Anti-circumcision activist Matthew Hess poses in his bedroom in San Diego's Pacific Beach. Hess has submitted bills to state and national assemblies proposing a revision to genital mutilation bills to make them gender neutral.

This photo of anti-circumcision activist Matthew Hess I shot last year for Dave Maass’ San Diego City Beat’s story “Circumspection” about Hess and his efforts to secure a ban on male circumcision through legislation at various levels of government, arguing that it amounts to genital mutilation.

The anti-circumcision debate has flared up again, as a similar measure — also written by Hess — goes on the ballot in San Francisco. Yet another measure just failed in Santa Monica, and the Anti-Defamation League called Hess’ “Foreskin Man” comic anti-Semitic. And key proponent in Santa Monica just abandoned her efforts to push the legislation to a vote.

When City Beat asked me to photograph the story, Maass asked me to ask Hess if I could photograph him wearing his foreskin restoration device. At Hess’ home in Pacific Beach I was never so glad to hear the word “No.”

You can see more photos of Matthew Hess in my photo archive.

Head Brewer Yuseff Cherney leads a tour group through Ballast Point Brewing Company's headquarters as part of the San Diego Science Festival, March 21, 2011.

Going on a last-minute brewery tour was a no-brainer. During a special version of Ballast Point Brewing Company’s brewery tour, I kept a sample beer in one hand and a camera pressed against my safety glasses.

Here are some outtakes from the information-packed tour, which didn’t run in VoiceofSanDiego.org contributor Claire Trageser’s story. Visitors were treated to an extra-long explanation of the science behind brewing, as part of the San Diego Science Festival.

The tour group, reflected in a large metal tank.

The fridge.

Cherney demonstrates how to measure alcohol proof with a digital meter.

Distilling equipment.

The final product, with some salty snacks.

VoiceofSanDiego.org contributor Claire Trageser samples the Black Marlin Porter in the tasting room at Ballast Point Brewing Company.

A Tea Party rally at Renette Park in El Cajon drew several hundred people on Feb. 20, 2010. Speakers included congressional and gubernatorial candidates.

An email out of the blue from a French photo editor recently made me thank the SEO gods (and Photoshelter) yet again. Courrier International is a weekly newspaper based in Paris, and they were nice enough to bookmark the page of my tear sheet with a handwritten thank-you note.

The photo is from a Tea Party in El Cajon held in February of 2010, and it was used to illustrate Christopher Beam’s New York Magazine article on the Libertarian Party. You can see more of my photos from that rally in this gallery.

It’s great not only to be published abroad, since it’s my first such editorial photo, but also to be printed nice and large (roughly 6″ x 9″) is also very cool. Courrier International had some impressive layouts in general, with some massive double trucks elsewhere in the issue. People who like big photos are my kind of people.

Caption: San Diego Padres teammates Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell try their hands as gourmet chefs for the Adrian and Betsy Gonzalez Foundation Celebrity Dinner at Acqua Al 2 in downtown San Diego, Aug. 27, 2008.

Nick Popaditch at Election Central in San Diego, June 8, 2010.

On seeing the tearsheet I was doubly stoked to my photo share a page with another photo by Matt Slaby, who comprises 1/6th of the photo cooperative Luceo Images. They get a lot of (deserved) praise so I’ll just say they really love their curtains.

You can find the story, “The Pros and Cons of Military Service,” on the U.S. News website. And you can see more of my photos of the Popaditch campaign from back in June, when this photo was taken, in my original post on Meridian Collective.

My dad, J Parson, has been singing his whole life. When I was a senior in high school he self-published his first album and his fan base expanded outward from my family’s kitchen table. Now when he isn’t running his cattle business he’s traveling across the country with just my mom and his guitar.

Mike and Annie’s Penny Bar & Cafe is frequented by energy workers and cowboys. Some years ago, though, European tourists joined the mix. They pull their motorcycles into the small town of McKittrick, home to fewer than 200 people, because word of the Penny Bar, literally a bar wallpapered with almost a million pennies, reached the pages of a popular travel guide.

In late July I was in the passenger seat as my dad zoomed his truck over the hills outside Bakersfield, taking corners on the left side of two-lane Highway 58 so we could reach McKittrick before sunset. Oil pumpjacks peppered the car window as the sun sank closer to the Temblor Range, which my dad sings about in one of his new songs. Our destination that evening — the Penny Bar — is the subject of a different song, and we wanted to catch the last sliver of sun for some exterior shots with Annie herself to use with my dad’s newest CD release.

We barely made sunset as we pulled up to the quiet main drag of McKittrick. My dad and I jumped out, leaving my mom and my girlfriend with the truck as we snapped some shots on the corner. The sun disappeared, so I relaxed a bit knowing the twilight would last a while. In front of the Penny Bar we met a couple Canadian tourists who had stopped on their way to Las Vegas. They pulled away on their motorcycles, and with room to work we took a few shots of my dad at the Penny Bar entrance. The sign on the Penny Bar says McKittrick Hotel, though the building hasn’t operated as such in decades. A cardboard cutout of John Wayne decorates one window upstairs, where owners Mike and Annie Moore live. A cutout of the Three Stooges fills another.

Annie came out the front door to take some photos with my dad, and soon enough it was a party. We moved the shoot inside, and inevitably my dad started taking requests. Without a proper microphone stand, my dad’s friend and McKittrick resident Steve Twisselman held two microphones for guitar and vocals, hooked to a karaoke machine set up on the piano. The requests, a mix of Waylon Jennings, Marty Robbins, and J Parson originals to which everyone sang along, lasted until 11:30 or so. With the usual closing time at the Penny Bar being closer to ten o’clock, it was surely a night to remember.

Visit www.jparson.com to learn more about my dad. His new CD, The Eyes of a Cowboy, will be available soon.

The following I took with my Holga after the official shoot wrapped.

J Parson hugs Annie Moore, subject of his song "Annie and the Penny Bar"

Steve Twisselman, McKittrick local, had the party where J met Annie and was inspired to write the song.

Steve Roeder's ocean-friendly garden was the result of the landscaping effort of 40 Surfrider volunteers in June. Photos by Will Parson.

An assignment in the coastal La Jolla neighborhood of Bird Rock brought to mind an ecology lesson from my days as a student. One of my professors would point out the tidal areas negatively affected by nutrient pollution running off the lush unnatural lawns and gardens of all the million dollar homes. In Bird Rock, runoff causes excess algae in the tide pools. The snail genus that eats that algae, normally a pea-sized periwinkle, grows to the width of a quarter — a monster. More serious consequences of runoff pollution include algal blooms and sweeping anoxic dead zones like the big one in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Surfrider organization has initiated an effort to reclaim coastal neighborhood yards in the name of the environment and turn them into ocean-friendly gardens filled with native species that require much less water. One such garden belongs to Steve Roeder, whose front yard was swarmed with Surfrider volunteers, who transformed it into a water-permeable haven for native species like California Fuschia (Zauschinaria california) and Beach Evening Primrose (Camissonia cheiranthifolia).

Read the story on the La Jolla Light here.

Tuesday’s election was big news in San Diego. Here’s a link roundup.

VoiceofSanDiego.org’s photographer Sam Hodgson shows very strong work with a series of election photos in classy black and white. Election day stretched from dawn to well past dusk for Hodgson and his election photo roundup seems to have added a couple photos since the last time I checked it.

The VoiceofSanDiego.org Morning Report by Randy Dotinga was nice enough to mention my photo coverage along with other stories about the election.

San Diego CityBeat’s live coverage from Golden Hall is still online at their dedicated election blog sdvotes.com. Or you can check out CityBeat’s election post-mortem.

My own coverage went up on Meridian Collective. Check it out here or see even more photos in my election night photo gallery.

Entomologists from the San Diego Natural History Museum perform a rough sort of insect species collected in Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve during the 2010 BioBlitz, May 22, 2010.

A few times a year the planets align and someone pays me to write something. This time around it was for BioBlitz 2010 at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, organized by the San Diego Natural History Museum. You can see photos from this year’s BioBlitz with my Del Mar Times article.

The BioBlitz is a pretty cool deal. Not only does it highlight the biodiversity we take for granted, it’s basically a scientist open house. Kids can walk up to working scientists and ask them pretty much anything. For me scientists are essentially rock stars so I always like a chance to hang out with them.

Here’s a bonus video clip I shot of the SDNHM group.

BioBlitz 2010 from Will Parson on Vimeo.