All Talked Up

With the advertising executives and myself all doing Town Talk photos, there are often a mix of our work on one page. This is the first time this has happened that I know of: all the ones on one page were taken by me:


Click to enlarge:



I get asked a lot who writes the material, I write my own, though my editor, JP, can change the words if he wants.

Being Single in SF

Earlier this month Forbes Magazine named San Francisco as the best city to be if you're single. My editor had me go to places where singles would be found (restaurants, bars, and I scoped out a laundry mat as my own guess, and did find a single male there) and it was one of our front page stories today.



Click to enlarge:

Putting on the Dog

Some people are too shy to be in Town Talk for the San Francisco Daily unless they can have a friend, or even their dog in it. One designer was so shy that he said he ONLY wanted his dog in it. I told him I can't be sure the editor will run Jackson's mug, but I think with him wearing the clothes and so many cute expressions to choose from, he has a great chance of being in a Town Talk this week.

Let me know if you have a guess as to which the editor will pick, and I'll post later which one was selected.

Shooting Back

Yesterday while doing wild art for the paper I met Bob Rosenberg. He's an amateur photographer who prefers film to digital, he told me that he once tried digital for a summer, but gave up since he likes film better. One of his special projects is photographing other photographers who are shooting him at the same time, so we both photographed each other.

Introducing Street Styles

When Dave Price called me last week and pitched the Street Style idea to me, I thought it would be fun, but wasn't sure how well received it would be by our subjects. While it has been hard to get women to stop and talk about their clothes, I've met some great people, and found out a lot about fashion (ironic because I end up wearing professional but usually black or monochrome clothes so much at my job and at weddings).

The first two, followed by a closeup:



One of the best parts is having my eyes open for different styles, I'm really noticing clothes more, from this goth look, to this stylish model in muted colors, to this outfit in rainbow colors from around the world:

Always in Fashion

The Daily sent me on Thursday to photograph the student's fashion show and competition at O'Reilly's Holy Grail. Though the design class was open to both genders, only girls had enrolled at Wee Scotty and made costumes, one group out of stores made out of clothes found at a thrift store (budget $20 each), the others from materials at the school. I also wrote the story, the photo of which graced the front page this morning.


Click either to enlarge to see photo better or read story:



One of the winning designs:



Pre show entertainment with Eoin, one of the judges, who invited girls in the audience up to sing with him the song they requested, "Let it Be" (one of my favorites):





Naomi (center) was so surprised to be named one of the winning designers that she had to be nudged by the others to come forward and model her winning outfit. I love this reaction shot of her.

Call of the Wild (Art)

One of the newest parts of our paper is wild art (also known as feature art at the journalism school I attended, SJSU, and several papers). The idea is to capture people having fun, living life and the flavor of the people and the city.

The first one we published that I took was of Luke on his scooter looking so serious, followed by several I shot (in their original color):



He looks so serious in this photo.



I liked this father-daughter moment of Jason and Maya and in talking to them found out he had been carrying her most of the day, check out her feet - no shoes.



Kids make great subjects always doing fun things:





In this one which is my favorite so far, Jayden who was having his first taste of salsa, decided to share his chips with his dad, Eric.

Gay Pride Parade, Part Two

The San Francisco pride event was great for memories and lots of colorful photos. Some more of my favorites I submitted to the Daily:

The California Men's Retreat got a lot of attention with this fellow.


The coordination of CHEER San Francisco was intense.



From the bike squad that opened the rally came a "Paris Hilton" and guard.



One of my favorite floats was that of Google which started with these dancers.



Then came the float which played "Sulu Dance" and had George Takei (Sulu from Star Trek) watch and participate in the dance named after him.

Gay Pride Parade, Part One

The Gay Pride event this weekend in San Francisco was one of my favorite assignments for the paper so far. Though I've photographed parades in the past for other papers, having the press pass that let me photograph from inside the gates made it so much more amazing (and, of course, easier to get such fun angles and moments).

My editor, Dave, liked the photos and said he wished this had been one of our color issues. My photos made the front page and one page of a small photo essay inside (click any to enlarge):




The page had a lot of my work in it, as a lot of photos in the ad below the photo story for Back to Sports are mine as well:



The Altoids float was an explosion of color and movement with dancing and bubbles:



Balloon Magic really got the crowd cheering:

Brown Dirt Cowboy's Ad

When I shoot ads for the newspaper, sometimes clients have a preconceived notion of what they would like, a set of directions, a sketch or two for me, etc.. Other times, clients will ask me for a lot of input, when that happens I stroll around their store, looking for just the right angles and often shoot things with minor changes to give them the freedom to have their photos match the ad which they will compose later. This ad is an example of the latter type.

Both the and the furniture were stunning.



The place had a lot of reflective surfaces, this shot was taken with the reflection carefully chosen to show off items and also how spacious the place is, filled with treasures to explore.



Usually I go out of my way to not have my flash in the photo. However I knew that in this instance the flash would appear as the lighting on the candle, so I shot it both ways and the client opted for the "lit candle" one for the ad. I think it works quite well.

Going to the dogs

I've noticed lately a lot of dogs are becoming one of the subjects of my lens. Often when shooting Town Talk for the paper I'll make use of the dog as a prop for the photo, as is this one with Coco and her puppy, Lavendar for Bella and Daisy's, A Dog Salon and Boutique...




and again with Cara and Isla, the latter being the pet of and store mascot of Sunhee Moon, designer and owner of a store of the same name.




Now that the paper also has me taking photos of San Franciscans just being themselves for feature or "wild art" as my editor puts it, dogs show up time and time again like Jennifer and her dog, Otto enjoying a moment together.

Nate, A Chef Profile in Color

Today's San Francisco Daily was in color. My chef profile on Nate Appleman from A-16 was in it in color as well. I hear the restaurant already has a buzz going on as people are reading the article and making reservations.

Click photos to enlarge or to read the interview that I wrote as well.

Photos of the Week (Ending 06/01/07)

My photos of the week are all of advertising shots taken for Back to Sports. The owner, Ahimsa's desire was for photos to show accurately what kind of events can be found at their establishment so I photographed (among other things) a sparring match, a person working out, and a physical therapist giving an exam.




I think these really capture the actions and the moods of the place and can't wait to see them in the new full page ad.