From Twitter

honoluluacademyPhotog coming to shoot ARTafterDARK for a Frommer's guidebook.
about 8 hours ago from web



I guess they meant me....

Surprise Surprise!

Got Photo of the Day at Photo District News!
Thanks Wonderful Machine!


http://www.pdnphotooftheday.com/2009/06/1511

McFrankestein update June 8

Roughly six weeks after ordering McDonalds Chicken McNuggets and the subsequent discovery of a lost one behind the tele, I'd like to report on its status in its little zip lock bag.

The McNugget is now in a rigor mortis state. The flesh is stiff and hard to the touch yet oils seem to still seep out if its golden skin. The inside of the bag seems slightly oily.

When I open the ziplock, I smell McDonalds goodness.

Mc-odd, no?

Swimming Cowboy

On Memorial Day at Ala Moana Beach Park, a Buddhist festival takes place at sunset where people gather in the evening and set floating candles adrift in the calm waters of the park. The lanterns are sent off as a memorial for loved ones lost and well, remembered.

Its sort of cult-like as Shinnyo-en, the religious group that puts it, on isn't exactly mainstream but they do touch lots of people who participate in the ceremony. I find the Asian aspect sort of beautiful but oddly wonder why the white folks (haoles, gringos, gaijin) get so bent on a ceremony which is not part of their western vocabulary. Some white folks got really upset that the media was taking pictures and putting them on tv, etc...I heard grumblings of it being a private solemn thing. How can you be solemn when you "grief" with 80,000 others on a public beach park with a massive ceremony on a rock and roll stage taking place all around?

Maybe our western religions are not good enough for some...I don't know. As far as the event goes, its very pretty if you forget that every candle and float represents a dead person. The Hawaii tourism board seems to tout this event as I saw photographs advertising the event all over Waikiki the week before. Tourist are bused in and beach goers, who many are already at the beach as it is Memorial Day, celebrate the festival as if its some grand show with lights, big screens, music, and whatnot.



As the event went on, I swam upon this guy slinking among the hundreds of lanterns in the water. I couldn't get cowboy's name but he and many others started to swim around the beach as the lanterns were released into the ocean. So many take the event as a load of unique fun, which it is but I think the meaning of the memorial is lost on so many.

June 4, 1989

I sometimes can never get over the fact that I will go off to shoot an event for AP and be mano a mano with Jeff Widener.



Jeff works for the Honolulu Advertiser and I see him regularly around town and its almost amazing to me this man created one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. People will study this image and him for years to come. He in many ways is a legend from the work he did in Tiananmen Square in 1989. His picture(s) go way back as I was a kid in high school when the Chinese military killed thousands of students protesters 20 years ago today.

He was in a interview on the BBC the other day and I found it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXE-RP5KiZs

...................

I remember so clearly Dan Rather's voice announcing the military crackdown. I remember that photo as it said everything. As I said, I was just in high school and could relate to those kids protesting for democracy. I was roughly their age. Would I have done the same? Its hard to say as we have everything...we are spoiled. Sure we complain about so much but we have it all. So with that, I might not protest as most Americans don't. We don't care as we get lost in sports celebrity gossip. We'd rather watch American Idol than CNN and CNN knows this and that's why someone like Nancy Grace is allowed to spew her filth on the airwaves. Newspapers know this and this is why they are falling apart.

Might any of us be so brave and put down People Magazine or turn off the Real Housewives of New Jersey?

That man in the photograph holding up the tanks surely knew he wasn't going to make it. Widener said in his interview that man is like the unknown soldier. And surely when the military took that man off the street, he became unknown.

20 years later and we are now buddy buddy with China. We import their dirty food and products and make trade concessions with them as they continue to fill our shelves with cheap goods made by what many would say slave labor. I have a friend who works in the retail industry and they deal with the factories in China regularly. I recall their slight shame when they kinda know whats going on but can't really do anything about it. The Gap knows, Walmart knows, and we know yet no one is really willing to stop...let alone pay extra for Western made goods made with standards.

NAFTA didn't work. Goods made abroad are not cheaper and are not made better. People have done experiments trying to live a life without items stamped "made in China" and its impossible. Our economic lives are intertwined for the worse and there isn't much we can or will do as the public will continue to soak up this stuff.

What I am reminded of as I write this blog is myself 20 years ago today when I saw those images flashing across the screen. I was naive and I recall crying when I realized what the Chinese military had done. It was a powerful moment.

The next year, I was co editor of our yearbook and we decided to put Widener's image into a historical section in our yearbook so we could look back years later and see what happened when we were young. I got a copy of "Tank Man" and that was the marquee picture of the section. Little did I know I would be a friend of the man who made a lasting image that impressed a 17 year old kid in Texas.



as for Jeff--I don't have the right to publish his image on this blog. I will just have to buy him a beer for fair usage rights.


Summer 1997, Tiananmen Square

Years later, I traveled to China in 1997. I finished grad school and drank myself around Asia for a time. I was solemn when I went to the Square yet my photo didn't reveal it. I did spend hours wondering how it all went down. I walked around and really got bent on the fact that I was standing where people stood no more. I was very irritated with China and I left soon afterwards for the comforts of Japan. Yet those days of being in Beiijng affected me greatly. I was sick of traveling at the time and I remember seeing the golden arches of McDonalds on the third ring near the hotel i stayed at. I pushed people out of the way to get my hands on a Big Mac. I was so sick of pickled veggies, chicken feet, and odd tasting grub. That was the best meal I had in all of Asia.

In a way, I remember thinking as I ate my fries about those student protesters. I smirked that the Communist party leaders probably had takeout from here at some point. I wonder if Mao would have done the same.

second thoughts...

I've thought a bit more about my McPhantom...

We've all found that lost french fry underneath the front seat of our car or a Cheerio under the fridge, or a grape that slipped under the couch found weeks later only to be a metamorphosed raisin. Not everything decays like expired milk or raw meat that's gone rancid in the fridge. I shouldn't be so tough on that McNugget found on the carpet. Its just odd not to see any major change, no fungus, rot, or anything.

My father once told me of jungle lore that dead Vietnamese soldiers would rot quickly in the heat of the jungle while American dead would last a significantly longer time, almost as if the preservatives in our diets kept our bodies in tact longer. He also said the Viet Cong (VC) could smell the Americans approaching in the jungle.


Photo of Dad in Korea.

Back in those days, corporate food didn't run rampant in the world as it does today.

The McNugget isn't I guess its fair to say, real food. Its processed...not that processed food isn't real, it just has enough chemicals and additives to keep it alive lots longer than say a banana, a bagel, or a raw piece of uncooked chicken. Spam keeps in cans for years as does Campbell's soup and Heinz mayo.

I just wonder if our bodies can digest this stuff. Nature couldn't take care of the McNugget on the carpet so I can't help not to be concerned that our stomachs are up for the tasks.

I think I might go out and buy a McDouble with cheese and see how long it will keep.

Ideas, ideas....

McFrankenstein McNugget

Don't ask me how this happened cause I don't really know. We found a chicken McNugget hiding behind the flatscreen in the living room this afternoon. I don't remember bringing home McDonalds since like March, if not early April if I really stretch it. But McDonald's rarely finds it's way into casa Garcia/Asamura as McDonalds is fairly unhealthy...I did see Supersize Me.

I can't help but to think about my childhood and Ma (Mommy in those days...) would take me to get a Happy Meal and how I eventually graduated to a Quarter Pounder and then to the glorious Big Mac. I mean, heaven on earth...that McDonalds on Fredricksburg Rd in San Antonio. And oddly enough, we had our resident nut who would always be at the restaurant, drinking coffee and talking to himself, bearded and all. These days, a nut with a beard drinking coffee at McDonalds would probably get a free ride to Cuba but those days were back when Star Wars was first released.

Yet as stated, McDonalds was still great. The Burger War had not started and the best burgers in town could still be found at the yellow arches. Now, McDonalds is nothing but drunk food, or at worse, a meal on the cheap. Did anyone say recession? It was good, somewhat healthy (not that tortilas and salsa are any better) and inexpensive. McDonalds as a corporation probably wasn't pumping nasty things into our food just yet...well...I didn't know as I was a kid and it all tasted WONDERFUL.

Back to my dilemma...


We moved a few things around and lo and behold a single little McNugget was hiding behind the tv. I don't really know how he got there. There are only six/nine nuggets in a batch so either we didn't notice his escape or G-D just so happened to allow this bugger to escape and avoid a beer sodded belly...well the beer sod might be part of how we, rather I, didn't know a prisoner escaped his cell.

Either way, a little McNugget was found. Oddly enough, the specimen was found in absolutely great shape. Roughly a month has gone by and the sucker was found almost edible.



Now this scares me. He, aside from looking slightly shriveled, he (he could be a she, I don't know...) looked absolutely edible. Aside from a bit of an oily feel, it seemed as if he has just escaped, his little six man prison and hid out for a month behind the Samsung.

Now...something is not right when food doesn't rot/decay. I can't leave a papaya or pineapple on the counter for a week without it attracting every little fruit fly in Hawaii. Hawaii is slightly humid and since its a tropical place, there are a number of gokiburi (cucarachas) having a go at anything edible left out. But nothing...no roaches were scene scampering around the carpet to get at Ronald's delectable little morsel.

Scary. How the hell does something like this not rot? Oil content, preservatives, black magic? What? I put the little bugger in a zip lock and am going to keep it for some time to see if it develops fugus or whatnot.

Could it be that those McNuggets are so unhealthy, they are not rotting thus not digesting in our intestines? Are they full of things that are not at all good for us? Like I said, I saw Supersize Me but I still tango with Ronaldo every so often only because Ronaldinho is cheap. Dirty cheap...for two bucks I can get a McDouble with McFries. But is that two bucks going to be the end of me? Are those preservatives keeping that little McPhantom alive killing me?

Something is not right at the McCasa if their McNugget didn't rot.

Will post on this in the future.

Swine Flu Free

I'm back from swine flu Texas, or should I say H1N1. Same difference, little bang or something hidden in between the lines.

San Antonio is not the place I left...neither is my family and for that matter myself.

Will have a larger post and thoughts once I get over the jet lag and finish my film scanning. Film, dear readers...no digital...lasting memories on cellulose, dust and scratches in all its glory.

Spread in Thomas Cook Travel Magazine

Got a GREAT spread in Thomas Cook Travel magazine. Will talk more about this story later. Please take a look at the story and layout. Click on the title to get to the website or download the actual spread below as a pdf.

http://clients.marcpix.com/TCHawaii.pdf

THE ABOVE LINK NOW WORKS

"I'm sitting in 31F. Next to me is a little blue eyed bundle. She's about six months old. I'm concerned about her and her two siblings across the way. Way too young and loud as this is a night flight. Blue is calm as her blue serene eyes. She's sucking away on a pacifier. Amazing how white babies are so cute. They are obviously military kids. Mom looks like she carried three kids too quickly and too young. Surely the future of little blue eyes next to me.

A pill, a drink and a snooze and it should be over quickly.

BTW muzak killed Stevie Wonder"

I sent this posting post flight from the HNL airport while sitting on the plane. I didn't know till now by mobile device seems to limit how much I can txt. Go figure.

The art of business in the new economy/recession.

As the recession looms over the public, jobs are getting more and more scares as magazines, companies, and ad/pr agencies are slowly running out of money due to the credit crunch. Our economy is based on credit as businesses don’t have to maintain major cash reserves as they can borrow the dough they need all the while the lenders make fees off the interest they charge on those loans. In many ways, personal credit cards serve as individual micro-loans for the public. I can’t easily cough up $50k to start up my photo business (lights, lenses, and computers are expensive!) so a bank issued credit card helps lubricate the wheels of commerce. B&H Photo and Apple are happy I have credit, as is MasterCard. For that matter, I am happy cause without credit I couldn’t buy the lens I need to shoot golf, food, or whatever comes my way. Americans are notorious for not saving their money so credit is what makes the US economy run.

Nowadays, as Obama and his team nationalize banks and investment/insurance companies, banks are not issuing credit as they once were. Although you’d never think we were in a major recession\depression, the economy is hurting. Banks are not issuing enough credit to the magazines and their budgets get smaller. It is much more complicated as ad revenue is shrinking, yet, media always needs a steady stream of images flowing onto their pages, websites, and whatnot.

Job creation is happening, for sure. For me, I am getting job offers at lower rates. I had an ad agency based in several major cities around the globe offer me a tiny amount of money to shoot a fairly elaborate photo for a international brochure. I mean a tiny amount that wouldn’t have covered expenses at all. I had enough gumption to say “no” although I struggled with that decision. But I realized I can’t issue credit or make someone else rich at my expense. I have bills to pay.

The photo business is notorious for making photographer float expenses on his own credit for a multimillion-dollar magazine or business in the past and will continue to do so. But like any risk/reward scenario, the rewards outweighed the risks. And when work was a constant stream, I could wait or "issue credit" to clients as I had other jobs waiting soon afterwards. But those days are now gone. Jobs are limited and budgets are smaller. And to make matters worse, big name mags and companies do not/are not pay(ing) on time. They have no problem not processing an invoice 30, 60, 90, or even 120 days after publication or usage of your hard work and sweat. Can you imagine McDonalds allowing you to pay for a big mac six months later? I'd hope my work is at least worth a couple of McNuggets.

I am not in the business of credit issuing and floating a corporation x amount to do their jobs. Yet so many of my peers are willing and able to do so to get those jobs, tear sheets, and bylines. I did a job in November where I shot a very well know musician for a cover of a magazine. I still haven’t been paid. I am also out x amount of money as I had to pay a stylist, assistant, and equipment. I am loosing money as I wait as I’ve had to pay interest on credit cards, etc…

If I had known this magazine was going to take so long to pay, might I have done something differently? Did I ask the wrong questions about getting paid? Might my priorities now be when do I get paid or should I completely change my business model and create a cash on delivery business? Wedding photographer do…so why shouldn’t editorial photographers?

Why should I float x company who could easily have a check sent to me directly to pay for expenses? Why shouldn’t I have the power to ask or do so?

I’ve toyed with websites like www.printroom.com where you upload images and clients pay to get them down. Imagine, I shoot a job for x magazine in which I have no relationship. I shoot, process, then upload to this server where an e-commerce transaction takes place via a credit card. I get paid (minus a small service charge) and the client gets their images. No waiting for months for money that may or may not come. I mean once you give up the goods, the company has no purpose to pay you on time or quickly.

Photographers, we need to rethink our business models, take on the current business situation, and push forward with new strategies in order to make it. I am still out of money from this company but this expensive mistake has taught me loads.

68 degrees?

At 8:43 AM the weather is like super windy and roughly 68 degrees.

Its cold!



View east with the Pali Mountains on the horizon. The wind is pouring off those mountains.

Im able to blog and tweet from my bberry!!!

Keeping busy when things are down.

So...things are slow. No emails, no phone calls, no well, not much of anything. Its a recession, no credit, no budgets, no images to create for work. It is not nearly as bad as I had a job on Friday, a job tomorrow and a more stuff soon afterwards. Hence, its mainly moaning about very little.

But to keep the days full of things non photo, we've taken to raising a garden on our lanai...balcony to you mainlanders. I surely don't have a green thumb nor does Yukako but its become a bit of fun to play around with plants, pots, and dirt.

The above little bud that cracked through the soil yesterday is the beginning of a papaya tree. I got the seeds at Walmart of all things in the tourist items section. I am not one to really ever go to Walmart as I do feel its a bit of slumming and really buying goods made by sweatshops, etc...but then again, there isn't much sold in American that isn't made by some slumdog somewhere...yets I also feel I am getting to be slummly at times as the phone isn't ringing like it once was. Damn recession.

Anyway, our little papaya sprout looks good and healthy and I look forward to seeing how much it will grow. I don't suspect I will ever allow it to get big enough to get fresh papayas from it as I do think you need to have a male/female to pollinate the plant as well as they do grow upwards of ten feet and beyond, well beyond our little lanai capabilities. But when you got little to think about, a little sprout as such makes the day a little brighter.



Along with our little sprout, we have a potted palm tree of some sorts, a chili plant, a non fruit bearing banana plant, a couple of herbs, etc., a small cactus growing from seeds as well, a weedy looking hibiscus bearing Hawaiian plant, and a new addition of a Mexican lime tree. The guy at Home Depot (they do get a majority of their plants from local sources) said the tree can grow in partial shade so I am very excited to see things grow and mature. My greening thumb awaits patiently.

So hopefully as things grow, flower, et all, I one day might have limes for a cold Corona on the little jungle garden.

Two Tattoos

Living in a beach culture lets one see lots of skin. Lots of people feel very comfortable wandering around topless showing off abs, tan lines, and flab and sag. Even off the beach, you will sometimes get a large beer gut standing next to you in line holding an 18-pack. Lots of times those guys at the grocery store who are shirtless most likely didn't bother putting on a shirt to cash their welfare checks at the Fast Cash either. Its sometimes fun as you will see great figures but mostly its overweight, oversunned, and over tattooed bodies, stretch marks and all.

As I wandered Waikiki this past weekend, I came across two guys with two different tattoos this past weekend. The first guy was Japanese and barely spoke a word of English. I first though he was a Japanese gangster, yakuza and feared approaching him thinking he'd slash me with a sword hidden in his bathing suit, but realized he was a bit too soft spoken and a real gangsta probably wouldn't be sitting around the beach showing off his affiliation, let alone allow a gaijin to snap his backside. The goofy confused looked he gave also said he wasn't a murder by any chance, although, I didn't check to see if he had all ten fingers.

I asked him how long it took him and he didn't understand so I told him in bad Japanese that he was very cool while pointing at his back. I though he might think I was okama, rather gay in Japanese, as he had an old bewildered look on his face but then realized that he was cool cause he had a massive tat up and down his back and on his shoulders as well. The tattoo was obviously in homage to the yakuza style with short sleeves and the likes. I don't think he was finished with the tattoo as there were patches of the image not colored and his shoulder blades were bare as well. It seemed odd but beautiful none the less. I wish I'd shot in color but it was a black and white day so there is no going back.

I then asked him how long it took to do and he didn't not understand. I then pantomimed the tattoo process while pointing to my watch. Confused, he then proceeded to tell me the time but finally after a few different tries, he said 14...days I am assuming. He smiled, nodded lots, and then bowed to me for showing him an odd sense of respect for his painful body art, perverted as it may. He did tell me itai when I asked him if it hurt, pantomiming of course. Itai means painful in Japanese. I can only imagine it was very itai to let some guy stick you with a bamboo needle for 14 hours, or was it days?

The second guy I saw a bit later at Ala Moana Beach Park. He was I think a Japanese American guy who was local, Ala Moana being a local beach, brah. He was very proud to show off his tattooed back and didn't even wince when I asked if I could snap a shot. He was a young guy in his twenties and said the design was his but lots of collaboration with the artist. His tattoo was not as colorful as you think as the buildings were gray and the globes were not as saturated as I would have thought or liked. If it had been my back, I would have used all the color in the world to make it shine but then again, I don't have the patience or tolerance to let anyone poke me incessantly for days on end, hours for that matter.

Its odd to see these two backs side by side. Two different backsides, two different tattoos, same expressive ideas. I never tattoo myself as I realized at a young age, those things don't come off, never...well there is laser tattoo removal but still...those things are permanent. I'd have a tattoo of Diana across my arm right now. Imagine that...I don't think that would flow to well with my wife. Let alone my mom who would have probably burned it off with a clothing iron one early morning while I was passed out from boozing too much during college. All I'd have now would be a faded "D" with a yellowing triangle over the now burned off "iana".

I recall seeing older men from the WWII/Korea generation with anchors on their aging forearms, USMC marks on their withered biceps. Symbols of death, war, life, and beyond. The pride, the sense of worth those symbols meant to those men who gave something to earn that faded green ink on their now worn bodies. Its odd to compare these young boys who have probably given nothing to anyone (generalization I shouldn't make, but...) as those old men limp into history books.

Japlish

Plenty of websites and photos have popped up all over the net these days of funny English sayings and phrases printed on everything from tee shirts to menus around Asia...yet...its always funny to see something that is obviously WRONG.

I saw this Asian guy, probably Japanese, on Waikiki Beach wearing a shirt that obviously was not right. No Justice, No Peas. Did he mean peace? Or did he really mean peas. I know some people really like peas but I couldn't equate justice and peas, especially since there was no culinary reference on the shirt, front or back. This guy really liked this shirt as the phrase was on both front and back. I couldn't understand.

After looking at the image for a second, I noticed the family also has a bag that says I (symbol of a heart) Hysteric. I don't think that makes much sense either.

I have to say, many Asians should have enough sense to spell simple English words, especially since everyone has the internet these days. Yukako argued the shirt must have a dual meaning referencing something in Japan that the ignorant viewer won't get. She didn't get it, hence she's...well I shouldn't say...as I am as too. She also said that peas phonetically sounds like peace.

Think about all those idiots around town who have tattoos of Chinese characters or Hindi symbols all over their bodies.

Check out http://www.hanzismatter.com/

Its a site about bad Chinese tattoos. The first post from April 4th made me fall off my chair...some chic wanted a tattoo that said Bitch in Chinese but the real translation is cheap whore. Isn't that almost the same?

Either way, I should have told the guy his shirt was wrong...then again he might feel compelled to tell that dumb American with the cheap whore tattoo that she got it all wrong. At least he can throw the shirt away.

Peas out!

Facing a book, twits, and the future.

A few weeks ago, I had a deep discussion with three newspaper guys, one who was lucky to still be employed and the other two who felt the wrath of the recession and had been recently laid off. I am lucky as I can't get fired as I can only fire myself (and believe me, I am always firing myself for one thing or another) but surely to mock the two who were terminated is not my point.

We talked about the future of news, news gathering, magazines, photography and the rest of the lot as we know it. Over a few drinks we came to the conclusion the wrong people were fired.

But first I should summarize all we discussed by stating the new media, the new way of news gathering, and presenting the news is radically changing. No longer do we open the front door to our homes, coffee cup in hand, robe dangerously dangling over our pajamaed bodies (or lack there of), and reach for that damn plastic bag that contained yesterday's news and headlines. CNN changed that with 24 hour news coverage (although I am hard pressed to say Nancy Grace is hard news in as much as she blows news gossip to middle America and beyond.) And what CNN changed, the internet changed much quicker. Now we actually still wear the robe, coffee cup at hand and reach for the on button on our Macs and PC, wait a few minutes for the hard drives to spin alive and and the wireless connection to zoom all of our specific news and custom information straight to our morning blurred vision from a glass eyed glowing beast.

And specific it is. You can read all your pro or con Obama news with a flick of the mouse. You can get your fix of sports, sex, gossip, stocks, weather, and oh yeah, news. And that news can be paired down to exactly what you want, hence, the latter above. (Funny, when you call AP's 800 number, hard news is the fourth selection after sports, entertainment, and business. I guess advertisers realized you really can't sell arch supports with dead Palestinian kids on the same page...Linsay does wonders for that market.)

And what the internet changed, Facebook and Twitter redefined.

Yet, there is something quiet nostalgic and comforting about sitting on the sofa and reading a double paged news spread. Its comforting to look at my fingers a tad bit smeared from ink, that woody smell of paper, and see the off set color press prints of images from far away. And without resorting to crude references, its hard to drag a computer monitor into the private of most private rooms. Know what I mean. Newspaper/magazines just maintain that tangible feeling that an iPhone or Blackberry can't reciprocate.

But aside from those prejudices, newspapers are done. How many are closing and reorganizing into net based entities. News is now being transmitted from a netherworld. A cyber universe created by 1s and 0s by those kids we all thought would end up shooting a president or at least shooting up a post office.

And I am also rambling the nostalgia of a early 70's (now mid thirties) guy who grew up sitting on the shag carpet, Beetle Bailey in one hand, silly putty in the other. The new kids, or those with their fingers twittering their thoughts, and sexting each other mad! are the ones facebooking each other with their thoughts, updating their experiences, and locations. You have to visit my blog to see whats up. If I twittered, you'd have no choice but to know what the hell I was doing. News media and reporting is now learning this might be the way to get things done. Sadly, I feel we might never escape this constant flow of info...imagine, a sultry summer Sunday, a random twit pings your mobile device on how cold the Coca-Cola is at the at McDonalds on 3rd Street next to the Nike Outlet and across the street from Macy's. It won't be long (or does it exist) before this disaster overtakes our silent moments. I think of that silly Tom Cruise movie where the ads were tailored exactly to him. (God--what would mine be? Booze, cameras, and booze.) These ads could be confused for friends or real thoughts from real people but none the less its the white nose we will never escape.

I digress...

The new news model is upon us. What I mean about the firing of the wrong people is Mike and Gene are young. Late to early 20s-30s. The kids who twit, facebook and use all the other apps available to them. They are the future of the new model...not the union protected aging journo who'd feel happier changing the ribbon from their typewriter than the ink from the printer. I don's slag on experience and competence as that counts for lots in this world but the 60 year old exec that couldn't see the world changing in front of them and allowed their news organization to crash around them are the ones who should have been replaced. If the media embraced more new tech, lots may have survived the recession and crash.

Its sad...I mean both Gene and Mike are great guys and knew, know, and will know their stuff for years to come. But maybe its best for them to create their own news world than follow the comfortable comforts of newsprint and silly putty.

As far as this travails for photography, I don't know. I am currently struggling with several personal projects and how I want to record them...whether it be with cellulose or the dreaded 1's and 0's. Should I embrace the new world of digital or stick with the dying option of film before its entirely gone? Its a tough question as I am thinking and acting like those I just bashed. Surely we all wished we still had typewriters when our computers needed rebooting or wish we had rolls of film when our flash cards went down. No one can really complain or hate the brave new world of technology as it is a horde of horsemen killing all in its wake as it tramples forward with progress.



But the old has such magic. The above shot didn't have any actions, blurring, or masking to make what my mind saw. Its all camera and film. Sadly, its Polaroid Type 55 which is absolutely gone. Polaroid is gone. How can such as staple of photography decide to close?

The new is now here...whether to embrace is just a matter of time. I just have to really figure out what the hell twitter really does.

Modern Luxury Spring Cover

What a nightmare this shot!!!

I can't stress it more. I mean the condo we shot at, the company, the editor, and all were great. But the weather just didn't cooperate. I tried for this shot like four days over two weeks plus! The clouds would bunch up and give a drab sunset. We finally got lucky but the rains were just lurking over the mountains. I could feel the rain slightly falling on the outdoor lanai up on the 38th floor.

Thanks Dr. and Mrs Gallardo for letting Emmy and I abuse your place!

Thanks Emmy...its a great shot!

The end of the dollar?

Geithner 'open' to China proposal

Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is "open" to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and "evolutionary."

"I haven’t read the governor’s proposal. He’s a very thoughtful, very careful distinguished central banker. I generally find him sensible on every issue," Geithner said, saying that however his interpretation of the proposal was to increase the use of International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights -- shares in the body held by its members -- not creating a new currency in the literal sense.

"We’re actually quite open to that suggestion – you should see it as rather evolutionary rather building on the current architecture rather than moving us to global monetary union," he said.

"The only thing concrete I saw was expanding the use of the [special drawing rights]," Geithner said. "Anything he’s thinking about deserves some consideration."

The continued use of the dollar as a reserve currency, he added, "depends..on how effective we are in the United States...at getting our fiscal system back to the point where people judge it as sustainable over time."

President Obama flatly rejected the notion of a new global currency at last night's press conference.

UPDATE: Evidently sensing a gaffe, moderator Roger Altman told Geithner that it would be "useful" to return to the question, and asked if he foresaw a change in the dollar's centrality.

"I do not," Geithner said, adding several forceful promises, including, "We will do what's necessary to say we're sustaining confidence in our financial markets."

Double take Ziv

I haven't seen these negatives since, well, 1992-1993? I couldn't tell you nor can I really remember. All I remember is this is Ziv Shafir, a guy from my dorm at UT, and I asked him if I could shoot him for an art project. I don't know what the hell we put on his face. Some type of cream that for some reason was green.

The photo was shot on an old Mamiya 645 camera on Kodak VPS film. The image was accidentally double exposed but made for an interesting shot.

Ziv is Israeli and the first Gulf War started when we were in college. I remember how upset he was about not living in Israel and wanting to go back and fight. I doubt he would have only because we were young and idealistic. Perfect for what militaries like to use for cannon fodder. Either way, Ziv was a great guy. He was very nerdy for being a good looking guy. Girls swooned over him.

I was trying to find my inner Herb Ritts before I understood what photography was. I have been looking at old negatives to understand myself a bit better for the future. What I mean is I didn't know what photography was...I hadn't assisted jaded ill tempered photographers, gypped by cheapskates and scammers, not paid by major magazines, played by editors, and well just burned overall.

Its nice to look back at photography when it was a cheap umbrella light, a old film camera, and a green faced guy.