Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Warm Water II


Monday, December 28, 2009

Warm Water




Holidays are a good time to escape freezing San Francisco. Here's someplace a little bit warmer that we like to frequent...

Enjoy,

m + j

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Hawai'i Ne


Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Encore?


More from Nick's portfolio. . .

Enjoy.

m + j

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Finale

Alright. Last one. For real. Just had to keep going... maybe it's coping? Who the hell knows.

Below is an email from Nick. It's from when Jasmine and I had first moved up to San Francisco... We were super scared, and had no idea what to expect. We were starting to get a few jobs, but life was still pretty depressing overall (as it can be with no $$). Nick always helped keep us on our feet, and we'd often time look forward to his emails and phone calls to cheer us up. Most of them would be too personal for this venue, but this one isn't too bad, and sorta sums up how Nick saw things later on in his life. It's classic Dekker humor, with a hard hitting ending. Needless to say, it was even a tear jerker back then. Now it's just too much.

Enjoy.


"HEY PICKLEBOY!! what's this i hear you are talking the talk about my bro "Boss Hog"
we don't do that kind of shi_ here in the hood. SO WELCOME TO MY WORLD BIG BOY
"CANDY MAN" "forever young" we will always be!
I will get back with you
Hugs to your woman, don't let her come on down to the hood, I own this place, forever!!

I look at this photo, and i just want to walk right up there and jump on in, and stay there forever, I am lonesome for a time in my life
that i was on top of the world, and didn't even know it. Just walk on down that street in the background and fade away into my memories.

be cool up there in the North, and remember to be patient, it takes time to build an empire.
Love
N."

Friday, December 18, 2009

Correction

Nick was 64, not 62. Could never remember if he was a year younger or older than my mother...

More on Dekker



Forgot to mention a couple things in the last post. Firstly, the portrait of Nick below was taken by Chris Orwig. Definitely the best portrait of him from his last few years. Shot on a 4x5 w/ Type 55 Polaroid. Sick. Secondly, Nick was also responsible for Jasmine and I hitting it off, and our subsequent romance. Without him there'd be no us. There. That's it. No more... sorta.

Here are a couple of pictures we took the afternoon of Nick's death (iPhone fotos for now, real fotos to come). Nick was always into the "God Rays." We would always bask in the glory of a good ray of light, and would get extra excited when Mother Nature would strut her stuff on film. As we were taking these shots, and before we'd learned of Nick's passing, I was thinking about Dekker, and how much he'd dig the rays of light. Totally his scene. Little did we know that it was him in those rays, shining down through tree limbs... They didn't call him the Son of Mother Nature for nothing.

We love you, Nick! We'll miss you forever, and with every snap of our shutter you'll be with us.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

We'll Miss You, Nick Dekker



Today arrived sooner than anyone imagined. Just got the terrible news that our great friend, mentor, and inspiration, Nicholas Dekker, passed away yesterday. Suffice to say, for those that know him, that Nick went way before his time. At 62, anyone would probably agree.

Nick was more than just a teacher to Jasmine and I. Quite more. And sure, he taught us-- a lot. But it was his friendship that we treasured the most. We both had him for introductory undergraduate classes at Brooks Institute (more than just 1), Jasmine was his Teacher's Assistant for an eon, and he taught me his beloved, and extraordinary, alternative printing process, Platinum Printing. But it didn't stop there. Jasmine would cook for him on a weekly (and sometimes daily) occurance, packing in extra love to the food that I would deliver before our sessions together. We passed long hours in his office amongst the enlargers, passing time in between exposing plates or while waiting for our prints to wash, laughing hard, and learning "everything [we] know, but not everything I know." Nick would often join us for dinner, and was there with the rest of the family the night that Jasmine graduated from school. We would stay at his house on visits back to Santa Barbara. We would talk on the phone often. We will miss you, Nick.

Career Education Corporation, the company that purchased Brooks Institute awhile back and has systematically changed the way in which the school is run, fired Nick Dekker last year from the school he helped grow for over 30 years. The reason why Nick was fired? Because he was seen as a cost due to his medical bills. So the school fired him, and then hired him back on to teach 1 class a session. 30 years of your life and love given to a school, only for a corporation to come in and kick you out. Hardly the thanks that "Ol Saint Nick" deserved.

Needless to say we're both taken back, and slightly angered by all of this. It's never easy to lose a close friend. It's even harder to think about the end of his life, where he was tossed to the curb like an old car. If Nick taught us anything, it was to love all things old and new, and see the beauty in these things through our lenses-- especially old cars.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Goodbye, Facebook.


Not long ago we both cancelled our Facebook accounts. Let's face it, Facebook is worse than cable. We don't have time for that, either.

Walls are better.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Holy Freezing.



Mark Twain once said "the coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." Well, apparently he wasn't around last night, when the temperatures dipped down into the 30's here in the city. Not bad for December, eh Mark?

It's been cold here. Really effing cold. And call it what you want. A mini El NiƱo. A big North Pac front. A San Franciscan summer-- It's hard to escape, and it's hard to set foot outside.

All this isn't so bad when it's time to retouch a ton of work, tho. Lots of hot coffee. Lots of hot tea. Jazz music. And some polaroids-- taken from the safe, warm confines of a vehicle, of course.

Enjoy... and stay warm.

Friday, December 4, 2009

More iPhone Abuse






Some recent shots from the new polaroid.

Monday, November 30, 2009

The Shot That Wasn't


Lew Wolff is running this month in San Francisco Magazine. Totally thought they were going to run this shot in addition to the one that's in there, but you never know with the mags. Just when you think you've got them figured out they'll switch it up on you. Keeps you on your feet.

So yeah, trying to "blog" some more. Whatever that means. Shamelessly self promote. Oh chirp.

Enjoy.

m + j

Sunday, November 29, 2009

iPhone: LA

We both love our iphone cameras and have been abusing them as of late. Wish Canon came out with a device that could shoot 21 megapixels and fits into a pocket. At the rate we are going, it's probably not that far off in the future.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Take out.


From the Haute Living Margarit Mondavi shoot... Chef Suzanne Harrison was poking around in the garden before the shoot. What followed was unavoidable...

Tonight is Timothy Archibald's Apple Store talk on Personal Work. Be there or be square.. 7 PM. A little place called Stockton St @ Market.

See you there.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Legends

Anyone who has ever grown up in a small town knows that everyone knows everyone. Whether you want to or not. That is exactly how the whole state of Hawai'i is. This is even more true of the surfing community. My whole family surfs including my mom. Needless to say I have had Hawaiian surfing culture instilled in me since I was born. Professional surfers in Hawai'i are the equivalent to celebrities here on the mainland. Even if you are the best surfer in your town, everyone gives you respect and in Hawai'i it's all about respect. No one cares what kind of car you drive, where you live, or how much money make... Especially if you surf well.

Derek and Michael Ho are brothers from Oahu. They are both legendary in the surf world. I had a chance to meet them and hang out with them (thanks to my older brother Keone) the last time I was home. My brother asked me to take a couple of shots of Derek and some of his boards that he had drew on. We met at Gavin Beschen's house across from Rocky's and used his yard to snap the photos. I asked if I could take some individual portraits of everyone there, and these were the favorites.



Derek Ho

Michael Ho

Da Boys


Keone Law

Gavin Beschen

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

More


This chick was just ripping.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Contest Entry



'Tis the season for contest entries, and tons 'o work, too. Getting ready to take a couple days off, but not before working incessantly for a couple weeks first. Hey, you do what you've gotta do, right?

Been going through a bunch of negs in preparation for this years Billboard Photo Contest. Normally we'd never shoot live music, but from time to time, when our friends are playing a show at a good venue, we'll bust out the Hassy and some high speed film to get a little nuts. This one was Pepper and friends at the Greek Theater in Berkeley... and nuts it was.

Last night was somewhat sleepless, so I figured I'd jump on the scanner and take care of some business-- until 4:30 AM. This shot is the first of a few we will try to get posted. . . lots of smiles. Smiles make us happy. We hope they make you happy, too.

Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

El Diablo


Every once in awhile there is a photo that is so foul and offensive that we can't pass it up. This one was snapped by one of our friends, Gutman, while we were in a little place called Sayulita, Mexico. Sunburned, hammered, and satanic, this guy is pretty much a work of art on his own. Sorry if it offends some of you. What you can't see here are the huge, freshly stitched wounds that look like the result of a knife fight, or a bottle fight, or dog fight, or, or, or. . .

Is that a bad case of gout in the subject's right pinkie finger? Hm.

Hey, at least it doesn't involve two girls and a cup.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Called Out.

Well, it finally happened. We were called out in the blogosphere. Well, eh hem, hmm, mainly it was my doing. Typical.

Jasmine doesn't even write on our blog that much, or any other ones for that matter (But she's great when she does) so we know it wasn't her. Still, nonetheless, she was attached, just like I am to her. See it all HERE.

So "bird." still lives. The only difference is now there's identification. Sort of like the Audubon books... but different. Yyyeah.

Obviously it was so profound, as you can tell by the high number of comments.

More blogosphere shtuff to come. Soon. Shooting tons of editorial this week, so a little tied up.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

At At-Edge


So At-Edge recently redid their website. It's quite cool, actually, and instead of just showing a select handful of photographers on the home screen, it now cycles through all the photographers at random. This is nice, because when you're that big AB looking for your next photog, and you scurry to the At-Edge site, you might just see this, and then hire based off of that. Or you might go straight to who you were looking for in the first place. Either way, we like it. Shameless, indeed.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

+1


Here's another one from the Jed York shoot.


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Smiles Part II


One more from the San Francisco Bay Guardian shoot. This guy smiled so much, how could he not be included again?

Exactly.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Back in Biz


Until now we've still been posting on the old blog, which, I'm pretty sure, nobody reads. Ever. So bring your commas, and lets get pink with this groundbreaking (sarcasm) new blog (which Jasmine kindly started a millennium ago).

And by the way, if you are interested in the old blog comprised of more shameless self promotion, you can find it here.

We're out... and going to a punctuation party.

Enjoy.