2023
7.6
Over the long weekend I visited two artist friends and I got to photograph them at work. First I visited Chef Eder who brought Provecho over to ICA SF as part of Calaca Coffee's pop up series. I recently assisted on a food photoshoot, so I was inspired by that work to snap my own photos.
After visiting Provecho, I headed over to fellow photographer Grady Brannan's photo show. He held the show in a refurbished wear-house space with exposed brick and hella natural light. It was great to see Grady's photos large and from his live music work to his portrait work. He even found a way to display all his passes from his years of show coverage. Appreciate you Chef Eder and Grady for sharing your art with me.
-n
6.27
Last night I stayed up late listening to records while catching up on editing and sorting some personal work. I have made it a goal to honor my personal photos & projects by giving them the same attention I give my assignments. I am still working on making this blog a tool for me to reach my goal. So with that here is another post from a full day at the end of May. From Oakland to SF in a short series of photos. YEE!
Folks held a rally at Oscar Grant Plaza to protest and call out the Bay Area buisnesess who are helping fund or construct the egregious Cop City plan in Atlanta, Georgia.
Justice for Banko Brown, a youth organizer with the Young Women's Freedom Center who was murdered in San Francisco over suspicion of shoplifting..
Page one from a leaflet created for and handed out at the Stop Cop City rally in Oakland.
Page two lays out the East Bay's ties to Cop City.
Page three honors Tortuguita, a forest defender murdered by police in Atlanta during a raid in the forest earlier this year.
A quick image taken on the corner of 24th St and Mission St. The amount of images created here is astounding but I never get tired of seeing them. Also I love the car, possibly and old Hudson?
Skyler from Bear Call at The Knockout
Nowandformaly, aka Kevin Figueroa, getting down on the effects.
Nowandformaly throwing down at The Knockout.
6.26
I took my morning walk in Golden Gate Park earlier this month and I decided to focus on flowers, the colors and shapes draw me in the most. It was fun using the compact Fuji X100T with the camera's sharp focus and ability to capture so much detail. I had the the flash on, the natural light was pretty even and mellow due to the cloud cover, so the flash helped add prominence to the flowers. These files sat on my desktop till yesterday when I finally got time to do some post. I am very pleased with how the images turned out and excited to explore more still photography.
-ND
5.28
If you follow me on instagram then you probably saw that I am taking a social media break, as much as I can, for the time being. Insta has been feeling like more of a burden than creative space to connect with community lately and that usually signals that I need a break. I took a few months off social media in 2021 and it was such a great cleanser and grounding practice for me. I am really hoping to dig into more rigorous study, community building and reconnecting with my personal photography projects and goals.
Today I worked on just taking photos of things around me that caught my eye. I went on a quick little walk around the Temescal area of North Oakland and snapped a few photos on my phone. Enjoy!
The wheat pasted poster drew me in at first and then while composing the photo I realized the writing above it helped tell the story some more.
Colors.
A beautiful mural at Shattuck and 52nd Street.
"Love Letter To Oakland #2"
Natalie trying out my Nikon F3 at the Malcolm X Jazz Festival in Oakland, CA.
5.27
Welcome to the first entry in my blog! I am excited to be sharing my process, work and self in a new way. Thank you for joining me on this journey.
To start off I am sharing images from a recent artful Saturday in Oakland with my partner Natalie. Through fellow photographer, Scott Hoag, we learned about a photo workshop called FRAME that is held at 510 Media Foundation. The group was a mix of newer and long term photographers and intergenerational, both pluses. We went over some photo 101s, did some co-teaching of the exposure triangle (Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO) and then did some hands on practice.
One of the FRAME instructors, Dre, did an exposure exercise with the class. These are a couple of my favorites of the day.
Dre had us working hard during the exercise.
For the exercise portions of the class we broke into two groups, newer and more experienced photographers. I went with FRAME instructor Dre, who did a hard exercise that a mentor of his would challenge Dre and others with. We had to follow him from place to place in the studios complex and then were given very brief moments to make his image. The exercise definitely challenged me in anticipating the correct exposure, reading the light from space to space quickly and being acquainted with my camera, a Canon R.
Once we finished up with our exercises, class wrapped then Natalie and I headed to The Malcolm X Jazz Festival, put on by Eastside Arts Alliance, a short drive away.
Chamuco Cortez of Amor Eterno Arte preps a block print.
Natalie setting their own block print.
Drying block prints that community members created.
Natalie chose the painter / b-boy pre-hispanic style block print. I was drawn to the bell hooks graphic.
We made some amazing block prints of a painter in pre-hispanic style and a badass illustration of bell hooks. (I'll scan and share them here at a later date) The art activation and designs for the block printing were courtesy of Amor Eterno Arte. After we collected our prints we headed back to SF and took a couple portraits by Bernal, it was a wonderful day all around.
-ND
By Natalie
