So I had this crazy dream last weekend. A dream where I was sent to Hawaii to go whale watching off the shore of Kona with Chris Robinson, the Editor-In-Chief of Outdoor Photographer Magazine. A dream where I found myself taking a helicopter tour over the big island with Chris Gampat, founder of The Phoblographer, marveling over Hi'ilawe Falls, one of the United State's tallest waterfalls, and where I imagined myself zip-lining through a rainforest canopy of Koa and sycamore trees with Videomaker’s Editor-In-Chief Mike Wilhelm and Big Picture Big Sound’s Editor-In-Chief Chris Boylan.
One where I saw myself discussing the personal project of Philip Ryan, an editor of Popular Photography Magazine over a glass of Oban 15, just after a 5-course dinner overlooking the Hawaiian sunset with HD Video Pro’s Editor Neil Matsumoto and Slashgear Executive Editor Chris Davies. In this same dream, I could have sworn I saw myself photographing a luau and discussing handheld photo technique next to a Hawaiian waterfall with Jack Neubart of Shutterbug Magazine just after chimping over images of those very same waterfalls with DP Review’s Magazine Editor Barney Britton.
I also saw myself meandering through a random Hawaiian village sipping on fresh Kona coffee with Imaging Resource’s Associate Editor William Brawley just after bouncing around the back of a old World War 2 military Pinzgauer Jeep as I went off-roading through a private guava forest with Sound & Picture’s Editor-In-Chief Daron James and Digital Trend’s Photography Editor Les Shu. One where I found myself running around an island with two Samsung Imagelogger comrade-in-arms, Fraction Magazine's Editor-In-Chief David Bram and Hawaiian expert and nature photographer Bob Kurtz. A dream in which we had our very own New York PR fashionista posing atop a jetty of lava rock as the sunset light rested upon her face.
And on this dream, a talented team of photographers and enthusiasts ready to cater to our every photographic whimsy, handing us various lenses and grips and flashes and batteries like they’re glasses of water, including photography industry legend Jay Kelbley, who apparently personally worked on original Ansel Adams negatives and prints and seemed to be nursing the much touted yet seemingly mythical Samsung 300mm f2.8 lens, and Charles Leone, the man, the myth, the PR legend from Allison & Partners, who has managed to cull together and keep this over-visually-stimulated group of trigger-happy shutterbugs in line throughout the whole thing. Not to mention Anthony Zirfas and Andrew Bieker, a team of technical gurus by our side at every step of the way to make sure all those bits and bytes and circuits and stuffs kept doing what they were supposed to.
In this dream, I woke up each morning, opened up two sliding glass doors to nothing other than lush Hawaiian gardens with volcano rock paths leading to open cabanas lining a flawless Kona Kilauea beach. All this whilst fondeling a new 4K camera that magically appeared in my hands just as I began to drift away into the REM phase.
Basically, this was a dream in which I was completely in my element: hardcore geeking out with photography and imaging nerds in a hardcore playground for photography and imaging nerds: Hawaii.
The craziest part of the dream? In playing testament to the wonders of modern physics, I somehow...some way...woke up from it with a memory card full of images in a brand new Samsung NX500, essentially a Samsung NX1 in a sexy brown retro-styled body.
Take THAT Inception!
The images I pulled off that bugger might be some of the first to come from the Samsung NX500. Check 'em in the gallery below. Just be sure not to pinch yourself. And please, for the love of God, don't pinch me. That part can be very very painful...
And as an added bonus, here's a bit of 4K footage shot on the Samsung NX500. Make sure to choose the 4K resolution setting from that little gear symbol icon thingy in the bottom right of the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hluPmVktqVk
For more of the psychotica: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Ello: @wasimofnazareth Google+: +WasimMuklashy
