Sarah Dopp – Headshot

Sarah Dopp is an aptly-named ‘culture conductor‘. She’s the founder of groundbreaking Genderfork blog, which has grown into an enormous online community and is constantly busy planning the next big thing. If she looks sedate in this photo, don’t let that fool you for one minute.

Come To This Event!

This weekend, my friend Star Germain, her band This Can’t End Well, and talented comic book artist Ted Naifeh are teaming up for a live show version of Ted’s wonderful all-ages comic ‘Courtney Crumrin and The Night Things‘.

Oh, and it’s free. So there’s no excuse not to come!

Sun­day Feb­ru­ary 27th
1pm sharp
Pub­lic Works
161 Erie at Mission

How Film Is Made

Laughingsquid.com just posted this Kodak documentary from 1958 on how film is made. Very timely as I’ve been shooting more film. I tested out the new/old camera on a weekend shoot and am going to drop off a bunch of rolls of film to be processed in the next few days. Now I just need to get that black and white darkroom set up in the garage…

Rainy Ray Activities

A friend of mine just gave me this camera and I’m unreasonably excited. It belonged to his grandfather and was just gathering dust – such a shame. My first camera ever was my father’s old Canon AE-1, which tragically went missing during one of my many apartment moves of the last fourteen years. It’s astounding to think that I’ve lived in San Francisco that long, and moved over eleven times…

I’ll be test driving this thing out over the next week, but I’m not too worried. These old cameras are built like tanks. Can’t wait to use this on some upcoming gigs, including a wedding in a few months.

Issac, if you’re reading this, you’re one heck of a good friend!

So much for warmer weather. It’s been gross, cold and rainy the last few days. Good to know we still have time to sneak off to Tahoe sometime this season, but we’re having all kinds of motivational…. issues today. Ok, it’s just me who’s having issues. David has been very productive.

Pi Cat ponders the need for another nap.

We thought that ordering the new sofas in grey would cut down on the cat hair issues.

Boy, were we ever wrong about that.

Sad droopy tulip. Exhibit A – why all photographers need a live-in stylist.

Kitty von Quim

The week started out a little less than fun… Monday D and I both went to the dentist and met with our CPA about business taxes + planning for next year. We also signed up for a health insurance plan through his business, which is wonderful (healthcare, yay!) and expensive (less than yay.) So far the theme of the week so far has been ‘grown up stuff, and acting like a grown up about it’.

Retouching a shoot like this reminds me that while running a business can be an enormous pain in the a$$, I love this job! Kitty von Quim is a burlesque performer and a dancer with Rubenesque Burlesque. She performs regularly here in the SF bay area, and it was a blast working with her on these photos.

Kitty’s fierce dress is by Orange Appeal, and her hair was styled by Artina Marie.

Did Someone Say Romantic?

Oh Valentine’s day. What a strange holiday. I approve of what it symbolizes, but dislike the commercialization and pressure on certain members of a couple to ante up some kind of gesture representing their devotion.

It can be hard to be single, and happily so, in a world which emphasizes partnering up. As grateful as I am for my current relationship, I would never trade away the independence and self knowledge I gained from years of being on my own.

My partner and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s day, so these are absolutely not in any way Valentine’s day flowers. I just happened to walk past Prairie Collective on Divisadaro street and noticed that Studio Choo had put out a fresh batch of little bouquets. In my opinion, there’s never just one day to buy someone flowers – and don’t forget to get yourself something romantic once in a while.