On occasion I’m asked by teachers from schools around San Diego county to come and present to their class about pinhole photography. Sometimes the classes have their own projects where they create their own cameras and then use those cameras to take photos with. For the past few years I have been volunteering my time to speak to Kelly Magaudda’s 3/4 grade seminar class students at Loma Portal Elementary about pinhole photography. After a short introduction on lensless photography the class is broken up into teams who then take turn loading their pinhole cameras with paper negatives in a makeshift darkroom. Parent volunteers help the students setting up their shots and assist with exposure times. The students then returned to the darkroom where I would remove the negatives from the camera and process them in the developer. The students are always excited to see their photos develop in the darkroom chemicals right before their eyes. An experience I’m sure they’ll never forget.
For further reading, here’s an article that sdnews.com did on our first pinhole project back in March 2008
UPDATE:
I got a really nice package in the mail the other day. Inside was a stack of thank you notes from the entire class. Each card was uniquely different, with beautiful handwriting mixed with magical drawings adorned pinhole photographs. Thanks to all of you for writing these. It was interesting to hear that so many of you liked the darkroom developing process. I enjoyed the cards so much, I thought it would be fun to share a few in this blog post. Keep in mind, I couldn’t post them all, so if you don’t see your card here it doesn’t mean I didn’t love it. Thanks again and please be nice to your teacher 🙂
I love the beach, so naturally I enjoy any chance I get to work next to the ocean. When Zoey’s mom contacted me about photographing her daughter’s high school senior portraits on the beach, I jumped on the opportunity. Of course working on the beach has it’s intrinsic challenges, such as the tide, the weather as well as other people enjoying the beach. Windansea Beach is a popular place, so I always try plan shoots there during non peak times. I love natural light, so fortunately I had my favorite assistant Jen helping with reflectors and strobes. Thanks to Zoey and Jen for doing so an awesome job on this shoot!
This July (25-30) 2016 our family and a couple of the kids friends had the pleasure of hiking the Rae Lakes Loop in the Kings Canyon National Park. Our wilderness permit was outlined to hike the loop counterclockwise starting at the Roads End ranger station and heading up Paradise Valley. Our first night we camped at the Upper Paradise campground.