My favorite band photo of all time is the inside jungle hippie photo from an old Three Dog Night album, but I can’t find it online. I just remember it had a pregnant woman and a watermelon in it and, in a sense, is somewhat reminiscent of Justine Kurland’s contemporary work.”
I commented on his blog and figured I’d address it on my own. I’ve spent a good amount of time working with one particular band here in Los Angeles including going out on a couple tours with them for weeks on end. I think in the reportage sense of photography there’s a lot of great work out there. Look at Jim Marshall for a real historical viewpoint. And, more recently, Christopher Wray-McCann has also created some great images. I’ll even post a few of my own shots from being on the road with some “painfully self-aware 20 somethings in their hipster finest,” and contend that it doesn’t reek. Yes, I know, I’m putting my own work out there and saying it doesn’t suck, but hey, if I thought it sucked, I wouldn’t show it off anyways…
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