Eat Your Heart Out

Art direction: Andrew Nilsen
MUA: Mother Joseph

I managed to coerce one of my colleagues - architectural photographer extraordinaire, Rebecca Daniels - to step in front of my camera this week for a cover, no less.

Locavore

My photo got lots of real estate in the paper issue of SF Weekly which made me happy (you know us photographers can really be size queens). You can still read the interwebs version here about this new Bernal Heights joint.

Beijing

On sunny [work] days there is nothing better than driving to the Outer Sunset. There's plenty of parking and a big blue ocean sparkling in front of you.

Beijing opened a second location out there, and SF Weekly sent me to snap pics for their review. The dish below wasn't even on the list of dishes to snap - and I'm not sure if it was a language barrier or the owners' enthusiasm  - but they sent this dish out first. I show it here, proudly, on their behalf.

Rice salad.

Cotogna

 My brother, Eric, has been in town for the holidays visiting from Austin, TX and wanted to see his sis at work. When SF Weekly sent me to shoot for Jonathan Kauffman's review of Cotogna I enlisted him to assist. I kept him on his toes following me around with lights and reflectors, and made him carry all my gear just like a little sister should. He has a lifetime of big brother karma he's working off so it was a win-win.

Chef Tim Caspare with spit roasted pork.

Chef Tim Caspare and team were so incredibly great to work with and even made a wood-fired pizza especially for my assistant on top of all the dishes we shot. A slideshow of more shots can be seen here.

Brother gives it the thumb's up and contemplates a career change into photo assisting.

Citizen's Band

I had a grand old time snapping pics at Citizen's Band for SF Weekly this week. I'd been out there before to shoot for Pinkie's Bakery, which is under the same roof and represents half of the partnership of the operation. It's the kind of joint my friends would own. They are definitely worth a visit if you love American classics re-invented for these modern times. Mmmmmm, modern.
A slideshow can be seen here.

SF Weekly: The Naked Guys

SF Weekly put me on Lauren Smiley's feature story covering the 'naked guys' in the Castro, whom (if you live in San Francisco) you may have seen socializing in the public area at Market and Castro streets where the F Train ends. Fun fact: public nudity in San Francisco is not a crime.

I shot my unclad subjects in the Castro a couple of times for the story but art director, Andrew Nilsen, came up with an idea for  the cover that we executed in the studio with a paper set that mimiced the Castro. We were both really happy with the results and I think it's a testimony to what you can still do with paper and tape.

It was late when we were done with the shoot and going over the images; Andrew started choreographing the review to the latest Scissor Sisters album I had playing on set. In this day and age of multimedia it made it onto SF Weekly's website, and is maybe one of favorite parts of the story. It's not work safe as there is nudity, of course.



More interviews and BTS:

SF Weekly Feature: The Clay

I shot the feature and cover in last week's issue of SF Weekly for Jonathan Keifer's story on the possible closing of one of San Francisco's oldest theaters: The Clay. I have a huge love for arthouse theaters but, like everyone else it seems, I just haven't been going to the movies like I use to. In covering the photos for this story I learned so much about San Francisco's cinematic history that is definitely worth a look.

This is Marzette Henderson a former classmate who is still doing hard-time at AAU. He shadowed me for an assignment in his editorial class during the portrait sessions. I know he was probably desperate, but it was still a huge compliment. Marz is sitting inside The Castro Theater which just loves to eat all of your light.

This is me working. I love my job. In case you're wondering that's my assistant, Matt (upper right), holding a reflector so the strobes would sync properly also due to the massive eating of light.

SF Weekly Cover this week

I shot  Jane Kim for the cover of SF Weekly this past Wednesday. Art direction and concept by Andrew Nilsen.

Featured on Photo Induced

Damon Webster from Photo Induced featured some of my fellow photographers  from the AAU Spring Show on his website this week and I was very excited to see one of my Anatomy of Gastronomy images selected. Click here to go to the story.

SF Weekly EAT

I shot an assignment for the EAT section of this week's issue of SFWeekly at an amazing Filipino restaurant in San Bruno last week called Patio Filipino. I have many Filipino friends, and it didn't occur to me until I was actually there that I had never been out to a Filipino restaurant in my life. How could this have happened? Then I read the review and discovered I wasn't the only one.