San Diego Comic Con 2019

I attended San Diego Comic Con this year, for the first time. My girlfriend works in the industry and has been going to the show for years, and my daughter is a burgeoning manga and anime nerd, and is now old enough to 1) know what Comic Con is, and 2) know that access is just a polite request away.

So basically, I just went along for the ride, figuring I’d get some quality time in with the kid and make photos. Which is pretty much exactly what I did. And while Comic Con isn’t necessarily my jam, it’s a sprawling event — taking over the entirety of the San Diego convention center, and spilling out into the surrounding Downtown San Diego Gaslamp District — and its general sphere of cultural reference is broad enough to appeal to almost any interest, so I was certainly never bored while we were there.

I tried to avoid taking pictures of cosplayers blatantly posing for the camera, instead working to keep a low profile — dad mode or whatever — and capture people being themselves, regardless of their appearance. That turned out to be more difficult than it sounds. Generally speaking, as soon as anyone in cosplay at Comic Con notices a camera pointed anywhere in their general direction, they immediately get into character. And I did specifically ask one or two people if I could photograph them.

In any case, I managed to make a handful of passable images at the show, and aside from one image in this set, all these photos are in color. It’s just too vivid of a scene to shoot in black and white…

Portland, OR | June, 2019

Summers in the Pacific Northwest are pretty magical. For my money, it’s one of the best regions in the country to burn a few summer vacation days because of its proximity to the Bay Area, the great seasonal weather, and lush freshness of the surrounding environment.

It had been a while I spent any significant time in Portland, Oregon, so the idea of visiting for a long early summer weekend with my girlfriend, who had also not been to Portland in several years, was pretty much a no-brainer. It’s a quick and easy flight from OAK or SFO to PDX, decent hotel rooms can be gotten for decent rates, and it’s low key one of the best food cities in the U.S. It’s also got a good music scene, cool arts community, and a generally casual vibe — all things I like.

Even though there was lots going on while we were there — it was Pride weekend, and there were cool rock shows happening too (Mudhoney, L7, Fucked and Bound, a few others) — we skipped most of it, and opted instead to explore neighborhoods, parks, and food and drink. And of course I wanted to make photographs.

A quick note about gastronomic pursuits… We barely scratched the surface of what culinary Portland has to offer, but if you’re headed that way, you could do a lot worse than these extremely notable establishments, where we (over)ate and drank: Eem (Thai BBQ), Shalom Y’All (Israeli street food), Multnomah Whiskey Library (self explanatory), Urdaneta (traditional Spanish fare), Canard (casual and crazy good), and Jackrabbit (new American). We also ate at a food pod or two, hit a few bars and some coffee spots, and visited a dispensary — all very solid.

Some camera talk for the nerds… Before we headed north, I picked up a Fuji 28mm conversion lens for my x100f — I’ve always loved a wider-angle view, and have been wanting to try this lens. I was thinking that I’d be more interested in architecture and wider city- and landscape shots when stalking Portland for pics, so it seemed like a good opportunity to pull the trigger on it. After shooting exclusively with the 28mm for four days, in a number of situations, I can report that the lens build quality, light handling, and image clarity are all extremely solid, and though 28mm doesn’t sound like much of a stretch from the camera’s native 35mm, it’s definitely wide enough to feel the difference when composing shots.

I was not prepared to rely on the camera’s electronic viewfinder (EVF) to compose within the full scope of the 28mm view — the optical viewfinder (OVF) is scaled specifically for the 35mm; the EVF rescales automatically when it senses the conversion lens — and I killed the camera battery much faster than I normally would have using the OVF (which I prefer when shooting at 35mm). Not anticipating this, I didn’t bring a charger or a backup battery on my first day out (rookie move on my part). But all in all, the 28mm is a good addition to the rig (I think I might pick up the 50mm version as well).

Anyway, here are some photos from the trip, including a number of snaps from the amazing Portland Japanese Garden, a couple from the Portland Pride Parade staging area, and some views from various neighborhood locations in Portland’s East and West sides...

Rear View Perspective

Driving across Oakland not long ago, I saw pack of teenagers — 35 or 40 kids — on bicycles getting on a freeway onramp in a tight cluster, popping wheelies, swerving through cars. Of course traffic behind them was a mess.

I opted to stay on the streets, avoiding the freeway all the way to the next exit. When I got there, the pack was getting off the freeway behind me as I pulled up to the offramp stoplight. I had my camera (the x100f) on me, but rather than crane my neck around and stick the camera and my head out the window — not stealthy, not smart — I leaned in and focused on my car’s sideview mirror as they went by.

I pressed the shutter button 20 times, and came away with these three. A few of these kids noticed me taking pictures — one of them threw the peace up as he went by my window, which I think framed the kid behind him in the mirror pretty nicely. Lucky break...

Getting There...

I’ve been tinkering with this site a bit. The design isn’t changing, but the structure’s been slightly tweaked, the galleries are being reorganized and culled a bit to focus on images that represent what I think is the best of my efforts. I’m still trying to find my photographic vision and voice — honestly, I think that’ll probably be a life-long pursuit — but hopefully I get closer to figuring it out the further along I get. The changes to this site are meant to represent that current state org that pursuit.

Part of this process involves the removal of some images from the galleries. There’s no pressure on me to build a portfolio. I don’t eat off photography — this is strictly a labor of love. If I had the time to spend my days behind the lens I’d probably be developing the vision and voice much more quickly. But the slower, more restricted approach comes with the freedom to work at a pace that allows for deeper (perhaps more brutal) reflection, and the opportunity to populate these galleries with the kinds of images that fit the vision of where I think I’m trying to go with all this…even if I struggle to put that vision into words.

At any rate, I’m getting there.

Here are a handful of photos I made in April…

The Cost of a Creative Outlet

I’ve had a small pile of undeveloped film rolls stacking up for about nine months, and I finally took them all in to get developed.

There were both color and black and white rolls, which I’d shot using a Yashica MicroTec Zoom 120 since just before I went to Oaxaca back in June 2018. I had picked up some Lomography Color Negative 800 film specifically for that trip because Oaxaca lends itself to color photography much more than to black and white (if you’ve been, you know what I mean), and I was looking for a film versatile enough for any light, and which pushed saturation and contrast a little bit — the Lomography 800 is designed to do all of that. I had a roll of Kodak T-Max 400 in the camera when I landed in Oaxaca, so snapped a handful of black and white film images there. The other few rolls of the T-Max I had were shot in and around the Bay throughout my day-to-day over the following months.

Anyway… Out of eight rolls of film that I had developed and scanned, I got back 25 or 30 photos that aren’t garbage, of those I might really stand behind 10 of them. (Maybe.)

When I think about the ratio of “good ones” to actual film burned, I instinctively start to think about the cost of all this — film (especially having the negatives scanned at a quality that I’m happy working with in Lightroom) isn’t cheap. I’m not planning on getting myself a quality scanner any time soon (not a part of my lifestyle at this point), but it’s not like I shoot a ton of film anyway.

But also, and perhaps more importantly, for me photography is not about the material and mechanical costs of making photographs, it’s about the results. Frankly, I’m pretty happy to get 10 photos that I actually kinda like from a couple hundred shots. Good photos are rare, great photos are damn near impossible. (It’s one of several reasons why I predominantly shoot digital — the digital realm is a lot more forgiving to experimentation, mundanity and downright failure.)

Ultimately, this is a creative outlet, which I see as less of an expense than an investment in my sanity, and mental and spiritual heath. Hell, if cost was the overriding issue, I wouldn’t be in a band (gear costs money, and rehearsal space rent isn’t free) or train at the gym (membership fees and boxing gear doesn’t pay for itself).

What’s more, photography isn’t the slightest bit profitable (neither are music or boxing), it’s something I do for myself, and while it’s technically an expense, like music and boxing, it’s not so prohibitively expensive as to offset the value to my health and wellbeing.

As such, the only thing I expect from my effort is eventual improvement — a better photograph (a tighter performance, a cleaner and meaner punch with correct form). But it doesn’t come easy, and so — and this is the key part, as I’ve always felt this way about anything that can be considered art — it’s important to remember that it’s more about the process than the product. Truly, any result worth preserving or remembering is one that comes from practice and refined processes, and should be preserved as much for the learning opportunity as for the bragging rights.

Incidentally, this line of thought has lead me to rethink this website a bit. I’m wondering if I’ve been focusing too much on quantity — there’s not a ton of work on this site, but still, I’m increasingly of the mind that it needs a culling and an organizational rethink. I still plan to post to the blog as often as I can, and though my bar for what constitutes a good photo is slightly lower on the blog than I feel it should be when it comes to the site galleries, my initial intention to post weekly only stands up under the assumption that I’m making enough photos in a week to produce at least one good one. That’s not always the case, and I don’t like forcing it. So my renewed goal is to post as often as possible — that’s all. But I’ve got new some images forthcoming, too, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here’s a gallery with a few photos from the batch of film photos that I recently had developed. Some are from my trip to Oaxaca, and also appear in the gallery containing all my Oaxaca photos.

Weekly Photoset: March 17, 2019

Time flies when you’re working your ass off.

i‘ve been taking photographs every chance I get recently but, per usual, haven’t had much time to circle back around to review, edit and post what I’ve been shooting. But I’m still making that effort to get it in when I can, so this week’s set contains scenes from the few weeks. In that time, I spent four days in Anaheim, CA for work, and traversed the Bay between Oakland and San Francisco on the usual paths.

I’ve been thinking a lot about photographic style — my opportunistic approach, no matter the setting — and have been sort of longing for the time required to post up in busy places, make myself invisible, and capture the traffic of life as it goes by. But right now I have no time for plotting careful approaches, or lying in wait, so shooting on the move’s gonna have to continue to be the M.O…

Weekly Photoset: February 25, 2019

Back to routine, scenes from daily local travels…

Weekly Photoset: February 18, 2019

I’ve spent a lot of time recently playing catch up (work, life, creative pursuits, etc.), so this week’s photoset includes images I’ve made over the last few weeks (the recent LA trip notwithstanding).

Lately, photographically speaking, I’ve been trying to see past the drudgery of the every-day (my life is fairly routine when I’m not traveling) and find beauty in the normal average spaces and places around me. Spaces devoid of people are easier for me, though the perennial challenge of photographing people is a part of this — and something I still struggle with. Ultimately, regardless of the subject, I’m trying to employ the (often [mis]quoted) wisdom of California photographer Morley Baer: “Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it.”

At any rate, here are some ordinary objects I’ve photographed recently (all shot with the FujiFilm x100f, and edited as minimally as possible in Adobe Lightroom). The beauty is, I suppose, entirely subjective…

Photoset: Los Angeles, CA | January 2019

I’ve been beyond busy for the last month, as well as sick (twice), and generally preoccupied — so much so that I haven’t even thought about posting photos. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been taking photographs, I just haven’t had much time to review, edit or share.

So in an attempt to get back into the swing of the complete process, here’s a gallery of street photos from a recent quick weekend trip to LA, where I attended the women’s march with friends, and wandered the streets of Echo Park, DTLA, and the Arts District.

Weekly Photoset: January 6, 2019

Wrapping up the first week of the new year by publishing some photos I made over the last seven days. Here’s the first photoset of 2019…

Weekly Photoset: January 1, 2019

Happy New Year. I spent some time in Carmel and San Francisco last week, and these pix came out of those adventures. This batch is predominantly black and white, except for one — when I pulled the RAW image from the camera, the color was so vivid, it clearly wasn’t meant for black and white. There’s also a rare selfie here, please don’t hold it against me…

Weekly Photoset: December 24, 2018

Last week was a busy one. I was out and about more than usual, and tried to take the opportunity to slow my roll a bit in the interest of observing surroundings and making photographs.

The holidays are good for people watching, especially people on their hustles — buskers, bell ringers, exacerbated shoppers, etc., and all the other weird shit that goes along with all that, and just Bay Area living in general.

So yeah. Merry holidays to you and yours…

Weekly Photoset: December 20, 2018

After months of deactivation — and a couple of years after removing the app from my phone and iPad, which essentially removed it from my daily life — I deleted my Facebook account this week. So, just a heads-up: if we were connected there, we’re not any more...or rather, we won’t be for much longer, as it takes 30 days to delete an account for some reason.

I’ve been toying with the idea of shitcanning my Instagram account too, but I’m not quite there yet. I’ve managed to keep it curated enough — mostly photography, art and design, records, bands, vintage cars, and boxing — that it still delivers content that generally makes me happy…despite the glut of advertising, and the fact that I’m pretty sure those bastards are hot-micing my phone to target said advertising.

Anyway, few days late (per usual), but here’s the week’s photoset…

(Bi)Weekly Photoset: December 10, 2018

I blew it last week and failed to post The weekly batch of photos, so here’s a short collection from the last couple of weeks. No black and white — these are all color, all made with the Fujifilm x100f in my Oakland, CA neighborhood.

 (Also, just a heads up — I finally published a gallery of pictures from my trip to Oaxaca, MX back in June, and I’m writing up a post about that. I’m also working through photos from a trip to NYC in October, and I hope to get those published here soon as well. Life’s been a little nutty lately, so unfortunately creative pursuits have suffered.)

Weekly Photoset: November 25, 2018

I had most of last week off work, which offered a break in routine, as well as the opportunity for a short road trip in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The upshot of all that is a weekly photoset that’s a bit heavier than usual.

This week’s set also features some pretty vivid color shots among the standard black and white fare. I do love strong black and white images, but I’m certainly not married to the look, because every image has its own requirements. I’m just trying to create what I see in my mind’s eye — without too much editing — and I see in both color and black and white.

Most of these images are devoid of people, too, which has, historically, been a compositional norm in most of my photography. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I’m still working on my comfort zone when it comes to taking pictures of people in public, but the opportunity to do so didn’t really avail itself last week.

Weekly Photoset, November 19, 2018

If there’s a theme to this photoset, it’s traversing the Bay on BART. I made a couple trips between Oakland and SF last week, and captured these images along the way.

I’ve been working on photographing people more lately. It’s not something I’m super comfortable with, and like most of my photography, regardless of subject, I’m opportunistic with it.

One of these pictures was made with the Lightroom Mobile camera on an iPhone 8, the other three with the FujiFilm x100f. (Can you tell the difference?)

Weekly Photoset: November 12, 2018

Last week was a rough one. It’s been difficult to escape the fires that have effected the whole state — we’ve gotten shitty air quality in Oakland, but compared to what folks in Butte and Ventura Counties have been going through, rotten air quality is, in the immediate term anyway, not much more than an annoyance. I mean, I’m wearing a filter mask outdoors (which feels pretty dystopian), but still have a roof over my head. I have friends in Paradise and Calabasas, near Malibu, who can’t say that at this point.

Please give what you can to help the victims of the Camp (Nor Cal) and Woolsey (So Cal) fires. The NYT put together a pretty good list of places to start. If you live nearby, please consider donating your time by volunteering. If you live away from the affected areas, please throw some money at the problem. People can use all the help they can get right now.

With regards to this week’s photos, I shot more with the Lightroom Mobile camera on my phone this week than I did with the x100f — or rather, I was happier with the results on the phone — but both are represented here…

Weekly Photoset: November 6, 2018

I set a Sunday deadline for myself to post a weekly photoset, and I blew it right outta the gate. I should have posted these images two days ago. But that’s life these days — I’m busy, and sometimes things fall by the wayside. Better late than never, I guess…

Weekly Photoset: October 28, 2018

I haven’t been posting to this site enough — to the blog or the photo galleries — but that doesn’t mean that I’ve got nothing to post. I take photos almost daily, either with the Lightroom Mobile camera on an iPhone 8, with a FujiFilm x100f that I have on me most of the time, and sometimes with a Nikon D7200. Currently the output is just piling up in the Adobe cloud and on a hard drive.

Also, I’m increasingly fried on Instagram, annoyed and frustrated with a shitty user experience. It’s flooded with ads and, as far as a creative outlet goes, feels like just shoving bullshit in to a black hole. And while I do post to 500px and VSCO from time to time — and find those to be cleaner and more curated communities despite (or maybe because of) the smaller, more photography-focused user bases and ad-free paid options — I don’t own those spaces like I own this one.

So in an attempt to breathe a little life into this site, and do something lasting and more personally meaningful with the photos I make, I’m going to start publishing a weekly dump of images. There may be just one photo, or there might be several, but I’ll put in the effort to put up something here every week; these photos won’t get any explanation beyond where and when they were snapped; and the weekly cadence will hit on Sundays, with a seven day lookback. Beyond that, no rules.

Just for the hell of it, and because some rules are for breaking, this first edition goes back two weeks. So let’s see where all this goes...

Electric Wizard

This is English stoner doom band Electric Wizard, live at The Warfield in San Francisco (April 30, 2018), complete with crushingly high volume and seizure inducing video accompaniment comprised of flashing, brightly colored psychedelic artwork superimposed over biker movies and Satan worshiping smut films from the 1960s. It all worked really well together.

These three photos were taken with Lightroom Mobile on an iPhone 8 from the back of the lower floor of the theater. They were edited in Lightroom Mobile and then finished in VSCO. They're super grainy, and shot from to far away, but I think they still deliver.

And just because I was interested in how wel the Squaresapce mobile app worked, I wrote and published this post on my phone as well. Nifty. (Update: I had to go back in via the computer and make some tweaks to the post. The mobile editor's not that hot.)