Background

I have been taking pictures since I was a little kid with a Kodak Brownie that took 126 roll film. I remember making a pinhole camera from a Quaker Oatmeal box, a 110 instamatic I loved, and then I learned to use my Dad’s 35mm Nikkormat with a range of lenses. I went from experimenting with photo sensitive paper I got from Edmund Scientific to learning photo emulsion silk screening in college. I have worked as a screen printer, and one of my best jobs was developing E6 for National Geographic photographers. I bought and sold camera equipment which gave me a lot of experience with different cameras including medium and large film formats, and I had the opportunity to work as an assistant doing architectural shoots in 4×5. Eventually, I got into digital photography and I’ve used a wide range of devices to capture images. I still use a Nikon D3200 for it’s familiar format, and some things cannot be done with a smart phone, but these days my interest is turning to video. I will always take pictures, regardless. That being said, this collection only goes back as far as 2004. All of my work prior to that has been lost, photography and writings.

Subjectivity

What photography has become in the era of cell phones and live streams has greatly changed the general idea of a ‘good picture’. In the early days of photography, it took more of a scientist to make an image. Silver halide solution had to be spread on a glass plate in the dark and then exposed behind a lens before it dried. The ability to prepare plates for later use started the era of the traveling photographer with all of one’s equipment loaded onto a mule – if you could make a portrait turn out, you were a professional. Nature photography wasn’t popular until Ansel Adams started taking his mule up into the mountains. Then came the Crown Graphic and the first field cameras, mostly used for journalism. Many famous pictures from that era were political. And then the first 35mm cameras put photography into the hands of the common person and that began mainstream documentary style pictures of friends and parties that persists to this day. It was not until the 70s that photography as art began to gain acceptance, partly because of the truth to materials movement of the 60s. Photography is light writing. And remember, color film wasn’t invented until 1964. Minor White then shaped the ‘feel’ of photography in his popularity with Aperture, and things like soft focus and fancy filters became common. It was not until the early 80s that auto-light features were introduced and a whole new dimension of scientific photography began – the first photos of a bumble bee in freeze frame, satellite photos, Haley’s Comet, and so on. While Modern Art tested the limits of technology in many mediums, personal expression wasn’t very common until after Maplethorpe’s controversial shots challenged photography as an art form. Candid photos were all the rage in the 90s and it was not until then that photo printers became affordable on the consumer market and most people had the ability to take pictures and print them. Although, the internet became the new place for galleries and that seems to have ended the obsession with true color that started in the Kodachrome days. And with advancements in technology, including the artificial intelligence of today, it no longer takes a scientist to make a photo. Composition now rules over technical quality. In fact, there’s now artificial intelligence that can un-blur the photos that didn’t turn out, or change objects, replace blank skies and such – the result is, what makes a picture ‘good’ has become more and more subjective, varied by the kinds of pictures out there and the reasons for making them, technical standards aside. And photography itself has become just one element of digital imaging.

Content and Quality

There is nothing like an 8×10 transparency from a large format camera run though a drum scanner with such high resolution you can see the grain of the film. This is great if you’re making billboards, but if you’re looking at images on your wireless device it doesn’t matter so much. And it’s way more expensive than a phone. While most people take pictures to keep memories for themselves and their friends, for me it has always been a fascination with light that drives me, paired with a love for things that fly. I was thrilled to be able to catch dragonflies in mid flight like they were humming birds – bats proved way harder. For me, the lens is a way of getting closer to something. I’m a macro, nature, and wildlife photographer. But although the voyeurism of photography is intrinsic, I am more of an exhibitionist as I enjoy sharing what I see along the way, and that’s what this site is about. The quality, especially for older pictures, sometimes doesn’t meet modern standards, but it really doesn’t matter. This year, it’s 4k images at 120 fps, and not long ago it was 720p… this site is tuned to 1080p for broad compatibility, but even that is becoming more dynamic with more modern internet protocols like WebRTC. Plus, a camera is no longer the single origin of images. Video streams and drones are valid sources. So, I’m beginning to adopt an anything-goes approach to gathering images. Traditionally, I’ve always been a full-frame natural light photographer, but computers change that. Even 3×5, 4×6, and 8×10 are becoming obsolete aspect ratios in lieu of letterbox film ratios like 16:9, and the variety of screen sizes makes cropping unavoidable. Then there’s the blurring. Backgrounds and overlays offer different uses for photos, and I think there’s even a good argument for keeping most of the photos that didn’t turn out. Sometimes, that’s all of them – not all shoots are successful. And when I sit down to photograph something like a flower, for instance, I’m likely to take 50 pictures looking for the best few. In Mexico, I took up to 300 pictures a day. I keep all of them, unless unless it’s a complete reject. One other factor to the quality of my library is equipment – two things happened. First, I found that an old camera of mine had a mirror alignment problem that meant the image that was actually captured was ever so slightly tilted and blurred at infinity – just enough to be really annoying, but could be cleaned up with post processing. Secondly, I had not owned a television in years, but I finally got a Pioneer 4k UHD big screen TV… and I learned that many of the pictures I liked were not as good as I had thought, although there were some that had more potential than I thought, too. No worries, though, I like photographs that look like paintings.

Public Sharing

Besides shared albums, I’ve often printed full page photos for people. I enjoy sharing what I do and that’s what this site is all about. I’m a copy-leftist at heart, so feel free to download and share any of my images. However, I do reserve copyrights on all of my work so please give credit and contact me for commercial licensing. In the future, I may add watermarks but I’m not really fond of them. For now, metadata and the honor system is enough. Video is getting my attention these days but I’ll add more still shots over time.