Picture of the Week, 5/24/10

5/24/10: So what makes a school of mullet swim at a frantic pace and jump out of the water? Well, I might have one answer.

It was a beautiful September afternoon at Reef Road in Palm Beach, Florida that saw glassy four foot waves rolling in and a plethora of surfers maneuvering to ride them. The conditions were excellent for water photography and with water housing in hand and fins on feet I swam out to capture some of the action.

As the afternoon rolled on I began to notice large black shadows moving underneath the surface of the water, which I immediately took to be large schools of fish. This is a common site along the shores of South Florida during the spring and fall as schools of fish migrate up and down the east coast of the United States. The point being, I wasn't worried.

Suddenly however the black shadows start moving erratically and quickly and then out of the depth of the shadow large numbers of fish (mullet in this case) begin jumping out of the water; this is something they're not normally known to do unless of course they're being chased by large predatory fish. It could be snook, tarpon, jacks and even sharks that are hungry for mullet. I had no clue what spooked the mullets but suddenly I was surrounded by this frenzy.

I called out to the surfers to come lend me a surfboard to float on but for some reason non came. It was literally raining mullets all around me and there was nothing I could do. Fortunately my instincts to photograph this spectacle took over and thus the shot you see here, which I must admit is rather rare. Still, I had no idea what was making the mullet behave so erratic. However at one point I submerged my camera completely under the water and pointed it downward beneath my legs and snapped a photograph expecting to see more mullets in the image.

That evening I downloaded the images to my computer and took a quick glance at them. It was then that the answer to the original question came to light. In the one frame where I poked the camera underneath me and snapped the shutter I saw a large school of mullet with a big hole in the middle of them and in that hole swam a six foot bull shark. He was no more than five feet away, totally unbeknownst to me but not to the mullets and obviously not to the surfers that fail to come and lend me a board!

Camera used was the Nikon D3 with the 14mm f/2.8D Nikkor Lens inside an SPL splash water housing. Exposure was 1/500 of a second at f/4.5 at an ISO setting of 200.

Picture of the Week, 5/10/10

5/10/10: I'm traveling on the South Island of New Zealand and come upon some good waves with a few surfers riding them. I hang around to check things out when I befriend a local surfer. We talk and he learns that I'm traveling around with my son taking in the sites and looking for new experiences. Hearing that he tells me of a foot path along a creek in from the ocean that leads to a waterfall and pool where some 30 or so baby seals are left for the day by their mothers while they go feed. It's kind of like a day care and the baby seals spend the day having a great time playing in the pool.

Of course we hiked to where the hidden foot path was and made our way through a forest to the waterfall and pool and lo and behold there they were! It was amazing to see them playing, jumping and basically being young kids. At one point as I'm taking photos I get a feeling that something is near me and when I take my eyes away from the camera and look down I find a curious seal looking up at me. I gently put my hand out and the baby seal comes and lightly nudges it like if to say 'ah, you humans are so cute'. And just as I had befriended a local surfer a short while earlier now a local seal was befriending me--what goes around comes around!

Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 lens was used and shot at 1/80 of a second at f/2.8 with ISO set at 640 and an exposure compensation value of -0.7. The NEF RAW file was converted using Nikon Capture NX2 and further processed with Photoshop CS3.

Picture of the Week, 5/17/10

5/17/10: Classic; Soulful; SOUL ARCH! That's Blair Markham during the epic "Halloween Swell" of 1991 at Wilderness, Puerto Rico. I'll never forget this swell nor will anyone else who witnessed it. The day before this photograph was taken I was in Palm Beach, Florida when the "Perfect Storm" formed off the northeast United States. Boats were sunk and people died but to surfers it was a time to witness ocean swells of giant proportions and for some a time to test their skills and strength at paddling into and riding seldom seen waves.

The waves off Palm Beach were simply too big and out of control for most but maybe a couple of surfers. The waves were so big that they closed off the island to motor vehicle traffic as pounding waves inundated beach side homes and roads. I knew that it would not take very long for the swell to make its way through the Bahamas and down to the Caribbean. Consequently I boarded a red-eye flight out of Miami and into San Juan, Puerto Rico. I arrived on the west coast of the island at 3:00 a.m. and within a few hours I was preparing to swim out at Wilderness.

Only a few surfers riding their big wave guns made it out that day. One of those, a little known Coast Guard cadet by the name of Blair Markham, was also able to paddle out at Wilderness except he did it on a classic long board; a board more apt for the soft rollers at Waikiki than the monsters hitting Wilderness. To see Blair take off on eight to twelve foot 'Wildo' was inspiring enough but to see him handle the waves with style, class and fearlessness was something totally unexpected and absolutely remarkable. This particular image epitomizes his entire session and will forever be equated, at least for me, with the Halloween Swell of 1991.

I used a Nikon FM2 camera body with an MD-12 motor drive and a 105mm lens attached to it that was all encased in a custom water housing made by Jim Bailey of Sea Research. Fuji Velvia film was used and most likely shot at 1/500 of a second with the aperture set at 5.6. The only other equipment needed was a pair of good swim fins.

Picture of the Week, 5/3/10

5/3/10: First of all this image was made in Charleston, South Carolina; now the fun part! I asked these boys to walk past this mural as they bounced their basketballs and I quickly snapped three frames. As you can see the basketball transforms into the letter "O" in the word "pastors", perfectly placed between the dots; cool, huh? Of course, all this was done in the computer with Photoshop, nothing real here. Come on, what are the chances of actually capturing an image like this in one pass? Well sorry digital gurus, you're dead wrong!
The image was shot on film and it wasn't until I processed the roll and laid the slides on the light table that I realized what had happened. I was pleasantly surprised and the magic of photography that has been lost in the digital age once again reappeared. You may call this pure luck and maybe you're right, however, I call it putting yourself in a place to be lucky!

For those interested I used Professional Kodachrome 64 (PKR) with a Leica M6 and 35mm f/2.0 Summicron-M. (Those were indeed the days!)

Picture of the Week, 4/25/10

Strong composition, balance and symmetry plus a bit of drama adds to the allure of this image that was recently made on the North Island of New Zealand. In addition the calmness and reflection of the water helps to soothe the otherwise dramatic elements (weather, dominant graphics, bright light) in the picture.

A Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 G lens with focal length set at 12mm was used. Shutter speed was 1/400 sec, the aperture was f/10 and the ISO was set at 200. Metering was set to Matrix.

15 in ONE

Any commercial photographer who has ever worked on a large production shoot knows what is involved. There is the all important producer to secure, location scouting, the talent search, assistants and digital techs to confirm, the logistic considerations for the agency personal and client, the stylist, make-up artist, props and clothing to content with, the catering to worry about, the permits to file for, etc., etc., oh and of course there's the estimate and budget to stress on! After all that the actual shooting is actually fun and relaxing.




Now imagine all the above X 15 for the same client and all part of the same

job and the stress level can jump off the charts. (Word of advice, hire a good producer!)

Partial team members:

Fortunately for me I took my own advice when DraftFCB called in behalf of their client Boeing Corporation with an assignment for fifteen different ads . Now before you think that it was fifteen shots under the same production umbrella, don't! It was fifteen separate and unique shots done under completely different circumstances and locations and requiring an almost 'start-from-the-beginning' approach for each one.





Global Corporate Citizenship was the campaign that Boeing wanted the photographs for. It's part of an outreach programs for communities around the country. Each ad was to depict a personal human story showing the efforts, compassion, dreams and humanistic side of people and to provide inspiration and hope to others. The images needed to emphasize the person more than the environment though they should depict the variety and make up of the United States. It was a tall order but as I advice earlier, take it one step at a time.

With a crackerjack producer, agency personal and team we managed to shoot the job in three stages and in three different locations, South Florida, New Orleans and Seattle. No cliches about 'long hard work', 'endless hours' or 'early wake up calls' are necessary. That's just part of the work. However, what isn't always part of the work was the incredible good times, conversations, dinners and bonding that became part of this job. The memories and hopefully the images will have a lasting impression on all of us.

Three Years in the Making

(This story comes from an assignment I shot for the owner of "Big Dog" who wants a coffee-table book to remember this once in a lifetime undertaken.)


Three years is a long time to be tied to one project, no matter how much labor of love is involved. But three years is what it took to hand build the "Big Dog", a 75' sportsfisherman motor yacht with a tall 'tuna' tower attached to the outer hull that is used by big game fishermen through out the world. The Mark Willis designed and built boat is a classic through and through. In fact I believe it's a museum piece worthy of a glass enclosed stage and not the tough and rough ocean environment.

Fortunately this boat has not been retired to the Hall of Fame and those who witness its uncanny handling ability marvel at how it plows through seas other boats would throttle back on. It's not so much the power, speed and handling of this boat that sets it apart, however, rather its the workmanship and hardcore hand labor!

Very little of this boat is production manufactured and what is was further refined and customized to fit within what amounts is a sculptured yacht both inside and out. The individuals involved in this project were highly skilled and proud and it was a education to witness their ingenuity, attention to detail and their drive to perfection.

Watching a masterpiece unfold throughout the course of three years was also awe-inspiring. I was privy to something that was unique and this pushed me to keep photographing even though the project became long and drawn out. It's funny when I started documenting this piece I was still shooting film. By the time the boat was completed I was shooting digital and had gone through four incarnations of digital cameras!

However my commitment compares nothing to that of Mark, Enrique, the gracious owner, and the many highly skilled workers from the small town of Stuart, Florida. Lots of great stories and jokes were told, after all, three years is a long time to out do the last one!