It's Not A Job, It's An Adventure

Many years ago I realized the way to make photography completely dull and boring was by making it a job. I don't like taking pictures for other people. The business of photography has little to do with making images. I feel the same about blogging. If I had to do it I wouldn't like it very much. If it was a job, I'd hate it. And I don't want to hate it. I want to do more of it. So as with my photography, so with my blog. I shoot what interests me and what I think is important to document, I will treat this blog in the same manner.

I use Facebook to point out shifts in the photo industry, copyright issues and the like. I also use it to communicate with a few good friends.

Most of my current work can be seen on my Flickr page.I sometimes post five image photo essays there, and my complete Alcatraz project can be seen there.

I also use Twitter, which is linked to my Facebook page, to spread information about photography issues.

So I think I'm going to save this blog to just talk about making pictures and photography that I think is good and or important. That will interest me and hopefully keep me going in the blogosphere.

The photo above is from some recent work I've been doing while sitting in public places.

Photo: Union Square, San Francisco. ©2009 David W. Sumner

When it All Comes Together.

It pays to always carry a camera. It doesn't always pay, but there are times when everything comes together.

I was walking home with a bag of groceries when I came to this corner and stopped to shoot a few frames of this caution tape wrapped around a power pole and stop sign. The yellow and red against a blue sky was quite nice. I made about three images and picked up my grocery bag and was about to cross the street when I saw this taxi coming into the intersection. Damn! I just pushed the camera in front of me and banged off one shot. This is it.

Photo: ©2008 David W. Sumner

Digging Up the Present

When I graduated from the University of California Riverside I had completed 76 units in Anthropology and 32 units in Sociology. I needed only 36 units for my BS, but I was a bit of a social science zealot. It's probably obvious the extent to which that education has influenced me.

I'm beginning to look at my work as a sort of visual archaeology. Rather than digging up the past, I'm visually recording the arti-factual evidence of a contemporary society. In some cases I manage to photograph things as they are about to disappear forever or become rarer that they already seem to be.

Photo: ©2009 David W. Sumner (Dry point on copper plate and printing press, Dale Erickson's studio, San Francisco, California. 2009)

Urban Hawk

As I was on my way to the office this morning, about 7:15, before the sun had actually topped the East Bay hills, I spotted this young red tail hawk eating a pigeon on the sidewalk in front of Davies Symphony Hall.

I had already been shooting a bit as I walked along and quickly grabbed a couple of shots of the hawk, expecting it to take off as soon as it noticed me looking at it. But actually it could have cared less what I was doing. I had a single lens with me, a 24mm f/2.8, not exactly the right lens for shooting wild life, urban or otherwise. The light was dim, the lens too wide and the shutter speed too slow, but I decided to work it anyway.

Trying not to look directly at the bird, I inched closer and closer with little shuffling side steps, shooting a frame each time the bird looked away or went back to tearing at the dead pigeon. I shot two thirds of a long roll of Portra 400NC in this fashion while several people walked past never giving me or the hawk a glance. At least six people walked by never noticing that any of this was going on.

Finally as I got to within about 7 feet of the hawk I started attracting attention. I snapped another frame or two and moved on, encouraging others to do the same, which the did. And the hawk? Well he was just too young to know any better and went right on with his breakfast.

Photo: ©2009 David W. Sumner

Blow-Up!

There's a group of San Francisco photographers roaming the streets, gathering in Golden Gate Park, meeting in local bars, it's called Blow-Up!. The groups is famous for its Beer & Gear Sessions which involve the sharing of good food and drink and checking out all the interesting camera gear everyone brings along. In the photo above Blow-Up! members receive a clinic on using a 4x5 Crown Graphic in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. So when you're out and about keep your eyes open; you may just end up the subject of a Blow-Up! photo.

Photo: ©2008 David W. Sumner

Letting The Image Speak

I'm finding it hard to write about photographs or photography in general right now. I've tried to come up with short bits once a week, but I'm finding that to be no easier. I suppose that's why I photograph in the first place, because I just don't have that much to say, at least that much worth writing down that would be of interest to anyone but myself.

I'll keep trying, but I may lean a little more toward the news than the notes for a while.

Recently a few people have commented that my photographs look old, and not just because of the warm tone. They have said they look old as if they are of another time. Most of my subject matter is still, unmoving and of common things, often timeless things, like a tree. Maybe I choose subjects that might seem "old fashioned" to current sensibilities. I do seek out stillness and the familiar in that stillness. Maybe that in itself is old fashioned.

Photo: ©2008 David W. Sumner

Meeting the Planet Walker

Anna and I spent last Friday in Point Reyes with our good friends Pam Heyda and John Wall. We all had the great, good fortune to meet John Francis. In the photo above Anna looks on as John Francis inscribes a copy of his book Planetwalker.

Environmentalist and author, John Francis.

In 1971 John Francis witnessed the collision of two oil tankers under the Golden Gate Bridge and the subsequent spill of 500,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay.

He was so moved by the incident that he vowed to stop riding in motorized vehicles of any kind. He began walking on a journey that would take him across the world and around the world.

As he traveled, John engaged people he met in lively debate on environmental issues until one day he realized he was talking and arguing more than he was listening. He tried not talking for a day to see how much more he could learn by only listening. One day grew into two, then a week, then a year went by and he was still not talking. John didn't end his silence for 17 years. In that time he walked around the world, earned three degrees, including a PhD, and worked for the Coast Guard writing key environmental legislation concerning oil spills.

John has served as a UN ambassador and recently lectured at TED. His book, "Planetwalker," chronicles his seventeen year journey of silence for the sake of environmental consciousness.

John Francis lives in Point Reyes, California with his wife and son.

Photo: ©2008 David W. Sumner