At the end of my last night shooting a rather grueling project for the French Open, which had built a regulation clay tennis court and exhibition in the middle of one of the world’s largest and poshest open-air malls (The Place), I was looking forward to a little R&R. Instead, as I gathered up my equipment and prepared to head home, I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. The young girl on the other end asked […]
read moreRock the Web Las Vegas Trip
Canon PowerShot S100 – Six Weeks On
Dropping 430 big buckaroos at Christmas for a Canon PowerShot S100 (and waiting several weeks stuck in the quagmire of backorder hell), I added the first point-and-shoot camera to my arsenal since 2003, when I bought the very underwhelming Canon PowerShot S50 while living in Hawaii (and after several years of unrequited love, that oddly-designed little camera died on me in 2007). While I’m fairly happy with my iPhone 4 camera for candid shots while out and about, I have […]
read moreMongolian Wedding
This was definitely the year to have a wedding. Everyone and their dog got married this year. Which is pretty amazing considering most countries haven’t even legalized dog marriage yet. With my own wedding less than two months away, I had to stand in for my fiancée at her older brother’s wedding in Xinjiang, China. And of course in addition to being the surrogate sibling, I also took on wedding photographer duties. And as usual I was the token foreigner […]
read moreJoyful Wedding
Joy and Chris held more of a reception than a wedding at the Westin on Financial Street in Beijing. Their real nuptials had been held in Joy’s hometown in Guizhou a few weeks earlier, but since most of their Beijing buddies couldn’t join the actual wedding, they held another “wedding” at a nicely chosen location. Complete with bridesmaids and groomsmen to fill out the photos, the day went well and moments of merriment and frolicking were captured throughout the day […]
read moreBavarian Wedding
I met Stephan and Christine while studying at Sichuan University in 2004. And I’d like to say I hung out with them all the time there, but they spent most of their time in and out of the classroom making out with each other and not paying much attention to the rest of us (not really). Fortunately Stephan loved soccer almost as much as Christine (ok, actually not even close, but at least he loved soccer enough to join the […]
read moreHawaii Engagement
While visiting my fiancee in Hawaii, one of her good friend’s Li Juan also had her fiance in town visiting. Actually officially they were already married, though they hadn’t had a wedding ceremony yet, nor taken any engagement pictures together. While I couldn’t help them with the first problem, I did offer to take some engagement pictures for them. In the end they only had a couple of hours to take pictures and didn’t want to go overboard with them, […]
read moreJay Hubert: Exploring Asia With a Camera
Recently the University of Hawaii’s monthly magazine Malamalama ran a short article about me entitled “Jay Hubert: Exploring Asia with a camera.” My friend Jason had wanted to submit some freelance articles to them, and thought I would somehow make a good subject (and up until that point I thought that Jason always exercised exceptionally good judgment!). I don’t think either of us realized during the ‘interview’ process just how short the article would be, as Jason sent me a […]
read moreMy Jeonju International Film Festival Experience
The 9th Annual Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) was held from May 1-9, 2008 in Jeonju, the 12th largest city in South Korea. JIFF is Korea’s second largest film festival behind the massive Pusan International Film Festival. Offering a cozy setting in a city famous for its small town atmosphere and traditional architecture – as well as delicious Jeonju bibimbab – JIFF screened a total of 195 films from 40 countries in several venues centrally located around the city’s aptly […]
read moreKorea’s MediACT a Brilliant Idea
I recently returned from a trip to Korea to shoot (as DP) a short film there for a few weeks. It was my first trip back to Korea since I lived in Seoul for two months in the summer of 2006 to study Korean. And it was fantastic. It definitely rekindled my intangibly strong attraction to Korea: the spicy yet healthy food that my stomach and heart appreciated much more than the oily fair I usually treat them to in […]
read moreBeijing Film Academy – FAQ
Several years ago I was asked to blog about my experiences studying at Beijing Film Academy (BFA) on my friend’s website Asianfilms.org (which has now morphed into AsiaPacificFilms.com, an excellent resource for streaming hard-to-find films from Asia and the Pacific). Little did I realize at the time that it would propel me to become the unofficial contact for foreigners wanting to come study at BFA, as the BFA English-language website was practically nonexistent. Eventually I added this Beijing Film Academy […]
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