Just another day in Sonoma County in search of another angle on the possible rise in gas prices due to the Chevron Petroleum Fire (among other circumstances) in Richmond Monday evening. This led me to the Arco gas station on Brookwood Ave. and Fourth Street in Santa Rosa where I [...]
Ever get the feeling you're part of a broader bird conspiracy? Is it my imagination that nature has us in the crosshairs most of the time?e Sometimes I wonder..... -Kent Porter
The rise of the hill never changes shape. The grass is always whittled down which presents a nice sharp horizon line. When the sun is straight up, the hill is bland, revealing nothing about its potential character . Often the rise is enveloped in fog and most times I've no [...]
A cat rescue. A dog urinating. Yes, it's been an interesting couple of weeks in the life of Kent Porter, photojournalist. As I wrote in a post last week, I spent part of a day with Marin County dairy farmer Mike Moretti. As I was wrapping up the shoot, Mike [...]
Had a shoot yesterday near Tomales. Beautiful country. Rolling hills, cows, hawks and waterways. Picture perfect. Dairy farmer Mike Moretti was the subject, for an upcoming story in the Sunday Press Democrat. So I hung around for a few hours because the light was really nice and Moretti works very [...]
Most if not all domesticated animals are pretty curious, especially when a stranger is about. 'Twas the case a few days ago with some goats. Everyone is looking for their 15 minutes of fame. -Kent Porter
When I first got in to this photojournalism thing, I ran across a series of photos in News Photographer magazine- 27 years ago- of a cat being rescued from a tree by firefighters. The photos were pretty amusing. Up until Wednesday (Aug. 24) I'd never seen anything remotely resembling a [...]
On assignment today at Sonoma State University. The campus is on winter break and only a few people are around. And one deer, bounding across the quad area looking for more private and greener pastures.
Even as I work the desk this week here in PD photo, I'm still getting out to shoot a photo here and there. Yesterday, I took an hour to photograph the mystery of the dead birds on Highway 101 near Geyserville. Thanks to some timely reporting from Steve Hart, it [...]
Birds were everywhere Thursday. -Kent Porter
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