Apitherapy

Coalinga, CA

4 stings today.  The girls are feisty....  I kind of like it.   And it's supposed to be good for you...

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They're Here

The Almond bloom is here.  The bees and I are rejoicing.

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The Zen of BeeKeeping

Firebaugh, CA

This month, Ive been shooting beekeepers for a documentary I am directing with Randy and Fenton.  3 weeks into it, I  can tell you a certain pattern has emerged.  The whole thing is so repetitive and very zen..... almost hypnotic.  And yet, just beneath the surface, there is this underlying tragedy.  I have seen many a beekeeper reduced to tears when I least expected it.

 Ultimately, I think,  it's in part what will make this whole documentary so compelling.  Bees have highly predictable behavior, which allows us to use them for pollinating, making honey, etc..., and yet, the more I film, the more I realize, no one knows a damn thing about them.  A hive is dead and 3 beekeepers have 3 reasons why it happened.  Why they swarm, drift, die, grow, reproduce.... the whole thing has been managed for hundreds of years (It is the 2nd oldest profession on earth), and yet, there is still so much variability.  And now that bees are dying off in staggering numbers, it's really begun to highlight how little we actually understand.  

One beekeeper said to me after he lost over half of his hives "The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results".  Of course, he was referring to the fact that he would be managing his bees the same way next year and just crossing his fingers hoping that the bees would be ok.  But really, in this industry, the truth is that they COULD be ok next year.  It didn't seem to me to be all that bad of a strategy. Or at least, just as good as working yourself to death to address a problem that may or may not exist.

So, Im filming something that is, on the surface, so calm and serene.  Usually one or two beekeepers in an orchard working their bees in complete silence.  But underneath that picturesque scene something ugly is going on.  And I have no idea what's going to happen next...

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The Malecon at 3am

Havana, Cuba

A little slice of Gay Habana shows up every night on the Malecon - directly across from the gas station that, Im pretty sure, sells more 2 peso bottles of rum than anything else.  It all feels very high school - drinking rum out of plastic cups, dodging the police.  Only you knew it was different.  One night I saw people being handcuffed and taken away in a truck.  Though no one wanted to talk about why.  And the longer you hang out the more you realize that no interaction lasts long without a monetary exchange.  That sounds like a very bleak depiction of what was overall a very fun experience.  But what was for me just a big party, was a days work for many of those Cuban hoping to score with a tourist.  While for others, it was something else entirely.  Like many of my experiences in foreign countries, the sense that I'm missing the big picture was behind every interaction - making the whole thing much more interesting... and a little bit dangerous.


I thought these guys were young hustlers, but they werre actually priests in training. Spreading the word between renditions of Mariah Carey songs.  Hmmmmm

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The End of (Fidel) Castro - The Book

I just put this photo book together of my trip to Cuba that happened to coincide with Fidel's announcement that he was turning all of his duties over to his brother.  Let me know if you would like a copy.  It's pretty good.  Im biased, I know, but really. Its pretty good.



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9 Out of 10 Kids Prefer Cameras to Guns

Havana, Cuba

In high school, I was very proud of my Pearl Jam T-shirt that read "9 out of 10 Kids Prefer Crayons to Guns".  That shirt not only suggested I was at the Pearl Jam Concert, but also that I had distinctive and controversial political views, which would make me appear complex and mysterious.  None of which was actually true.  (I bought the shirt at musicland in the irving mall)

Anyway, I was thinking of that shirt when I was preparing to take this photo. Like the shirt, this photo would be drenched in the kind of political overtones that would have made the activist collegiate me wet my panties.  But I was also thinking about a photo in the Times a few months ago of a young Iraqi boy playing with a toy machine gun, pointing it at the camera.  It was very menacing, and, I suppose, meant to make us all feel weary about the future and the violence being bred into the younger generation.  When I saw that photo, I thought, "Wow, that photographer was probably so thrilled to find that kid"   Then I wondered if he set it up - you know, to get the lighting just right.  Or pose the boy in a way that would have the greatest impact.

I was thinking all this, since I was considering doing the same thing.  But then Maria, the woman with the video camera in the photo (a Cuban studies Major and documentary filmmaker herself), got in there with her video camera and I soon realized no posing would be necessary.  That little girl, who hadn't given the gun much of a second thought, now realized that it was her key to getting alot of adult attention.  Then everything changed.  It became her prop for the evening. She started putting it in her mouth, dancing around the room and pretending to shoot anyone who would pay attention. So, when I finally picked up my camera and starting shooting Maria shooting the kids pretending to shoot us, the circle was complete and started to feed on itself.  It was a perfect symbiotic relationship.  No coaching was required, though in the end, in truth, it's more of a statement about the power of the camera than a justification for an anti gun rally. 

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My First Impression

Santiago de la Vega, Cuba

I saw this guy at the procession of St Lazarus.

This is a yearly ritual in which those who follow the local religion of Santaria walk 20 something miles, sometimes dragging themselves on bloodied hands and knees, to a local church to pray for healing. Its very dramatic, in true Cuban style. Those making the pilgrimage pull themselves up to the alter, cry and pray and make a scene - its all about release, I discovered. Which is great. I wish I had more release in my life. I was feeling very connected, and in line with the spirits and all that. And I was intrigued to find out if this macho guy (who, I imagined, practiced his macho look in the mirror) would be reduced to a quivering sobbing mess once he made it to the alter.  That would be something to see. 

I would like that. And in a way, it would be totally hot.   Because it would mean that he was beyond appearances.  He really was macho, and yet, very in touch with his emotional side.  A well rounded and self aware man, reaching within himself to feel the power of a spiritual world with which he was deeply connected.  As he approached the alter, he indeed, had his moment. But I felt no power.  No energy.  No spirituality.  All I truly felt was the urge to floss (continued...)

I now thought, perhaps he was homeless.  Though, Im not sure homeless people exist in Cuba. What I do believe is that the superficial is often the most profound.  


And I no longer found him attractive. Well, maybe a little...  

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Hello

As a Preditor (producer, editor, director), currently working at World of Wonder, I spend alot of time traveling and developing / shooting documentaries.  I am lucky that I have the opportunity to work on projects that I really enjoy and care about.  What I love to do and what I get paid to do are virtually the same thing.  But, I am still always producing something for someone else, and there is an objective in mind that allows so much of what is going on to slip by and be ultimately forgotten about.  This blog is really motivation for me to take pictures and tell the little stories that sometimes are my most memorable events of a shoot, but I won't prioritize because they aren't directly connected to the job Im working on or the story Im trying to tell.  I want to change that.  and appreciate the moment, capture it, and share it.  Since I have always loved photography as a hobby,  I figured a blog like this could be a way to keep it up because I will have a (tiny) audience, which, for whatever reason, I really need.  Doing it for myself feels like such a waste of time.  sigh....

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