DakFoto

I am an engineer turned product designer turned artist who will forever be a photographer. I've been places. I've seen things. But I'm not done, yet.

I've lived through fires, tornadoes, and earthquakes; sunsets, rainbows, and dreams.

09/23/2025

You may not remember this, but the Rapture also happened back in 2011. Me and my best friend got all dressed up and waited to be taken into heaven… but I sadly didn’t make the cut. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

08/03/2025

Playing hide and seek with Luna⁣⁣⁣⁣

07/25/2025

SWIPE to see a print I sold!

I don’t much talk about the prints I have for sale (link in bio!); mostly because of imposter syndrome. I so admire the talent and the grit it takes for REAL photographers to make a living with their art and it’s something I continue to aspire to… but any time I get a little validation through a sale, it gives me a thrill!

So to whomever out there made the purchase, thank you for your support!

01/10/2025

In 2017 I took pictures for an article written by that was featured in the second issue of the now sadly defunct magazine, and that featured *checks notes* on the cover (I wonder whatever happened to her??).

For it, Paul and I visited Camp 16, a prison in the hills of Sylmar, where inmates train in wild land firefighting and respond to emergency calls when the hills around California, inevitably, ignite. They, and other camps like them, are an integral part of the response to the forest fires that threaten the lives and property of tens of thousands of Californians. They are 100% out fighting the fires around LA right now, and are in harms way.

Yes, they are convicts. They are also humans willing to put themselves in harm’s way to help protect us. Thank you to the first responders who are, right now, fighting to bring these fires under control. We appreciate you, and by that I mean ALL of you!

12/31/2024

I’ve written before of how we, as humans, don’t often look up; which is weird considering that we came about by climbing down from the trees. You’d think we’d glance skyward every now and again just to check for distant relatives; but, instead we keep our gaze mostly fixed firmly on the ground (where we then put our phones betwixt our dumb faces and the dirt at all times).

I don’t have a metaphor or a lesson here…mainly because who am I to be doling out wisdom to anyone? Also, live your lives the way you want to, we’re all going to evolve into curled up Rollie-Pollies curled around the warm and life-sustaining glow of our phones anyway; so get a jump on your final form if you feel like it! I would only humbly opine that, from time to time, I like to see what’s between us and the stars.

PS did you know there were stars??!

Most importantly, do you find my using correct (as well as I know) punctuation and archaic grammar endearing or anachronistic and unnecessary?

12/30/2024

Virginia, in winter, in patterns.

12/12/2024

Blade Runner 2025 vibes in the sky⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

12/10/2024

The haters will say it’s Photoshopped… and they’re kinda right. This image was created by blending two separate exposures, one of the moon and one of the bridge. The reason being that the moon is so crazy bright that if you metered your exposure off of it, everything else would be black, and if you metered off of the bridge the moon would be just a ball of white light with no detail. And yet, this is what my eyes saw….⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣

12/08/2024

Swipe to see where, on July 16, 1969, humans stepped onto an extraterrestrial body for the first time in all of existence since time immemorial.

I know that sounds overly dramatic… but it’s really not. It’s not in that it is absolutely true. For billions of years gasses and dust swirled around and coalesced and broke apart and joined again and bacterium and plants and animals and beings lived and died and lived and died again for millennia upon millennia until finally just a few moments ago in the grand scheme of things some monkeys blasted off to the nearest rock outside of their planet and actually fu***ng TOUCHED it man.

It’s mind blowing if you really stop to think about it. Estimates say that around 115 billion humans have EVER lived, and of those 115,000,000,000 people in the 6,000,000 years we’ve been on the planet… 12 have touched the face of another celestial body. And they did it from July 16, 1969 until December 19, 1972 and no one has been back since. This fleeting flash of brilliance and human excellence that feels like the result of overwhelming confidence, bravery, and unbridled wanderlust. Tip of the hat to you, Neil.
⁣⁣⁣⁣
# ⁣

11/21/2024

I cannot express to you enough the level of frustration that I feel knowing that the full size image of this boat is perfectly symmetrical with the top of the mast and its reflection in full view… and yet Insta will only let me show enough to fill me with terrible and unrelenting shame and regret. …sadly…symmetrical⁣⁣⁣⁣

Address

115 West 4th Street
Long Beach, CA
90802

Website

https://1-david-kleeman.pixels.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when DakFoto posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your business to be the top-listed Photography Service in Long Beach?