Category Archives: portrait

Hooray!  I got my first image published this spring.  A UK-based digital photography magazine called Digital Camera Essentials ran it in a recent feature of reader images.   Pretty exciting.   For all the looking I did in bookstores on both coasts, I never found a paper copy.  Of course, I receive two of DCE’s sister magazines in the mail each month, but have never subscribed to DCE.   iPad to the rescue!  Now DCE has an app…that lets you download back issues…so I downloaded it at 2:30am PDT today.   The actual image can be found in the opening slideshow of my main site,  Dana’s Eye.  Now all I have to do is prove that it wasn’t a mountain of luck by making it happen again!

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Malaya came out dressed to support from head to toe for San Francisco’s Gay Pride parade.  After a morning of marching, she made time in her busy schedule to meet up for lunch.  With mommy Heather.   She looks more like mommy every day (see final pic).

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It took me a while to post these.  I wasn’t really happy with them.  Last weekend, I attended a Hip Hop dance competition called City vs City.  It was like something out of a movie.  If you have seen the movie “You Got Served” this competition really was just like the last dance scene in the movie (minus Lil Kim and the bright lights).  It was an interesting day, because I pretty much hated everything I shot while I was there.  But the day turned out to be a good thing for me.  First of all, it allowed me to try to shoot something that I’m just not at all good at capturing.  And second, it really was a good ego check.  I had been a little less humble about my skills with a camera lately.  Most of the photogs I know will agree that any sense of satisfaction with their images is completely ephemeral.  I think I’d like to restate it: if you love all your pictures, you’re not shooting enough.  Which has definitely been the case lately.  So I went and stunk up the joint to the tune of 1500 images.  These are some of my faves.   I really want to thank KBev for inviting me to tag along and for showing me some of his tricks to capturing the best action, even though I wasn’t able to come close to emulating his great photos.

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  • Kareem

    Nice shots! Funny how alot of us techies ended up exploring our creative sides with more passion than what we majored in.

Last weekend, a couple of friends and I made the trip to Boulder Colorado to participate in a workshop led by the incredible Tyler Stableford.  To say that I love his work would be a huge understatement.  I can’t remember in which magazine I first saw his work, but it was a few years ago, when I was just stumbling into photography.   If you haven’t already clicked on the link above, you owe it to yourself to spend some time perusing his site.  It is amazing.

What I wanted to get out of this workshop were some tips on working with clients and models, some of his processing secrets, and maybe some great shots.   But Tyler was so great about taking time to understand where each of us were as photographers and encouraging us to push that boundary.  For me, that meant thinking much more about the story that my image composition tells, how each element in an image either enhances or detracts from that story, and developing a process for arbitrating the two.  If you cannot already tell, I loved it.   I got so much more out of the weekend than I anticipated.  And I’m planning to attend Tyler’s next workshop in Arches National Park!

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  • Kathy Chappell

    Can’t help but shake my head and simply say….AMAZING, and that still doesn’t give what I wish I could say justice, because words sometimes just can’t convey the emotion evoked from such images, but that is what my limited vocabulary can come up with…breathtakingly beautiful images.

  • Dana

    Thanks Matt. I appreciate your feedback….especially when it’s positive!!

  • Matt Allen

    Dana, your shots are amazing. Mind blowing. That one of the runner striking the ground coming toward you is epic. well done!

This weekend I met and photographed New Jersey-based recording artist Ant Grant and his producer, Tomas Ramos. Thanks to Akintayo Adewole, one of my closest friends and Creative Director of Akande Music, for making the introduction. Ant is a phenomenal subject and an even better guy.  After the first couple shots, it was obvious he had done it before. In addition to being a recording artist, Ant is an actor, and was immediately comfortable in front of the camera.   I could write a lot…a whole lot…about what I learned on this shoot. I experimented with shooting into the sun with high speed sync, was saved a couple of times by my new Lastolite diffusers/reflectors, pushed my flashes to the limit on a rooftop in 90-degree weather, stood on the ledge of a 5-story building to gey an intersection into the background, wished I had brought water (several times), pined for a Hoodman Loupe so that I could see my LCD in the blazing sun, fell even more in love with my 24-foot ETTL cable, and was VERY thankful that I bought the third set of 4 rechargeable AA’s.  Actually, there’s a lot more that I learned on the photography side, but the best part of the day was meeting Ant, Thomas, and their manager, Darren.  Yesterday was a timely reminder of how good it feels to be surrounded by like-minded Black males who are as passionate about their art as I feel I am about photography.  A fantastic day.  I’m looking forward to doing it again.  And Ant does smile…I have pictures to prove it.

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  • Akintayo Adewole

    HOTNESS!

  • Darren (Chum) Lewis

    Wow, the photos turned out great man.

  • Ant Grant

    Great work bro you are truly awesome man it was a lot of fun working with you. The time will come when we will be doing this on a major level and we’ll get back together like it’s nothing man all fun and jokes while creating a master piece…

  • Karen/Chookooloonks

    That sun flare, third image down?

    OOF.

    BEAUTIFUL work.

    K.