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East Bali Poverty Project: Field Notes

The February 1963 to January 1964 eruption of Gunung Agung, Indonesia’s largest and most devastating eruption of the twentieth century, was a multi-phase explosive and effusive event that produced both basaltic andesite tephra and andesite lava. A rather unusual eruption sequence with an early lava flow followed by two explosive phases. (Research Gate) Imagine living in a jungle on the slopes of a massive mountain. Your village is composed of several small huts nestled within densely vegetated terrain. Life flows in the tempo of your mountain culture, and is different from that of the people who live far below you,

Production Field Notes: Bali 2016

It has been a little over year since I began using the Samsung NX1 system for the bulk of my imaging projects in motion and in stills. The inexpensive little camera which Samsung has apparently discontinued, resides in triplicate in my camera kit. It continues to surprise me with it’s dynamic range and versatility while here on Bali. It is without a doubt the single most versatile and bullet proof little camera I have used, especially since I collect time lapse sequences in full 27 MP raw file format at up to 3000 frames per day average while shooting on

Bali: Dispatch 2

When I land in a country, my modus typically consists of a calculated scramble to develop and capture content. It is rare to know in advance whether what one experiences right off the jet, is going to be a non repeatable event. So typically, I throw myself 100 percent into work immediately. Such was the case here this time on Bali. Indeed the featured image was shot within my first 20 minutes swimming a reef break off the coast of East Bali. I had not even met the surfer yet, but have since become friends with 18 year old Lempog

The Good Day

When we arrived on Bali, our first phone call was to Gusti, who Donna has worked with and known for close to twelve years. He was distraught. His Mother had just returned home from a walk (at 80 she was a vital part of the family) and collapsed in the driveway. He was taking her to the hospital. He later told us that she had a stroke and he had stayed with her, and two days after that conversation, she died. We actually spoke with him the moment after her death (weird how this all works). So we knew the

Bali Journal, Week 2

We left Ubud by taking a winding route by our friend Gusti’s home, and then made our way out to the shore of E. Bali to spend a bit of time at the beach, as well as catch up with Michael Lorenti, a fellow member of 1% for the Planet with his company Sensatia Botanicals. Ketut, and her husband Willie drove u,s and we made sort of a family type outting of it, with the four of us. The tempo of life while being much more leisurely here, is pretty intriguing on several levels, especially when we got to have

Bali Journal: Week 1

This first week has been hectic, sort of no surprise, as the travel and shoot modus all of us use, is deeply embedded at this point in my life. We are staying on the outskirts of Ubud, off the beaten tourism path in the compound of a Balinese family and the home of A fascinating Yogi- fitness authority named Jocelyn Gordon. We did a little bit of motion capture for her website, Hoopyogini. Fun and she is quite elegant in every way (good subject) Days are a series of time lapse projects, design meetings for Donna and Betty B with

Sense of Place

I have not spoken with many on this subject, though some of my closer friends have touched upon it with me on occasion. They do so in such a manner as to cause me to assume that most people, by and large, understand what “place” means, and how we ought to be when we visit one that is inhabited by another tribe, as it were. “Another” meaning simply a group of individuals who had not specifically invited us into a place of significant meaning to themselves. The process is endemic to Photo Journalism as we venture forth, to see what

North Coast Musings

I am seated at a small round table which is covered with a white table cloth, and rests in a bay window alcove. In the corner in front of me, a gas fireplace glows and fills the room with a soft warm embrace. To my right is a queen size bed in which my wife sleeps. At my left through moisture streaked windows, I see the faint outline of that vast diorama which is the rugged Northern California coast. Approximately 400 feet below me, down a near sheer cliff, lies the sea, and she has come awake with new

Surf Photography and the Super Telephoto

A few of us have been discussing the declining economic validity of Surf Photography and ensuing demise in editorial based content for awhile now. Recently, changes to baggage rates by air carriers have added yet another challenge to those Photographers and Cinematographers whose content topics require super telephotos in the attainment of the rather high bar required in action sports imaging. The image above was shot with the Canon 5DM2 and the 600F4 IS lens with 1.4x v2 teleconverter on a monopod. Add up the original equipment cost of these items (all recently serviced by CPS BTW) and you come

Love Does

I find myself back in the office, in Ventura, California, and once again, am up before the chickens. Maybe it is jetlag. But I doubt it. My waking dream was about love. Not the manner or type of which one might think, coming from somebody who just proposed marriage to his long time girlfriend. It is the type that changes everything. As I work through the processing of 2800 images from Bali, I went straight to the above image this morning. (It was in my head as I awoke). A bracelet Betty B produces, post birth, in a Bali

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