The National Weather Service has issued a Fire Weather Watch for hot temperatures, low relative humidity and gusty NE offshore winds above 1,000 feet starting 6pm Monday lasting through 8am Wednesday morning. Remember, a watch suggests that critical weather conditions are possible. If October holds true to form, Red Flag [...]
It's been one year. My first gig in journalism was writing sports. I was awful at it. The camera suited me better and still does today. My first blog entry was on September 24 2009, about shooting pictures of a early fall lightning storm. My second was a post about [...]
Last Saturday was one of those days. It started out innocently enough though. Wake-up. Eat breakfast. Take a shower. Feed the dog. Watch my kid play baseball in sweltering heat. Cover a big brush fire. Bake at the Harvest Fair Gala. Really, just another day at the office. That brush [...]
We're lucky down here in the flats. Even though the last few days have been rather toasty, it cools off nicely at night. Not so for those that live in the hills. The low at the Geysers this morning was 81 degrees with a relative humidity of 15%. In fact, [...]
Windsor rancher Vic Pozzi is at again. The longtime Windsor resident is famous for feeding his emu's and brahma bulls french bread. Along with a gaggle of geese, a dozen or so sheep and a dog that chases water shot from a sprinkler, Vic likes to paint the American Flag [...]
Pique your curiosity with the header? Read on... I used to hunt, fish and hike the 65 mile long swath and 35 mile across, 913,306 acre Mendocino National Forest. I've covered huge fires in the forest, followed college students and native Americans on archaeology digs, hiked through snow drifts, [...]
The photographer in me would view the Wonder Wheel and a pica pole with much trepidation when used to crop my photos in the paste-up room. Before really understanding journalism, say when I was around 19, I enjoyed shooting photos of evertything. Rocks. Trees. Mountains. People. Boats. Pretty much sums [...]
Had a shoot today at the Sonoma County Animal Care and Control near the county airport. Imagine my surprise when Registered Veterinary Technician Jocelyn Schmidt whipped out a dust buster and vacuumed shaved fur from a dog being prepped for spaying. The story being covered is a serious one, but [...]
Of course! Everyone knows that. Some photos never make it to print, not because they lack quality, but have no real bearing on the outcome of the game. I shoot what I see... Administrators at Analy High School in Sebastopol averted disaster after transformers blew on [...]
There's a ton of seriousness these days. The bad economy. Falling home prices. Contaminated eggs. Terrorism. High gas prices. Once in awhile, you have to let your hair down and just have fun, if not for a couple of hours. I had to chuckle when I saw Gilian Handleman of [...]
How many frames in a photojournalists life? Millions. Literally.
I’ve lost count since I started shooting photos at eight years-old with a Polaroid Land Camera (which I still own). It’s a way of life this photojournalism thing which is endlessly fascinating. The trip along the way, now in my 31st year professionally and the last 25 with the Press Democrat, has been an adventure in life. What it has to offer, ranging from implausible beauty to the utterly cruel things life randomly pitches out have shaped and molded who I am. That means I get to witness history. Pretty cool, eh? This journey has included photographing lots of inanimate objects which can be terribly boring. I’ve also borne the brunt of people unhappy to see a photographer show up to document less than pleasant circumstances. Then there’s the weather, which wreaks havoc on the human race daily. So I document the clouds. My advice for anyone having a bad day is to go outside and take a picture of those clouds once in awhile. It will do wonders for the interior beast. Unless you are using a metal tripod in an electrical storm.
-Kent Porter