I live in LA and don't have a car

Well, I was in LA. These were near Hollywood, in really really nice neighborhoods. Guess its tough to get your groceries home if you don't drive. I think I'd rather ride my bike every day, pick up a few things, and shove 'em in my messenger bag. I kind of liked the lonely orange in the cart, though. I think its all Safeway's, KMart's, and Costco's fault. We never had this phenomenon when people went to the neighborhood market. They walked too, which is healthier. Too bad my neighborhood market is so pricy (Goodlife in Potrero Hill, guess I need to be livin' the good life).

My TV

Well, I really love movies. I was quite disappointed when my neighborhood video store closed to become a SPA (whats this neighborhood coming to). I actually used to take quite a few photos of my TV. I could be a war photog, or whatever without putting myself in danger. Perhaps, I should have a show: "My TV". I think its also a good exercise, especially if the cinematographer is great.

Put that phone away

I took these a long time ago. I love my cell phone, its so convenient. In fact, I got rid of the land line, until my wife thought we should get one for more reliable 911 service. But, I feel our society is getting so much more focused on the individual. Furthermore, I feel people are just so much ruder these days. I bet when my dad was my age, it was expected that a man hold the door open for a lady, and she would graciously thank him. I'm simply saddened by the number of times I've held that door open, and a young lady (um, female, lady not) simply walks past me gabbing on her stupid phone, as if its my obligation to hold that damn door open. Next time I'll just let it slam (I won't but I'll certainly think about who I be gracious to). America, get some manners. Now there's a title for a photo essay.

Gursky and Struth watch out

This kind of reminds of images from the likes of Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth. But, of
course, they use big view cameras (I believe), often have big crews, and I guess spent thousands on huge prints. I think I might have to wait til I send Lucy to college. Need to think more simple.

Open house this Sunday

Well, we're selling our house so little Lucille can have her own room. I'm also turning the Open Houses into little art shows, if you will, by hanging up some of my photos and offering them up for sale. So, buy a photo and help us buy Lucille some toys. There are some nice color photos, and black and white ones I printed in my darkroom like the painter in Florence I posted here.

Oh, the open house is 2-4pm, April 1st.

Getting my act together....

Well, decided to make some post cards for my tourist portrait project. Check 'em out.

Why these people got these crazy outfits on?

Well, they went to Burning Man, and just couldn't get enough, so they came back to Dogpatch.

This made me sad

This building's alive!

First time I saw a building with weeds growing out of the roof.

View from my roof

Well, I think its more interesting up here when its raining. Guess it would be nicer to have a view of the Meditteranean, guess I'd settle for the Golden Gate. I like my neighborhood, though.

Serbia, Beirut, or San Francisco

Somehow this gloomy image of a building under construction in San Francisco makes me think of what Beirut or a bombed out city in Serbia Herzegovina might look like: dark, gloomy, murky, silent, devoid of life.

Not my car, I hope

Saw this beat up, and stripped car on the street behind my studio. In fact, our neighbors car, which was stolen from our building, was found on the same street. While I was taking these photos, a homeless man came up and asked me if I was investigating. He informed me someone associated with the car had died, I'm not sure if he meant murdered. I'm not sure if he knew what he was talking about, but I simply wanted to keep my distance.

Hey, where these people goin', yet again....

I stumbled across these while looking at some pretty old scans. I guess I've been obsessed with the "people walking" thing for quite some time. Its interesting, though, how different Boston feels from San Francisco.

Everyone's a philosopher

We'll if you ever had the urge to go in a cafe or bar in the Mission District of San Francisco, walls like these will surely seem familiar.

Anna Nicole watch out

Well, its my daughter, again... I think the pose is kinda of funny. I definitely hope she DOES NOT turn out to be anything like Anna Nicole.

The family portrait

Well, I took this portrait for a friend of a friend. I was actually focused on getting some black and white shots which I would hand print in my darkroom. I noticed this digital shot just recently after going through lots of my old stuff. I kind of like the snap shot feel too it, and the little girl I think struck the most incredible pose. I know that at that time I didn't have a decent digital printer. Wish I did.

Where we park

Not much more to say. Parking garages make interesting spaces.

The Corporate Portrait

I think people generally consider the corporate portrait somewhat boring.... Uninteresting. Well, they are necessary. People what to "get to know" who they will be dealing with. Not only the CEO's of the Oracles and ENRON's need 'em, but especially with the presence of the small business on the web, the little guy needs 'em too. I did these for a small company my wife used to do work for. I thought I had a good concept for the ones of my wife. She worked on various things including trend consulting and design project. Now she works as an editor. All these tasks require being "up" on whats going on in the areas of fashion, design, pop culture, etc.... So, I thought I'd try and photograph here amongst stacks of magazines. It kinda worked.

The other photograph is of her co-worker. That was much harder. I showed up at her house. It was mid day, with raging bright sunlight. Only interesting ideas I could think of were, laptop in one hand, and kiddie toys in the other (she had a really cute little boy). But, they needed something preferably a little quirky and perhaps showed a little personality of the person. I guess I got a "nice" portrait in the backyard. Its OK, I guess.

Kezar

Well, a nice lady informed me I should take a photo of the stadium. Even though I've lived in San Francisco since the summer of 99, I didn't know the 49'ers used to play here.

Cars, cars, cars

Well, I hate driving in the city, and the bay area has the highest gas prices in the country. Had to go to UCSF for my wife's eye doctor appointment. This is a snapshot. Also, it was actually an interesting building architecturally speaking. The entire perimeter was a waiting area with beautiful views of the city. Guess, it was kind of ironic that this was where people went for vision checkups.

More fake adds....

Well, I shot this one in Nov.. The cool thing is it only cost me about $10 bucks. I went to Clement St., here in San Francisco, and bought a couple fish. Then I went off to Baker beach and found some seaweed. I was all set. Only thing, since meeting my wife, I've gained 20 lbs or so. What a bummer. I wish I had the metabolism of my wife's dad. But, even though I used to ride my bike to work everyday (its only 5 miles), and swim a couple times a week at the Presidio YMCA pool, the mid section got bigger. Anyways, I'm a free model, and here's an add for "Club Fit". Let me advertise your business!

Black and White or Color

Well, some while ago I shot some photos of this girl, Jacqueline, who was I believe a high school friend of a stylist from LA. He needed some portfolio photos, and I needed a portfolio. I went to a photo festival in Palm Sprints last April, and took a seminar from Frank Ockenfels. Most people had pretty polished commercial portfolios. I didn't. I think Frank stopped on the page that had this photo of Jacqueline. He commented that she had an interesting face. How often is a photo interesting as opposed to the subject being interesting? My wife's hair stylist also commented that of these photos, the black and white one worked better. I'm not sure.

I'm an arteeest

Well, back in the fall, I submitted some slides to the SFMoma artist's gallery. Back in January, I got a letter, to give them a call, since they liked some of the slides, and wanted to see the actual prints. So, today, Lucille's grandpa, Winston came up to carry Lucille around while I went into the gallery to show my prints. They accepted four of them! Here is one. Its actually part of a series based on the short film, "The Five Obstrocutions", where Lars Von Trier challenges Jorgen Leth to remake his classic short, "The Perfect Human". I am of course the perfect human. You can see the entire series on my site: Just a cog in the machine.

Cows

Well, Glen Wexler got famous photographing cows. His were super heros. This is a snapshot out in Point Reyes CA. I should go back. So, many things to do.

Why can't we just get along?

There are lots of memorials in our city, remembering those that have passed.
Usually, they are the victims of a crime, a murder. This was one I shot several months ago, close to my house. I can think of two more near my home. Now that I have a daughter, perhaps its time to move. I feel like collecting photos of many of these, and perhaps creating a peace sign, or heart. Why can't we just get along?

Sunsets

Well, everybody loves sunsets. The first is out in a little town named 29 Palms, near Palm Springs. I'd actually really like to go back there and photograph the folks that live out there. There's a military base there. Its an interesting place. Lots of small eateries, barber shops, and tattoo parlors. The people seemed really friendly when I was there, yet they are caught up in our nation's turmoil. The other is close to my house, and shot it on the way home from work a few months ago, prior to my quitting my job.

Bikini Girls

Well, over the past few years, I have occasionally scanned craig's list for photo opportunities. I have a feeling that when someone posts there looking for a photographer, they ussually get 10 million responses from every other Joe in the bay area with a DSLR. Once in a while, I guess I'm in there too, unfortunately. Once I responded to a contest of sorts, the "Hawaiian Tropic Shootout". I guess they were looking for the next great swimsuit photographer. Well, I went, and I don't think I really produced the kind of photos they wanted. They certainly weren't FHM covers. This one however I thought was kind of interesting. There were a couple similar ones. They were more like portraits, and not sexy bikini photos. After seeing this photo, I really wondered whether this young lady was happy with what she had gotten herself into. Perhaps, the aspiring model was also rather down on the fact that to work herself into the business she had to be shot by a bunch of guys from a craig's list ad.

Graffiti

Well, scenes like this are pretty common near our house. There's Potrero Hill, a somewhat hip neighborhood. Then a few blocks over its an industrial, urban wasteland. Recently, I heard a story on NPR, I believe entitled, "The Chase". A journalist did a story about those that are pursued, and the pursuers. He traveled to the US/Mexico border where he talked with those gaurding the border, and those making the risky crossing. Then, he talked about a detective unit in NYC which pursues graffiti artists. One story was particularly captivating. It was about one artist who would disguise himself in a subway worker's uniform. He evidently wrote his entire autobiography on the walls of the NYC subway tunnels, a couple hundred pages worth of text I believe. Of course, graffiti is vandalism, but I find much of the type and imagery fascinating. Yet, since I'm a home owner, I also hope our building doesn't get tagged.

Cakes and hostess bars

Well, my sister in law got us these incredibly ornate cakes (Spring Cakes) while on a trip to England. I figured I should photograph them. I thought I should perhaps find an incredibly cute girl who wears colorful clothing and perhaps lots of colorful makeup to take a photo of the cakes with. Also, since I don't have a big track record of commercial work, I thought I should try and create fake adds using my photos. This photo actually kind of just happened. I was trying to imitate a photo of Lil' Kim by David LaChapelle. I threw in one of the cakes. It reminded me of what I imagined those little hostess bars in Japan might be like: overly tacky, colorful, gaudy. So, my photo became an add for "Club Tweety". I thought perhaps I should rent a karaoke room in Japan Town or somewhere, and get some people together and do a photo series entitled, "Club Tweety". Anyone game?

Vacation and stay at home daddy'ing

Well, we went away for a few days to lounge around the beach in winter. So, it was once again baby photo time. I'm now also a stay at home dad, in addition to being a photographer. I've been a little worried about how being a dad will affect my photography. I once attended a lecture by the photographer, Abelardo Morell. He gave a slide show of his work. It changed drastically while he had a family. Many photos were personal, or simply of things in his home, like books. I hope I still manage to find the time to explore with my camera outside of the confines of my home. One idea I have is to do a series of photos on stay at home dads. So, if you're out there, get in touch with me.

Trash, trash, trash...

Scenes like the first photo are common in the city, especially on some of the corners near my studio. I took a bunch of the area and crossed processed them. I thought it could be neat to try and take a bunch of trash and make it look like a real wall at say, 7th and Folsom (I used to live near there). I still need to work on it if I want to accomplish that.