shutter to think

assignment outtake

sweet little surprise from an outtake of an assignment. sax player from the robin duhe band in oakland that i photographed on assignment for the sf chronicle.

an outtake portrait of robin duhe:

 
 It was a bit of challenge shooting this portrait, considering the new canon flash slave option is a hidden function, and not as easy as the flick of switch. I had forgotten where to find it....but thanks to a little help from a collegue and the SF Chron's intern, stephen lam, problem solved. the next issue was that i had chosen a difficult spot, at night, with the musician wearing all black. Even his guitar was black! The Chron editors chose a different portrait that you can see here: bassist 

 

outtakes

some pictures in my outtakes from recent assignments:

previous assignments for the Guardian of London

Previous assignments for the Guardian of London. I made the images into triptychs to tell a little story.

August Kleinzahler, Poet -

Suzanne Finnamore, Writer -
 

writer assignment

SF Chron assignment to photograph writer Holly Payne who is launching a new book, "Kingdom of Simplicity," which is about a young Amish man who survives an accident that kills his five sisters. It was a treat meeting Holly, and learned that we both worked in the same building of rival newspapers in Lancaster! Here's the link to the photos and stories, and below, some of my favorites from the assignment.

http://sfchronicle.us/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/07/08/DDH518JUGA.DTL&o=2&type=printable

catching up...

Hi there! Lately I've been only posting pictures so here's some words.
Last Thursday i went to exposure gallery in sf to see friend photographer kevin german show his on-going documentary work in vietnam. kevin is an inspiration. he is a thoughtful photographer who jumped from newspaper photography to being his own now based in Vietnam. You can see his work here:
www.kevingerman.com

I myself have been catching up on wedding pictures, and have yet to begin editing my journalism stories from Mexico...and lately I have been shooting for the sf chronicle. i visited my old stomping ground foreign cinema a couple weeks ago where i worked 10 years ago in its first year, now under different ownership. Here are some images from that shoot of the husband/wife team and kids:

Rocky Mountain News final edition today

http://vimeo.com/3390739

Please watch this incredible piece of work & story about the closing of a pulitzer prize winning newspaper and one of the best local newspapers in the country.

mommas & babies

Last tuesday I was laid off my newspaper job -- not a sudden change in life plans, however just shy of expecting it, just not so soon, i had been preparing for the...unexpected. I began shooting my friends and small shooting gigs on the lifestyle side of my journalism. Thanks to my many pregnant momma friends, I have been able to slowly build a small maternity & baby portfolio. And, I continue to build my wedding portfolio however now, it will become my main income to support my photojournalism ambitions, because ultimately, I love doing journalism, and miss it very much. This spring I'll be making a two month trip to Mexico for a bridal shower in San Miguel de Allende,  a trip to Haiti to work on a story about hiv positive mothers who volunteer their time to educate and care for other hiv positive mothers in port-au-prince, and then later in may to help shoot a couple of weddings. The slow death of newspapers has made me think about diversifying my photography, and it has been a fun exploration, as photography is, a life-long journey.

My best friend:

goggles

yeeoow! So my friend and mentor keith jenkins posted my blog on facebook and I thought, dang I better spice up my blog. Aside from the usual picture posting, I do on occasion hold random discussions with myself, and in some instances, I somehow manage to loose the page like I did last night on my rant about the RNC protestors, and media for that matter, NOT wearing burning man goggles to protect their eyes against the sting of pepper spray. When looking at pictures from my friend Miss Chris's facebook page, I noticed the color coordination with goggles and wildly bizarre outfits that sort of fits this aurora of burning man meets...what the heck is that movie (i'm SO bad with actor names and movies)...you know the one made in the 80s sci-fi...ah! a colorful road warrior/mad max movie...without the leather and bondage gear. Anyway, I am deeply disturbed by St. Paul police dept's blatant disregard for the First Amendment, in particular, our freedom of press. Journalists should not be arrested for reporting the news on public streets. But really, if journalists gear up for war, then, why not gear up for a RNC demonstration with a helmet, goggles, football padding, and shin guards so that you don't get beat up by the police who don't care if you are a journalist. Not even in Latin America where demonstrations happen more often then in San Francisco do journalists get arrested for covering a protest! burning man goggles!

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Last week I photographed an assignment of a high school teacher receiving an award for Teacher of the Year. Slightly worried that it might be a worst case scenario -- teacher receive plaque on stage, shake hands, speech and eat cake, I was sweetly surprised with the spontenaity of students. Not only was the teacher in tears at the podium for receiving his award, but his choir students surprised him with a song. But the best part about the surprise was the group hug at the end, where over 30 students surrounded him.

aw! thank gawd for group hugs!!

more july assignments...

summer is just creepy along....but its now finally august.

mm project

The Napa Valley and Michoacan connection multimedia project

http://napavalleyregister.com/pages/group/0807mexico/

Here's a link to my first big project and multimedia project. finally! its here!