client: huck magazine, uk

assignment: downhill 808 feature.

another super rad feature for uk-based huck magazine. downhill 808 in lanikai. stoked to be a part of putting hawaii’s talent on the map!

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clients: Matt Bruening & Wonderland Denim

project: collaboration lookbook

a little manual focus fun.  we wanted a retro candid point and shoot look so i went full manual with a bare strobe and my trusty leica m8.  a really fun project.

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client: fitted hawaii

project: fall delivery one lookbook

mahalo nui loa to the crew at fitted for having me on board for this one.  more coming soon!

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leica m8, canon eos 5d. a few of my favorite images from this year’s obon festival at honpa hongwanji nuuanu. enjoy.

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my first assignment for huck magazine. it was a real honor to spend an afternoon learning from and photographing legendary north waterman, lifeguard, and activist mark cunningham; i couldn’t have asked for a better first assignment with huck! for those that don’t know, huck is a really rad london-based lifestyle mag that’s on newsstands worldwide.  i’ve included my favorite b-roll from my afternoon with mark in the gallery.  keep posted, i’ve got more work commissioned by huck coming soon.

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on assignment for flux magazine a few months ago. fuji x100.

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things have been so busy for me that updating honozooloo is long past being a distant memory.  it took me a few minutes to remember my wordpress password when i first set out to write this post.

case in point: i shot an amazing wedding on the kohala coast of the big island a few months back. more about that soon! anyway,  after wrapping on the wedding at about 11 pm, i caught a few hours’ sleep before making the drive from hawi to puna (about 80something miles) to shoot an assignment for flux hawaii.  i think i left hawi at 4am, and got to puna around 6. the sun rose as i rounded the corner into hilo bay.  just another day in the life of a freelance photographer, i guess.

orion is a taxidermist based on the big island.  i got to spend a little time seeing (and shooting) the process he goes through while preparing a specimen for preservation, and i got to know him a little bit.  he’s a great guy, and it was a great opportunity to get to watch him work.  it was straight to the airport after the shoot wrapped, and i was back to life here in honolulu.

the hours sometimes suck and the work is always a challenge but i wouldn’t have it any other way.  it’s always great to connect with what you do at a personal level and as always, i’m so stoked that i’ve had the opportunity to get to do what i do.

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a few weeks ago i found myself down by iolani palace the morning of the kamehameha day parade.  this is actually the first time i’ve seen the start of the parade, normally i’m battling it out with all the other suckers in waikiki, having to show up like 2 hours early to get a spot along kalakaua ave and paying $20 for parking.  true, the parade isn’t in full swing if you see it from its start, but hey i can walk to iolani palace from my place, and seeing all the pa`u riders hanging out on the grounds of the palace? pretty rad.

i dragged my m8 and 35mm nokton with me (okay if it was an SLR it would be dragging, i can really get used to this rangefinder thing…).  here are my favorite images.  it was a good day.

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besides being that guy i used to hear about in those random radio free hawaii commercials back in the day, otto is part of the new influx of young, fresh, local small businesses in the chinatown area.  recently, he’s run into trouble with the less-than-legit people who hang out near his shop.  you know the ones that the cops seem to be too busy giving jaywalking tickets out to deal with? yeah those guys.

i was happy to take a few photos of him for an article in the chinatown newspaper.  i kept it simple, just my trusty konica hexar af and a roll of kodak ektar.  i snapped like two frames off with the 5D to be safe, but really loved how the ektar rendered the scene. thanks for baking that red cheesecake, otto!  and we all hope the best for otto cake.

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a few months back, the manifest asked me to shoot a benefit art show for the oahu spca.  the oahu spca is the only no-kill animal shelter on the island, and like every totally amazing nonprofit out there they can always use even more volunteer support and donations to increase the levels of awesome that they can reach.

i got to spend a morning with a few of the oahu spca’s incredible dog walkers and a few of the special canine guests at the oahu spca’s kennel.  some of the stories i heard about the dogs i photographed were pretty hard to handle, but as you can see in the images the resilience and good spirits of these animals is really touching, despite their difficult past. i chose to shoot this show using my favorite vintage fuji color print film, nps 160 (RIP circa 2007).  i chose the film approach because i love the look of nps 160 overexposed two stops…the colors blow out in a cartoony, cheerful way and since it was at one point my favorite film ever, i’m pretty familiar with how it reacts to various exposure conditions.  i wanted a happy look for this show because all too often these kinds of SPCA  fundraising efforts use the combination of “cut my wrists in the bathtub after downing the whole bottle of xanax” sarah mchlaghlin music and a bunch of depressing black and white photos of sad, messed up dogs approach to guilt trip people into donating. instead of taking the pity route i wanted to focus on the positive aspects of these animals, and on the new lease on life the spca strives to give the animals in its care.

mighty printing generously donated the printing services for the show, and it was up at the manifest last month.  it was  easily one of the most enjoyable things i’ve gotten to do with a camera this year.  to learn more about the oahu spca or to volunteer your time with them, you can go to oahuspca.org.

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