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Golden

It is always the scarcity of a thing which imparts value in the perception of a viewing public, so artists tend to withold showing too much of their hand at once. I remember a photographer with whom I worked years ago, who would hoard his work, and release it one image at a time over the period of his career. His fame and fortune wound up being centered on approximately 9 great images. I do not think he saw the time we are in coming, where with new tech, and refined approaches, a higher bar for acquisition and communication than

Interpreting

A lot of subjects pass my way. Whether I am examining and experiencing those as a Journalist, Photographer or Film Maker, one of the primary goals is to properly interpret the subject into the context I choose for the final communication of the work. This shoot was at the behest of my friend Peter Ganibi, who took me down to Los Alamitos, a horse track he has become quite familiar with, in his work as a horse trainer over the years. One of the jockeys had died the week prior, and a memorial was slated. Racing is a culture unto

Windows of Perception

Perspective is a unique line item for all of us. Our own Point Of View (POV for short) is one that, being our own, may not seem particularly special to us. I find myself overlooking the fact that I can be rather unique. You may tend to do that as well. As a photographer, writer, film maker, I am all about communicating a designated POV. I decide what perspective a subject ought to be examined from, in order to best embrace a particular viewer-audience. This was one heckuva busy week. I shot a music video, BMX, a performance music video

Surfing Is

The motivation for this piece began with the publication of the following story in the WSJ, to which I contributed an image of my girlfriend Donna Von Hoesslin. Read the comment section, post story, and you will see a diversity of opinions (including mine) that are quite revelatory about each person’s point of view regarding surfing. Those statements reveal everything about those people’s depth of involvement with the ocean. The commentary engaged me. I have always been a surfer. At four years of age I knew that goal was what my life would be about. To know the ocean, (and

Light Monger

I have always been a light monger. To me it was apparent, that I would always want to walk in light, be led by it, emanate it. So it comes as a bit confusing, and stark, when something as overcast as anger, gets stirred into the brightness. But seeing the thick black thread of darkness swirl around in that light, like chocolate syrup into fresh white milk, is just the way of the world. You have to add a disproportionate amount of dark to convert light in the realm of the visible spectrum of color. So light makes sense, in

Be Brilliant

There is quite a gap between being good and brilliant, between high art, and low. Brilliance and high art, will take one right into the throne room of God. You come away from the experience, knowing that something special has occurred: you have been touched by Creativity. Watch this if you have ten minutes. This is how it feels, when the realization hits, that I am on to something great. There is an incredible example in this performance, of where an artist can take a person with music and brilliance. Steve Vai. His lengthy Wiki page says it all in

An Independent Nature

The United States Of America is founded on the tenets located in the US Constitution. All laws and the people who preside over the law, are based on this document. All Municipal and State laws are superceded and presided over by the Federal laws, based on this document. So no entity may pass a law that is not in accordance with this document. If you find that someone has. You not only have a right, but a civil responsibility to inform and if necessary, litigate that entity. That is what is meant by the legal tort of Rule of Law,

Evil : This is Personal

It is a choice whether to follow truth or falsehood. I never bought into the Film “An Inconvenient Truth. “ Lets get that straight between us. I could make a long list of reasons for this as a businessman, film maker, Journalist, ex manufacturer, Science fan, Environmentalist, and someone who participated in the formation of some of the rules written by CARB. But my principal reason, was that I choose what I will embrace based upon the character of the person communicating it, and the tone of their message. In my work in business and retail for 20 years, I

Why

I watched as the big white gull hopped frantically around in the sandy beige rocks of the beachside jetty that runs along Coast Highway 1. Slowly I approached the obviously injured bird, not wanting to create any additional panic for it. As I peered at the damage, it tried to sequester itself deeper into the jetty shadows which grew blacker as the sun rapidly disappeared. Both it’s wings hung askew, broken at the shoulder hinge. Having raised birds, I knew what this meant. The animal was in shock. Maybe a car hit it. Not sure. But it was looking at

Hazardous Materials Basics

As everybody runs to pitch in at ground zero in the Gulf, I want you all to be aware that there are manifold issues related to working in and around high VOC environments. VOC is an acronym for Volatile Organic Compound. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_organic_compound Levels of VOC’s vary greatly depending on atmospheric conditions and combinations of additional toxins, both natural and man made, which can have potentially serious long term effects. One thing people may not be aware of, is that your skin and your eyes are actually also very effective systems whereby toxics can enter the blood stream. If you get

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