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The Story Behind the Photograph: Doggie Love
© 2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Doggie Love.
I frequently get asked for the story behind certain images. Because this is a frequent request, each Monday I have decided to share a story behind one of my favorite photographs. This story, I shared a couple months ago in my monthly newsletter.
I captured this image back in February while I was out shooting in the Haight. Living in San Francisco, I come across so many interesting people walking down the street each day. I often make up stories for the people that I see reguarly and am curious how my stories compare to their real lives.
In a quest to learn more about the people around me, I’ve begun taking a few street portraits. This is something I’ve been wanting to try for more than a year, but up until recently my fear of how people would react has prevented me from starting this process.
This particular morning, while walking to the Haight I decided that I couldn’t go home until I had asked at least 5 people if I could photograph them. This lovely woman was the first person I asked that morning and even though it was her doggie’s feeding time, she graciously allowed me to take a couple photographs of her and her dog and learn a little about them. Her kindness buoyed my courage and allowed me to ask four more strangers if I could photograph them that morning. This photograph is my favorite of that morning, probably in large part to her kindness.
Doggie Love
© 2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Doggie Love.
This image I’ll be featuring at the 200 Yards third show opening at Free Gold Watch this Saturday. The opening will be from 6-10 pm, March 12. The story of this fun street portrait I told in my March monthly newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do!
Winter Summer II
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Winter Summer II.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: the gorgeous weather we have been experiencing as of late here in San Francisco. My roommate and I have begun calling it “Winter Summer.” On Sunday, I went for a walk from my house in the Mission up to the Haight to once again try to capture some interesting photos to submit for Round 3 of the 200 Yards project. The weather was perfect and as I was returning home I stumbled across this view, I love how this image perfectly summarizes the good parts of this City: the hills, the weather, Muni, and the old buildings.
Hills Brothers Coffee
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Hills Brothers Coffee.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: this lovely brick building down on the Embarcadero (yes I know I’ve been spending a lot of time down there lately). I like how this processing effect made the image look older than the present day (although there are lots of hints that we are in 2011 San Francisco).
Da Wharf
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Da Wharf.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: this building that I found along the Embarcadero wharf the other day. I loved the ladder to nowhere and the pipes along the right hand edge. A little iPhone processing brought out the worn details in the building and I really like this image.
Embarcadero Juxtaposition
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Embarcadero Juxtaposition.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: this juxtaposition of old and new along the Embarcadero. The other day while walking down the Embarcadero I was noticing the layering effect that you get when looking towards downtown. In the distance, there are the shiny glass buildings of SOMA. While across the street there are old brick buildings. At points you also have the stark concrete of the Bay Bridge. At some points (including the one above) you get all three in one frame.
Bel Air
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Bel Air.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: this shiny, vintage Bel Air that I ran across the other day in the Financial District. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car this shiny and pretty.
Winter Summer
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Winter Summer.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: a little corner of the San Francisco Mission. This week we in San Francisco have experienced one of the about 10 seasons we seem to have in this city, the winter summer. Sorry to all of you that have been bogged down with snow and rain, but this week we’ve had sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s. I went for a walk earlier this week to enjoy this lovely weather and liked how the blue sky contrasted with the yellow of the cross and with the white of the adobe.
Lone Glove
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Lone Glove.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: a photograph that I took a few weeks ago, but somehow got lost in the shuffle. This lone, little glove was sliding around the light rail car last time I was visiting my family in Sacramento.
Golden Hour Reflection
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Golden Hour Reflection.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: a reflection I found the other day while wandering down Market Street during the photographer’s favorite hour AKA “The Golden Hour.”
Vents
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Vents.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: this row of vents along the side of the SF MOMA.
Benday Dots
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Benday Dots.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: a closeup of an art installation I ran across on the Embarcadero the other day. I was in the middle of reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and the dots reminded me of old school comic books.
Lingering Christmas Lights
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Lingering Christmas Lights.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: some lingering Christmas lights I found while walking to the grocery store last night. I much prefer this lingering piece of Christmas over the piles of discarded Christmas trees on every street corner in the neighborhood.
Destruction
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Destruction
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: some sort of construction equipment that created a huge mess while tearing down a building.
Raygun Gothic Rocketship
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Raygun Gothic Rocketship
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: the Raygun Gothic Rocketship that has been installed on the Embarcadero since August. I love the retro-aspect of this sculpture and attempted to emphasize it with my iPhone processing.
Dial
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Dial.
This image was taken on the same walk to the SFMOMA as the iPhone photo I posted last week. True to my photographic fascination for old objects, signs are no exception. I loved the colors of this sign (which I admit I have enhanced via photoshop) against the sky. I also find it amusing that the crop I selected resulted in the sign stating “Dial.” As always I enjoy hearing your feedback about new images.
Cracked
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Cracked
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: my roommate and I walked from our house to the SFMOMA to check out the Henri-Cartier Bresson exhibit. On our way we decided that we would take pictures along the theme of ‘cracked.’ This odd little plastic thing implanted into concrete was my favorite shot. I like the pop of color in the gray background.
Old School Bike Seat
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Bike Seat.
Every semester I have grand plans of being able to keep up on both my art projects and my schoolwork. And every semester (about a month in) the art projects seem to fall by the wayside and school takes over my life. While I have more free time in my last year of law school than I did my first year, I still have yet to find the right balance of art time and school time. While that is no excuse for not updating the blog, that’s where I’ve been.
Earlier this week, I was avoiding doing some school work and looking through my photography archives. The main reason I started back through the archives was because I am craving a trip to Abbey Country. But in the process I came across this image. I took it when I was out and about shooting for the 200 Yards Show at Heart a few months back. While I ended up settling on another image of the bike for the show, there is something about this image that really resonated with me this week. In playing around with this image, I settled on a browner-tinged single tone image, rather than traditional black and white and like how it turned out. Hopefully, it resonates with you this week as well.
37.751151, -122.420147
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, 37.751151, -122.420147.
This is the second image that I’ll be featuring at the 200 Yards show opening tonight at Heart (24th and Valencia). The other I posted a few weeks back. If you are in San Francisco please stop by tonight and say hi, or stop by Heart anytime before September 20th and check out the show.
Red Machine
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Red Machine.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: a section of old machines at the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple Fair this weekend. I was enamored with the whole section of machines. You could see exactly how each of them worked and they seemed logical to repair, unlike so many modern machines.
37.754252, -122.421015
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, 37.754252, -122.421015.
I want to apologize for my absence from the blog, I’ve been busy and have let my posts go to the wayside. While that is a lame excuse, it’s the best that I’ve got.
However, I’m excited to let you all know that the above image as well as another will be featured in the 200 Yards show that opens on August 18th. All the featured images have been taken within 200 yards of the host location (Heart near 24th and Valencia). This project was a challenge for me. The first challenge was the fact that 200 yards is not a large area (about one city block in either direction). The second was a creative process hurdle. While I have shot images on a theme previously, I’ve never been totally happy with the outcome. I’m still trying to figure out the creative process that works for me with themed shoots. Luckily this time around, there were lots of little details, some of my favorite subjects.
Both the images that I’ll be featuring are textural black and whites, because of that I chose a method of printing I’ve been wanting to use for a while, aluminum. I had them printed at Bay Photo, they arrived yesterday and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I’d love it if you would drop by the show and let me know what you think.
Window of Owls
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Window of Owls.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: One of my all-time favorite window displays in San Francisco. It’s located right near Dolores Park and is an entire collection of OWLS!
Dump Trucks
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: A little hidden playground in the Mission that I happened upon. I love the primary colors of kids toys.
Weathered Gate
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: another photo obsession of mine, taking photos of objects weathered by time and nature.