I just bought a new film camera, but these photographs weren’t made with it. I just got around to having a bunch of older negatives scanned, many of which I barelt remember having taken. I met these characters at the 2012 Maker Faire in San Mateo.
Sonja Polk – SLO Life Magazine
In March I had the pleasure of photographing Sonja Polk for the April/May issue of SLO Life Magazine. Sonja is a SLO local and loves the downtown atmosphere, so she suggested that we shoot by San Luis Creek, one of her favorite places in the city, and in my opinion, one of downtown San Luis Obispo’s unsung treasures. Sonja was a super trooper, meeting me at 6:45 in the morning, before her work shift teaching at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, to take advantage of the morning light in the creek bed. These are some of my favorite outtakes from our early morning shoot, but if you don’t get SLO Life (why don’t you get SLO Life?), I’ve posted a quick image of the cover and one of the interior spreads on my Tumblr.
Wife in the Kitchen Studio
Brittany needed a new business portrait for work, so this past weekend we set up The Super Professional Home Studio in the kitchen.
After we knocked out the portrait that she needed, it seemed like a pretty good time to dig out some of expired film sitting in my freezer and run it through the Hasselblad. We started with a few Polaroids, just to make sure everything was dialed in, and then Brittany patiently gave me an entire 24 frames. I got the developed roll back today, and put it through my Super Professional Home Film Scanner.
Steve Kragenbrink – SLO Life Magazine
I had a really fun session last month with my new friend Steve Kragenbrink, who works with Woods Humane Society in San Luis Obispo. Steve is a great guy, and the latest issue of SLO Life Magazine has a wonderful profile on him, his family, and his work. It’s a great story, and absolutely worth your time. You can see a quick image of the cover over on my Tumblr.
Woods Humane Society is a local non-profit animal adoption shelter, so it’s no surprise that Steve and the other folks who work there really love the animals that they care for. I wanted to show that one of our images, so we shot some portraits of Steve with Diesel, one of Woods’ dogs, in their agility room. There’s an old, true saying about shooting with kids and dogs (don’t do it!), but Diesel was super-chill for the camera, despite a demanding photographer. for me, the the best part is this whole story is that when I checked in with Steve recently, he told me that Diesel was recently adopted by a local family! I think that it’s pretty clear from this last photo that the family that took Diesel home made a great choice.
Lisa Leonard – SLO Life Magazine
In November I photographed local designer Lisa Leonard in her San Luis Obispo studio for the recent issue of SLO Life Magazine. Assignments for SLO Life are always a lot of fun, because there’s a really specific component to the assignment, as well as an open-ended one. The specific bit is to get a nice, straightforward portrait of the subject for the magazine’s regular “Meet your Neighbor” segment. That means finding (or making) a clean background and some flattering light for the subject, and then getting them comfortable enough with having a camera up in their face that the final picture makes you – the viewer – feel like you’re part of the conversation. That last bit can be the biggest challenge of the shoot, but for this issue, it was a snap – Lisa is outgoing and happy, and comfortable in front of the camera from doing of all of the personal style and family photos that she posts on her blog.
Once I know I have that portrait nailed, I always try to get something “for myself.” Usually , that means a variation on the portrait that reflects something more personal about the subject, or my impressions of them from our conversation. With Lisa’s busy schedule and limited time on the day of the shoot, we kept the same setup that we used for her first portrait, but moved out for a wider shot that showed off her style that day, and a little space in the frame for her to play with.
The open-ended part of an assignment for SLO Life is the story-telling component. In this case, that means extra photos that tell a little more about what Lisa does at work, and provide some context for how her business relates to the community.
