Randall Hobbet Photography
I’ve lugged a camera around since my teen years, influenced by my father, a talented and passionate amateur photographer with a home darkroom. So after a 33-year career as an international geologist and years of living abroad and wide travels, it seemed natural that I use photography as my chosen medium in seeking creative outlets when I retired back to the San Francisco Bay area in late 2013.
I’ve long been in thrall to the beautiful in all its forms. Thus as a photographer during my working years I had pursued many different subjects from wildlife to landscapes to architecture to abstract. It’s curious that in much of my photography I long sought to avoid people in the picture. Yet I always loved the female form – who doesn’t!—and over the years I also had a growing love of dance, undoubtedly related to that fact. It was only as I approached retirement and had the financial means to work with professional models and mentors that I could explore these subjects as I had long aspired to and take my photography to a higher level.
Dance and art nudes are currently my two primary areas of photographic interest. One challenge I find particularly interesting is trying to capture the fleeting aspect of beauty. These fugitive moments can be in the millisecond moment of a dancer, an emotion passing across the face; or the life force of animate nature, be it animal or plant, the patience of a heron, the predatory gaze of a cat or owl, the flower of womanhood…
The fleeting moment can also entail changing light in a landscape, or as in long exposure photography, it can approach from the other side to express persistence in time, the energy flux of passing clouds, the flow of a stream, the endless churn of the oceans, the star tracks of the heavens… and yet it is still a moment in deep time, nothing is eternal…
I am a proud member of Model Society ( https://modelsociety.com/Photographer/randall-hobbet ) where I have been featured in several magazine issues including two issues dedicated to my work exclusively.
On the Light Fantastic Toe, published by Snap Collective, is a book of the best of my decade of work with dancers, including many professionals with Bay Area dance companies (San Francisco Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Ballet22__ ) and elsewhere. It is available here:
https://shop.snap-collective.com/products/on-the-light-fantastic-toe-by-randall-hobbet
I've recently been featured in NyghtVision Magazine Fall 2023 issue (#13-4) https://nyghtvision.com/product/nyghtvision-magazine-13-4/# with a pictorial of the model Nausicaa Yami
I also have two self-published fine art books which you can find here (with digital previews):
https://www.blurb.com/b/8055842-seeking-beauty
https://www.blurb.com/b/6996381-melissa-ann
My instagram pages are:
@rdhobbet for my work with dancers
@randhobbes3 (private/fine art creatives and friends please request) for my art nude photography
I'm also on Purple Port:
