Roz Savage: Rowing the Pacific
Someday I may be as tough as Roz Savage , but I doubt it. You see, Roz Savage is a 40 year old woman who can’t be more than 5′2″ tall, and as of today she is in the process of rowing from the San Francisco Bay to Australia. She will be the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.Come to think of it I’m not all that impressed… she is after all stopping in Hawaii. But, I’ll cut her some slack. The trip to Hawaii alone is expected to take about 70 days. And, she is doing this all on her own with no “safety” boat staying close at hand. She will literally be in the middle of nowhere should anything go wrong.Strangely enough a couple days before I got the assignment to photograph Roz for 7×7 Magazine I went kayaking in the bay. I haven’t been kayaking in years. Isn’t it strange how things happen like that. Anyway, I didn’t feel the need to mention it to her. I doubted she would have been too impressed considering after about 45 minutes of fighting a light breeze in the bay I had just about all I could handle. Hey, I didn’t have the equipment she has. I’m sure I would have lasted at least an hour with her gear.On a side note, it seems like the issue of bottled water, which I wrote about last month is a popular topic these days. I was reading the New York Times this morning and read a new article about the backlash at people who drink bottled water. It was in the New York Times Style section, so I guess this means that if you don’t drink bottled water you’re stylish. They even mention that the cool new accessory is the reusable plastic Nalgene bottles. Hmm, I wonder if those fit in the Hummer cup holder?
Yelp Exhibition At The Space Gallery Aug 6th – Aug20th
I’ve never really pursued having my work shown in galleries or exhibits. Its not that I don’t want to show work in galleries, it just hasn’t been my primary focus so far. However, starting on August 6th and running until Augu19th I will have four pieces in a group exehbition at the Space Gallery in San Francisco. The exhibit is being put in by Yelp and The Space Gallery. The theme of the exhibit is Reflections on City Life & Community. There will be an artists reception which is open to the public on August 16th from 7:30pm to 11pm. You can follow the Space Gallery link to find more information.
Give them more than they expect!
I was contacted by Southwest Airlines to do a shoot for the in-flight magazine Southwest Spirit. They were doing an article on “Vintage San Francisco” and they wanted it shot in B&W. It sounded like a great project and I was excited to get it. Then the Photo Editor said something I couldn’t believe… she said that it was ok to shoot digitally.
As she was describing the project I was already envisioning how I was going to shoot the project. Getting a request for a B&W shoot is rare enough now days, but a story about Vintage San Francisco that contains primarily architecture and wanting it in B&W is even rarer still. I thought there is no way I’m going to shoot this with a 35mm digital camera! (which was the equipment I had at time) Don’t get me wrong. I’m no “anti-digital” purist. I am a tech nerd through and through (yes, I got the iPhone days within release). Tech was even what I used to do in a past life before photography. I am fully digital, 35mm to Medium Format and Large Format. But if there was ever a project that called for using a large format View Camera and Polaroid Type 55 film, this was it. At the time i didn’t have a View Camera and had never used Type 55 film, but it was something that I’ve always wanted to use. So, I went out and bought the equipment and learned on this shoot. It was great traveling all around the city and looking at places I’ve seen every day in a whole new light.
The Photo Editor loved the results and I think the images were far better than a 35mm digital camera could have produced. I know its not the equipment that makes a photograph, but there is something a little more soulful to taking a picture with a View Camera and Polaroid film. For me, its like the difference between Vinyl and an MP3… sure there are pops and scratches on the vinyl but it gives a different mood and warmth that can’t be matched, even if it is just in my mind.
Its Easy Being Green
Unfortunately I’m a fairly simple minded and easily persuaded person… I’m the type that reads and article or sees a dateline segment and thinks “yeah, that’s terrible, lets do something about it!” A friend of mine works for Current TV which is Al Gore’s TV network. So, of course my friend had the new issue of Fast Company with Al on the cover.One of the articles in the decidedly Green issue was about bottled water. Now, I know the last thing you came here for was to get the views of another idiot spouting information you either already know or don’t care all that much about, but hey, this is my blog so I’ll say what I want. I have no doubt bottled water has had a positive effect on society if only for the fact that there was a time it wasn’t available and people instead were likely drinking a bottle full of sugar in some form or another. But when you learn about the effects all these bottles of water have on the environment from creation, transportation to disposal it makes you wonder why the hell you’re drinking the bottled water. After all, we all (especially for those of us living in San Francisco) have equal quality water coming right out of our taps. Just about everywhere we buy our bottled water will also have perfectly good tap water for us.I’ll end my little diatribe and let you read the article and decide for yourself. So, how am I going to bring this around to photography? I’m not, directly anyway. Only to say that over the last few months I’ve done a couple of shoots for 7×7 Magazine that were on the green side. The picture above is Sarah Weiner of Slow Food USA which is an organization that wants to reach out to consumers and demonstrate to them that they have choices over fast food and supermarket homogenization and to create a movement that protects taste, culture and the environment as universal social values. You mean, I shouldn’t be eating this Big Mac right now? Well, at least I went with the tap water. On to the next cause.
Christopher Hitchens
Author Christopher Hitchens for the Village Voice. Christopher was exactly what I’d expect him to be like… if you’ve seen him on The Daily Show and other news shows you know what I mean. Chain smoking and very dry humor. I primarily photographed him around the yard and house but I ended up liking this shot which was taken in front of his garage. This is the image used in the Village Voice as well. Well, I’m off to the airport to catch a flight to Dallas.
