shutter to think

Anchor Distillery for Whiskey Advocate

I love the process of things in the making, whether through photography, food, surfing, winemaking or, at Anchor Distillery, whiskey distilling. Catch a great story on the craft in the Fall issue of Whiskey Advocate.

Craft whiskey distilling got off to an uneven start in America. There were a couple of early pioneers 20 years back and more, like Anchor, Clear Creek, and St. George, that we were quite excited about at the time. Microbrewing was taking off, now it was going to be microdistilling, and every town would soon have a brewery and a distillery—at least one—making wonderful stuff that every right-thinking person would drink all the time." - Lew Bryson, writer

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak for Die Zeit

She's the head of a plant genetics lab at UC Davis; he teaches organic farming there. They're married (with kids), and they coauthored, Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food.

Robert Proctor and the Golden Holocaust for Vrij Nederland

You can read about the big tabacco book and the man behind the smoke in Mother Jones:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/tobacco-book-golden-holocaust-robert-proctor

Trousseau for the NYT

This assignment was back in September and the portrait was a bit of a fail in terms of the light and execution...Hot, bright light all day and although I tried to set the pictures up much later in the day, the sun was a-blazing. But I brought my film camera with me and managed to photograph a nice portrait of Chilean vineyard owner, Bernie Luchsinger.

If you get a chance to look this wine up, its well worth the effort to find it. Its delicious. Winemakers, Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts also make a very tasty rose. I really wish I had a few bottles with me now in Brazil, since this country is lacking in reasonably priced delicious wine. Read the article here: One Grape to Reimagine California Wine.

 

A Veteran helping veterans return to civilian life

Last month I photographed a man who is making a mark on the lives of vets returning to civilian life. Not only does he help young soldiers but he's brightening the days of older vets as well. Touching profile story for The Bay Citizen:

Veteran establishes support for others returning from war

Citizen Scientists for CNN.com

I recently spent the afternoon with Rhiju Das, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Stanford University, and his team investigating RNA strands, the tiny molecules essential to life and central in the hunt for cures to diseases like cancer and AIDS. He is the co-creator of EteRNA, an online video game in which players solve puzzles that would behave in nature. Sounds complicated, and I totally do not get the whole thing but it's fascinating nonetheless. The game enables players to publish their findings in a scientific journal. The best part is that you don't have to have a background in the sciences to help solve these riddles which could lead to major medical breakthroughs.

 

To read more, click on the picture. 

 

See slideshow  below for the inner workings of EteRNA.

Maria and education reform for Mother Jones Magazine

A very compelling story about Maria, a bright teenage immigrant from El Salvador, and a year in the life of a low-performing school by writer Kristina Rizga. This is certainly a story that a documentary photographer would love to work on longer than an afternoon's portrait shoot but I'm thankful to receive the opportunity to photograph the assignment and to meet Maria and Kristina. The challenge was not to show the face and personality of Maria. But to protect her identity, I gladly accepted challenge. We spent time walking the halls of her school at Mission High in San Francisco, photographing in various places, including in one of her classrooms, pictured here.

Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools is Wrong is an in-depth article about education reform, stereotypes and dedication. 

Portrait of a Survivor

I recently met and photographed Kevin Hines, who survived a suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, and was very touched by his story and his efforts on suicide prevention. Please read more about Kevin's story written by Louise Rafkin: Survivor of bridge jump advocates for mental healthy, safety barrier

'I Wanted to Live' - story on Depression for NPR

Last week I photographed an assignment for National Public Radio on a story about new depression drugs saving lives. I met 28-yr-old Chris Stephens, who was very open about his depression and his life in general. He was also super open about being photographed which really helped me. I spent a couple hours working on various portraits, in and around his home, and to his favorite writing spot. The challenge was to show a new life for a people suffering with depression. 

This story is fascinating because the new drugs being developed are designed similarly to Special K. And in fact "Special K," which is "an FDA-approved anesthetic named ketamine, can relieve even suicidal depression in a matter of hours. And it works on many patients who haven't responded to current antidepressants like Prozac."

And for people like Chris, this has given them a second life. 

To hear the story: New Depression Drugs Offer Hope For Toughest Cases 

Outtakes:

Food and Art in Sebastopol

An October travel assignment for the New York Times travel section sent me to Sebasotpol for the day to photograph their eclectic food and arts scene.

These assignments are always really fun, but they can be super crazy and stressful as I'm usually running around with my shotlist photographing places and people under varies lighting conditions. I try to shoot indoors when its in the afternoon and outside places when the light is softer. Sometimes I have to be at two places at the same time as I'm trying to compete with time before the light falls. Its just hectic sometimes! But I always meet really cool people and discover new places, such as one of the best thrift stores I have ever been too, Aubergine.

Sebastopol is also home to some very creative people, and one of them is Patrick Amiot, whom is picture in my outtakes. I also want to thank his wife Brigitte Laurent for giving me a private tour of their home, Mr. Amiot for showing me his "studio," which is pretty much a very cool junkyard, and a photographer's paradise to photograph.

The town also has really incredible food. I was also lucky to photograph a farm (this was off the list but I really wanted to go) where most of the foods for dishes at the restaurant, Peter Lowell, are grown.

Innovation tackles truancy

For the New York Times and Bay Citizen...what a great assignment and program for these kids. I shot this in early December. I hope that more schools will develop hands-on, creative and innovative programs to help give disadvantage kids opportunities such as this. I'll just let you read the story by Trey Bundy, whom I've worked with a few times, and is a fantastic reporter. Here's the lede of the story, "For decades, teachers and school districts have battled truancy, struggling to engage students who cope with economic hardship, community strife, domestic violence and drug abuse. Some students avoid school because they are not interested or because they are being bullied. But since 2008, in part because of programs like those at Downtown, the San Francisco district’s chronic truancy has dropped by 31 percent."

Read the story here: On Land and in the Bay, Innovaction Tackles Truancy

San Francisco's new minimum wage for the WSJ

An assignment for the Wall Street Journal about San Francisco becoming the first big city in the U.S. with a minimum wage topping $10 an hour, on Jan. 1, 2012. I was assigned to photograph a clothing manufacturing factory in downtown San Francisco in an area that most folks don't go. In fact one construction worked asked if I was lost because I was trying to find the backdoor of this building. But inside the seamstresses were busy. It was a bit challenging because first the lighting was awful. The women were also really shy, and didnt speak english, but they were all sweet and we had many laughs as I'm sure I looked really silly to them trying to photography inconspicuously.

Here's the story: Minimum Wage

Tugboats in the San Francisco Bay

Last month's assignment for the New York Times and Bay Citizen....was so fun to be out on the water.

The tugboat was a state-of-the art two-year-old boat that cost about $50m. I had first envisioned the old classic tugboat, being out in the elements, the wind whiplashing my hair and seawater spraying on my face..hahaha none of the really happened. But it was still a fun assignment! The captain did let me drive for a bit too...

That day's job entailed assisting a cargo ship coming in from Singapore to the Oakland docks. The ship was incredibly huge. I often see them off the coast of San Francisco from Ocean Beach or from the window of my flat. You really have no idea how enormous these ships are until you are next to it. Really interesting experience, and of course I love any kind of water assignment.

Here's my clip and following outtakes:

Catch the story here: tugboats

 

Out of the Rolling Ocean

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.

Visiting a dark past on Angel Island

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.

For more history on the "Immigration Station," please click on this link: http://angelisland.org/history/united-states-immigration-station-usis/