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 [...]
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 [...]
This post has been rattling around in the draft portion of this blog, but I managed to get it together while waiting for the Raiders-Seahawks preseason game to start. PD photographers, with tremendous planning from photog Jeff Kan Lee and Director of Photography Chad Surmick, cover the air show...from the [...]
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 [...]
Photographs? Worth a thousand words. Each photograph one captures contains a set of sensory perceptions. Light, smell; emotional connection to the moment. Sound also plays an important part in photography. A fitful night of sleep passed by the other night. So I made a list of my favorite sounds that [...]
My dad bought me a KZ 90 -a Kawasaki- when I was 12. I loved that motorcycle. For a 12 year-old it was a source of freedom. A way to get in to trouble a little quicker. One day I went over a jump that was a little to big [...]
That's the name of this blog. Why? Several questions from friends and even a few of my co-workers has led me to explain. I first started shooting color film waaaay back in 1973. Back then, the camera did all the work so my pictures were always properly exposed - save [...]
For the first time in a few years, I was sent to Pebble Beach on Thursday Feb. 12, to gather photos for a Sunday story. The last time I shot the event, everything with the economy was peachy. Three years of a bummer economy have taken a toll, even at [...]
Count em. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Eight is great. Eight is enough. I eight the whole thing. On Friday Feb. 5, fellow photographer Crista Jeremiason and I were assigned to document Cloverdale's Robby Rowland and his quest to surpass the Redwood Empire boys basketball all-time scoring [...]
When it rains, invariably I'm out in the muck shooting pictures. Weather photography is an adventure. But today, after many days of mulling it around, I just have to say thanks to the driver that thought it would be fun to spray me with water while shooting a picture over [...]
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