Hatteras Yacht’s newest ad has hit the street.  This piece is for their GT series of sportfishing boats, and encourages readers to visit them at the FLL boat show and see their new GT70.  The photo they chose for this campaign is from a series of high energy shots I took from a chase boat in San Juan harbor.  It was all I could do to hang on to my camera while 40 sportfishing boats powered up and out the inlet during a Bimini start.  This Hatteras GT caught some boat wakes just right and was almost launched while passing in front of El Morro castle.  She landed gently and flew past.

Just wrapping up a recent project with this little creation.  A client with very specific needs left me with a 1200 colorful files.  Don’t blink, you might miss a few options.

Back in the studio this week to shoot some more tackle.  This time it’s some close up work for an upcoming print catalog.  Perfect time to tinker around in post and create some sparkle.  Here are a few shiny lures from the Canyon Gear collection.

No sunscreen, no salt spray, no moving parts. It’s studio time. I’m gearing up to shoot the entire line of Canyon Gear lures this month for a revolutionary web site they are building. It will be like nothing the tackle industry has seen when it’s complete. Meanwhile, I have lots of files yet to capture. I’ve partnered up with Catalog Kings in their Pompano Beach studio to pull this off. So much to learn inside those walls.

I’ve taken to the skies with my latest advertising client.  The global aeronautic company Embraer has picked a nice jumping Blue Marlin for their new ad campaign.  This campaign features the Phenom 300.  An executive jet that is unparalleled in it’s class – range 1,971 NM, max speed Mach 0.78, max operating altitude 45,000 feet, and an interior design by BMW designworksUSA.  And you thought a fishing boat was a cool toy…

It’s a busy week for workstation maintenance in the office.  Lot’s of updates and upgrades going on.  It started with a single hard drive failure.  For five years I’ve been spinning a Western Digital Raptor drive.  It has been a solid workhorse as a OS X boot drive, although I would call it’s death premature.  Lucky for me it failed slowly with some clicking and read/write issue.  I was able to grab my /user folder with all my preferences before unplugging this drive for the last time.  Perfect time to try out an SSD for a boot drive from OWC.  Wow, what a difference in speed when opening and closing programs.  No heat, no noise, blink, done.  And then came the pull of Adobe’s newest software version of Photoshop CS6.  Plenty of cool new features to play with.  Although still plenty of bugs that have it crashing time after time when trying to save a simple single file.  Dozens of crash reports later and Adobe informs me that it’s Apple’s fault.  Hmmmm, I’m not convinced.  I figured out a work around and also notice that at times CS6 is painfully slow performing some basic tasks.  Since a new Mac Pro is not going to happen anytime soon for me (or ever happen if you believe Apple’s recent WWDC announcement).  Time to switch back to CS5 and make this old CPU keep working for a few more years.  But wait, maybe now is the time to upgrade video cards.  My original NVIDA 7300 GT 256MB has been a fine card, but it isn’t Open CL capable and is a bit short on memory.  So a switch to a Radeon 5770 1 GB card would give me loads of video memory and Open CL performance.  This will also let me make to big switch from iMovie to Final Cut Pro.  Oh the joy of new software and a few hundred hours of a learning curve.

I recently had the opportunity to shoot the newest boat to leave the shed at Weaver Boatworks – 80′ Islamar.  This boat was going to be stopping in Palm Beach for a few days during it’s delivery to Puerto Rico for it’s new owner.  I caught up with it one day in the boat yard for some interior work.  And then the next morning offshore while Jim Weaver and the new owners took her out for a Marlin Magazine boat review.  What an amazing boat.  Weaver has again raised the bar for state of the art custom boatbuilding with this hull.  Here is a boat review piece I put together.  Thanks to Andy at Ocean Helicopters for the ride.

To see more still images of this incredible sport fisherman on my AquaPaparazzi.com photo web site, type “Weaver” in the keyword search box.

What do you get the guy who has everything? Well if you have a real good friend who thinks outside of the box, it’s easy. A client recently hired me to sneak up on his best friend and take his picture. Cool idea, makes a great gift. All the more special when your plan is to catch this guy by surprise with a group of his best friends out having fun. It took a few people on the inside to pull it off smoothly, but in the end this plan came together. The idea was to catch him when he least expects it… something like several miles offshore using a Robinson 44 as a tripod. Surprise! Thanks to Florida Coast to Coast Helicopters for the smooth ride.

It’s amazing how easy it is to cancel weekend plans when the phone rings for work. Particularly when it’s Hatteras Yachts and they need a few shots of a unique vessel. This photo shoot was a few quick shots of a Cabo 44 that was transiting thru South Fla on it’s way to the Gulf. I only had a brief time as this delivery crew was anxious to keep moving and beat a cold front that was bearing down on their destination. Luckily they found an overnight slip near Port Everglades and gave me the next morning to work. A few quick shots and they were on their way. What a cool express boat configuration. I can’t wait to take one fishing…

Just back from a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The goal was to shoot a stable of boats from the custom boat builder F & S Boatworks. By pure chance, three of these boats are tied up in Club Nautico’s marina this month. The perfect time to catch them together and make them shine. While F & S might not be a familiar name in all boating circles yet, it will be soon. This company builds some of the finest looking sportfishing boats on the water. And they are way more than just a pretty face. The craftsmanship and finish work are world class. And good luck trying to catch up with one out on the water. Thanks to the ace pilots from Vertical Solutions based out of the Isla Grande Airport, this two day shoot was like shooting fish in a barrel. It sure helped to luck into a window of spectacular weather. I’ve added a few of these shots to the “Sport fishing Boats/Marine Hardware” gallery of my web site. For a quick glimpse of the trip, check out the mini movie below.