Monday, December 2, 2013

Great Whites

Aloha,

Thanks for checking in with us.

As promised, this blog will be about business (mostly.)

Gwen and I found out that kid # 2 is going to be another girl!!  Pretty exciting stuff.

OK, seriously - back to business...  Cesere Brothers Photography has had a great year.  People from all over the world continue to collect our work and a repeatedly add to their collections.  We're so thankful for all of you!  Plus, we get to see a lot of you who come back each year to visit which is always fun. 

This year we got to work with a few new productions companies, one of which was shooting commercials for Apple.  Anytime we can get put in the same category as Apple it feels like we're doing something right.  The bigger production we worked on with them hasn't been released yet and we don't really know when it will be - we're hoping it'll be a Superbowl commercial.  Just kidding, although it would be cool.  On another shoot with Apple we got to work for a day at the Carthaginian and shoot some underwater scenes for a quick video montage they were putting together for an iPad commercial.  Here's the link (don't forget to watch the video too):

Apple iPad Ad
Apple iPad Ad


http://www.apple.com/ipad/life-on-ipad/

We will keep you posted on when the next ad/commercial comes out from Apple.  We're pretty excited about the next one, it should be pretty cool.

This year we also got to be on the cover of the local Maui No Ka Oi magazine again, plus we got to shoot a bunch of pictures for the issues main article about snorkeling around Maui.  It's always fun to work with the nice people at Maui No Ka Oi.  Here is a link to some of that work:

Maui No Ka Oi Cover
Maui No Ka Oi Cover






http://www.mauimagazine.net/

Great White Sharks:

This year Dan and I decided to check Great White Sharks off our bucket list.  We planned a live aboard trip to Guadalupe Island off of Mexico to try out luck at swimming with these monsters.  We had a few extra days at the beginning of our trip so we decided to call up an old friend and do some diving off Catalina Island in California. 

If you haven't dove in California you are missing out!  The kelp forests are simply amazing.  If you get the chance we HIGHLY recommend calling up our friend Jerry Lewis, who owns the Magician Dive boat in San Pedro, and get out to Catalina and see some kelp!  Jerry and his crew/freinds are awesome at what they do and they make the trip so much fun.  We had some of the best charter food we've ever had.  Honestly, we thought Maui had high standards for tour operators - the Magician makes Maui look like a J.V. team.

Keep in mind that diving in California is a lot different that Maui.  In California there is no such thing as guided dives, the boat simply gets you to the reef and explains the dive sit and let's you go for it.  We love that but we also understand that it's not for everyone.  We also had the good fortune of meeting up with another good friend, Lori Sherrill, who helped show us the sites underwater.  Did I mention that Lori is a course director for PADI and works for Sports Chalet in Southern California, so she totally knew everything about the dives we did.  So I guess we were a bit spoiled on our Catalina trip, but it was very awesome and we will definitely be going back to visit Jerry and Lori again soon!

Here is the link to Jerry's boat - The Magician: http://magicianscuba.com/  It is totally worth the trip, plus the cost will blow you away (especially if you're used to Maui prices.)

So once we finished up in Catalina and got comfortable in the cold water again, we were off to Guadalupe to see the Great Whites.  Here is the video we made from the trip:



It was an awesome trip!  Getting to see Mikey and Great Whites all at the same time was the best.  We hope that Mike will come with us on our trips from now on.  It's really hard to explain how it makes you feel to see a Great White for the first time so you really need to go see for yourself.  

We went out with Islander Charters, which was pretty good.  The crew was great, especially the chef and on a live aboard trip the chef is pretty important.  The boat wasn't fancy at all, so if we go with the girls or kids next time we would probably choose a nicer boat but for three boys it was perfect. 

Our only real complaint was that the crew was really proud of their safety record and that ended up effecting our photography chances.   I know it sounds stupid to be upset for a good safety record, but common we're not picking daisies we're diving with Great Whites - it's supposed to be dangerous.  On the last day, which was the ride back to California, the crew was telling us how they had this great safety record and that they've never had a shark touch the cages.  They even told us that they saw us hanging out of the cages trying to get shots so they purposely moved the bait away from us to keep us safe.  Lame.  We were all disappointed after that conversation.  I think we all wanted to be in the cage when a shark tried to bite through it or at least got stuck in the window trying to get in to get us.  I guess we'll have to try again someday. 

All in all it was a Great experience and we got some pretty cool images.  Here is a link to our "Latest Works" section of our website so that you can see all of our new images:

Latest Works
Now we are getting ready for another Whale Season and another busy Art season.  We can't wait to get this next year going and see what it holds for us.  It seems like Cesere Brothers Photography keeps expanding and getting more fun at the same time.  We're excited to plan our next trip and go on our next adventure.

Thanks for following along and keeping in touch.  Let's plan a trip together again soon!

Aloha & Mahalo,

John

1 comment:

  1. Wow...amazing photography, as always.
    I am SO happy that you guys decided to go off on your own and that you are doing so well..successful in so many ways.
    I don't even go out with LD anymore..it's just not the same.
    Missing you all, and so happy for your family. Hugs!
    P.S. I have been on Big Island for 3 years now and still loving it.

    ReplyDelete