by Jim Bass | Oct 2, 2019 | Odds & Ends, Personal work
Sometimes you plan a photo shoot, other times you stumble into one. I had just finished an assignment in downtown Ventura and decided to check the Santa Clara River estuary (near Ventura Harbor) for birds. I have had good luck at that location. Birds were mostly MIA,...
by Jim Bass | May 30, 2019 | Architectural photography, On Assignment
When I was hired to photograph a newly constructed subsidized housing development in Oxnard, I expected something plain and simple. Something the government would build.I was delighted when I did my first of three shoots at the site. It looked like a very nice...
by Jim Bass | May 27, 2019 | Event Photography, Music
The words “high school musical” may conjur images of kids trying hard to act and sing with parents and friends putting a happy face on it. Not when the production it’s a Calabasas High School production. When I photographed this spring’s...
by Jim Bass | Oct 3, 2018 | On Assignment, Product photography
How do you photograph an essentially square object so that it looks good on a vertical magazine cover? Let’s reflect on that. The challenge came from Amy Brown, director of communications for Birns Inc, a longtime client that manufactures high-tech products for...
by Jim Bass | Sep 14, 2018 | Architectural photography, On Assignment
In 2013, I began the longest photo assignment of my career: five years chronicling the construction of a new hospital wing at Ventura County Medical Center. From the shovel ceremony to the ribbon cutting, I was there to capture how things looked. I was even there to...
by Jim Bass | Sep 4, 2018 | Personal work, Seascapes
After a great fish dinner at The Galley in Morro Bay, my wife and I watched the marine layer come and go, at times obscuring the 581′ high “volcanic plug.” It comprises one of the “Nine Sisters” of volcanic peaks in San Luis Obispo county...
by Jim Bass | Aug 31, 2018 | On Assignment
One term you don’t hear much anymore is “exploratory surgery.” Advances make it possible for doctors to look inside the human body without cutting it open. I was on hand at the Ventura County Medical Center to photograph its first EBUS (Endobronchial...
by Jim Bass | Aug 21, 2018 | On Assignment
Some assignments take an hour, others may last several weeks. For about six weeks I traveled most of Ventura County chronicling all things pertaining to transportation in the county. I worked for the Ventura County Transportation Commission through their agency,...
by Jim Bass | Jul 6, 2017 | Product photography
Dr. Michael Sparkhul is a veteran surgeon in Ventura County. His experience in the operating room led him to invent a simple device for protecting a patient’s face during surgery. Rather than elaborate about the why’s and wherefore’s of the Saving...
by Jim Bass | May 21, 2017 | Nature
On May 13, I went with two friends to East Anacapa Island, the smallest of the chain that comprises the Channel Islands National Park. Western sea gulls were nesting practically everywhere. Many nests are just inches off the foot path. One was right in the middle,...
