Assignment: PISMO BEACH - from the archive

Publication: New York Times

Received assignment: Thursday 03/22/2010 9:00 AM

Slug: 2DAYSPISMO

Headline: Old-School Surf Town, Pismo Beach, CA

Photographer Assigned: DaSilva, Peter

To be shot: Sunday 03/27/2010 08:00 PM

Deadline Date: ASAP

Summary: >PHOTO MEMO:Old-School Surf Town Pismo Beach, CA

This daytrip-style piece for Escapes section will focus on the laid-back qualities and old-school charm of the central coast beach community of Pismo Beach, CA., about 175 miles north of Los Angeles.

Forget about the glitz of Malibu--think bikes, kites, dunes buggies and cold Coronas.

--The Oceano Dunes State Park, the only state park that allows dune buggies and 4-wheel drives on the beach.

--The Sky's the Limit Toy & Kite Shop

--Tomasko Salt Water Taffy

--Old West Cinnamon Rolls

--Banana-seat bike at Beach Cycle Rentals

--Pismo Beach Pier

--Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge

--SeaCrest Resort 

--Mo's Smokehouse Barbecue

Lower remote angle as we were following a custom sand rail through the dunes. I am in the passenger seat triggering the remote with a Pocketwizard MulitMAX and shooting with a Canon 5DmkII, 16-35mm ƒ2.8.

This Escapes assignments was one of those shoots that sounds like a fun trip, but always ends up being a ton of work. I was given 2 1/2 days to fulfill the requirements to illustrate this story. Starting with about a day of phone calls to make arrangements, which is not included in the assignment, to visit the 9 different locations. Once I make a schedule out that kept me moving in one direction, rather than backtracking across town all day long. I started thinking about how much time I would need per shoot, travel between location and what and how I will be doing the shoot.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the 2 1/2 days includes travel time. That's the 4 hrs/ 240 mile down from the San Francisco Bay Area to Pismo beach and back.

This assignment had a priority shoot and this is what I wanted to focus on in this post. The lead of the piece was about being able to drive dune buggies at Oceano Dunes State Park. I was advised by the writer that I should rent a dune buggy to be able to reach the area where hundreds of off-road drivers play in the dune. In my arrangements, I made plans to rent a dune buggy from Sun Buggie Fun Rentals. But this is where the problem came in to play, how do you shoot while driving? I decided the best way to optimize the shoot, was to mount remote cameras on the dune buggy to get the most of the shoot with different points of view. After approaching the owner of Sun Buggie, he offered to send me out with a driver, his son, so I could concentrate on the shoot. 

The following images show the camera remote rigs I setup for the shoot. You will notice there is a red and blue buggie set with the remotes. Well, ten minute in to the dunes, the red buggie broke a drive axle. So a half hour later, after switching the cameras over to a replacement buggie some 4 miles out in the middle of the dunes, we were off to find the other off-road enthusiast with two remotes and one hand held camera.

Here are links to the New York Times story Where the Old California Spirit Comes to the Beach to Play and image slide show illustrating the story.

The 80+ lb. black Pelican case holds most of my remote clamps and hardware, which includes Magic arms, OverXposed remote plates and lighting pins, Matthews grip heads, ball heads, 3/8" stainless steel rods, super clamps and misc. hardware. The Orange Pelican case was for other cameras which also traveled in the dune buggy for protection from the sand.

OverXposed Pro Mini remote plate, mounted with lighting pins on the bottom to be set on grip heads.

Lower side location: 2 Super clamps and magic arms and a Matthellini clamp and grip heads mounted to the bottom of the OverXposed platform with a ball head and Canon 5DmkII with a Sigma 14mm ƒ2.8 lens. Another clamp will be added to the hot shoe of the camera for more stability.

Upper location: 2 Super clamps and magic arms mounted to the hot shoe lighting pin atop the Canon 1DmkIIN with a Sigma 14mm ƒ2.8 lens. A super clamp and quick release plate was used to mount the camera. I always mount my remote rigs with a three point system for better stability.

Both lower and upper mounts with the three point mounting system.  Two rock solid remotes able to capture video with out any vibration in the image.

Both remotes were bagged to protect the cameras and lens from the sand and were triggered buy PocketWizard-MultiMAX.

Lower side location: 2 Super clamps and magic arms and a Matthellini clamp and grip heads mounted to the bottom of the OverXposed platform with a ball head and Canon 5DmkII with a Sigma 14mm ƒ2.8 lens. Super clamp with a Matthews small grip heads and a 3/8" stainless rod to the hot shoe pin mount at the top of the camera for more stability.

Lower remote angle as we were following a custom sand rail through the dunes. I am in the passenger seat triggering the remote with a PocketWizard-MultiMAX and shooting with hand held Canon 5DmkII, 16-35 ƒ2.8.

Top remote angle as we were following a custom sand rail through the dunes. I am in the passenger seat triggering the remote with a PocketWizard-MultiMAX.

Remote camera rig equipment list: 

Oops, I'm blocking the remotes. So much for the one armed self-portrait.

• 1 - Canon 5DmkII
• 1 - Canon 1DmkIIN
• 2 - Sigma 14mm ƒ2.8 lens
• 1 - OverXposed Mini Pro Platform
• 4 -  Bogen Magic arms
• 6 - Matthews Super clamps
• 1 - Matthellini 6" clamp
• 2 - OX hotshoe lighting pin mounts
• 3 - Matthews grip heads
• 2 - Matthews mini grip heads
• 3 - Cardellini connectors
• 1 - 12" 3/8" stainless rod
• 2 - Pocketwizard MultiMAX transceivers
• 2 - plastic shopping bags!

Assignment: NIGHT OUT - from the archive

Publication: New York Times

Received assignment: Thursday 03/11/2010 02:00 PM

Slug: Night Out

Headline: Night Out with Benjamin and Peter Bratt

Photographer Assigned: DaSilva, Peter

To be shot: Sunday 03/14/2010 06:00 PM

Deadline Date: *Need pix by Monday, 3/15, at 10 AM EST.

Summary: A Night Out with Benjamin and Peter Bratt.  They are planning a cruise in Benjamin’s low-rider, thought that would be a good place to start, with the view of the Bay Bridge in the background.  Sounds like at some point, they will stop for a bite at La Taqueria.  

Peter & Benjamin Bratt along Mission Street. This was the final edit that was published.

Night Out assignment is Style section piece where a photographer and writer document an evening out with a notable personality. This one was with Benjamin and Peter Bratt that coincided with Peter's new film "La Mission" starring his brother Benjamin.

I was advised that we were going to tag along in Benjamin’s low-rider as we made our way around the Mission District of San Francisco. This immediately through up a red flag for me, how was I going to make pictures of the two Bratt brothers from the back seat of a car. Luckily, my editors at the New York Times give me the freedom to think and work outside the box with full support.

The question was how do I show these to guys cruising the Mission in a low-rider and make it interesting. These are the first ideas that popped in to my head. Anything I came up with also had to be coordinated with the Bratts and their publicist in LA. I only had two days to plan for this shoot.

(1) Shoot from another car. This takes an extra person and a fair amount of logistics to coordinate two cars through a dense and crowded neighborhood. This also takes the spontaneity out of the shoot and it becomes a setup image.

(2) Place a remote camera on the hood facing back so you can see them driving.

(3) Just shoot from inside the car.

#1 - Out of the question, no budget for an assistant and logistically impossible to   shoot from car to car in two lane streets in San Francisco.

#2 - Need to get the Ok from Benjamin to place a 40+ lb. camera rig on his $30,000 paint job.

#3 - Boring!

After a few phone conversations with the publicist, I realized if I wanted to do the camera rig, I needed to prove to them it was going to be safe and the image was going to be different and great! There is nothing better than a test image to demonstrate your idea.

So on Friday night I started to setup the camera rig on my own car to test its stability and to create an image to show the Bratts. After about an hour of rigging and wiring I took it out for a test drive. There is nothing like a 70-mile and hour drive with 40 lbs suction cup rig with a Canon 5D MKII, a 14 mm lens on your hood tethered to a Mac Book Pro. It work perfectly the first time and have done other rigs like this, I had no worries about it staying put.

Test camera rig on my car, needed to use a double suction cup setup due to the raised center ridge on the Impala which I also had on my Lincoln.

After testing, both shooting still images and running some HD video. I sent a test image of my self to the Bratts and awaited an answer. The next day I spoke with Peter and the only hitch was he needed to find out from the cars painter to see if it would be an issue. Other than that, it was a go for the camera rig.

So on the day of the shoot, I showed up early. We were to meet at an open pier on the San Francisco waterfront near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. As I was waiting, a 1963 Chevy Impala, dark maroon drove on to the pier with a couple in it. I figured it was Benjamin’s car, but Benjamin was nowhere to be seen. It was a friend who was storing it here in the Bay Area, since Benjamin lives in LA. Before you knew it. Peter, Benjamin, and the painters showed up. After a short discussion and assurance from the painter that the suction cups were not going to hurt the paint job, it was a go!

Peter & Benjamin Bratt with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Therefore, we started with a few images of Benjamin and Peter with the car and the bridge. From there, I setup the camera rig, wire the computer and rigged the dashboard light which took about 20 min. to get up and running. With me sitting in the back seat, Mac Book Pro in hand, I captured the images directly in to the computer as I monitored the shots via Live View.

Remote camera rig equipment list:

My one armed self-portrait with the Bratts.

• 1 - Canon 5DmkII
• 1 - Sigma 14mm ƒ2.8 lens
• 1- Linhoff ballhead
• 2 - 10" Woods suction cups with cheese plates
• 1 - OverXposed Pro Platform
• 5 -Matthews grip head
• 5- Matthews mini grip heads
• 4 - 3/8' stainless steel rods
• 9- OX Gear lighting pins
• 1- Hot shoe lighting pin 
• 15 m. USB cable
• 15" Mac Book Pro (Canon Utility software-tethered shooting)
• 6 - Custom LED lights strips (dashboard light) tungsten balance.

SF Giants World Series Parade

Being on the other side of the fence was the place to be!

I was fortunately to have been assigned to cover the World Series this year, which also afforded me access to the San Francisco Giants World Series Championship Victory Parade from in side the fence. Giving me the best view of a once in a lifetime experience. 

Please enjoy a few of my favorite off beat images from the parade.

A San Francisco Mounted Police horse adorned with the San Francisco Giants logo.

Thousands of fans lined the streets and any accessible vantage points to get a glimpse of the 2010 World Series Champions San Francisco Giants during their victory parade along Market Street.

Two UPS delivery people attempt to find a way passed the thousands of Giants fans gathered for the 2010 World Series Champions San Francisco Giants Victory parade to complete their daily deliveries.

San Francisco Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff displays his rally thong during the 2010 World Series Champions San Francisco Giants Victory parade along Market Street.