For the fifth year, I went to Carnaval in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend. It's ideal for street portraiture and event photography. The participants are in colorful costumes and are all willing to pose for pictures. Despite that, there are challenges. The overcast day provides even, soft light, but it's also a flat, dull [...]
I take photos of my granddaughters when they're at my house on Thursdays. Many are not good, for various reasons. Some are mediocre, a few are valuable for documentary reasons, and, very occasionally, one is special. Like this portrait of Eva. I took it with my 28mm fixed-lens camera, when I was seated just [...]
I was in New Orleans on the Friday night before Halloween. I'd heard that Bourbon Street was crowded and loud, so I went to Frenchman Street, which was more sedate. I walked up and down only a short stretch of the street, but there were plenty of revelers out in their costumes. Here are [...]
Up Your Alley (also known as Dore Alley) is an annual leather and fetish event in San Francisco, known as the little brother to the much-larger Folsom Street Fair. This is the second time I've gone there to photograph the day. The attendees are friendly, and without exception, happy to pose for portraits. This year, [...]
I went to a workshop taught by Mark de Paola, a New York-based fashion photographer and filmmaker, whose style for his personal work—and often his commercial work—is to take photos where the main subject is out of focus. You can see examples on his website. His justification is that science has shown that "the entirety of [...]
Last Sunday I went into San Francisco to photograph Carnaval. I've done it four times before, and each time I learn something I can apply for next time. The event always yields great photos, including portraits of the performers before the parade, performers during the parade, the backdrop of the Mission District, and [...]
My group of portrait photographers recently got the assignment to photograph artists working in a building in Marin County that's dedicated to artist studios. I visited three artists there, and did environmental portraits of them in their studios. Two of the spaces had very good natural light, and even the third had acceptable lighting. I [...]
I know this is primarily a site for black and white photography, but I DO have a color camera and mostly shoot my grandkids with that. It also has the advantages of being an autofocus camera, which my monochrome camera is not, and has a fixed 28mm lens, which gives me a better chance of [...]
I like the defocused background that comes with shooting at wide apertures, but the shallow depth of field means it's tricky to get the exact plane you want in focus to be in focus. That's especially true when shooting with a short telephoto—which, for me, is 75mm—at a wide aperture—f/2—with the subject a few feet [...]
Carlos has been my tailor for years, and we see each other often. When he told me he was planning a website for his business, I volunteered to take some photos of him in his workshop. We agreed that the light coming into his shop from a big picture window was best in the late [...]