A few months ago, I was the 2nd assistant on a shoot for the Interior Design Buyer’s Guide. My duties basically had me getting coffee and lugging around rugs, and rarely touching anything I could mess up (I think they were given heads up that this was only my 2nd shoot). The other assistant, Jamie, was super talented and showed me the ropes and gave his input on how he thought the shots should be set up. The photographer, however, had some pretty concrete ideas and didn’t incorporate many of …

I shot five graduations for various newspapers this last month, so I picked out 20 that I feel best illustrate the state of youth today. Over on my personal blog I have a few snarky comments, but suffice it to say that nothing can make you feel old like going back to a high school campus.

Since graduating college, I have had my camera on my person perhaps 90% of the time, a huge commitment that sometimes feels like babysitting. Part of this is due to working in a photo studio that sends me out last minute, but I could just use a camera from the office (of course that would mean using a 4-year-old Nikon, yuck). No, I mostly carry it around for myself and because I bike, I use a backpack-check out my baby-leaving a huge sweat mark on my back most days and …

Remember watching TV in the late 90s and hearing that slogan on NBC? Before the days of streaming internet video and Tivo there was no hope for anyone who missed a new episode of Seinfeld aside from waiting for a rerun…on a real television set of all places. And as NBC was happy to remind every couch potato, an episode that you haven’t seen isn’t just a rerun, but more like a second chance at happiness. Anyway, that was what I was reminded of recently when I got tired of staring balefully at the price of the Canon 5d MkII and bought myself it’s forebear, the original Canon 5d.

As an aspiring journalist, I often ask myself, should I go to journalism school? In fact, I’m thinking about taking the GRE in September and applying to a few schools this fall. But in today’s emerging field, the question deserves some thought before we all go rushing for more student debt to study a profession that’s in a state of disarray. I’ll admit that since graduating from college, part of me has longed to re-embrace life as a college kid, delve back into the buzz of campus life and study something that …

I’m pleased to announce I took home two awards and an honorable mention at the 2009 San Diego County Fair Photojournalism Exhibition. “Freegans” won second place in the photo essay category, and “PBR Rodeo” won third place in the same category. “High Tide at Scripps Beach,” seen above, received an honorable mention in the Documentary category.

Sorry for my absence. I have been fighting the website to post the following slide show and lost. Will has graciously offered to host the slide show until things are taken fixed.
Over Memorial Day weekend, my friend Ian Parker had an idea to shoot a tribute to a youtube video (itself a tribute) that was making the blog rounds.

The song is “Lisztomania” by Phoenix and sure to get played out before the summer is over. But in the meantime, its an awesome song to dance to, which is exactly …

Kurt Lancaster has a simple-yet-powerful analysis of a simple-yet-powerful video by Jigar Mehta for nytimes.com. Whether your telling stories with video, photo or words the principles Lancaster highlights are good ones to remember. (via multimediashooter.com)

My mom just retired as a high school teacher this month, after I don’t know…maybe four decades of teaching art and then digital photography. Visiting home I borrowed one of the VHS tapes that she shows her students on occasion, like when they have a substitute and the kids can’t be trusted to pay attention. The video was a 60 minute documentary about the first Eddie Adams Workshop, held in 1988, and it’s an interesting watch if you can find a copy.

In response to my previous post, I decided to work on a fun project yesterday in honor of World Oceans Day. As someone who was born and raised by the sea, the smell of salt water and the strip of blue to my West means more to me than your average American. This sentiment is reflected in the countless number of ocean shots I have taken in my lifetime all over the world. Here is a slideshow of some recent photos I have taken of the Pacific, from San Diego to …