The magazine is here! My Bruise Cruise Festival photos made it into OOR Magazine, the longest running and #1 music mag in the Netherlands.
They used more photos for the article written by festival attendee Bram van Schaik, but they featured this one of BC co-captain and Turbo Fruits' front-man, Jonas Stein. (Click on the photo to see more of the articles that are featured this month including, Santigold, Philip Glass, and musician/cover model Jack White.)
Thank you Michelle Cable, Jonas, Bram, OOR, and everyone who helped to make the Bruise Cruise Festival happen, behind the scene, and part of it!
A visual diary of some of my recent adventures in Eleuthera, Bahamas and Washington, DC:
My last day in the Bahamas was a long one. It began at 5am with me driving my golf cart "off road" to a very remote part of Harbour Island. It was dark, I had no cell phone service, and I knew if anything happened to the cart it was going to be a loong walk back! This photograph was totally worth it though!!
Went back to my room to pack and check out. Turned in my golf cart and hopped on a single engine ferry boat back to the island of Eleuthera where I'd be catching my first of three flights for the day. This marked the official end of my "work" portion of the trip, and with an hour to wait for the plane, I finally allowed myself to have a Bahamian beer to celebrate the occasion. (Am I allowed to classify photographing custom luxury fishing boats on an exotic island work??)
Either way, here are a few personal images from the island:
So I caught my flight from the island to Ft Lauderdale, then caught my next flight from Ft Lauderdale to Newark, continuing on to my final destination, Reagan International...almost! I landed in Newark at 6pm. Flight was delayed for 5 hours, then eventually cancelled. While in line to re-book with about 50 people in front of me I was weighing my options when finally I just asked aloud to anyone within earshot, "Anyone want to go in on a rental car with me?" Three people thought it was a great idea so off we went to Avis! I didn't get a photo of them, but we had a great time making the four hour drive from Newark to DC together! Actually I don't even remember their names, I just remember that the man who drove us worked for Chevron and was the choice to drive because he was coming from L.A and was on Pacific time. I really didn't want to drive after the long day I had and the other two traveling with us were a couple on their last day of their honeymoon, coming in from Italy! Finally got to the DC airport where we returned the rental car and went out separate ways via taxi cabs. I had never been to where I was staying, at a friend of my brother-in-laws house, so I only had an address to give the cab driver. He had never heard of it. BUT he did have a GPS which I inputed the address into and then directed him on which roads to turn. He didn't seem too familiar with how to use the GPS, maybe I should have caught onto this when he got the GPS out of the trunk! I finally made it to my destination and spent the next couple of days in DC. Here are a few images in and around the Smithsonian:
"Learn something new! This is where everything is going to go. On the computer in over a year." Recently overheard from a middle-aged woman in a bookstore predicting the future of the internet...
Maybe someone missed the boat on that one? Speaking of missing the boat, the Bruise Cruise is done and over! Clearly I made it back safe, and am just now attempting to put words to the experience. I want to go back!
How did I got on the boat in the first place? January 26th (my birthday) I got a call from SPIN Magazine saying I had WON their grandprize!! Needless to say, it was a great birthday present.
So here's a little bit of music to listen to while watching the slideshow of Polaroids I took while onboard the cruise. Personally I believe every band should have an obligatory song containing lyrics of "la la la" in some repetitious manner as to increase the audience's drunkest member's ability to participate in singing along.Thee Oh Sees fulfilled this need for me and so much more. Listen to my unofficial Bruise Cruise anthem, a song that's so catchy and danceable. Thee Oh-Sees - I Was Denied by hells-belles
Then press the play button below to view the slideshow. (Make sure to maximize the show in the bottom right hand corner.)
These actual Polaroids were taken with an SX-70 on The Impossible Project's Push! film. It needs a ton of light for the images to be clear, and responds really well to being heated to "push" the intensity of the colors. I found the tiles by the pool were great for this as they retained a lot of heat.
Here are some of my favorite images from the cruise. (Obviously not Polaroids.) I'll do my best to narrate:
Why were the creepy animals always put on my bed?
I was hoping to photograph people here...
and here, too. Pina coladas got in the way. It's a good time to admit that I know my limits with alcohol. For this reason, I don't drink at all under normal working circumstances. However, a free trip to the Bahamas is not a normal circumstance. I'm allowed to have fun, too. ;-) Although, I did learn my lesson. Some people get drunk and regret things they've done, I got drunk and regret not taking specific pictures.
This was my travel companion, Aly. She knows how to dress well and offers me direction in that area. On the last day I packed everything and then put on some comfy clothes. She saw me and said, "Are you wearing your yoga clothes? **Sigh** I guess it's okay, it's the last day."
Here are a couple more of Aly wearing some of her vintage finest:
"I'm on a boat!"
LIVE MUSIC/BAND MEMBERS:
Tyler of Surfer Blood
The Black Lips
Ty Segall
Jacuzzi Boys
Strange Boys
Turbo Fruits
Everyone loves the Vivian girls
Bass guitar overboard
Every lounge act drinks like a fish, right?
And this happened:
Get Ready...
Get SET!
Elevator Par-tay in full effect!!!
Captain Booze Cruise.
A lively bunch :)
CONGRATS to these two! They got engaged on the cruise! Watch it here.
In an interesting twist of fate, I won SPIN Magazine's Grand Prize Giveaway. It's still surreal and yet surprisingly perfect news in every way. I know there are so many people who are sad that they don't get to go, but I hope that me being the observant person photography has trained me to be, I can report about the event to make everyone feel as if they were there too.
