Zero Dean

Shai

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When I put out a casting looking for photography subjects in July 2018, it had been 5 years since my previous shoot — and 10 years since I’d been working with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II as a primary camera. Would it hold up after all this time?

Like Stevi, Shai brought a ton of natural talent & beauty to the shoot — and a wonderful personality to boot.

In one of the few times I’ve ever done so, we had such a good time shooting that we arranged to follow-up with another shoot the next day.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EOS M3

Midnight Half Dome Hike

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Above: The morning before the hike. Smoke from active wildfires obstructs visibility.

July 2017. Northern California was on fire, but we’d been planning the trip to Yosemite National Park for months. The goal: See the sunrise from the top of Half Dome. This meant leaving at midnight.

And so, on July 20th at midnight, we began a roughly 9-mile hike from Yosemite Village to the top of Half Dome.

In what is probably a quite rare occurrence, my friend Chase and I got to witness the sunrise from the top of Half Dome in total solitude (others in our group forewent the cables & stayed at the base). It was an amazing experience.

In order to travel light, I only brought a point & shoot camera — which I should know by now is something I usually regret. But still, they say the best camera is the one you have with you. And I’m thankful to have been able to capture these.

Canon Powershot S95

Below: Image & video credit @WhyWeDontHaveKids

Volkswagen Karmann Ghia

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Samsung Galaxy S3

Although I’d been snapping photos with mobile phones for years — and I really felt like it helped me work on my composition sills — I was always nearly always disappointed with the quality of the images. And then I got a Samsung Galaxy S3.

While phones have gotten even better since 2013 — and I can always find room for improvement — that was the year (for me) that the quality of phone photos became much less cringey.

Sunny leaf Galaxy S3

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Samsung Galaxy S3

I was always excited by the idea of mobile phone cameras, but those first few years were pretty rough quality-wise.

Then, in 2013, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 — which really started to feel like just another camera, instead of a cell phone with a camera.