1906 Earthquake Commemoration at Lotta's Fountain

A couple hundred people gathered at Lotta's Fountain at the corner of Market and Kearney on Sunday morning, April 18th at 5:12 am to commemorate the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The fountain served as a meeting point during after earthquake and fire and each year a ceremony is held at the fountain in remembrance.
Compared to the thousands that were there on the 100th anniversary (which I also went to) it was a smaller crowd. This year the only survivor present at the annual anniversary gathering was 104-year old William Del Monte.
Its a touching event, with people gathered to honor the horrible event that almost destroyed the city completely. At the end, to show their pride in the city, everyone sang a rendition of "San Francisco."

A Stroll About Chinatown

Chinatown is one of my favorite neighborhoods to wander about in San Francisco.

I love to grab my camera and wander around the neighborhood and photograph whatever catches my eye.
It also give me a chance to have fun shooting, playing with different lenses, light, and my depth of field.
Everwhere you see pink grocery bags...
Everywhere in Chinatown...
Lady Liberty...

As you can see from this old gallery of my photographs on the SF Gate, I 've been doing this for years and I am sure I will always will keep coming back to the streets of Chinatown for more photos.

2010 Bring Your Own Big Wheels (BYOBW) Race

Yesterday I went to check out the 2010 BYOBW (Bring Your Own Big Wheels) Race down Vermont Street in Potrero Hill.

Its my first time to the event and driving there in a torrential downpour I wasn't sure the event would be going on...
But if someone is crazy enough to race down a hill on a Big Wheel, I learned a little rain would not be enough to dissuade them.

You can view more of my photographs and videos of the race on the SF Gate 2010 Bring Your Own Big Wheels Photo Gallery

Elephant Seals of Ano Nuevo

Sometimes the most amazing sights are right in your backyard. A little over an hour's drive south from San Francisco is Ano Nuevo State Park which is the largest breeding colony of the northern elephant seal.A little over 100 years ago the elephant seal was almost hunted to extinction with only around 100 seals remaining before they were protected. Today there are over 150,000 elephant seals alive today and many of the return yearly to Ano Nuevo to breed.

My trip to Ano Nuevo was late in the breeding season. Most of the female seals actually had already given birth and returned to the ocean. Left behind were their offspring, a few months old and weighing a few hundred pounds each. During the warm sunny day they try and conserve their energy sleeping on the beach and they also learn how to practice to swim in the ocean and be prepared to take care of themselves once they are off the safety of the land.Not all the seals make it to the ocean unfortunately. Along with the living are the young ones who are unable to survive...

But it is an amazing place to see nature up close and a beautiful place as well. If you want to find out more about visiting Ano Nuevo check out the California States Park Website for Ano Nuevo and some background information about the elephant seals.

High School Basketball Playoffs

I was lucky to photograph the pulse-pounding Northern California Sectional playoff game between Redwood High School and Mount Eden.
It was an amazing game that went down to the wire...
For awhile in the second half it looked like Redwood would pull away with the game...
...but Mount Eden fought back and the two teams traded baskets both taking the lead in the final minutes...

...until Max Jackson drove into the lane and delivered a basket to pull Redwood ahead for good.
and the players celebrated the close victory. There is nothing better than a hard fought, well played game.
You can read the Marin IJ article on the game here.

Two Kinds of Portraits

I've always felt that portraits are one of the toughest assignments for a photojournalist. To be able to convey to the reader the identity and personality of the subject is always a challenge. However, I enjoy the challenge. I recently had two different portrait assignments and I approached each in a different manner.

The first image in this blog post is of Kerner Studios Model Supervisors (left to right) Mark Walas and Carol Bauman. Within a few minutes of meeting Mark and Carol I could tell they took great care and pride in their jobs building miniature models. I thought a shot of them looking over a miniature of the Walt Disney's Space Port concept model the studio built for the new Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio would show their love of their art. The model was lit up and I like how the light from it fell on both of their faces as they gaze upon the model.

The second portrait is of Dominican University Lacrosse player Tai Sing Hee. The story was a preview of the Dominican Lacrosse team's first season as a Division II program and focused on Hee, their prized recruit for the season. When I arrived on the lacrosse field for the assignment I was drawn to the goal and circle around it on the playing field. I positioned Hee in the center in a strong confident pose to show the possibilities of the player and his team for the upcoming season. Also instead of just using the available light I also threw in a little bit of flash on the right to try and lighten up Hee's face a little bit.

Both portraits present opportunities and I hope these two images work to convey what the essence of each subject and help to tell their story as well.

Recent Sports Photographs

The winter high school sports season is in full swing and I have been covering a lot of basketball for the Marin IJ. There have been a lot of great games I've been able to photograph, and this was my favorite image from the past few weeks.
One of the other sports I photographed was wrestling. Its actually a rather tough sport to photograph. The contestants are constantly moving around the ring and it can be tough to get a shot where you can get a feel of the strength and power some of these wrestlers have. This was one of my favorite images from the Mountain Clash wrestling tournament at Tamalapais High School in Mill Valley