Maui Rollin

Was in Maui for a day helping a friend trying to find a new place and we found this gem (actually there was two of them) parked out front of one of the apartment complexes we looked at. One day I would love to do a photo story on the real Hawaii - it's not all mai tai's and luaus. Thanks to the perfect weather and the tremendous high cost of living, there is staggering poverty and drug abuse. Here is a great photo story on the tent cities of Waianae.

Dev

I have been accumulating some black and white film at home over the last few months and over the weekend finally broke down and bought some chemistry. I developed a roll last night with some shots from xmas time. The image below was taken on xmas eve when I went on a hiking adventure with the Soulmates, a dedicated crew of hiking fanatics on Oahu.
I really did almost die on this trip. We were hiking to the Makapu'u tide pools - which are absolutely gorgeous. The surf report indicated a high surf advisory, but we were hiking at low tide so a group of decided to make the trek around the cliff-hewn lava coastline, giant waves smashing all around us. We got to one point where the cliff cut into the coastline so much that one section had become like a waterslide, slick lava rock that shot straight down into a washing machine of a break. So, of course as I am traversing this harry spot, a huge breaker popped out of the ocean and slammed me into the rock. I braced myself on all fours but started sliding down the slick rock, I managed to find some traction and hold on, barely getting out of trouble before the next wave of the set rolled in. It was a pretty harrowing experience, because if I would have slid down there was no way I was going to make it...
PEACE to you all!

Another view

Had some fun working on some low-key self portraits last night. There is a lot more detail to these, but uploading them to the web they get compressed and lose a lot of the shadow detail. Anyways, as always no photoshop on these, other than pasting the two images next to each other a new canvas.
Side Note: Regarding the post below, it looks like that guy is real and that crazy string of consonants is his actual name. A google search yielded a few court cases between him and the city and county of Honolulu. Weird, I know.
PEACE to you all!

What????

Snapped this one using my phone over by Ala Moana. Whoever this character is, he is standing in front of a wall of disposable film. Strange...
PEACE to you all!

Eddie Would Go

I have been wicked busy soaking up the sun here in Hawaii for the holidays. I will begin posting more soon. Happy holidays all!

PEACE to you all!

Ramblin man

Spent some time flipping through my notebooks, and reflecting on some of the places I have been this year. While flipping through the notebook, I updated my geotracker and was able to see that I have been on the road quite a bit this year. Below is a small screenshot, you can see the full page here.
PEACE to you all!

Waimea

Developed these at home last night and just scanned them, enjoy!




PEACE to you all!

Team Adventure

These flickers of light were imprinted on pieces of film back in June, while Magera and I were spending the month in Hawaii (yes I have been in Hawaii a LOT lately). Anyways, these are from one of our scuba adventures off the Waianae coast.

Look closely at the image of the dolphin, you will notice a plastic bag on it's dorsel fin. As the pod of dolphins "surfed" underneath our charter boat, they would pass this plastic bag from dolphin to dolphin, fin to fin. It was quite amazing.




PEACE to you all!

Sandy C

Here is a portrait of one of my favorite people on this entire planet, Sandy Chernikowski.



PEACE to you all!

Duets.

New scanner - no time to type about how amazing the last few weeks have been, so for now enjoy a few test scans.

New Mexico.
Hawaii.


PEACE to you all!

Travel gear.

I am packing up the last of my things before heading to the airport and took a snap of my photo gear (TOTALLY nerdy, I know). Surprisingly, all of it fits nicely into a small bag.



Cameras: Mamiya 645E, Petri Color 35E
Films: Various 120 and 35, BW, Velvia E6, Portra NC, Superia
Goodies: Flash gun, 220 Cartridge, Silver/Gold Reflector, Various filters

PEACE to you all!

Bad mamajama.

I haven't owned a car in about two years, and honestly I have yet to miss having one. My family here in Hawaii however are the exact opposite (5 cars for two people!). Below are a few snapshots of their newest whip, a 2009 Challenger SRT, which they only made 6,000 of!




PEACE to you all!

Warzone

PEACE to you all!

Aloha Au Ia`oe

I am here in Hawaii for a couple weeks, I developed and scanned a few black and white images I took yesterday for your viewing pleasure. Mahalo Nui'Loa.

Harley and Tana.
Beach Cruiser.
Front yard.

PEACE to you all!

I am alive, and still making images!!!

I think it is just hitting me that I have been on the road now for two months, both Magera and I living out of our suitcases and crashing with friends and family. We spent the entire month of June in Hawaii, which buzzed by WAY to fast. Then, from there we flew to San Francisco to spend a week and try to find a place - which we accomplished. From there it was off to Austin to stay for two weeks at the Co-Op. After two weeks in Texas it was time for a road trip, so Magera, our friend Camilla and I hopped into our whip (UHAUL) and drove across country, taking our time and hanging out in Santa Fe and Phoenix.

But now, we are home. Nestled into a lovely brownstone chock full of history right smack in the middle of San Francisco's coolest neighborhood, the Haight.

So many stories to tell from this past two months, and so many images! I think a fundamental change has occurred in me in the way that I create images. I no longer see an image as a string of 1's and 0's, the photograph is now to me a very physical thing. Negatives and prints filling up boxes and notebooks, tangible items that can be handed down for generations, not just a few integers on a memory card. While we were in Austin I spent every night in the darkroom often working myself into exhaustion during the wee hours of the morning developing film, making contact sheets, and making prints. I would spend hours crafting a single image - really making a truly personal connection with it, not just moving a few sliders with the mouse.

Aside from the rant here are a few images from the light table. The quality is poor, as I just laid down a few slide negatives onto the table and snapped a few pics (yes, with the digital, HA!). These shots were all from Hawaii, if you look closely at the second one (the jellyfish shots), you can see one of digital's major downfalls - the inability to handle absolute color. When I was shooting a lot of live music, I would always run into this problem when the stage lighting would be purely red, blue, orange or purple.

Anyways, I have about 20 more rolls from Hawaii, Austin, San Francisco and the road trip that still need to be processed, hopefully I will be purchasing a scanner soon and posting some images.



PEACE to you all!

Ch-Ch-Changes

As always I hope this finds you all well, healthy and happy!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to move forward with this here blog, especially since I am not shooting digital and producing so called "content." I am however, sitting on a box full of rolls just begging for me to develop them. :)

So, in ruminating about the direction to take with this blog I came to the realization that I express myself in more ways than through just photography, and I have a lot more to share with the world than just my images. I am a music fanatic, a mystic, an entrepeneur, a technology geek and so much more. With the format change I am going to be blogging about all sorts of things using various mediums - words, images, music and video. I am also entering into a major period of change, mainly my move to San Francisco so I am sure a lot of heartfelt posts will result from the challenge of starting from scratch in a new city.

So over the next week or so I am going to be working on a new design for the blog and will begin posting soon.

Be well dear friends!

PEACE!

Aloha

Hello friends!

I certainly have been slacking on the posts, not to say that I have not been creating a lot of images - I just have had very few rolls developed and even fewer scanned.

I am in Hawaii now for the rest of the month and I did not even pack my digital camera - which is a first for my Hawaii trips. All I brought with me was my Nikon FM-10 (manual 35mm) and my Mamiya 645 (manual medium format). After Hawaii it is off to San Francisco at the beginning of July, I will hopefully get a few rolls developed and scanned there.

For now, enjoy this shot taken by my dad. This is me on a paddleboard in Kaneohe Bay, a paddleboard is like a surfboard but is almost 13 feet in length and much thicker. You stand up on it and use a paddle to propel yourself.

Peace!

Intro to HDR

Although I have been aware of HDR (High Dynamic Range) Imaging for a while, it was not until last night that I first attempted it for myself. True HDR images combine two or more identitcally composed images, each exposed for a different area - for instance one exposed for the sunset and one for the darker foreground. Once these images are combined and tone-mapped, the new image can be stunning, with rich details in the shadows and highlights of a normally high contrast scene.

I created these HDR images using only one RAW image, but I duplicated the image and exposed each instance for a specific area. Although this works well, it is best to use two or more images (shot using a tripod) and combine them. The original image is on the left, as exposed with no correction. The HDR version of the same image is below. Even though I only used one RAW file, you can see there was a lot of information that was stored in the file not being used to it's full potential.


Original.

HDR version.

peace and much love!

secret spot

peace!

turbulence

after a long night of less than peaceful travel i am bleary eyed and weary, but i am home. all i can say is thank you.

i am thankful for quality time with family.
i am thankful i can up and take off for 10 days at a moment's notice.
i am thankful to be home with the one i love.
i am thankful.


peace!