Today was hectic but w
ent well. Taking photos underwater adds so many variables it gets hard to control it all. The blanket shown on the side would not stop floating away despite being weighed down with twenty washers and bolts. I think the weirdest part of the day was when I was standing at the bottom of the deep end by my self, breathing from an air tank and trying to stretch out an intense cramp in my calf. (Continued)
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
For the last couple months I’ve been practicing and preparing to start my new underwater portfolio. There have been test shoots at a friend’s pool, practice getting to know the new camera in open water, some prop building, and four casting calls at Temescal pool to find models who can swim and act. Tomorrow is my first real test.
I’ve got the pool rented for three hours, three adult models, three child models, two lifeguards, two friends assisting me, one tank of air, one studio teacher, one beautiful girlfriend as my stylist, and one regret. (Continued)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
These are the friends who helped keep me safe while I was doing some underwater location scouting last month. Thanks guys!
Clockwise from top-left: Andy in wetsuit preparing to descend a rope ladder down a cliff, Christian posing at the bottom of a kelp forest, Tim hanging out at the surface, and Steve making a dive to check out a nudibranch.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Victoria, from sfgirlbybay.com, is a blogger in San Francisco with a great sense of style. I met her on a photo shoot last November and she just recently gave me a very nice write up on my ocean prints. Thanks Victoria!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Even though I’m happy to have my Etsy shop up and running, I’m disappointed with how it looks. Each of these images is supposed to be a 28″ square print struggling to convey the enormity of the ocean. A good Etsy shop however is about conveying product, thus the ocean is delivered to you in 75px thumbnails. Maybe I should have gone with a gallery show instead. Too late now!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The first weekend after I saw the carnival setting up next to the 880 across from the Coliseum I took Cein with me to do some location scouting. We turned out to be too early. They were still setting up the rides. Since we there already I decided to take some shots of the rides silhouetted against the sunset. As I was taking photos a car alarm went off from the street next to the lot we were in. The alarm was coming from a Trans-Am with one man sitting in the front seat and another standing next to it. (Continued)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
There is a goal that I have; it is to revolutionize underwater photography. It’s been disappointing so far because I wasn’t able to achieve my goal in my very first try, or my second! There seems to be so much learning and practicing in the way that I wonder if I’m really cut out to be the underwater photography prodigy. Why does success have to be so tied to work and effort?
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Adam Harvey is a designer and technologist working at the intersection of emerging media arts, photography and computer programing, or at least that’s how he describes himself, and he has just ignited the paparazzi arms race. His supposed product, the Anti-Paparazzi Clutch Bag, is a purse armed with a strobe and a white light slave. When it senses a paparazzi’s flash the purse fires it’s own flash back to blind the lens, like some Dr. Strangelove Doomsday Machine.
If celebrities adopt this defense to keep the public from seeing they’re just like us (They get the mail! They go grocery shopping!) the paparazzi’s only response will be to use stronger, brighter strobes to overpower the defense flash. Next the celebrities will have to adopt the Anti-Paparazzi Backpack Accessory to carry the lead/acid 12v batteries to power their stronger more powerful defense strobes. There’s no détente in sight, the only inevitable end to this is the paparazzi apocalypse. Is that the legacy you want to leave behind for the next generation, Adam Harvey? Is it?!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Pictured here is my friend Sita who recently got married to her boyfriend Andy in Italy. They had a reception, for those who couldn’t make it to the Mediterranean, at her mother’s restaurant Boulette’s Larder in the Ferry Building. She asked me to set up a photo booth there to photograph everyone having a good time. (Continued)
