LET’S DO THIS
Fade to 1906: The Great Quake + Today

THE 1906 EARTHQUAKE + TODAY

This is the home of the original 1906 + Today photoblends where I have mashed-up the aftermath of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake with the modern-day.

This project has been featured on the front pages of newspapers and in print magazines in several dozen countries. I’ve done TV and radio interviews from Australia to San Francisco, and the photos have appeared in over 1000 websites around the world, including the front pages of some of the world’s largest websites from ABC News to the UK Daily Mail.

Photo gallery and prints for purchase
About the project
The Clockograph: A Photographic Timepiece

THE CLOCKOGRAPH

The Clockograph is the most complex photo project I’ve ever attempted. It is a functioning photographic timepiece I am constructing made entirely of photos I have taken around the world.

The Clockograph cycles through each of the 1440 minutes that make up a day. Each photo shows the current time somewhere in the photo and advances every minute. It is still a work in progress.

Visit clockograph.com
About the Clockograph
MyBay: A Web App

MYBAY: A WEB APP

MyBay is an interactive web app I created to showcase some of my favorite places in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I built it in JavaScript along with Knockoutjs, jQuery, and Bootstrap frameworks. The app uses the Google Maps API to draw map and markers, and it uses the Foursquare and Wikipedia APIs to pull in information for user-selected locations that I draw from a JSON file. The app uses fully responsive web design to function properly on phones, tablets, and all web browsers.

Open the MyBay web app
My source code on Github
Blueprints of the Past

BLUEPRINTS OF THE PAST

Blueprints of the Past is a series where I create 3D models using Google Earth and overlay blueprints from the early 1900s of bygone sites over modern-day locations.

Once the blueprint is perfectly aligned in the model, I can do a virtual flyover while tilting and rotating the model. This allows viewing the precise alignment of buildings and other structures that once existed and are now gone.

The models have led to some surprising findings of ruins of yesterday that still exist today. Like the foundation for the Tower of the Sun from the 1939 World’s Fair. Or the main ticket booth for the old Sutro Baths.

See the Blueprints of the Past
Clueless Texter: A Game

CLUELESS TEXTER: A GAME

Clueless Texter is my tribute to the San Francisco denizens who walk around everywhere with their heads buried down typing away on their phones, completely oblivious to the world around them. Can you help our poor texting addict get across San Francisco’s busy Market Street amid six lanes of bicycles, cars, and speeding streetcars? The current world record is 32 street crossings.

I did this project as part of my Udacity Front End Web Developer Nanodegree certification. It was an exercise in object-oriented JavaScript and HTML5 canvas. Note: the game only works with a keyboard right now.

Play the Clueless Texter game!
My source code on Github
Drone Over San Francisco

DRONE OVER SAN FRANCISCO

I’ve been sending up my DJI Inspire 1 over San Francisco every chance I get. This baby takes incredibly sharp and steady 4k video. It’s like a tripod in the sky with the path-tracking full-gimbal camera. I was so blown away by the video and photo quality of the Inspire that I don’t even want to go back to editing all the video I shot from my old Phantom drone. There’s no comparison.

Current projects: Candlestick Park demolition and the growth of SoMa.

More about my dronography
RetroScans

RETROSCANS

The Retroscans series is my restoration of other people’s slides from the 1940s to the 1970s.

I’ve been buying up boxes old slides by the thousands that show up in various estate sales and auctions. After sorting them, cleaning them, and scanning them, I catalog everything into an organized Lightroom catalog with dates, locations, and keyword tags. From here, I’m beginning to find near collisions of location and time where two unrelated photographers have crossed paths with their 35mm cameras snapping away. Most of what I’m saving spans the 1940s through the 1970s. I’m trying to focus on San Francisco but the slides I come across span just about every country in the world.

As things come together, I will share some of these never-before-published gems with the world, rather than let them quietly find their way to the landfill.

The Retroscans Project
Miniature Bay Area

MINIATURE BAY AREA

Miniature Bay Area is a series of photos that have been optically or digitally “tilt/shifted” to give the illusion that the scenes are smaller than they really are.

To make the effect work, the camera must be pointing downward at a scene. I took most of these photos through the tiny window of a Piper Archer airplane I was flying with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens, some with a Canon Extender EF 2x III attached for a 400mm equivalent. A few others were taken through the hatch of the Zeppelin NT Eureka and others were taken from rooftops or drones.

Some shots were done without digital editing using my Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L tilt/shift lens.

Miniature Bay Area
Abandoned Places

ABANDONED PLACES

Urban exploration is the thrill of touring abandoned buildings, sneaking around places, and finding long-forgotten places littered with remnants of the past. What is in these places? What stories do they tell?

I’m certainly an amateur in the world of urban exploration but I’ve snuck into enough places to experience the magic firsthand. The clock is ticking on many places in the Bay Area alone, and I want a chance to get in before the wrecking ball arrives.

Abandoned Places

FROM THE BLOG

RECENT APPEARANCES

  • 'IF THE 1906 EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED TODAY'
  • 'HIS PERFECTIONISM CLEARLY PAID OFF'
  • 'Clover recently sent a drone over the stadium'
  • Featured in Feb, 2015 'Talking Pictures' column
  • Exhibit: My photo of ghost town Drawbridge, CA
  • NUMEROUS STORIES INCLUDING FRONT PAGE
  • 'Dramatic results'
  • 'THIS MASH-UP... STANDS OUT'
  • 'WITNESS ALMOST FIRST HAND THE DEVASTATION'
  • 'EACH PIC IS PAINSTAKINGLY ASSEMBLED'
  • 'Featured on front page'
  • 'A ghost-like effect'
  • LEAD STORY IN ONE OF UK'S LARGEST WEBSITES
  • 'SHAWN CLOVER VOWED TO DO BETTER - AND HE DID'
  • Featured in 'Most Amazing Images Of The Week'
  • 'DOCUMENTING AN EPISODE OF DESTRUCTION OF HIS OWN CITY'
  • Appearance on the 'Secret Valley' show
  • On 'Burrito Justice' radio program
  • 'Fascinating interactions between past and present'
  • Featured in Q1 2013 issue
  • 'the results are startling'
  • FRONT PAGE STORY OF 1906 PHOTOS