i’ll be giving an APA sponsored talk at the santa monica apple store next tuesday, january 15th, at 7:30pm. dennis dunbar and anthony nex approached me several weeks back about kicking off their apple store lecture series. it will be interesting to speak in a functioning, busy retail store. usually i’ve done these sorts [...]

  this might be a long one. as today is my birthday, i can forgo the effort of seeming overly professional here and just post whatever i want. the honest truth: amidst the corporate photography i’ve been doing lately, the seemingly endless stream of subjects with forced smiles and not-quite-fitting shirts, the thing that has [...]

losing a child is an unimaginable grief. when it happens it seems to be against the very rules of the game. we are supposed to be survived by our children. that’s just the way the world works, isn’t it? the things that parents do to come to terms with such a loss are as varied [...]

going through some of my mother’s files tonight i found this proof sheet, labeled december 10th, 1963. ten years before i was born. the man in some of the shots with her looks like my uncle howard. i asked my mother who took these pictures, since there isn’t a credit anywhere, and nothing written on [...]

i’ve lived in pasadena for four and a half years and have managed to always successfully avoid anything having to do with the rose parade. thankfully it’s usually over by noon, the time i drag my sorry ass out of the house to go find food. old town pasadena is always a big trash-strewn mess [...]

last week i had a shoot that took place in a zoological laboratory. i’m not sure if the place was really appropriate to the subject, or if it was just available and really cool to be in. maybe a mix of the two. it was more interesting than any of our other options at the [...]

i have a different sort of relationship with doctors than most of my friends. doctors have always been a part of my life, as long as i can remember, though admittedly much less so now that i’m an adult. maybe my parents were nervous when i was a kid, maybe things were more precarious, maybe [...]

happy election day, everyone. at least, i hope it’s a happy one. we’ll know in several hours, right? hey, at least i live in a very blue state. that is, if you can overlook orange county, which most people can. they won’t let you take pictures at the polling place (i wanted to get a [...]

when kenny maestas was in his early twenties he was riding shotgun in a truck driven by a buddy of his. this buddy was agitated. he had just had a fight with his girlfriend. kenny was only trying to get a ride to work, but his buddy was driving erratically. the truck crashed. the friend [...]

i was very sad to hear today that william claxton died over the weekend of congestive heart failure. he was eighty years old. claxton took one of my favorite photos of all time (above), of chet baker and helima in 1955. i’ve always loved this picture, have seen it in galleries from time to time, [...]