Yesterday I was hired by the SF Chronicle to go out and look for various beach closures because of a tsunami alert that was placed in effect. The advisory, which is not as serious as a warning, was issued after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile. Although there wasn’t any apparent danger, authorities in San Francisco and other counties in the bay area urged people to stay off the beaches. Of course when this warning goes up many people seem to ignore the potential dangers and go out to catch a glimpse of the incoming killer waves. As predicted by many the waves only grew to about 4 feet in height but brought along with it a deep recession in the tide which brought out the crabbers. I was out at Pacifica and Half Moon Bay where I worked much of the afternoon. Here’s a sample of the images I got. Thanks for checking in and taking the time to look!
People try their luck catching clams as the tide washes out at Pillar Point during a tsunami warning that was a result of an 8.8 earthquake in Chile February 27, 2010 in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
A man gets sprayed as the waves crash into the jetty at Pillar Point during a tsunami warning that was a result of an 8.8 earthquake in Chile February 27, 2010 in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
3 months. I haven’t worked or shot any photos to speak of for the last 3 months. Not that it was my choice or I didn’t get any calls for work. Back in November, on the 21st to be exact, I fractured my right humerus bone (upper arm) in four places on the top where it joins with the shoulder joint. I am not sure why they call that bone the humerus bone cause there is nothing humorous when you break or fracture it. While it was a painful experience and something I don’t recommend for anyone, as it was my right arm, the fracture and the process of healing was the experience that took me away from photography. They don’t make left handed cameras.
I had to immobilize my arm for a month using a belt like device with velcro straps and braces that went around my bicep and another around my wrist that held my arm against my body bent at the elbow at 90 degrees. Not advised for comfortable sleeping. After the first month was over I happily discarded my immobilizer and put my arm in a sling for month two and for month three I was out of the sling but limited to lifting my arm 45 degrees with no more then 5 pounds of weight.
I spent most of my time learning new programs on Lynda.com and getting some of my archive scanned and organized. Now I am in the process of physical therapy. Because of the lack of movement with my arm and shoulder and the scare tissue that has developed due to the bleeding from the bone I am very stiff and weak. The physical therapist tells me that these next few months are the most critical to get my arm back to where it was before, so I have a lot of work to do. Stretching and more stretching with weight lifting is on the agenda and high priority.
Now I can go back to work and thanks to my editors at the Chronicle, Getty and my other clients for their patience and calling me when they do. Below is a photo from an assignment this week at the Chronicle having to deal with the possibility of raising fees for tourists to enjoy some of the places we take for granted here in San Francisco. Coit Tower is on the list and just down the street from my apartment. Thanks for looking and check back again soon!
Tourists enjoy the view from atop Coit Tower on February 17, 2010 in San Francisco, California.
Greetings everyone, just wanted to share a cool video made with still images shot by visual journalist Lucas Oleniuk and put together by Randy Risling of the Toronto Star. Lucas shot time lapse images and Randy imported the images that were sequenced into individual folders for each time lapse. Once imported Randy “nested” the folders in FCP applying motion to the folders to make it look like it runs more smooth than it really is. This flip book style is a great technique and when done like this comes across very well. Check it out here:
Seasons Greetings everyone! It’s the time of the year when we reflect on all that we have done throughout the past year and look forward to setting new goals for the one coming up. We think about things that are important to us. Family, love, friends, peace, faith and equality for everyone are some things that come to mind. As the last year of the first decade in the 21st century comes to a close we can all agree for most of us it was a tough one. 911, two wars and financial hardships for so many. All in all it seemed to be difficult for so many which gives us optimism for the decade in front of us. Things can only get better. The media business is changing in a drastic way which makes it exciting to learn new and interesting ways of covering and delivering news. I am so excited about the possibilities and hope you are too! I want to wish everyone a happy healthy holiday season and all the best for the years to come.
Wishing You A Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!
Recently I was asked by a magazine for some images of Tiger Woods. In all my years photographing golf I have only photographed him once and that was at the most recent Presidents Cup here in San Francisco. As I was editing it made me think how someone with the talent that he has and the almost perfect life could have been so careless with his actions. He’s definitely one of the greatest golfers to play the game, if not the best. I have a soft spot for Jack Nicklaus, as does Tiger, but to see him in action for the first time last October at Harding Park I can see why everyone makes such a big deal about the guy. He’s got so much natural talent. Now all the skeptics are starting to chime in with his possible use of performance enhancing drugs only clouds that belief. As if his recent personal issues weren’t enough now this just adds fuel to the fire. In some of the images of Tiger and his beautiful wife Elin Nordegren you might notice some tension between them. I noticed it when I was shooting as did a few of the other photographers that were in the area. Now I am wondering if they were already on the slippery slope that so many mega stars and their partners get on living so much in the public eye. In a recent poll Tiger’s popularity ratings have witnessed a sharp plunge and has reportedly dipped to a shocking 34%. This is almost at half of what it was prior to his ill-fated car crash which was hovering around 60%. And it pales in comparison to his most popular time in 2005 when his popularity was at 85%. This is pretty amazing for a guy who is probably the most recognizable person on the planet. Even kids in 3rd world countries playing in slums know who Tiger Woods is and some even want to be him. Here is a slide show of some of the images.
Tiger Woods 2009 – Images by David Paul Morris
It’s going to get worse before it gets better. I have been hearing that for a while now. Seems work has picked up for some but for others it hasn’t. In October the national unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983. An estimated 16 million Americans are out of work.
I had some time earlier last week and decided to go and have a look at what was going on at the One Stop Career Link Center in San Francisco. Here people come to search out job leads and to take part in workshops. I hung out for about for a while, met some interesting people and had some enlightened conversations.
Below are some of the images. Roll your mouse over the images to see the captions.
Unemployment – Images by David Paul Morris
Greetings! So lately I have been doing some work for the San Francisco Chronicle which has been good. I always enjoy working for a newspaper. There is something about the immediate nature of newspapers and how no two days are the same seems to be gratifying. Keeping it fresh. Being able to shoot, process in the computer and transmit from the street within a short time frame keeps the creative juices flowing. On Sunday I was assigned to cover the 2009 Veterans Day Parade in downtown San Francisco. Parades in general can be kind of boring and routine to cover. In San Francisco we have quite a few parades. Some of the big ones are the Pride Parade where hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world come and show their true colours. We also have the Folsom Street Fair which really isn’t a parade by definition but it does bring in thousands for a day of parading around exposing ourselves and being exposed. But with only about 500 participants this parade didn’t have much of a turnout. The people watching seemed to be more of just people passing by and not so much of people who came out just for the parade. Not so sure if it is the reflection of how people are feeling about the wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, or it could be that the 49ers had a home game. Most people on the street said they didn’t learn about the parade until they heard about it on radio stations on Sunday morning. Regardless of the reasons we really should watch over our veterans and give them some respect even if it is for a few hours one day out of the year. Here are a few images from the day. Hope you enjoy and as always thanks for looking!
Paul Goercke, 83, a veteran of World War II (L) waits as Dale Pellegrino prepares the flags before the Veterans Day Parade.
Grant Ly, 14 and a member of the Abraham Lincoln High School JR ROTC program waits to start the Veterans Day Parade.
Michelle Frisse, 5 of Antioch plays with a flag during the Veterans Day Parade.
Mimi Zhang prepares her costume before the start of the Veterans Day Parade.
Cliff Chen, 60 a member of the Falun Gong music band waits to start the Veterans Day Parade. The Chinese character on the back means "music".
Stanley Valentine of San Francisco watches the Veterans Day Parade along Market Street.
Brien McLaughlin, Steven Moffatt and William Mills members of the Renaissance Military Society laugh as they march down Market Street during the Veterans Day Parade.
Brien McLaughlin, a member of the Renaissance Military Society fires a rifle from the 16th century as he marches down Market Street.
Alfredo C. Carino, 85, a veteran of World War II, wears his medals proudly as he watches the Veterans Day Parade.
Annalyn Austria, 15, a student at Mercy High School, practices throwing her rifle in the air before the start of the Veterans Day Parade.
Norton and Charlotte Feldstein watch the Veterans Day Parade along Market Street.
Leonardo DeTorres, 84, a veteran of World War II, watches the Veterans Day Parade.
Alfredo C. Carino, 85, a veteran of World War II, takes video during the Veterans Day Parade.
(R-L) Alexander Ng, Steven Zheng, Anthony Truong, Deeana Datangel and Christine Ramierz all from Abraham Lincoln High School watch other ROTC members perform during the Veterans Day Parade.
Elaine Tsang, 14 of the Abraham Lincoln High School JR ROTC calls out during the Veterans Day Parade.
Greetings everyone, hope all is well. I have a few photos I’d like to share from this week. Nothing special really just wanted to post them. Two in there are of my good buddy Dai Sugano, a great visual journalist at the Mercury News in San Jose. He spoke last week during the monthly photo night here in San Francisco. If you are in the bay area on any first Thursday of the month come on by the Exposure Gallery and check it out. There is always great work to be seen, good speakers and plenty of the photo community to mingle with. Dai’s work is truly inspirational and can really get the creative juices flowing. He’s really embraced the multi-media genre and taken it to the next level. Definitely check out his stuff when get a chance. As always, thanks for stopping by.
Dai Sugano smiles as he stands in front of one of his images on display at the Exposure Gallery in San Francisco.
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Inside a local Dai Pai Dong in San Francisco.
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Floating plastic books are seen on Columbus and Broadway in San Francisco.
I had the pleasure of working on a shoot for Adobe Foundation and the Peapod Foundation at the opening for Art In Action in Oakland last week. The Pea Pod foundation was founded by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas and Polo Molina of Grassroots Productions. The Peapod benefit concerts date back to the earliest incarnation of The Black Eyed Peas and began as charity toy drives for Los Angeles based children and local orphanages. The Adobe Foundation is a private foundation created and funded by Adobe Systems Incorporated to leverage human, technological and financial resources to drive social change and improve the communities in which we live and work. Together both foundations have been working together producing places where kids in high risk areas are exposed to positive growth through the arts. will.i.am came by the facility to check it out and give some words of encouragement to kids who are just finding their voice and want to be heard and seen. Check them out and see how you can possibly be a part of this positive experience. Below are some of the images that we got throughout the tour. Thanks for looking!
Front man will.i.am with the Black Eyed Peas tours the Art In Action Youth Leadership Program facility
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Front man will.i.am with the Black Eyed Peas tours the Art In Action Youth Leadership Program facility
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Front man will.i.am with the Black Eyed Peas watches dancers Javier Santos and Yoshiie Allen at the Art In Action Youth Leadership Program facility.
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Ambessa Cantave, co-founder of Grind For The Green enjoys the performance with this daugter Aissade, 3 at the Art In Action Youth Leadership Program facility
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Front man will.i.am speaks to performers at the Art In Action Youth Leadership Program facility
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Black Eye Peas front man will.i.am meets performers after touring the Art In Action facility in Oakland, California.
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Okay so I am a little off on my posts not going in chronological order but I wanted to post this. Speaking for the first time since her husband took office, Michelle Obama gave the commencement speech to the 2009 graduating class at the University of California, Merced on May 16, 2009. What made this special is that not only was this her first time speaking as First Lady, she was speaking to the first full graduating class of the newly constructed university which opened just four years ago. Getting her there was no easy feat but the student body, along with help from the community, came together and sent her thousands of letters, notes, emails and even Valentines Day cards along with a very impressive video to persuade her to come. She was very gracious before the ceremony taking time to meet and visit with some of the students who were involved in getting her there. In her address she said that those letters “inspired” her to come. Despite the slight breeze the day was hot and dry with some creative people taking shelter with boxes and paper bags on their heads. Thanks to Getty Imags for this great opportunity to meet and photograph this fantastic woman. I am a big fan. Thanks for looking!
First Lady Michelle Obama meets with students prior to her commencement speech at the University of California, Merced
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First Lady Michelle Obama poses for a photo with students prior to her commencement speech at the University of California, Merced
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First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Sherry Lansing a board member of the UC Regents
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First Lady Michelle Obama gestures before making the commencement speech at the University of California, Merced
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First Lady Michelle Obama makes the commencement speech at the University of California, Merced
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First Lady Michelle Obama makes the commencement speech at the University of California, Merced
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First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Sung-Mo Kang after she received the Chancellor's Medal after she made the commencement speech at the University of California, Merced
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