Southern California Street Photography

There’s a long list of things that need improving around here, but organization and editing should be pushed to the top of the list. Although it’s certainly a plus having TOO MUCH imagery in my archives. Creating the images is fun, and sitting at the computer isn’t horrible, although my attention span for it needs help. So what happens is I build these series to the point where editing them down to a usable/publishable body of work is daunting. Overwhelming really. And if there’s one valuable thing I learned from publishing “American Backcourts”, it’s that you should leave the editing to a professional. Collaborating with a professional photo editor is priceless. We’re not talking about someone who edits each file in Photoshop or Lightroom, we’re talking about someone who can unemotionally create a cohesive body of work with your images. They aren’t attached to the work and will give it to you straight. The good ones will anyway. As of right now, I’ve probably got 2-3 more books sitting in my archives. If I was smart, I’d sit down with an editor ASAP to help sort it all out. This street photography series has been going on for about 5 years now. It started in one neighborhood near our old place in San Diego and has expanded all the way up to San Francisco. Sometimes I just walk around my neighborhood with a camera for fun, and then there are the walks during down time on out of town commercial shoots. Regardless of the situation, I get a lot of satisfaction from this style of shooting, and need to stop procrastinating on the archive.

Click HERE to see more of my Street Photography series.

Street Photography - San Diego

San Diego Photography - Cars

Cars are a very obvious thing to photograph. It’s a subject photographers at large have turned their cameras on for as long as cars have been rolling down the street. I have no interest in cars, really. I appreciate them for what they are, but that’s it. I love my truck, only because it allows me to do what I do in a very comfortable way. As far as a vehicle as a status symbol or anything of that matter, I could care less. Still though, over the past X amount of years, cars are something I’ve been inadvertently photographing. And that realization is only somewhat recent. The cars themselves aren’t necessarily the focus though. What’s interesting is their relationship to the surroundings and how they either fit in or stand out. As with all my street photography, there are things like color, line, and texture at play. It’s fun to see cars in “nature” in a place like Southern California because the array of makes/models found here is so vast, as are the environments.

Click HERE to see more of my street photography.

Street Photography - Southern California

Street Photography - San Diego

Crazy times we’re living in right now. Shortly after the Coronavirus first hit the news I was in our local Trader Joe’s. What a scene. Majority of the shelves were empty and people were walking around like they just woke up on the moon. It hit me shortly after that American’s in general, but more so those living in places like southern California, are quite privileged. And the notion of not having 1,000 food options at their finger tips is quite mind blowing to them. I’m certainly not downplaying the severity of this pandemic, but the whole scenario in Trader Joe’s was quite sad. And that same thing was happening all over the country. It just seemed like people had no idea what they would do if they couldn’t buy food from a store 8 days a week. I’ve been very fortunate to travel quite a bit. A lot of the destinations have been beautiful and some have been the very definition of 3rd World. Places like India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Haiti where having food everyday is a bonus. They understand it isn’t a reality to have 3 heaping meals on the kitchen table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That is, if they have a kitchen table at all. Still though, despite having a high level of desperation amongst those people, they still seems to live with a certain positive and friendliness. Most American’s can’t go ten minutes without their cellphones. I’m guilty of it too, but it’s important in these situations to think out side the box. People here are nervous about the virus for good reason, but it doesn’t help to completely lose all rational thought. There is always another way. And buying out the supermarket of every toilet paper roll is not it. We all need to calm down and adapt to the changes. We’re all in this shitty situation together. What does this have to do with street photography? Nothing really. Except that the streets are what I have to photography right now. Since the quarantine hit, business came to a very abrupt halt. Any shoot that was about to happen, is on hold at best. I refuse to let this whole thing take away photography from me though. The streets aren’t my first choice, nor do they make me money. But they keep me sane and keep me sharp. Just like everything else, you need to practice. I want to practice. Going more than a few days without picking up a camera for me is torture. I turn into a grouchy asshole. So the streets it is. They have always been something I turn to for relaxation. It’s almost meditative being out there with no agenda or expectations. Even if it’s just for an hour or two, it makes me a better person.

Click HERE to see more from this series.