Prologue

Big surprise, I picked up photography from my father, so I will provide a short overview of his photography background.

Not sure if Dad was a photographer before he joined the US Army in WW2 (I suspect not, his family did not have money for luxuries like cameras), but he did talk about using a Robot Luftwaffen Eigentum camera that he acquired near the end of the war. This was a spring-driven 35mm camera that came in several variants. More info can be found on the CAMERA COLLECTING BLOG.

Dad after getting his wings.
Taken by Studer Studio, San Antonio TX
Dad with his first crew in England. Which one is he?1Dad is standing second from left

He took photos in Europe and North Africa after the war while flying a B-17 doing photo mapping as part of the Casey Jones aerial mapping project. He brought back thousands of negatives that he had developed in his unit’s photo lab, to include photos of Egyptian pyramids, Gibraltar, etc. Unfortunately, all the negatives, and his camera, were lost in a house fire after the war. He flew the B-17 Tower of London, pictured here before the ship was transferred to the 306th Bomb Group.

B-17G Flown by Dad after the war.2Source: https://www.fold3.com/image/32149954

Fast forward a few years, on a road trip to Acapulco Mexico, he picked up a new 35mm camera in Mexico City, a Voigtländer Bessamatic. He said it was cheaper in Mexico than in US camera stores.

Three years later I arrived . . .and he used that camera.

Welcome to my blog

Maybe the best way to start my blog is by quoting the first version of my About page . . .

I started serious photography back in the late 70’s, doing a mix of newspaper photography using 35mm cameras and weddings using medium format cameras.  After graduating college, I stopped shooting for money, and did personal work for several years.  At this point I was in love with medium format cameras and Fuji Velvia transparency film.  I loved shooting transparency film due to the gorgeous prints one could produce using Cibachrome .  Then I got married, had kids, moved, and stopped doing photography for me

After many years, I am finally starting back into serious photography, but my has the landscape changed.  Digital photography has been a boon for both pro and amateur photographers, but it does require a different mindset and workflow than my beloved Velvia + Cibachrome.

And hence this blog, and my associated portfolio site, have been created to document my path into the digital age, and perhaps help others with reviews, examples, etc.  Hopefully my analog mind will adapt!

Perhaps the best example showing the tremoundous impact of digital photography can been seen in my current header photograph, reproduced here in case I ever change it:

Taken with a camera that is 5.94 inches high, 2.98 inches wide, 0.33 inch deep, and weighs 6.84 ounces. Of course I am talking about a smart phone, in this case an iPhone XR. In-phone produced panoramic photo, with no post editing other than cropping to fit and converting the native HEIC format to JPEG.

Show that photo to me 30 years ago and I would have been amazed. Tell me how big the camera was, and how you did it, and I would have thought you were crazy. Now anyone can make them . . .