Yesterday I covered the Friends of the Petaluma River Tom Sawyer Days on the, um...Petaluma River. Lots of kids running around building rafts, putting said rafts in to the river. That was kind of neat. Growing up on a lake afforded my friends and I endless adventures, building rafts, camping, [...]
I went back in my files the other day looking for a vineyard picture I photographed on Cavedale Road near Sonoma in early March. As I was searching through the take, I came across this photo that shows a possible funnel cloud or a spin-up. We do get funnel clouds/tornadoes [...]
Ah. Spring is around the corner. Daylight savings time jumps forward on the 14th of March. The blooms are turning to leaves, grape buds are swelling. It's getting soooo close. So what's with all this rain if blooms are on the trees? We're almost 97 percent of average rainfall in [...]
I travel around quite a bit. One day I may be in the City, the next I could be in Ferndale or Clearlake or Sacramento or Phoenix....It's an adventure to say the least. One thing that I love to shoot is the coast. Out near Big Blue, nature can be [...]
This is not about the finding the perfect Christmas tree. Been there, done that. I've been putting together some photos that will appear the Sunday Dec. 20 paper in the Lifestyle section of the Press Democrat. This means I've been cruising the very back, back roads of Sonoma County to [...]
I've gotten tons of email on the lightning pictures I shot on September 12 near the Hawkeye Ranch above Geyserville. Most were complimentary, while one person said she was "sure it was judgement day" and another thought that I was crazy like a loon to be out in lightning. I'm [...]
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