For the past nine years, the staff of California State Senator Darrell Steinberg has held a fair to attract children (and their parents) who are interested in summer activities. The most recent Passport to Summer Youth Fair was held at Southside Park in downtown Sacramento on May 8, 2010. The folks that participated this year were greeted by pleasant weather and a chorus of community members who offered free performances and activities.

For those of you who are interested, I shot the following images with a Nikon D300 and three lenses: the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 (which is an amazing medium telephoto with beautiful out of focus blur), the Nikon 28-200 f/3.5-5.6 (which is crap, but the best I’ve got if I need the reach), and the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 (which is super wide and generally very sharp).

Please leave comments if you are so inclined (anyone can comment without an account, as long as they are human).

Nearly all of the images on this site have been taken with one of three cameras: a Nikon D300, Olympus OM-G, or a Holga 120N.

The following set includes images captured during the past five months with all three cameras.  The differences between the images are clearly apparent: the ones in color are from the D300 (and were all captured at Dillon Beach, CA), the hazy square black and white ones are from the Holga (which were captured in Sacramento), and the rectangular b&w images are from the Olympus 35mm (they were taken in San Francisco).  Comments are appreciated!

The first roll of photographs captured by my new Holga toy camera.  Images taken along the Sacramento River near the I Street bridge.

It’s been some time since I’ve updated this website, and things have changed during the past several months.  Chief among them: I’ve been totally disinterested with my D300.  The images I get from that camera – images that make up the bulk of the catalog on this site – are pristine and crisp.  But I increasingly see them as sterile.  The web is littered with such images.

On the Internet, I sometimes feel like I’m drowning in media.  As the number of photographs and videos grow, I seem to value them less and less.

I’ve begun to photograph and develop my own black and white film as an attempt to pierce the dull digital ambiance of my life.  As a photographer who began with digital, this is been both exciting and frustrating.  I’d like to share a few my first examples with you.

Back in January, I received a few rolls of 20 year old Kodak TMAX 3200.  I accidentally exposed one of the rolls, ruining all of the images (oops), but I managed to develop another in my new bathroom-turned-makeshift darkroom.  As a result of the film’s age and me screwing up the development process, I managed to get some interesting results:

I’ve been really exited about the results I’ve had so far.  In the coming weeks and months, I’ll do my best to add more posts about my adventures with film.  Stay tuned!

An eclectic group marches through midtown.

Festivities begin in Old Sacramento.

Sacramento County animals try to find a new home.

A deep blue montage.

Just when you thought K street couldn’t get any scarier…