The Monthly Edit - August 2026
Every month I select twelve of my favorite photographs I’ve taken and give a little bit of backstory for each one. At the end of the year, I will pick my favorite ten for the year out of the pictures selected in these monthly posts.
I’m having a hard time coming up with things to say about this first photograph. It is so simple and basic at first blush. We were at our favorite pizza restaurant early for once so it hadn’t had a chance to fill up with customers. After we ordered, I noticed the light beaming behind the closed blinds and knew I had to grab a photo. I love this picture and I’m not sure why. I think a lot of it has to do with the restaurant itself. This is a favorite of our family and whenever we’re all together this is our go-to place. I made a print and framed it and intend on giving it to the owner of the restaurant.
Might as well put two favorites back-to-back. One of my weekly spots to walk around and take pictures is the R Street Corridor in Sacramento. It gets repetitive and I usually try and head down some blocks I’d never been before. It was on one such block that I saw the diagonal shadow on the wall coming off the window overhang.
My family got into watching the World Cup this year, even my youngest daughter who could give a shit about sports enjoyed watching the matches. For the final, we went to a local sports bar and I brought along my Leica M6 with a flash attached. It was interesting watching the game and trying to anticipate a goal being scored. There were many times I grabbed my camera only to put it back down. On the first goal by Spain I managed to capture the moment.
During the last weekend of the month we spent a couple of nights up in Lake Tahoe. The day we arrived, we stopped in the town of Truckee to shop and eat before heading closer to the lake and our hotel. It had been a warm and sunny month until that day when it turned cloudy and rainy. I noticed these stairs and the complimentary colored posts in front. I like the photo but I wish it had been sunny to make the colors pop a bit more.
We spent a weekend in San Francisco to visit our oldest daughter. After a fantastic lunch, we walked back toward our hotel and I saw this woman sitting on a concrete ball. I raised my camera to my eye and tried to hurry over and get the shot but she must have noticed me and she looked at me just as I pressed the shutter button. I wanted to get her looking down at her phone instead of me but what can you do?
On one of my weekly visits to Old Sacramento happened to be a busy day for the trains. They were preparing the cars for taking on passengers and I snapped many pictures of the people waiting and the engineers doing engineer things. My favorite of which was of this man’s arm highlighted by the sun.
During that same trip to Old Sacramento, I spotted this woman with an umbrella taking pictures on her phone. I knew I had to get a picture of her but she kept moving around. Finally, I was able to grab a “from-the-hip” shot as I walked past her. Most of the time that technique doesn’t yield great photographs but I’ve been doing it a lot lately with my Leica M6 and getting decent results. I’m not sure I could’ve framed it better if I had the viewfinder to my eye.
After spending the afternoon playing a board game at a brew pub in Tahoe City, we strolled down the main drag. I had my digital camera with me and I wanted to shoot some color but do it similar to how I try and capture black and white. This was one of my favorites of the trip. My wife is annoyed by the shadow in the middle of the wall but I love it. That’s what drew me to the composition in the first place.
On the same trip to San Francisco, we were staying close to Union Square. After breakfast, my wife and daughter headed to the stores and I went out shooting. I just loved the multi-directional shadows of this scene.
While the engineers were moving cars back and forth, I spied this couple coming off the Delta King river boat. It’s a hotel but you have to pick up your car on the other side of the tracks from the valet. This couple looked tired and a bit exasperated as they waited for the trains to pass.
As we approached the end of our walk in Tahoe City, I came upon this building bathed in the evening light. It was a no-brainer and probably my favorite from that trip.
August was a fun month for photography. We traveled down to San Francisco and up to Lake Tahoe. I’m also getting more and more comfortable shooting film and then developing it myself. After many a screw up I seem to have hit my stride rolling the film onto reels and using the right amount of development time to get properly developed negatives. My scanning is also getting better. Using my digital camera continues to be something I have to force myself to do instead of being the default.
David
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