With the last six frames left of a roll, I headed down to the beach to capture this amazing blue glow I saw from my yard. My favorite time to shoot and it lasts only minutes. The earth, sky and ocean in the same blue color palette. This day was the last of a weekend-long the bluegrass festival...it was summery fall...surf was good that day as was the music from the park.
I visited Angel Island for the first time in October. We took the ferry and rented bikes to cruise around the island. Considering I was born and raised in the San Francisco/Bay Area, I feel like its a shame that it me took so long to visit a part of my history, not just locally, but about my ancestry.
The island is a state park, and the dark history that haunts it is just part of its rich story, which you can read here: http://angelisland.org/history/. During the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, this island served as a detention center for all incoming Chinese immigrants. You won't find "detention center" in our American history, though that is essentially what it was. Instead you'll read: United States Immigration Station (USIS).
The buildings have since been renovated, new paint, the grounds immaculate, and the only real sense of how life might have been here are the etchings of poetry by prisoners on the wooden walls of the dormitories. You might say that I was a really disappointed, but not surprised, in the softening effect of our American history.
"Please, remember me My misery And how it lost me all I wanted Those dogs that love the rain And chasing trains The colored birds above there running In circles round the well And where it spells On the wall behind St. Peter's So bright with cinder gray And spray paint 'Who the hell can see forever?'"
A few months ago I photographed a friend's dance troupe in San Francisco, the Devilettes, during one of their last shows of the year...it was something i had been meaning to photograph for awhile and finally got around to doing it...and what fun! Shooting small events or mini projects is a good way to give myself a break from "the work," to shoot and wander freely without thinking of the storyline. Now i want to go back and shoot more! Thanks Melissa, and the Devilettes, for having me there!!
{music by Link Wray: Ace of Spades}
Here in Guatemala on Dia de los Muertos, or otherwise known as Todos Santos - All Saints Day - families get together and fly kites, have picnics, drink, and be merry at the cemetaries of their deceased. On Monday I went with a friend to check out the kites at Santiago Sacatepequez....to the cemetary where it overlooks a lush green valley.
Over Labor Day weekend, this city gal found herself immersed in a quaint village in the middle of Wisconsin. This time I wasn't on assignment. I was hired by a colleague, who otherwise assigns me stories for NPR, to photograph her wedding. Honored and touched, this moment also terrified me: I'm photographing my picture editor's wedding! As soon as I touched ground, met all their closest relatives and friends, I soon enough felt like I was part of their extended family. Here is a colorful snapshot of mixed iphone and hasselblad images from Ephraim, Wisconsin.
Thank you Coburn and Brad, and your families and closest friends, for a memorable time and having me document one of the most celerbated days of your lives....
I was so fortunate to photograph this very touching story of this young family, and their amazing little boy, for US News and World Report, on finding the right doctor and hospital. Please see pg 25 of the 2012 Edition of Best Hospitals.
Can biofarming be the answer to sustainble food sources? UC Davis Professors Pamela Ronald, a plant pathologist, and her husband, organic farmer, Raoul Adamchak, coauthored "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food," that discusses genetic engineering as a tool to make farming more sustainable.
Pamela has a very interesting blog with articles and discussions about bio-farming:
This was a portrait shoot of the professors at UC Davis, but I wanted to also candidly photograph them in Raoul's garden. Unfortunately Pamela wasn't working in the lab that day, but we (the writer and I) did stop by to check it out...see outtakes below.
I"m happy to share that some of my Banda Aceh images that were published in UK travel magazine, called Wanderlust. Here's the lede clip of the main feature story.
Yes, the car. Basically I rolled in this very Bentley featured on the cover, and inside spread, to a secret walnut grove, where a very selective part of the tree is used for the interior of their cars. The car was shipped from Hong Kong for my shoot. This job was very different then my photojournalism work, and I welcome it. And this was definitely my first car assignment.
While famine rages in Somalia, many other countries face hardships also due to the rise in food prices and climate change. This is very much the case in Guatemala, where farmers can no longer predict the time to plant and harvest production is very small. Heavy rains and long droughts prevent healthy growth of crops, in particular maize, where the cost of corn rose 40% since last year. There is plenty of food in Guatemala, a country where half the population lives in poverty and violence is 4x more then Mexico. However most of the food production is for export (mostly to the US). Small farmers are especially vulnerable, where half the crop is for family consumption and the other half to sell at the markets. This year, many small farmers have produce low yields of crops mainly due to extreme weather (heavy rains, and long droughts).
Here are two images from my film edit. the scans are low res until i can get home to make higher quality scans, but was anxious to share since i haven't posted on my blog in a few weeks.
Here's a recent webclip and outtakes of a shoot I did in San Francisco for this July's issue of Inc Magazine. The image ran about a half of a page in the magazine, but since I'll be on the road for the next couple weeks, Im posting this web clip.
I recieved a call to photograph three of the top 30 under 30 entreprenuers, for a smartphone app they've created called, Foodspotting, as they ate their way through 18th St in the Mission. It was there I had my first taste of Bi-Rite Creamery's salted caramel and toasted coconut ice cream deliciousness. From there, I photographed them photographing tarts and cappucinos at Tartine Bakery, pizzas and pasta at Deflinas as they sampled their way with iphones.
Here's a recent assignment I shot for The Bay Citizen and New York Times about the juvenile court proceedings. Because juveniles are minors I wasn't able to photography any court trials, or youth at the Juvenile Justice Center, so I was assigned to photography a family judge and the lobby of the Center.