As I was getting an espresso at Vega on Folsom Street, I noticed that the winter sun hit was hitting the barrista right in the eyes, leaving the rest of the small cafe in shadows. I asked if I could take her portrait and she agreed. Unlike studio portraits, environmental portraits leave a lot out of your control – lighting, background, even the subject. In an ideal situation, I would have positioned her eyes to reflect in the shiny counter top and removed the rag in the foreground. For this shot, though, I was happy to just wait until her eyes entered the light. Her gaze to the left was not directed, but it made for an even better image than the others where she looked directly into the lens.

Rented a Canon 10-22 wide angle lens to cover a Jewish food conference in Pacific Grove, California. I’m very glad I did. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to capture the beauty of the Julia Morgan designed buildings and the sense of collaboration in the rooms. Images taken with the 10-22 below. More photos from the event can be found here.

Two kids enjoy a private moment in public during the Haute Holidays event at San Francisco’s Bentley Reserve.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), 77% of American households now own at least one digital camera. Add to that the digital cameras found on most phones and there’s a good chance that just about anyone around you could snap a photo of you at anytime. These days everyone can be a street photographer.  On more than one occasion, I’ve had strangers point their camera in my direction and snap away without asking.  This has made me very sensitive to how I take photos of others in public. Most often I’ll ask a stranger if I can take their portrait before snapping. However, sometimes the image would be ruined by interacting with the subjects. Such is the case of the untitled above image of two kids sharing a private moment at a public event. I still haven’t figured out where the line is. Depending on the situation, I’ll often share a photo taken unnoticed and ask permission to add it to my portfolio.  Sometimes, though, I’d rather not disturb folks.

I was asked to photograph the first underground “Liminal Feast” at an undisclosed location in San Francisco. The following photos were taken at the event as chefs Jennifer Lynch and Nicole LoBue finished preparing each course. I used a combination of existing light and a Canon 580 EX on-camera flash. The food was downright delicious.

true consommé, juniper, rose hips, nasturtium, lemon leaves, pine

membrillo, hachiya persimmon, andante acapella, pistachio

manzanita bolete, matsutake, yellow woman beans, warren pear, fennel, thyme

roasted squab, leek, fennel, preserved lemon, chickweed, mizuna, curly cress, grilled chicories, walnut

rosemary panna cotta, honeycomb, grains of paradise & cocoa nib shortbread

more photos from the event can be seen here

A few weeks back my friend who works at the San Francisco Opera was nice enough to get me tickets for Salome. Don’t know if you’re familiar with the biblical story of Salome, but one of the highlights is the “dance of the seven veils” in which the title character seduces her stepfather by dancing increasingly seductively through seven separate veils until she is pretty much naked. That, of course, gave me a great idea for a photo project. I’ve chosen to photograph seven women with whom I have varying relationships, some friends, neighbors, acquaintances, old lovers, and one complete stranger. The constant between the photographs is a veil of cloth (I’m actually using two, one slightly more opaque than the other). Each shoot brings up the relationship between photographer and subject, as well as the subject with her own sense of exposure, expression and experimentation. Although the original intention was to photograph each subject behind the veil, we discovered a new way of working with it in each session. These are the first seven, I will likely not take the concept so literally and go back to make a few more images.