San Francisco residents have had an intimate look at their city through the lens of Frederic Larson. As a 25-year San Francisco Chronicle veteran, he makes daily background noise new — from unexpected views of the Golden Gate Bridge to a dime in pond slime at the DeYoung Museum. (Those photos, along with many others, are on his blog at www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/photo blogfl/index.)

But he also has turned his photojournalist's eye to events around the world. His photo essay of atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Larson shares those images, along with his documentary projects on post-revolution Romania, posttsunami Sri Lanka, homeless children on Haight Street in San Francisco, among others, in his lecture "A Photojournalist's Vision" at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

"While the recognition and awards I have received for my photography have been nice, they are not the reason I do what I do," said Larson in a written statement. "The stories I have documented and hope to continue documenting are those that provoke discussion and bear witness to those without the power or voice to be heard on their own."

His lecture is part of the Sakamaki Extraordinary Lecture Series.

Larson also will teach a noncredit five-session workshop, "Magic Hour at Magic Island," July 18-20, 25 and 27.

The focus will be on capturing (with digital or film camera) the optimal light of dusk. The class is split between photography field trips and the computer lab, where photographs will be downloaded for presentation or photo layout. Professional shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop and in Adobe InDesign on Macintosh computers will be taught.