Recent publishing.

Today's post concerns publishing! I sometimes forget to see where my photos end up. It can be a mystery at times as images are sent to editors on the mainland never to be seen again. The wireless age creates apathy as images are ftped to a far away place never to be seen again. I had two sports images end up in Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News this week. My hard won photos although not peak telling of the story action are stock images and clients and magazines do care for what I describe as "stock" images.

Peak sports images are most essential to any sporting event but since I live in a different market, Hawaii sporting events are usually off the radar of most people. Mainland writers will focus on stock images of sport stars and athletes and to me, many could clearly care less of any important impact plays. Clean sharp images are what counts.

I've showcased this images in a past blog but this image was used to illustrate UH's 12-0 season for SI. It ran on a page with two other images at about 2x3, hardly worth me paying for the mag at Borders.



The University of Hawaii football team performs a Maori "haka" or war dance before their football games at home and away. The controversial performance does make some upset (namely Maoris as Hawaiians are a different "tribe"---and a good portion of the players are not even Polynesians) but the dance does make for interesting photos. My image showcased on the back page of The Sporting News.

I borrowed Jamm Aquino's Canon 15mm lens for the shot and lined up the image just right. The 15mm is a tricky not an every day use lens which gives a fisheye effect. On a cropped Canon Mark II body, the fisheye is limited but there is very high distortion. The lens is a bit too distorted but it worked well for the shot.



The layouts below come from Modern Luxury's summer issue. I did a story on hip Chinatown spots in HNL. Margie the ed assigned me the job just days before I was to leave the country. I was my first story for the magazine and I had to work to impress. I worked tirelessly for two days straight going to different spots around Chinatown/downtown to get the right images. It was tough but I managed to pull it off. Margie liked the images and called me for more work.

It was tough but I made it happen. Its always fun to challenge myself visually...meaning when you see something day in and day out (I live just outside of Chinatown) you forget to "see." You get so used to looking at everyday life that it just becomes routine. Photographers get so excited thinking of making images far away from home but always forget their backyard has some of the best places to make pictures. We just have to open our eyes a bit wider!








Life is never routine.

Enjoy.