Try, Try Again..

The recent south swells here on Maui are making for some larger waves on Big Beach, and I knew that when I got back from my trip to Boise that I wanted to try something entirely new: Wave Portraits. I think we have all seen this type of shot with a surfboard as the model is ‘duck diving’, but I was sincerely interested in how difficult it would be to try to pull this off on a beach, in shallow water, without a surfboard. A crashing wave could make for a very interesting backdrop.

Turns out, it is extremely difficult to get the type of shot I was envisioning near the shore) in fact it’s almost impossible. The reason: water clarity. While the first 2 are the closest to what I had in mind, there is just too much gunk in the water. We really tried too, 1200 shots, and this isn’t something you can easily clean up in Photoshop. I wasn’t happy with any of the images we got, but I felt that it could have potential…just very hard to execute near the shore. I feel almost embarrassed to show them at all, but its important to share what I learned from mistakes

I think it works better with surfers simply because they are in deeper water and there isn’t as much sand floating around.

It sure was interesting though, man…so many variables. We had to wait for a big wave, be the right distance away from each other, time it so I am under a second or two before Annie, had to have the right angle (for composition) and it was overcast, so we didn’t get any pretty sparkles from hard sunlight. Just a difficult, somewhat depressing shoot. The recent south swells here on Maui are making for some larger waves on Big Beach, and I knew that when I got back from my trip to Boise that I wanted to try something entirely new: Wave Portraits. I think we have all seen this type of shot with a surfboard as the model is ‘duck diving’, but I was sincerely interested in how difficult it would be to try to pull this off on a beach, in shallow water, without a surfboard. A crashing wave could make for a very interesting backdrop.

Turns out, it is extremely difficult to get the type of shot I was envisioning near the shore) in fact it’s almost impossible. The reason: water clarity. While the first 2 are the closest to what I had in mind, there is just too much gunk in the water. We really tried too, 1200 shots, and this isn’t something you can easily clean up in Photoshop. I wasn’t happy with any of the images we got, but I felt that it could have potential…just very hard to execute near the shore. I feel almost embarrassed to show them at all, but its important to share what I learned from mistakes

I think it works better with surfers simply because they are in deeper water and there isn’t as much sand floating around.

It sure was interesting though, man…so many variables. We had to wait for a big wave, be the right distance away from each other, time it so I am under a second or two before Annie, had to have the right angle (for composition) and it was overcast, so we didn’t get any pretty sparkles from hard sunlight. Just a difficult, somewhat depressing shoot. One good thing did happen though, I finally figured out how to keep the water off my port! Almost everyone has told me to lick it, but after an hour of licking sea water off your port, you get tired of doing that. Turns out you can coat it with different types of grease and it beads right off. Rain-X will not work, in fact it will damage your port.

Ill try again in deeper water…maybe we will just do the surf board thing just to get the look down.


Remembering Mark

Two years ago today a great man and one of my very best friends named Mark Forester paid the ultimate price of freedom in Afghanistan. I try to avoid thinking too much about him because it makes me feel just sick to my stomach, but I am truly, deeply thankful for having known him. I can still hear how he sounds when he talks, his funny unique mannerisms and quotes, the many talks we would have about various subjects.

One of the things Mark was struggling with was that his cameras were always breaking due to wear and tear in the field. We exchanged a few emails discussing options and decided on Olympus Stylus Tough Camera which I sent to him and he started using about 3 weeks before his death.

This image below was one of the ones we found on the card, which we are also extremely lucky to have simply because everything else Mark had, computer, other images, etc, was wiped clean by the Army. (And we also know there was a LOT of good material on there because Mark was telling us about it). There is an interesting story about the card and how Mark’s Family got it. Mark’s parents sent me the camera once they got it back, along with a Seal Pup knife Mark had intended to give to me when he got back. Im planning on putting them and some other momentos into a nice shadow box. The ‘painted’ look on this image is from one of my presets called Michael Andrew Paintballer Pro ® .Two years ago today a great man and one of my very best friends named Mark Forester paid the ultimate price of freedom in Afghanistan. I try to avoid thinking too much about him because it makes me feel just sick to my stomach, but I am truly, deeply thankful for having known him. I can still hear how he sounds when he talks, his funny unique mannerisms and quotes, the many talks we would have about various subjects.

One of the things Mark was struggling with was that his cameras were always breaking due to wear and tear in the field. We exchanged a few emails discussing options and decided on Olympus Stylus Tough Camera which I sent to him and he started using about 3 weeks before his death.

This image below was one of the ones we found on the card, which we are also extremely lucky to have simply because everything else Mark had, computer, other images, etc, was wiped clean by the Army. (And we also know there was a LOT of good material on there because Mark was telling us about it). There is an interesting story about the card and how Mark’s Family got it. Mark’s parents sent me the camera once they got it back, along with a Seal Pup knife Mark had intended to give to me when he got back. Im planning on putting them and some other momentos into a nice shadow box. The ‘painted’ look on this image is from one of my presets called Michael Andrew Paintballer Pro ® .Something that his family and friends have been doing is releasing a balloon for him on Sept 29 of each year. I missed last year’s but wanted to make up for it today, so I bought a balloon at Safeway and let it from one of my favorite beaches. It wasnt too far from where I was when I got that dreaded text message & phone call.Mark was not perfect, but he was as close to it as anyone Ive ever known. A true friend, compassionate, kind, loving, forgiving and highly motivated to hunt down evil to destroy it. I am very grateful to Mark and all of our armed service members who are willing to put their lives on the line for our freedom. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Here is the original article I wrote about Mark when I found out: Tribute To An American Hero

And here is the website his family maintains; Mark Foresters Memorial Website

Definitely worth the time to read about Mark if you don’t know.


Looper

The first half of the movie is pretty good – an interesting plot and storyline, though it is filled with “uh….that doesn’t really work” moments. J Gordon Levitt is outstanding as a younger Bruce Willis (he really nailed his mannerisms).

The second half of the movie feels like a completely different story all together channeling “Firestarter”, “Terminator” and other movies, it really starts to fall apart. There are a lot of unexplained loose ends, almost feels look like they just made up a bunch of stuff to make it longer.

I think most sci-fi fans will enjoy it in theaters, and it is a definite rental.


Google Maps – Ocean

As a scuba diver…this is pretty cool!
It now appears if Google maps gives you directions to swim across the ocean you can see the street view. Google Maps now has mapped “Street View” of some ocean floors. A cool idea! Check it out HERE


Lego Engineering

This is some really creative engineering! Made of Legos and a few robotics, this contraption took over 600hrs to complete. The person who built it has a few other videos of the constructions process on his blog HERE, although the text is not in english.