I’ve been dabbling in black and white film photography lately, getting back to the roots. It started when I decided to sell a couple of film cameras that had not been used in decades. I used some old, outdated film to test the cameras out to make sure they still worked. I held onto a Nikon F2 that is about 40 years old and started carrying it around shooting B&W film.
In addition to the film photography I have found myself doing more black and white with my iPhone and digital cameras. This post is a mix of the film, digital and iPhone photographs, most of which I have previously posted on Instagram and Facebook.
I have been back at the scanner a lot lately, bringing back to life photographs long buried by the snows of time. This winter I have mostly concentrated on black and white prints and negatives from my youthful days back home in Tucson in the ’70’s and early ’80’s.
As I went through the boxes and binders of the archives I posted many of these old B&W photos on Instagram and Facebook. I began to notice that most of the photographs I chose to share featured interesting faces. Now I have gathered a collection of these portraits from the Wayback Machine for your viewing.
I have to say that 2017 has been a wonderful year for me. I went on some wonderful trips to beautiful places, witnessed the total eclipse of the sun, and got to spend quality time with my wife and sons. And as usual I spent many hours plying the tow path of the C&O Canal. I’ve put together my personal Year in Pictures gallery here. As you can see it is an eclectic collection. I hope you enjoy it.
Back in the 1980’s, working for the then-thriving USA TODAY, I traveled far and frequently, and visited most of the United States on assignment. I had been to many of the states traveling on my own, but the job at USA TODAY had me checking off many more. In 1989, I went to Alaska, my 49th state. The one state I had not visited was South Dakota, and I figured it was just a matter of time before I did.
I worked for USA TODAY for another 26 years, but never made it to South Dakota. Going to all of the states had not been an obsession of mine, but having been to 49 it just seemed like I should finish the 50.
This Spring our son Frank signed up to go to a one-month study program at Teton Science School in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I saw an opportunity to do a road trip with Franky and drive through South Dakota on the way to dropping him off in Wyoming. So off we went in late May.
In mapping our trip I decided to stop in Indiana the first night and visit Indiana Dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan. We made it into South Dakota the evening of the second day, then spent the next couple of days driving and hiking around the state. The last couple of days we saw some of Wyoming’s sights.
What a great time we had!
Canada Geese fly over Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes State Park.
One of the many wind turbines we saw driving in the northeast corner of Iowa.
Falls Park in the heart of the city of Sioux Falls, SD.
Frank checks out the bizarre vista of Badlands National Park.
Bighorn sheep in the Badlands.
Bighorn lambs in the Badlands.
A bighorn strolls on the road in the Badlands.
One of the many prairie dogs in the Badlands.
We had to see it. There are signs all over the state advertising it.
George and Tom.
Many years of work to go.
Black-billed magpie in Custer State Park.
Part of the herd in Custer State Park.
Seen on our hike up to Black Elk Peak.
Frank on our hike to the highest point in South Dakota.
On the wildlife loop road in Custer State Park.
Coming around to share our trail mix on the summit of Black Elk Peak.
Those ears!
Spotted on the hike up Black Elk Peak.
An amazing sight, in Wyoming.
A fascinating igneous intrusion.
Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.
Crossing a stream on a hike in Grand Teton National Park.
This sunrise in Iowa greeted me as I started out my last day of driving on the way home.
I just had to use that old song title in the headline even though Paris was not the first stop on the trip Margo and I recently made. London was first and we went there to visit son Franky who was studying art at University of the Arts London-Central St. Martins. We went with him on a side trip to Oxford. Next we went to Amsterdam for our first time. Franky had been there for a weekend and raved about it so we thought we better check it out. Paris was the last stop.
We had a wonderful time in each city. I made photographs that were interesting to me but resisted the temptation to record every sight we saw. You can read about our travels at Margo’s blog, Margo on the Go.
For the past few months I have been spending a lot of time sorting through old slides, negatives and prints. I’ve been scanning my favorites and purging a huge number. Some of these photographs go back as far as my college days. In my early adulthood I loved to shoot Kodachrome, and many of these included here were made with that classic film. Some were made with Ektachrome, some with Fujichrome, some with Tri-X. All but one are 35mm. None of these were made on assignment although in some cases they were made while on assigned trips. So these are all from personal efforts. Some are vacation snaps. A few are slides that were damaged by moisture while stored in our basement and have ended up looking like art projects. And one is intentionally extremely digitally altered. All of these have been previously shared on social media. So you could call this an eclectic selection from a random collection.
In my continuing efforts to scan and digitize old photos, I recently pulled one of the binders out of the closet and found a trove of medium format transparencies dating back to my early years at USA TODAY. My old Epson scanner was beginning to seem antiquated so I bought a new one, an Epson Perfection V600 Photo, and have been scanning away since. Some photos were shot with a Mamiya RZ-67, some with a Hasselblad, all on Fujichrome film.
Earlier this month the Washington Post Magazine published a selection of my photographs of the C&O Canal National Historical Park. If you missed them check them out here. Today I offer some recent photographs, including some from an early morning visit to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore. Thanks for looking!
As Spring is knocking on the door here in the National Capital Region it’s about time I posted photographs I have taken in the Fall and Winter. This collection is a potpourri of images with no particular theme. My last post was from a trip to Italy in November. Some of these photographs were taken before that trip, others are from the deepest Winter. I hope you enjoy!
Margo and I had a wonderful trip to Italy in early November. Our son Peter joined us in Naples for a long weekend and we visited Pompeii and the Naples National Archeology Museum. Peter returned to Madrid where he is teaching and Margo and I went on to Capri, Positano and Sorrento. We had some wonderful hikes and fabulous meals and we celebrated Margo’s birthday while there. Here is a selection of photographs from the trip.
