Street Photography - San Diego

Just heard that Gov. Newsom is shutting down the majority of indoor operations for California again, so the strange times continue! Can’t say it’s a surprise. Walking around here feels just like a normal summer with tourists anywhere and everywhere. Just when things felt like they were getting better. I have (as of now) quite a few commercial shoots on the horizon, but who knows how far this will push them back? One thing that hasn’t changed is my street photography. If nothing else, the shutdowns have given me the opportunity to explore neighboring towns with the camera to continue this series. All of the images below were made in Cardiff by the Sea.

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San Diego Photography

San Carlos, California - Photography

A friend of mine recently bought a house in San Carlos. I went down there a couple weeks ago to help him with some grunt work and planned on a little extra time to do some shooting around the neighborhood - one I had never previously been to. Sure am glad to have found it though. The neighborhoods have a lot of character and color palette that was fun to play with.

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Street Photography

Couple more that have been sitting in Lightroom. Trying to give better thought to how I group images together. A result of plentiful book submissions over the past 5 months or so that foster positive and negative feedback. The positive is always nice to hear but you don’t learn much from it. These 4 work together in my opinion just based on shapes. After working on this project for a number of years, I came to the conclusion that there really is no meaning to this series, and that’s ok. They are images I make for fun, as a way of documenting the place I live, and are mainly based around line, color, and texture.

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Photos

Have been rummaging through some old hard drive folders recently which led me to stumble upon a few forgotten images. Another thing I should put more time into as there are certainly countless images that have yet to even be looked at. Going back to what I said on the previous post though, it’s all about seeing how images fit in. Not one to really make “One Off’s”, my focus has mostly been on long term series/projects. The two you see here go into the "One Off category, at least for now. Who knows, maybe a series will grow over time and they will fit perfectly within it? Almost exactly a year ago I made these while walking around Encinitas. On that particular day the focus was people living some sort of the “van life”. No idea why. This woman and her husband are technically homeless, although they do own the RV pictured here. So I’m not sure how you classify that. Both very nice and were happy to let me inside to make a few pictures. She was quick to pull some old photos out of herself and said as I raised the camera “this was back when I was beautiful”.

Fitness Photography

Multiple Exposure Fitness Photography

The box jump is an exercise that I find strange to photograph. For some reason the images always just seem boring. So why not play around a little?

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Street Photography

About a year ago I developed a healthy obsession with photography books, and now have a small (and growing) collection that I try and comb through regularly. It's a calming thing to do, but it's also sort of a free education. Every time I look through another book, or back through an old one, I learn something new. Whether that's a new way of seeing, or whatever, it doesn't matter. Either way it has caused me to to enjoy shooting and looking for different kinds of images. I've always been of the opinion that not every image needs to be "epic". I fully understand why most people need to shoot that way, and why it sells, but there is a lot more to it than that. Simple images that show the viewer a slice of life or tell a story, are every bit as fun to make as one of the guy standing on top of Everest. The images below were taken on a couple walks around my neighborhood in San Diego and another in Los Angeles. They are simple, but I really like them, and will be making a lot more of them. The term "street photography" is getting pretty loose these days. Back in the day, if you were a street photographer, then you were wandering around NYC with a Leica. Now, these images would probably fit into that category. Looking at them, the style of shooting isn't much different from my America series. Just different subjects. 

San Diego Fitness Photographer

Bear Republic Crossfit

Can't ever see becoming sick of shooting CrossFit. It's too real, which means that it never gets boring.  There is never a need to stage anything. You just let everything happen in front you and do your best to capture it. Real sweat. Not that from a spray bottle bullshit. 

www.robhammerphotography.com/crossfit

Running in downtown San Diego

San Diego Health and Fitness Photography

Happy with what we got here, but things didn't start so hot. Our first location was the rear stairs of the San Diego Convention Center. So I got there early to set up, and got kicked out before we even got started. That always sucks, but I've learned when things like that happen, it pushes me harder, and I usually come out of the day with cool stuff. You just have to improvise, and Tara was great. The portraits were actually shot in a parking garage. Who needs a studio? 

Random fact: Tara and I share the same birthday. 

Shot on a Nikon D800e and lit with Broncolor strobes. 

Aquatech Elite Sport Housing

Picked up an underwater camera housing from Aquatech a while back, and just got around to shooting with it last month. Thing is a blast, and opens up incredible opportunities that would otherwise be completely out of reach. Just like anything, it take some getting used to. I chose the Aquatech over others in the field because it seems to offer the most options when it comes to camera operation. You can tell right when you get the rig set up, that it's solid. And (knock on wood) you have very little worries about leaks. After playing around a bit, you easily get a feel for it, and understand how get comfortable with it.  I only have the widest angle lens dome port, because I only want to shoot things like you see below. I'm not a surf photographer. What you see was done close to shore and lit with strobes. That to me, is fun. Don't get me wrong, I'll get out in the waves with my friends, but I have more fun with strobes. The shutter button is a little hard to push down, but probably necessary. And it's also a little awkward to hold with two hands. So I definitely recommend getting the trigger handle. It will make your life a lot easier (looks cool too). Another thing you definitely wanna pay attention to is the back piece. It has to be precisely in place or the buttons won't operate the camera properly. Again, something that just needs a little getting used to. Overall, I love the rig and can't wait to use it in clearer waters.