For Doug Klein, photography is an excuse to see and do things
We’ve long admired Atherton resident Doug Klein’s photographs and recently got to learn more about his photographic journey.
Thanks to a father who took pictures, he was raised around photography, and started taking photos in college, but then gave it up until his daughters were born.
“Photography is the excuse to see things and do things,” he says. “I’m an explorer of sorts. I’m always itching to do something and discovering what’s new around the corner. Now that we spend time in Palm Desert I have a whole other part of the country to explore!”
Doug prefers black and white, which he says, is more versatile than color and lends itself to high definition and high contrast. “And it’s practical. You can spend the whole day shooting black and white images. There are, of course, scenes that must be photographed in color, like the balloons [featured top].
“Every fall there is a small scale hot air balloon festival near us [in Palm Desert],” he says. “It starts with a sunrise float just down the road from us, so I try to get over and watch each year. Last year I missed the actual lift at the local casino parking lot, but I was able to watch from a local hill as they floated down past the Indio hills. Just an example of putting something of interest in an otherwise pretty mundane landscape.”
“Last year I discovered the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, also near us in the desert,” he says about the woman on horseback “Every year they host horse jumping and hunting competitions from January through March. It’s fascinating to explore. And full of beautiful people and animals that are happy to pose. This young woman was walking by in perfect light and I had to have this image.”
About the runner he says: “From a few years ago, a simple shot of a runner in San Francisco. To me ‘street photography’ is really just the idea of wandering around and observing. This is partly an exercise in the technical aspects of photography (light, composition, etc) and putting together an image that one can imagine as part of a story.”
Doug’s camera of choice is Fuji. “What I like about Fuji, they come with the old fashion controls on the camera. I still know what they mean. Modern digital computers tend to be little computers. Fuji has left those dials as physical. I also tend to like the image quality.”
“There’s a well known recommendation in photography that tells you that when you find an interesting shot, take a moment to look around — a better image might be behind you,” he says of the photo above. “This is a bit along those lines — everyone comes to San Francisco to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. But I would argue that the new Bay Bridge is actually a better image. This is sunrise from Clipper Cove. (Sunrise is pretty easy for me since I tend to get up very early anyway.)”
Doug takes photos most days. “Sometimes it’s just with an iPhone,” he says. “Under the right lighting conditions, an iPhone is as good as a camera.
“I take photos for myself and share them on a regular base. They are the things I remember or the way I saw them.”
Editor’s note: We’ll feature more of Doug’s photos next week.
Photos by Doug Klein (c) 2024
