Today's Photo of the Day was taken in City Heights as the early afternoon light began to glint off the nearby buildings. Yes, I know, I'm a total light nerd.
You might remember several weeks ago we promised to bring you portraits of ordinary San Diegans in our Photo of the Day feature. Today's image is of Omar Qayyum, owner of the San Diego Tire & Wheel Outlet on El Cajon Boulevard.
Luigi Cannoni, the man who rejuvenated a dilapidated property in City Heights by creating a magnificent garden, has a big heart -- there's simply no question about that.
He's one of those people who make the job of photojournalism really interesting. He's open, engaging and cares about the world. Both he and his property are infinitely visually interesting -- he for his animation and his home for all of its quirks, peculiarities and the beauty of his garden. This is an image I took while on assignment with Cannoni. It's shot from inside his house looking out, where he is watering his garden.
Today's Photo of the Day was shot early in the morning with this newly-available daylight we're getting in the a.m. This is shot on the iPhone with the Magazine filter applied in the Camera Bag application.
For more than a year, we've been running an image of Nancy Graham that we received from an NBC 7/39 screenshot. Being a young startup, we didn't have any file art of Graham when we began reporting about her past business dealings last year.
Today, Graham appeared in court. While court rules prohibited me from photographing her during the hearing (she was sitting in the gallery), I got shots as she walked out of the courthouse. You will see these images accompanying forthcoming blog posts and stories, but for now, here's an image I like of her walking away from the courthouse with her attorney, Paul Pfingst.
In Keegan Kyle's story about traffic deaths on Sabre Springs Parkway, I ran a photo of a white cross and identified it as a memorial to Sandra Kay Kennedy.
That was incorrect. The cross in the picture is in fact a memorial to Ariestotel Calumba Timbol, who died in a motorcycle crash in October 2008.
So how did we mix this up? Kyle sent me information early in the day about a cross along the roadside that would make a good illustration for the story. I headed down to Sabre Springs Parkway and saw a cross in the median. I quickly parked my vehicle, got out and snapped a few shots. I filed the photos without even thinking about the fact that, because there have been three traffic deaths on the road recently, there might be multiple memorials in nearby locations.
Here's the photo we ran with the story:
Kyle sent along some photos he took on his iPhone of Kennedy's memorial. Here's one of the images:
The story has been updated to reflect the changes and a correction has been added. We regret the confusion this error might have caused.
The first thing I did when I got an iPhone on Saturday was to start taking pictures (naturally). This is one of the first frames I made: a beautiful sunset in North Park. After taking the picture, I edited the image with the Photoshop mobile application and then put a filter on it with the Camera Bag application. It is amazing what these little machines can do. Expect to see more pictures from the iPhone in Credentialed.
Today's Photo of the Day is an image I took a while back in Escondido. Yes, I have been partial to Escondido this week. I did grow up there and I have quite an affinity for photographing the places I call home.
Today's photo of the day came from 27th Street and Island Avenue. It's not the most photogenic subject in the world. It's just one of the many cracks in our city's streets.
But while it's not pretty, it's important. It's the physical manifestation of a deteriorating infrastructure. And it's by no means the worst crack or pothole in the city.
Think you've found the city's most crumbling street, the worst pothole or the biggest crack in the road? E-mail me an image at sam.hodgson@voiceofsandiego.org and we'll share the images and locations on the site.
On Tuesday, the City Council decided that it would once again site a winter homeless shelter in downtown San Diego. My colleague, Adrian Florido, wrote extensively about the decision and the brouhaha created by the plan.
Hours before the meeting, I stood outside City Hall in the shadow of the 13-story building, where a group of homeless youth was gathered.
Joshua Turner, who is at the front of this frame, is 18 years old. He says he moved to San Diego from Florida with big dreams of becoming a video game programmer and a writer. His plans have been derailed, for now. Turner currently lives on the streets. He says that the recession has made it nearly impossible to find a job.
"Even your high school diploma is nothing but litter now," he says.
In the back of the frame, 21-year-old Diana Woods holds onto a small gray cat named TC. Behind her, City Hall looms high, housing the decision makers who wrangle over how to cope with San Diego's homeless population.
Photographing Noe Chavez Garcia reminded me what a rare privilege it is to be invited, however momentarily, into someone's life to take their photo. I came back to the office excited about what I had just experienced -- I stood face to face with the Miracle Man and took time to make what I thought was a compelling image. I lay in bed later that night and couldn't get his face out of my thoughts. I couldn't imagine what he had been through and how amazing it was that he was alive today.
I tried to keep this in mind today as I wrestled with my computer for hours on end. A system crash led me to think that I may have lost the picture of Noe forever. I tried to remind myself how trivial my dilemma was relative to what Noe had been through.
Fortunately, I received some great tech support and my computer began working again. Like Noe survived, so did this photo.
Each day, the fleeting vision of Sam Hodgson's face can be seen poking out from behind a camera lens as he scurries around the county trying to snap the best shot of a motivated student, an embattled public official or even just a pretty sunset.
But there aren't enough story pages to fit all the shots he gets every day. Credentialed brings you his exclusive photo projects and the best photos that were left on the cutting room floor. The former reporter-turned-photog will also try his hand at telling his favorite stories as seen through his lens.
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Each day, the fleeting vision of Sam Hodgson's face can be seen poking out from behind a camera lens as he scurries around the county trying to snap the best shot of a motivated student, an embattled public official or even just a pretty sunset.
