Bicycle photography lasts for just a few seconds. You have one chance, (if you are lucky to have a motor drive you get more chances to the eighth power). Unless it's a criterium ride where they pass by 40 or 50 times (go fast turn left). Sacramento was the finish [...]
Impossible. Unbelievable. Mystifying. Bad timing. Blame El Nino. When the Amgen Tour of California rolled around last year in Sonoma County, it rained. The heavens opened up. The race from Davis to Santa Rosa was arguably the worst stage in the history of bike racing. Four and one-half grueling hours [...]
A funny sight at the Human Race this past weekend. Employees of Kendall-Jackson dressed up in wine bottles. I've photographed them before, but I seem to remember them being from Korbel. Anyway, a six pack of wine bottle marauders surrounded SRPD officer Greg Wojick on the race route. Several of [...]
The light will guide you. The Guiding Light. Follow it, shoot it. -Kent Porter
It seems to be unusual accident season on the streets of Santa Rosa lately. Here are two of them. -Kent Porter
When Lorri Herrick became pinned under her tractor on Saturday May 8 2010, Windsor, Rincon Valley and Healdsburg firefighters with paramedics from Bell's Ambulance Service rushed to her aid. Out of the corner of my eye, there stood Brady the border collie watching emergency personnel succesfully extricate Herrick from underneath [...]
A light Freeway moment while photographing construction on Highway 101 in Rohnert Park. Clo is watching Highway 101 construction very closely. -Kent Porter
Saturday dawned beautiful and windy. Good for sun worshippers, bad for allergy sufferers. Still, the world keeps turning and the newspaper's daily evolution of tearing it down and filling it back up, goes on. The first assignment of the day was to photograph the Sonoma County Robotics Challenge. There is [...]
Santa Rosa's West Ninth Street egrets are back. Depending on how you look at the situation, it's either really cool for some or nuisance to others. On the one hand, it's fairly interesting to watch nature play out in an urban setting, without having to hike 26 miles in to [...]
Between a Sunday project I was working on Wednesday, I also photographed a house fire on Barham Ave. in west Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa firefighters made quick work of the blaze. The home, which is abandoned and in foreclosure, was occupied by three transients or squatters, who made it out [...]
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