San Francisco Hotels

I've liked San Francisco ever since I was a kid and my parents took us there for a family vacation. Now the City by the Bay is just an hour away from my studio.

So it seems odd that I've never organized a workshop there... that is until May 2014 when I'll debut the TDS San Francisco Street Shooting Workshop.

As you can image, there are a million details to address to pull off this type of weekend event. But at the core of the planning is the location where we'll have our classroom sessions, informal gatherings, and sleeping accommodations.

In order to find just the right place, Leah and I have spent the last month researching hotels around Union Square. We narrowed the list to five candidates. And today, I visited each one to determine where our camera bags will rest in May.

After spending time at each facility, the field quickly narrowed to two. And the finalist is the Cartwright Hotel on Sutter St. It's wonderful - classic San Francisco architecture and furnishings, a terrific meeting room, and helpful staff. And when you step out the front door, you're immediately immersed in the charm of the city.

I've stayed in so many San Francisco hotels over the years. And my favorites are the unique establishments that couldn't exist anywhere else on the planet. 

The Cartwright Hotel is one of those places. And I can't wait to host my first San Francisco workshop there.

-Derrick

Close Call

I'm always just a bit nervous when I fire up my aging Epson R2400 photo printer. If there were a Hall of Fame for such devices, I would certainly enshrine it today. It has been the shining star of my studio for years.

I've been working with a series of monochrome images with the Sigma DP2. The R2400 is my printer for black and white. You've probably heard me talk more about its brethren, the Epson R2000. That's a wonderful device for color. But nothing prints monochrome like my trusty R2400.

This past Saturday I thought our time together had finally come to an end. The first symptom was that it would no longer feed paper through the top opening. It would grab and grab and grab, but to no avail. It was painful to watch it struggle.

Then, after feeding paper from the back, patterned streaks began to appear on the output. "Maybe the heads are just mis-aligned," I thought. I decided to run the utility to fix it, only to discover that I could not because I had just run out of yellow ink.

"But I'm only printing black-and-white!" I exclaimed. "I don't need color…"

This makes no difference to the printer way of thinking. "You shall do nothing until all cartridges are functional."

So I ordered a yellow cartridge.

Today the yellow cartridge arrived. I quickly put it in the printer replacing the expired one. Then I nervously pressed the power button and waited to see what would happen. After a few minutes, I got a green light.

I fed a sheet of paper in the top, even though that didn't work before. I sent the command to print from the computer.

Then I waited.

It was a holiday miracle! The printer grabbed the paper and fed it through the device. And the image that emerged was perfect. I fed another and then another. Perfect. Perfect.

Surely a yellow cartridge could not be responsible for the mayhem that happened on Saturday? Yet, magically, all is right with the world now.

It's the photographer's version of living with an elder who you love - enduring one close call after another.

-Derrick

Just a Minute Longer

I remember how thrilled I was when I bought the iPad 3. At that moment, I held in my hands what I considered to be state of the art in tablet technology.

Then, a few months later, Apple released the iPad 4.

When it comes to technology, I sometimes wish the glow would last a minute longer. I certainly don't want technology to stop. I make my living with this stuff. But slowing down a notch wouldn't be bad either.

A lot of gear moves through my studio. I try to be conscientious about placing the older stuff in hands that will use it. Other than a few select items, I don't want to run a tech museum. But I've realized that managing gear has become a job unto itself. Research, buy, use, repackage, sell, repeat.

At this moment in time, I love my working kit. I have a beautiful 64GB iPad mini with Retina Display, OM-D camera body, fast lenses, Canon S110 compact, and a Fujifilm X20 midsize. I feel like I can tackle anything, anywhere, anytime.

And I want that feeling to last as long as possible.

-Derrick

Packing and Repacking

One of my favorite procrastination activities is to repack my camera bag. 

This is one of those things that we keep in the family. It's like the admission my grandmother made to me when I was only 5 years old. She had on these nasty looking wool socks that she wore to bed. I asked her about them one night, and she said, "Yes, I wear these to keep my feet warm while I'm sleeping. But you don't need to tell the whole world about it."

I've kept that secret all these years. She's passed away now, my she rest in peace, so I think it's OK.

Anyway, back to bags.

I have two bags that I use daily: the Lowepro Urban Reporter 150 and the Walking Man Shoulder Bag. I use the Urban Reporter for going back and forth to work, business appointments, light photo shoots, etc. The Walking Man is for errands, spontaneous coffee shop visits, and my afternoon walk.

You'd think that I have a set configuration for each.  I don't. And when I get bored with a project at the studio, I empty the contents of one of the bags and try to find the ultimate packing solution for it.

You and I both know that there isn't an ultimate packing solution. What goes in the bag and where it's placed depends on mood, assignment, and the alignment of planets.

But that's the fun, isn't it?

If you tell this story to a non-photographer, they'll think that I've slid off my cracker. It's like the wool socks. You have to be there to appreciate it.

-Derrick

These Look Different

I had an assignment shoot yesterday, and after we finished, the model called her boyfriend to come pick her up at the studio.

We got talking for a bit, and it dawned on me that he was probably outside waiting in his car. I found him, brought him in, so he could hang out with us while we wrapped up.

As most visitors do, he began to check out the gallery of images that lined the walls downstairs where I meet with clients. Kathleen then started pointing out her favorite shots, and suddenly we had this sort of flash-mob discussion about photography.

This was the part that I found really interesting:

"These pictures look really great on the wall," said the boyfriend.

"I've seen a couple of these on your web site," added Kathleen. "But they look different here."

"They do, don't they?" he added.

"I had the same experience," I said, "in art history. I remember looking at famous works in the book and thinking that they were OK. But when I went to the museum and saw them on the wall, I was blown away."

(Not saying here that my photography is in that category. But you get the point...)

After that Kathleen and I finished our work, and they were ready to go.

Interestingly enough, instead of working for cash on this assignment, Kathleen wanted a print. She had her eye on San Francisco Night Scene. 

When I handed her the 13"x19" print to take home, she said:

"Wow, this looks even better than on your site."

-Derrick

PS: The image I printed for Kathleen was on Red River Paper 75lb Arctic Polar Luster #1191, and the metal prints were created by SizzlPix.