patrick roddie photography

Less than a week to go before my tenth consecutive Burning Man. And because I shoot film, it’ll take a couple of weeks to scan it all and post the 2007 galleries. Be patient . . .

In the meantime, I’ve been clearing a huge backlog of galleries - starting with babies. I don’t get why people find babies (and animals) hard to photograph - they’re the most candid subjects you can find, if only because they haven’t learned to hide their feelings. Plus they have perfect skin and eyes and are fascinated by pretty much everything - including cameras.

A good example is the adorable Tyler, who I photographed at five weeks. I first photographed Julian when he was a sizable bump in his mother Kim, then as an exhausted one day old.

I camped with Toni and Ari at last year’s Burning Man; they’ll miss the burn this year because their baby is due soon afterwards.

Another fellow campmate, Tesla, turned one last month and is even cuter then ever.

Four weddings this time, or rather three weddings and a Wiccan hand tying ceremony on the breathtaking Mendecino coast. The happy couples are Britt and John, Michelle and Jon, Jen and Ray, and Janaya and Todd.

I’m getting to know Tesla pretty well - I first knew her as a good sized bump on her mom, then photographed her the day she was born. I camped with her family at Burning Man this year, and now am posting galleries from when she was two weeks old and now six months.

Anapaula and John had a healthy baby boy, Tomas; I got to meet him on his first day.

I went to another Baby Loves Disco a couple of weeks ago; you can buy prints here.

It seems I always have to apologise for my backlog of galleries - now hovering around the 50 mark - but I thought I’d better get something out for the holidays.

I’ll start off with a Christmas party at a local nightclub, Rouge. You’ll notice that you’re now able to order prints and run slideshows from this and some other galleries; just some thing I’m integrating with the site.

I street cast my models and once every three to six months, I come across someone as astonishingly beautiful as Anna, and fortunately she was kind enough to do a shoot with me.

Burning Man’s San Francisco after party, Decompression, was as fun as ever.

There really is a place called Treasure Island in San Francisco bay, and I shot Vero and Chris’s Mexican/American wedding there last weekend. Good times, and knee deep in adorable kids.

Anapaula was one of the most pregnant women I’ve met, let alone photographed and I hope to do another shoot as soon after her and John’s son makes his appearance any day now.

Rebecca and Justin are yet more friends of Linda and Jeff whose wedding I’ve covered. (Chris was at their Yosemite wedding last year.) A relaxed, fun day with lots of beautiful people made my work a joy.

Baby Loves Disco is a wildly successful phenomenon where parents bring their babies and toddlers to nightclubs all over the country for an afternoon of fun. You can almost hear foreheads being slapped across the world as people realise they should have thought of it first. It’s also absurdly easy to photograph happy kids.

Although it’s not as big as the Berlin original, San Francisco’s Love Parade is getting bigger and better each year.

Finally, I’ve photographed one of my favorite models at least five times, so I updated Rocio’s gallery tonight. Besides, I’m shooting her sister’s wedding in Mexico in a couple of days. Stay tuned . . .

Photography’s all about timing and luck, and that goes for finding models too. A prime example was when I saw Mie walking past my block. (Mie’s one of the earliest mobloggers, btw.) Aside from being utterly gorgeous and knowing my work, she was barely a week from her due date. Some women positively glow when they’re pregnant and Mie glowed. A few days after our shoot, proud parents Dav and Mie welcomed little Tesla into the world and I got to take a few pictures on her first day.

And finally I did a fashion shoot with the lovely Brittanie for the Art Institute in an extremely sunny Yerba Buena Gardens. Hard light, great model.