Man-Cold

I'm on my 2nd day of nursing my Man-cold. Perhaps one day in the future, scientists will be able to prove that colds do indeed bite men with much more venom than when attacking females. I've managed to haul myself up to my computer to give you a quick update on "tings".

It has been more foggy than usual this San Franciscan summer and temperatures are way below the seasonal norm. Even so the beauty of this city is not easily masked so I continue to enjoy this gem of a city. Last Saturday night, I was hired to shoot a banquet in Chinatown. It was quite a lavish event. The dancing after the food was difficult to resist as layer after layer of the finest, freshest and sick beats from somebody's hood fought to destroy the woofers in the speaker cabinets. It was a well matched fight so as the bass got deeper and the beats that got dirtier, the resultant sound was syncopated nirvana for the B-boys and all the G's in the house!

The hostess loved the photos and I got paid!

My stock library submissions are still doing well although I'm a little amused at just how many times one image in particular has sold and continues to sell. In spite of the rising number, I haven't been able to find where it's being used even though I try to search for it using Tin Eye.

Personal training work is keeping me super fit, except for this man-cold, so it's almost like the older I get the fitter I am. Some of my fitness is due to the fact that I walk a lot around the city taking pictures. When you're distracted like this, it's easy to walk up and down countless steep hills without even noticing. I've always wondered what would happen in San Francisco if we got real snowfalls and icy weather... apart from the obvious rise in incidents of man-colds that is!

San Francisco People Part 4 by Roi Brooks | Make Your Own Book

My photos are being snapped up

March was a very busy month apart from it being my birthday. I spent some time analyzing the images I had been submitting to various photo stock libraries and tried a few very targeted approaches to deciding which images to shoot, where to post them and when. Well the end result was sales of 37 images during the month of March. Of course it helped that Easter was coming along and I had done an Easter set complete with coloured Easter Eggs and white bunnies.

This activity has also allowed me to become eligible to take part in the work that is commissioned by some of the libraries. I could have started in March but already had so much going on I decided to wait until this month.

My latest images for sale at
Shutterstock:

My most popular images for sale at
Shutterstock:

Life will be at a much slower pace this month as this week I head out to Belize for a few weeks for some tropical subjects to shoot. Along with some diving, sightseeing and relaxation.

Art attack!

I've just finished shooting 180 pieces of art for an Artist in San Francisco (Phew!) I also collaborated with him on some art using sculpting and light then supplying the finished pieces as digital images. The great thing about being in close proximity to original artists and their art is that you see the art being created and are able to experience and see the sparks of creation.

All of a sudden you realize that nothing on earth has to be impossible any more, as frenzy after frenzied eruption of creative ideas race each other into your mind, begging to be the first concept to be realized. So instead of putting my camera away and closing the studio for a short rest, I find myself, sketching, visualizing and trying out different light and camera settings to bring my new fountain of ideas to life.

It's late in the night here now and I'm off to bed. But only so that morning will seem to come quicker and I can carry on creating my art!

Spending time with Superwoman

It was Martin Luther King day on Monday just gone and many people in the US had a holiday. Ironically, one of the people taking a day off was a people's hero in her own right. That's right, Superwoman was having a day off, and well deserved I might add. Since moving to the US, I have come to be on best friend terms with her. She had agreed to let me photograph her in her private lair!

Even though it was her day off, she warned me that there may be some unavoidable interruption during the shoot. Well she is Superwoman and I suppose, she has to be on call 24/7 really. She said she was expecting the plumber. Ah, some kind of code I expect. Anyway I nodding as if to say "It's okay, I understand - wink, wink".

Many of you reading this may not know that Superwoman used to live in Tottenham. She was Supergirl back then, innit. But I was living in London too at that time and had no idea that someone I might have passed as an anonymous face in the metropolis of London was this amazing person who would become such a dear friend to me here in the US.

The shoot went really well and we had fun. I captured shots of her flying and she even let me have one of her using her heat vision. I enjoy comics occasionally but don't have a deep knowledge of the genre, although I do love super action heroes. Superwoman told me about someone who is truly knowledgeable on the subject of comics and I would recommend that you go here and get yourself an education.

I packed up my camera and my lights and then we had a cup of tea together before I left to get back to my office and the excitement of processing pictures of Superwoman.

The plumber did show. She went to the door and was gone for all of 5 seconds, but ... well she is Superwoman, isn't she!

Wondering About Weather

When I lived in the UK, I had in my mind that one day I would like to live somewhere with better weather. Some may say I've achieved this since I now live in California. But what is better weather? I often meet people who live in predominantly hot climates who talk of cooler climates being "better" or people who live in very dry areas who say wetter climates are "better". Immediately we can see that better weather is very subjective.

"Oh no it's raining" is often uttered as an inconvenience. And yet, one of the most important elements of our planet and our individual bodies is water! So shouldn't rain be hailed and worship equally like the sun?

A couple of days ago the weather in San Francisco became relatively cold and many conversations were filled with how awful and how cold it was. I admit that it wasn't hot, but from my experience of living, it wasn't truly cold enough to be an inconvenience. Speaking with my father, who lives in a tropical country on one of these 'cold' days was odd since he was saying how hot he was and was looking forward to some rain to cool things down. Meanwhile my brother expressed his jealousy of the 'cold' weather in San Francisco sounding positively tropical to the snow, frozen lakes and ice the was being experienced where he was in the UK.

Last week I was sitting in my office when I felt an earthquake that made the building ripple. It was a 4.1 at it's epicenter some miles away but it was enough to move a few small items around in my home. Even though tremors and quakes are regular occurrences in California, the significant shocks dominate conversations for a day or two following. Any inconvenience we may have felt from the quake or from the fact that it looks like rain is coming our way, is suddenly trivia when we look at the devastation in the Haiti earthquake.

Pole Position

As I strolled through the streets of San Francisco, I was drawn to a young man who was making use of one of the city's erected poles, purely for artistic purposes. And if you saw the whole photoset I think you'd agree with me that this guy is an artiste indeed. He had style and flair, a certain "je ne sais quoi" - but whatever it was, he really knew how to work it.

It's the first working Monday of 2010 and here was a sign for me that people on the whole have become a whole lot more resourceful over the past few months. Could it be that more of us are going to free ourselves from following processes and filling out spreadsheets and once again play with the quirky ingenuities that our brains are capable of coming up with? Are we ready to accept that our computers are our tools and not our masters?

Artistic creativity has to some extent been relegated to the locker room to make space for aggressive, rapid, dollar-farming. The exit strategies for many companies has become the focal point. Businesses come and then are gone tomorrow without a trace - except for the misery of some of the masses that bought into a longer term dream which turned out to be glass beads to distract the natives.

Many people through necessity have found that it is actually ok to walk anti-clockwise. Imagine life is a circular path, you'll still get to where you're going. Not too long ago, Justin Timberlake announced to us all that he was bringing sexy back. Could this be the year the world's populations decide it's time to be bringing fun back...

Contrary to popular convention, you can never have too much fun!