My wife brought me the news Thursday night. "You know, tomorrow is National Donut Day." Really? There is such a thing? Obviously I've never heard of this before, never really needed a holiday to eat a donut. It's perfect photog food. I did a little digging. National Donut Day was [...]
You just never know what your going to see at a graduation. Most times, it's beach equipment flying around the graduates. Or tortilla's. I've seen blow-up dolls, Silly String, champagne (college graduation) air horns, green hair and once a guitar. I'm sure there have been other things. Friday [...]
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 [...]
A light Freeway moment while photographing construction on Highway 101 in Rohnert Park. Clo is watching Highway 101 construction very closely. -Kent Porter
Co-photog Christopher Chung calls it the "Attack of the giant poppies!" We both chuckled. You can see that a wide angle lens distorted the size of our State flower. I shot this way on purpose, in order to frame people between flowers and make a different Spring / Earth Day [...]
Reporter Bob Norberg and I traveled to Ft. Bragg the other day to report about Bruce Abernathy and his boat graveyard on the shores of the Noyo River. Finding a place to park on Abernathy's land, we were warned to be wary of THE geese from a woman who rented [...]
While traveling by car through Tucson, Arizona on my way back east 25 years ago, the sun was just rising while I was cruising along I-10. Just like that, I came upon a military aircraft that had made an emergency landing in the median. I never shot any pictures of [...]
Mickey Mouse. Disneyland. A successful lesson in how to market your name brand. See those ears and those eyes and you know you've crossed the threshold to Toon Town. Rarely have I been there when something was not closed or being renovated. With a chuckle, I noticed Mickey peeking over [...]
Lets do lunch! Like I mentioned before, I-5 is a culinary wasteland so to speak. If you like fast food, I-5 is your Mecca. The list of fast food joints is respectable. Each off-ramp includes several on this list: Mc D's. Carl's Jr. Taco Bell. The Colonel. Del Taco. BK. [...]
Photojournalists have a certain diet. Each town offers places that are deemed a hole in the wall where journalists feel comfortable spending our hard earned money and getting the right amount of food for the buck. Sometimes you have to roll with it and create your own meal from a [...]
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