George Anderson

I took this photo with an old Pentax K1000 that made the trip with me from Oklahoma to California and I guess it has been quite a few years ago that I wrote a short story about the man in the photo. I often wonder what happened to him, we shared some good times, both real and imagined. You can download a pdf of the story HERE.

Chicago Anniversary

 Just returned from a very enjoyable family trip to Chicago, Bolingbrook actually, remember Drew Peterson? The guy who allegedly murdered all his wives? It's his hometown and where my wonderful mother and father-in-law live as well.  My wife and I flew there to help celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary! 

We had a great time and so did everyone else, lots of family and champagne and good times. I was able to snap a few shots other than for the family and thought I would share them with you.

First is a photo of my in-laws original wedding cake topper now perched atop a delicious wedding cake made by my niece Lauren who made the entire cake from scratch. Oh yeah, I supplied the gold/milk chocolate coins.

 We started off the day with a mass at a nearby Catholic church and even though I am not Catholic I have been to my fair share of those ceremonies and it was neat to see my in-laws surprised when the priest had them come down to the front for a blessing, pretty cool. My in-laws, Marilyn and Paul were able to connect with many of their friends and family who originally attended their wedding and they even ordered the exact same catered Polish food, although I believe it was more than the $2.50 per person that it cost back 50 years ago.  

I snapped a couple of favorite shots, one of old blue eyes himself peering out the living room window and a still life of a very unusual ceramic apple, knife and plate arrangement that was quite a conversation piece at the get together.    

I drank some good champagne and some nice wine and was able to drink some really good Lager that you can't seem to find around San Francisco and in the end, I believe a good time was had by all. So the wife and I jumped back on the plane and headed home, and believe it or not there were no 3 hour delays and we didn't even get stuck on the tarmac.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day - and I forgot

Okay, yesterday (Sunday April 28th) was Worldwide Pinhole Photography day and I was in Sonoma California and totally forgot about it.  If you did remember and you did take a photo, you can enter it on the above website.

So in honor of the day and the event I will post one from years past, taken with an old Olympus E-500 and a pinhole drilled in a small piece of aluminum can which is fastened to a plastic body cap.  It takes awhile to get a nicely rounded hole and the smoother and more round the hole is the more in focus the shot is.  Anyway I forget the exposure time but I am sure it was pretty long.  I hope to remember to participate next year.

A Brief Hiatus

A few short months back, while on a little trip to New Orleans, I came across a couple of young ladies (probably around 10 years old, possibly twins) who were both armed with Nikon digital cameras.  While their father walked about checking his smartphone the two girls constantly shot photos of anything and everything. They were both dressed similarly and if I had been thinking clearly they would have made a very good photo but I guess their Nikons and haphazard shooting style struck a chord with me because for the past many months I just haven't been too enthused about taking photos.  That, coupled with recollections of previous statements made by an artist friend of mine, who during a conversation about something, very matter of factly told me, "Well it's just a photograph, it's not like it's art or anything." I knew that photography was changing, but I guess it finally really caught up with me and sunk in. Anyway, I think it's a good thing to think about what you spend your time doing, especially when you have been doing it for decades. With that in mind I hope I can make a few more pretty good shots, they will probably be from my iPhone.