Ethical Montage

A guy leans across a couple empty seats on a Muni J train and asks me if I am a professional photographer. I nondescriptly nod and say yes.

He asks if my digital camera falsifies images automatically and says he can't trust pictures since digital photography. I tell him no and I try to explain to him that photo manipulation isn't anything new. I explain, photomontages were being created as early as 1857 and that the only thing that has changed is the technology has become more accessible and much more precise. I add that ethics are taught and the person behind the camera is ultimately the one responsible, not the technology or medium.

Unfortunately, he then begins to tell me a story about how the City of San Francisco is screwing him out of a patent and has contracted someone else to build his invention. He accuses practically every city official of being corrupt and out to get him. I try listening politely and when it's my stop I wish him good luck and he says "Good luck to you too." I wonder why I’m the one that needs luck.

The Angry Ambulance Chasers

So I meet some trial attorneys on a deserted road on the outskirts of Fairfield. Their client, driving down this empty road was suddenly struck by a vehicle careening across Interstate 80, crashing through a flimsy fence separating the frontage road from the interstate highway.

One of them curses Caltrans, theatrically kicking the ground, for just replacing the fence and not putting in a guard rail and he quickly follows that he doesn't want to stand here too long because a car could crash through at any moment.

I shoot some photos and they keep asking if I am getting the road in. I am yelling "YES!" over the top of the roar from the interstate. I finish the shoot and start to break down my equipment while they climb back in their shinny, silver BWM with the license plate "9 Jurors" and peel out.

Flies and Cow Pies

Today I find myself driving up into the Los Buellis Hills, East of Milpitas. I meet a retired doctor who drives me around his 2,000 plus acres of land. We careen around the mountainside through gutted, washed out roadways right next to steep drop-offs. We're not wearing seat belts and he turns to me and says, "Jason, there is one thing you need to do up here no matter what; if I say jump you need to do it." I picture our 4x4 plummeting down the canyon, maybe taking out a few trees along the way and me trying to jump or maybe not. It isn't an image I want to dwell on.

I shoot photos of the Doc near some of his cattle, while flies are buzzing around us both. I step in a fresh cow pie. He laughs. This is a great assignment.

Manufacturing the Moment

Another day and another photo, but this time the assignment is interesting and I am excited about shooting the president of the American Wind Energy Association.

The name "Altamont" is probably more famous for the tragic Rolling Stones concert in 1969 where a black man was stabbed to death by a gang of white thugs, but the windy Altamont Pass is home to thousands of turbines that dot the hillsides, catching the cool-costal, marine gush before it evaporates into the Central Valley. The pass is said to be the largest collection of wind turbines in the world and my subject is a betting man. He's betting his legal practice on renewable alternative energy as a source of new revenue for his law firm.

I know this is could be a great photo, but I have to massage the moment. I ask him if he has any sunglasses. He shrugs and searches his suitcase (he just flew into Oakland from L.A.). I tell him it'll make a fantastic photo and after some "wrong moments" I create an image that sums it all up.

You Look Marvelous!

So picture yourself having a baby being delivered and at the same time working a $400 million dollar deal.

I find myself driving down Page Mill once again, the Mecca of Silicon Valley and once again pulling into the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop. I do my meet and greet with the perp and he’s a little heavy in the middle and although it doesn’t need to be pointed out it’s one of the first things he mentions. I go through the motions and tell him he looks marvelous. I show him a photo and I can tell he is surprised, in a good way.

I leave and head back to SF. I wonder about his kid, I wonder about his wife, I wonder what it would be like if I made as much money as him. I know I wouldn’t want to leave my wife during delivery, even if it meant more money than I could imagine and $400 million is more than I can fathom. Think about it. What would that much money look like in one room?