Drag racing. Hands down the most intense, discombobulating, gut-wrenching, intimidating sport in which to photograph. Period. I'm not talking American Graffiti muscle cars or Greased Lightning pink slip duels you see on the silver screen. Naw. We're talking Top Fuel here baby. Alcohol burning, nitrous oxide injected, pedal to the [...]
At the Press Democrat, we haven't shot black and white film in nearly 16 years. On Sunday with color all around, I tried to isolate the two colors for pseudo B&W images. The Citizens Against Roblar Road Rock Quarry held a free rock concert in Cotati, Sunday July 11, 2010 [...]
Before being assigned to shoot the unrest in Oakland Thursday, I shot the aftermath of a house fire on the way to another assignment. A bad situation with the fire, made a little better with teamwork. -Kent Porter
Become a photojournalist and witness first hand how life works. The good, bad and downright ugly. Riots. Demonstrations. Protests. Civil unrest. Call it whatever you want. It was with trepidation and nervousness when assigned to photograph on Thursday night, Oakland's reaction to the involuntary manslaughter verdict on Johannes Mehserle, a [...]
Fireworks in Windsor. People dancing. Firefighters in moon suits. A hike with a park ranger. Saturday July 3 was a busy day. Varied it was. I have nothing pithy to say. (!) Here are photos. Enjoy I hate busy fireworks photos. Gimme a couple of bursts and some [...]
Between assignments Friday, I made it to a brush fire located on the D Street extension in Petaluma. Not having enough time to put on the fire gear and hike up a hillside, I concentrated on shooting Cal Fire's Boggs Mountain water dropping helicopter. The smoke was pretty thick but [...]
My ongoing quest to find beautiful light in Sonoma County and beyond. Follow the light. It will guide you. -Kent Porter
It's been almost a week since my last post. Forgive me. Pretty busy for us here in the photo department, with six different grass and structure fires. Welcome to summer. If there's news, we try to photograph it. Tuesday it was a quick trip to Lakeport for some ugly weeds [...]
4:28 AM. Did you feel it? Did you know it was that early? Hey, it's the first day of summer. The summer solstice. Today June 21, 2010, is the day our sun stays out longer than any other day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun rose at [...]
If you watch TV, listen to the radio, read a magazine / newspaper or walk around town, advertising is all around us. It's part of what makes commerce work, keeps us from going broke and losing our jobs. Out here at Infineon, it's no different. But it's more intense. Really [...]
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