San Francisco Photography

Street Photography - San Francisco

California Photo Gallery

Had another commercial shoot in San Francisco a while ago and planned a little extra time to play around in the streets. It’s always a fun way to relax and grow as a photographer. No idea what the bigger picture is for this ongoing series, but that doesn’t matter. Even if it’s just a personal documentation of the city, that’s ok too. This particular day got interesting about an hour in to the walk, when a women pulled up in her car and asked what I was doing. She didn’t like my simple answer and continued to disagree with everything that came after. So I went on my way, only to have her creep behind me for an hour, watching from a distance. At one point our paths crossed closely and her window was down, so I asked if she was having fun. She replied with an entitled grin as if she had cracked the case of the century, saying “I know what you’re after, mailboxes and garages”. I just kept walking. Eventually she couldn’t follow any longer after my path went through a park. People are funny. Did I handle the situation properly? Probably not. If there was a business card in my pocket it would have went immediately to her, but there was not. And her attitude was such shit, that it seemed like a losing battle to convince her of anything other than what she already had in her head. Moral of the story: always carry a business card to show Karen??

Click here to see more from my American photography series

Street photography from the streets and neighborhoods of San Francisco, California by Rob Hammer

San Francisco street photography

San Francisco street photography

San Francisco street photography

San Francisco Street Photography

San Francisco photography

San Francisco Street Photography

San Francisco street photography

Street Photography in San Francisco, California

Street photography - San Francisco, CA

Photography - San Francisco, California - Street Photography

San Francisco, CA

Street Photography - San Francisco, California

San Francisco, CA

Street Photography - San Francisco, California

Street Photography - San Francisco, CA

Street Photography - San Francisco, California

San Francisco street photography

San Francisco Street Photography

Street photograph of a San Francisco neighborhood

Street Photography - San Francisco, California

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Street Photography

Photo of a beautiful home in San Francisco

Street Photography San Francisco, California

San Francisco street photography

American Street Photography

Street Photography - South Lake Tahoe - California

Another edition of making time to shoot for yourself. There’s a book title in there somewhere actually. Had some free time on a multi-day commercial shoot up in Tahoe recently and put it to good use walking around the neighborhoods making street photographs. Specifically these are from South Lake Tahoe which has changed quite a bit since my first visit there 10-ish years ago. Not my favorite ski town, but damn is it gorgeous. Unbelievably so. When you take the time to get out and see the lake and all that comes with it, you’re appreciation for the place as a whole completely changes. It’s not a town where you could spend a lot of time unless your days are spent recreationally doing any of the countless activities that the lake/mountains offer. All that said, I’m starting to love it there.

Click here to see more of my street photography

Street Photography - San Francisco

San Francisco Photo Gallery - Prints - Culture

Street Photography - San Francisco - California - Wall Art

Was back in San Francisco for a commercial shoot recently and made some time for some street shooting. Really love this city. Has it’s downsides like everywhere else, but damn is it an incredible place. The layers that show themselves as you explore are so much fun. And it’s got a texture to it unlike anywhere else in America. Already looking forward to the next trip.

Street Photography - San Diego

San Diego Photo Gallery

Trying to be better about posting more of all the different genres of my photographs here on the blog, and that includes commercial work. Here are some street photographs made in downtown San Diego over the past few months over several sessions. Still trying to pull this whole project together in a cohesive way. Not sure how to do that as the body of images has grown so large that I don’t even know where to begin. Way back in say 2015 when this series started I was calling it “The Lajolla Poject” because I only intended on focusing this series on the streets/neighborhoods of LaJolla. Now it’s spanned all the way up to San Francisco. Time for a long talk with a photo consultant.

Click here to see more from this project.

Street Photography San Francisco

San Francisco Photo Gallery

From a few hours of aimless wondering around one of the worlds great cities - San Francisco. Feel so grateful to have a client up there that I shoot for on a fairly regular basis, and am always sure to make some free time to squeeze in some street photography. Would love to rent an AirBnB in the city for a couple months just to continue this series. The city has so much character and texture that I’m not sure there would be a point where I’d grow tired of photographing it. Wish I felt the same way about San Diego.

Click HERE to see images of San Francisco from the last trip.

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

Interesting to see this project start to take shape. Not sure what year it was when I started it, but finally, things are starting to add up. Going through the body of images, pairings are starting to jump out that would sit nicely together in a book. That’s exciting.

Click here to see more from this project.


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.



Street Photography Southern California

Have been greatly slacking on posts about my commercial stuff, but will get back to that soon. Not sure you can classify the below images as "street photography", but I don't know what else to call them? Either way, this style of shooting is something I have really enjoyed doing in my free time. And think it's very important for a photographer to shoot locally. Most guys put so much emphasis on traveling to exotic places, and that's a lot of fun, but what about your backyard? There is so much character in Southern California that gets overlooked by all the beautiful tourist destinations. Those little pieces are what I enjoy focusing on, and have recently started putting more effort into this project not just in Encinitas (where I live), but in all of "Southern California". It's a unique pocket of the world that is fun to wander around in, and I'm excited to see what this body of images looks like in 10 years. 

To see more of this project click HERE. 

 

 

Roadtrip

Was back out on the road earlier this month. This time it was up to Canada for a snowboarding trip with a stop in Beaverton for a meeting with Nike. More on that later. About 2 years ago I realized that snowboarding is the only that will take the camera out of my hands. During any other activity I'm happy to watch from the sidelines just so I can shoot. On snowboarding trips though, the camera unfortunately spends too much time in the bag. I'm alright with that.  A weird thing happens on those trips though, because the itch still needs to be scratched. I can't not shoot for any extended amount of time or I turn into a prick. Especially on the road because you see images everywhere, which are hard to pass up. So I start looking for images in other places. Thus the reason for a completely random mash-up of images in this blogpost. 

Street Photography

About a year ago I developed a healthy obsession with photography books, and now have a small (and growing) collection that I try and comb through regularly. It's a calming thing to do, but it's also sort of a free education. Every time I look through another book, or back through an old one, I learn something new. Whether that's a new way of seeing, or whatever, it doesn't matter. Either way it has caused me to to enjoy shooting and looking for different kinds of images. I've always been of the opinion that not every image needs to be "epic". I fully understand why most people need to shoot that way, and why it sells, but there is a lot more to it than that. Simple images that show the viewer a slice of life or tell a story, are every bit as fun to make as one of the guy standing on top of Everest. The images below were taken on a couple walks around my neighborhood in San Diego and another in Los Angeles. They are simple, but I really like them, and will be making a lot more of them. The term "street photography" is getting pretty loose these days. Back in the day, if you were a street photographer, then you were wandering around NYC with a Leica. Now, these images would probably fit into that category. Looking at them, the style of shooting isn't much different from my America series. Just different subjects. 

Chennai, India Photo Gallery

Chennai, India Travel Photography

Street Culture - Portraits

Went to Chennai, India for a client last month, making it the second time I've been to India in the last 6 months. Funny where the camera will take you. Any time you travel that far for a shoot, no matter how much fun you're having, you have to make time shoot for yourself. Which is precisely what these images are. The people and things I saw while aimlessly wondering around that foreign city. There were a lot of very noticeable differences between Chennai and the places I visited up north (Delhi, Agra, and jaipur). Firstly, the people down south seemed to be much more relaxed. They were still trying to sell you on something, but it wasn't nearly as often or with the same aggression. Which was a big plus. Overall, I think it didn't have the character of the northern cities, but that could just be my experience. One of my favorite parts of the northern trip was all the Chai tea. It was everywhere. Granted, we were there in the winter, but it didn't seem to be as much of thing down in Chennai. And when it was, the tea itself had a completely different taste. I was told they don't use a lot of spices like the northerners do. 

Keep scrolling down to see lots of images from the 1st trip to India. 

New Delhi, India

India Travel Photography - New Delhi

Not sure there is way to describe New Delhi that would do it justice in any way. I wasn't able to spend a ton of time there, but couldn't be happier with what we experienced. There is so much going there all the time, that you can't possibly make sense of it. If you're not from there, or have been living there for an extended period of time, don't even think about driving. The city streets are chaos. And that's coming from someone who loves to drive, everywhere. So thankful I did not have a car in Delhi. Let the locals handle that task. At any given point, you'll be sharing the streets with cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, motor rickshaws, dogs, cats, monkeys, cows, bulls, people, and who knows what else. The strangest part is that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Yet nobody is angry, and somehow is just seems to work. The energy in the streets of New Delhi is incredible. Something I'd love to experience over and over again for the rest of my life. Any time you're outside in Delhi, you've got constant stimulation. Sort of like Vegas, only not at all. And not just visually. It seems like there is something for all of your senses. 

Getting off the airplane, it's obvious that you're no longer in America. You can immediately smell smoke, which seems to be the standard weather forecast. Not hazy or foggy, but smoke. That's literally what it says when you look on a weather app. Smoke. And if you stay in a hotel, the armed guards at the gate have to check your cab for bombs, both under the car and under the hood. Depending on where you go, who you're with, and time of day, it can be difficult to walk around alone. Both because of safety and because you'll be bombarded with people trying to sell you something. Just get over it. The experiences you'll get from walking through the streets and markets are worth it. Don't even get me started on the food. I still can't figure out how that jam all that flavor into their meals. Brilliant. 

Have a lot more from this trip to post. We also visited Agra and Jaipur, where I did a lots of shooting. Will be posting those images in the next week or so. Come on back.