I often think of this quote from Alan Schaller when I'm out hunting for street photos: "If you can get the magic trio of a good subject, good environment, and good light all together in one frame, you’re winning." If I can find a spot where I've got two of the three, or am close [...]
There's a range of subjects to photograph at a county fair, but the lights and motion of the carnival rides at night are hard to beat for some striking images. I did not have a a tripod, so I handheld the camera for shutter speeds as low as one-quarter second—too long for the 50mm lens [...]
Like many photographers in my age cohort, I shot film for decades before digital came along. Also like many others, I did some darkroom work back in the day, developing and printing black and white film. But I hadn't shot film in probably 20 years … before buying a film camera a few months ago. [...]
I recently did a portrait session with Kiki in the Mission District in San Francisco. We arrived early, when the streets were uncrowded and we had a clear sky with angled light. I'd scouted some locations ahead of time, and chose mural backgrounds—ideally, without discernible letters, which could be distracting. There's no shortage of murals [...]
AI in photography is just too useful to ignore. I mostly use it to remove objects that even Photoshop's Content Aware Fill can't handle. I almost never use it to add objects to photos. But … here's an exception. This is a gas station at the entrance to Niles, California, that the owner has redone [...]
In October, I took a trip to Nevada City, California. Even though shooting fall color wasn't the reason for the trip, I thought I might find and photograph some there. So I got up before sunrise and went scouting. I didn't find much good fall color, but I did find, or rather, was found by, [...]
I drove up to Penngrove to shoot the Third Annual South of Heaven Filthies Humdinger Car Show. I had such good luck at the lowrider show in San Francisco, I figured I'd give this one a try. It was smaller, and in a park vs. on San Francisco city streets, but the vibe was similar. [...]
I was in San Francisco for an overnight this past Friday, and decided after dinner to walk down to City Hall. Civic Center, where City Hall is located, is not the best part of town, especially after dark. As I walked down Market St. after 9 p.m., surrounded by the creatures of the night, I [...]
This year was my fifth time going to the Pride Parade in San Francisco. I feel the event has been getting more corporate and less authentic every year. Howevere, this year was a little better, in that there didn't seem to be as many corporate groups promoting themselves and more members of the LGBTQ community [...]
I live about a ten-minute drive from St. Mary's College in Moraga, and I go there often late in the day to wander around the campus taking photos. I especially like to visit during the summer, when school's out, and there's almost no one there. Cloudy days are the best times for photography, because I [...]