And This Too Shall Pass

Documentary Photographer / Videographer based in Sacramento, CA

[andritambunan]

Latest for the New York Times

Vacaville, Calif.: It Isn’t Named for Cows

The city, named for an early settler, is a more affordable option to nearby San Francisco and Sacramento.

Full Story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/realestate/real-estate-guide-to-vacaville-california.html

[andritambunan]

Latest for the California Native Plant Society in their latest issue of Flora Magazine

A Fighting Chance for Oaks

Mounting opposition to a planned solar energy project in Sacramento County suggests a new urgency in the effort to protect oak habitats throughout the state.

The Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch (1,400-acre project) would require the removal of nearly 3,500 heritage blue oak trees, as well as impact vernal pools and hundreds of species of wildlife and insects. Read Full Story by Stu VanAirsdale

Read Full Story by Stu VanAirsdale

Coyote Creek and the Fight for California Native Oaks

Mounting opposition to the Coyote Creek energy project in Sacramento County suggests a new urgency in the effort to protect California's oak

[andritambunan]

For SF Chronicle 

Samantha Katherine Emge, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident and recent graduate of San Francisco State University, was fatally shot by her boyfriend, Nation Wood (25), in her apartment. Wood believed he was dry-firing an empty gun, but the gun was loaded, and the bullet went through a wall and struck Emge. Wood was charged with involuntary manslaughter but pleaded not guilty. Full Article:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sunset-district-white-house-shooting-family-22192037.php

[andritambunan]

Latest for San Francisco Chronicle

Bonnie Dale takes a VR eye test in Sacramento, CA, on Friday, March 20, 2026. UC Davis Eye Center has launched a pilot program using a VR eye test to determine whether it can detect dementia early.

Full Story: https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/aging-longevity/article/vr-eye-testing-dementia-memory-21941724.php

[andritambunan]

Latest for NRCNL reporting on the shortage of Airport Traffic Controllers in the US.

Minder competitieve opleiding moet in VS weer genoeg luchtverkeersleiders kweken

Luchtvaart: Enorme tekorten bij de Amerikaanse luchtverkeersleiding leiden tot veiligheidszorgen in de grootste luchtvaartmarkt ter wereld.

[andritambunan]

Balandra Beach, Baja California Sur

[andritambunan]

Latest for The New York Times

Meta Campaigns to Change Opinions on Data Centers. The tech giant has spent more than $6 million on TV ads in state capitals and Washington, with the message that data centers create jobs.

I photographed Senator Steve Padilla at the California State Capitol. Meta's ads targeted Senator Padilla’s districts after he spoke out about data centers.

Read More Here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/technology/meta-data-center-ads.html

[andritambunan]

My Favorite Ten Editorial Portraits of 2025.

[andritambunan]

Latest for the Wall Street Journal

"My husband and I have both worked in racing forever, but at home, we like to slow things down. One day in 2022, I came from work and, as I pulled into the driveway, there she was. My husband had bought this old Pontiac Chieftain, as a surprise for me. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it. My mother was there, and she named the car Dolly, after “Hello, Dolly!,” the song made famous by Louis Armstrong. The first thing we did was take her for a cruise."

Read More Below: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/he-surprised-his-wife-with-a-pontiac-chieftain-that-they-call-dolly-9f9e1122?

[andritambunan]

Latest for The New York Times

A Surrogacy Firm Told Parents-to-Be Their Money Was Safe. Suddenly, It Vanished.

Surro Connections held itself out as a reliable business. Now, clients have lost as much as tens of thousands of dollars meant to compensate women for carrying their pregnancies.

I photographed Corinne Mathiopoulos, Surro’s surrogacy program coordinator, who said she worried about what would happen if families did not have the money to continue paying their pregnant surrogates.

“How are the intended parents supposed to fund that account when everything was taken from them?” said Ms. Mathiopoulos, who had no warning of the closure and has not received her last paycheck. “There’s no money.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/health/surro-connections-surrogacy-closure.html

[andritambunan]

Latest for The Los Angeles Times

I photographed a demonstration of the making of a traditional acorn porridge with Wilton Rancheria, the leading sponsor of Terra Madre Americas, a major international “slow food” gathering this weekend in Sacramento. The Northern California tribe hopes to showcase its heritage of food practices and land stewardship, while building ties with other Indigenous peoples.

'The original slow food people': Why a California tribe spent big money on a global food gathering

Sacramento this week will host Terra Madre Americas, an international food event affiliated with the "slow food" movement. The Wilton Ranche

[andritambunan]

Latest for The New York Times

They Had Money Problems. They Turned to ChatGPT for Solutions.

More people are turning to generative A.I. chatbots for financial advice, whether it’s for debt management, better saving strategies or stock picks.

When Myra Donohue’s father, who is a financial planner, offered to help her with her finances, she politely declined.

With a background in accounting, she didn’t want anyone else’s help managing her $5,000 of credit card debt, not to mention car payments and other bills. But once Ms. Donohue, 28, sat down with her finances, she realized how overwhelming the process would be, especially with two young sons and her partner recently laid off from his electrician’s job.

She found a way to approach it in July, in a Facebook post about how to tackle your finances in seven steps. Step 1 was simple: List your income and fixed expenses and create a zero-based budget, a method that assigns a specific job to every dollar earned. Remembering how quick ChatGPT had been when she tried using it for other tasks, she decided to plug her numbers into the artificial intelligence chatbot and ask it to create a personalized financial plan.

A.I. chatbots have taken on many roles, including therapist, career coach, even romantic partner or friend. As more than half of Americans manage their finances on their own, many are turning to chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini for help tackling debt, finding better ways to save or figuring out how to invest in the stock market.

Read More Below

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/business/chatgpt-financial-advice.html

[andritambunan]

I photographed Charlie Kirk last year during the Brainwashed Tour on October 8, 2024 at The University of Reno, Nevada. He was shot dead on September 10, 2025 while speaking at Utah Valley University. 

Andri Tambunan/AFP (All Rights Reserved)

[andritambunan]

Latest for the Los Angeles Times

I photographed Steven Larson, a former state debris operations manager in the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

Full Story Below:

Allegations of mismanagement, overspending in California fire cleanups raised in whistleblower trial

Current and former state officials alleged mismanagement, overspending and lingering contamination in lucrative debris removal operations fo

[andritambunan]

Latest for The New York Times

The fires in the Sierra foothills of Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties, which are collectively known as TCU September Lightning Complex, were 0 percent contained by Wednesday afternoon. The fires were fueled by “critically dry” grass and brush, Cal Fire said.

The biggest fire within the complex, called the 6-5, was burning in and around Chinese Camp, an important center of early Chinese American life about 20 miles northeast of Modesto. The town housed more than 5,000 residents during the gold rush in the 19th century and was a stagecoach stop that helped link small Chinatowns and multicultural mining towns scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Read Full Story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/us/wildfire-chinese-camp-california.html

[andritambunan]

Latest for The New York Times

A Wild Card for the Board Game Business: Trump’s Tariffs

Trade war uncertainty is forcing board and card game publishers in the United States to make tough decisions, putting the future of the industry in jeopardy.

Cephalofair Games, which makes strategy board games containing hundreds of bespoke pawns and cards, was forced to leave $1.2 million worth of product at a port in China for about two months when the tariffs first hit, Price Johnson, the company’s chief operating officer, said. Cephalofair received those delayed shipments in June, and it still needs to import two more games.

The company’s most popular games sell for more than $200 each. With added import taxes, that pricing model “falls apart,” Mr. Johnson said.

“I can’t say with any level of confidence that we feel like we can trust what’s coming next,” he said, adding that many board and card game publishers feel they are among the first victims of Mr. Trump’s trade war. In May and June, Cephalofair laid off one worker and reduced the hours of two others, said Mr. Johnson, who added that he took a 50 percent pay cut.

Read Full Story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/business/small-business/board-games-trump-tariffs-china.html

[andritambunan]

Latest for The Guardian Saturday Magazine

I’ve been stupid and I miss you’: The family members who buried the hatchet after years of silence

What happened?” Scott, 82, asked Bruce, 78, when his younger brother picked up the phone and called him after a 15-year estrangement. “I grew up,” Bruce said. “I’ve been stupid and I really miss you.” The brothers had missed a decade and a half of each other’s birthdays, milestones and memories made, but here they were, talking again as though no time had passed.

A quarter of the adult population describe themselves as estranged from a relative; 10% from a parent and 8% from a sibling, according to research by Karl Pillemer, professor of human development at Cornell University and author of Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them. But when decades pass and rifts remain unhealed, what drives family members such as Scott and Bruce to repair their ruptured relationships?

But in 2020, Bruce felt ready for change. Some years earlier he had turned down a suggestion from Scott’s daughter that the pair reconnect but, with the world in lockdown, he began thinking about his relationships. “I realised I’d been too judgmental. I’d never walked a mile in Scott’s shoes. He was saying cruel things to me because I was being an ass. I was the jerk in this story.”

Bruce sought advice from a psychotherapist friend about how to reconcile, then picked up the phone. When Scott heard his voice again, he remembers, “We picked up exactly where we left off. There was no animosity. It was guilt free. We haven’t had a harsh word since.”

Their time apart brought unexpected positives: “We have realised we’re similar in many ways. We think the same and have many of the same expressions. When we belly up to the bar together, you’d know we’re brothers,” Bruce says. He feels vastly happier: “I don’t feel I lost anything. In fact, it’s brought us closer than ever.”

‘I’ve been stupid and I miss you’: the family members who buried the hatchet after years of silence

Brothers Bruce and Scott hadn’t spoken for 15 years when finally one made the call that would reunite them. How do people recover from decad