Jason Poppins

Throughout history, man has tried to defy gravity, wanting desperately to fly like a bird.

FLIGHT MYTHS, LEGENDS & FACTS

° Bellerophon the Valiant, son of the King of Corinth, captured Pegasus, a winged horse. Pegasus took him to a battle with the triple headed monster, Chimera.

° Daedalus was an engineer who was imprisoned by King Minos. With his son, Icarus, he made wings of wax and feathers. Daedalus flew successfully from Crete to Naples, but Icarus, tired to fly too high and flew too near to the sun. The wings of wax melted and Icarus fell to his death in the ocean.

° King Kaj Kaoos attached eagles to his throne and flew around his kingdom

° Alexander the Great harnessed four mythical wings animals, called Griffins, to a basket and flew around his realm.

° Around 400 BC - China
The discovery of the kite that could fly in the air by the Chinese started humans thinking about flying.                     

° 1485 Leonardo da Vinci - The Ornithopter

° 1783 - Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier- the First Hot Air Balloon

Let us not forget the likes of Otto Lilienthal, a German engineer that after more than 2500 flights, he was killed when he lost control because of a sudden strong wind and crashed into the ground. Samuel Langley was an astronomer, who realized that power was needed to help man fly. He built a model of a plane, which he called an aerodrome, that included a steam-powered engine. In 1891, his model flew for 3/4s of a mile before running out of fuel. Then we have the Wright Brothers and it was Wilbur  who piloted the Flyer III for 39 minutes and about 24 miles of circles around Huffman Prairie. He flew the first practical airplane until it ran out of gas.

Now we come full circle and have Jason, a fearless friend of mine, who decided to debunk all of what history has written and obviously is a huge fan of Mary Poppins. Here we have a blatant case of too much drag and not enough lift but never fault a man for trying and doing it with such flair as well.

Source

Frozen

The reason I was invited to have a one-man show in the Tyler Rollins Gallery in Chelsea, New York entitled "12 Below" was because of this image.

Art collector and businessman Marcel Crespo had purchased this photograph from my "Frozen" exhibit in Manila.  Later that year, gallery owner Tyler Rollins saw this image in Marcel's home after which he invited me to have a show in NYC. 

"E.R."

It all happened so quick. One minute I was out for a friendly jog and I happened to look down at my favorite Adidas running shoes and noticed what seemed to be a break down in my laces. It was hard to determine if it was fatigue or if they had succumbed to tongue damage. Whatever the case may be, I realized that it was a life or death situation. I knew it would be tough to lose such a close pair of shoes so time was of the essence.  I raced to the nearest emergency room as fast as my feet could carry me. The doctors worked like a well polish team but the shoes were losing bodily fluids fast. At one point I, thought they would have to use the paddles but if not for the quick work of the doctors, I'm sure these shoes were destined for the bin.

This was shot as an Ad pictorial for Adidas. I had no art direction and was given total creative freedom.

The Man of Speed

I honestly believe that one day my son will find himself behind the wheel of either a Ferarri or Lamborghini. Dylan just loves going fast, whether he's running, on his scooter or driving his pedal car, he wants to go fast. "Cars" is his all time favorite film and when he's online he usually searching for anything that is related to speed. 

Dylan: Where are you going dad ?

Me: To pick up your sister from school. Do you want to go?

Dylan: Sure! Are you going to go fast and drift?

Me: Yup, real fast and we will drift all the way to her school.

Dylan: Dad why are you going so slow? C'mon! Dad you promised.

Me: It's called traffic, get used to it.

"The Ice Man"

I was fortunate to have photographed Mika Immonen, a Finnish professional pool player and WPA World Nine-ball Champion, for a fashion shoot. We got along from the get go. He seemed like a pretty cool dude so I asked him if he would be willing to come back to the studio for a personal sitting.  He agreed and was eager to participate.

I have been asked numerous times how I was able to get this look on his face. After explaining to Mika what I wanted him to do with his hands and body, my only other direction was for him to give me his best primeval scream. This image was part of my exhibition called "One Light" held at the Ayala Museum.

Dylan Defies the Law

I thought it might be fun to take my son Dylan for a walk with his favorite toy truck down Ayala Ave on New Year's Eve. This is the only time of the year when they close down the street. It could almost pass for a Hollywood set. The fearless Finnster takes on Makati City.

The Foundry

I made these images when I was living in Australia. This was shot at a local foundry somewhere in Sydney. These guys were so accommodating and just great to photograph. Their only request was if they could wash up before the shoot. I convinced them not to do so to keep the look as real as possible. The best part of the shoot was they invited me to join them for tea and bickies afterwards (Bickies is Oz speak for biscuit, aka cookie.)

This was shot with available light on a overcast day on a Mamiya RB 67 camera with a 90mm lens on Kodak Tri-X.