The National Weather Service has posted a fire weather watch for Sonoma County. You would think for the hot weather, right? Well partially. Yes it's been hot and dry. The kicker is a threat for elevated convection, i.e., high based thunderstorms. With the lower levels of the atmosphere quite dry, [...]
Forest fires, floods. Hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. Landslides, angry people, riots. Lightning, monsoons, dust storms. Hail storms, blizzards. I've encountered all of these at one time or another in my career. Nothing quite prepares you for what the Laguna de Santa Rosa can dish out west of town. I speak [...]
Like that heat last weekend? If you did, clap your hands in joy because it's going to get REALLY hot starting Friday. If you hate the the hot weather and wilt at the very mention of record-breaking temperatures, well then you may wan to go jump in a lake. Or [...]
The rain clouds are long gone, the tail end of a front passed through last night leaving some interesting post frontal decorations behind. Forget the May gray, there just wasn't much of that. Unrelenting winds, fires and a little rain highlighted May which is Drinking Water Month [...]
Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College herald in the graduation season here in the Redwood Empire. By the time it's all said and done, Press Democrat photographers will have covered a little over 30 graduations. That's a lot of photos and a lot of time for a small [...]
A special shout-out to the great kids at Willowside Middle School and language arts teacher Julia Castro in Santa Rosa, who welcomed me with great questions and equal courtesy during their career day today. If you want to be a photojournalist, now's the time to start! Thanks again. ..... [...]
It was bound to happen with the dry winter and spring winds as numerous vegetation fires broke out early Wednesday May 1, 2013, fanned by wind gusts of over 50mph. Sonoma County Redcom fire dispatch was non-stop most of the night with calls for trees down. In the Knights Valley [...]
Chuckle. According to CareerCast.com a newspaper reporter is the worst job to have in 2013. It inhabits the basement of a list of 200. Newspaper photographers (AHEM, photo-journalist) live 12 floors closer to the penthouse in the 188 spot in the wobbly world of journalism . That means we get [...]
There are days in the news business that for whatever the reason, stories don't pan out. This usually happens at about four in the afternoon. Inevitably one of us will be dispatched to get a feature photo, commonly called a slice of life or enterprise photo. Whatever it's named, the [...]
Okay, so you've all been scanning the western horizon at dusk looking for the most recent celestial wunderkind. Having a difficult time finding comet Pan-STARRS? Join the club. My over 50 eyes had a difficult time finding the blur in space. That's why camera companies invented long lenses, to give [...]
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