Photos

"There are no rules for good photographs; there are just good photographs." ~ Ansel Adams

Stories in Photographs

I call myself a "Hybrid Photographer" because I work in film and digital, and to separate myself from the horde of people calling themselves Photographers. I'm a purist. Too many adjustments or additions to an image make it graphic art, Not Photography. I like my monochrome images cold and my color shots natural. Whoever told wedding photographers that low saturation is artistic should be whipped. Seriously, people, make it stop!

If I have a "style," I would call it Journalistic. I enjoy recording the moment.

I've been serious about photography since 1985. I studied under three exacting Army Combat Photographers who taught me in Black and White. I still prefer it.

I use a Nikon D850 for Digital. For Film, I use a Mamiya 6 for 120mm and a Canon A-1 for 35mm.

Below are a few of my favorite photos and their stories, which I believe are "good photographs."

Katy in Izmir

Kady

This is my better half, The Boss. She is amazing at everything she does. A wonderful wife and mom, a great cook, and a fantastic interior decorator, everyone who knows her adores her.

Also, this is the REAL photographer in the family. Her stuff is amazing.

When this hero traveled to Turkiye to visit me for New Year's, I took plenty of photos of her— the best work I have ever done.

I took this with my Canon AE-1 Program, Kodak Plus-X Pan 125, 100mm, and developed the roll with Kodak Microdol-X. That's Right, old school film and darkroom work!

This is my newest photo of her. I am a lucky old man.

Always the Prettiest Girl at the Ball

Home

Charlottesville is my new hometown of choice. We're here to be near my son and his family, and only two hours away from my daughter's.

I've grown to love it. It's a picturesque little city with a small-town feel. It's beautifully situated in the Virginia Piedmont, close to the Blue Ridge Mountains, far enough from Richmond problems, two hours from DC, and only four hours from the coast.

I once heard that there are more restaurants per capita here than anywhere else in the United States. I believe it. I've been here since 2018 and have barely scratched the surface.

Since it is a College town, we have world-class health care. The people are nice, though they lean a little left; this place always votes Democrat.

C'ville has its problems, but the good stuff outweighs them.

Using my Ambush Technique.Set the camera on a flat surface, control it with my cell phone, and wait for something interesting to pass the Target Zone.

The Return of LR

LR

This is my firstborn, by Beck. She has returned to my life through her efforts and those of my other two. I'm so grateful.

A poignant story of divorce, loss, distance, and the passage of time is finally reconciled. I love how she has taken on the roles of big sister, godmother, auntie, and friend in our family.

She brought with her a great man and two more marvelous grandchildren.

LR and ST ath SGM's Birthday Celebration

Don't Go in There

The High Desert

I have spent plenty of time in the desert— 82nd Exercises, JTF-6, NTC, and USASMA. There's something mystical about it.

At first glance, it looks dead and forbidding, but with the slightest bit of moisture and a few days of warm weather, it turns green, sprouts grass, and the plants begin to bud.

I like the desert in short spurts, but I have to return to trees and water, and that means East.

The Gentleman

Jay

I'm amazed at how few photos I have of my son as an adult; I took hundreds of photos of Jay as a child. I need to fix this problem. This one is from my granddaughter's birthday party a few years ago.

An Iraq Veteran, he returned home, educated himself with the GI Bill, and earned his MS in Information Technology. He is the best man I know.

I dig the hat and his Carnegie Mellon bowtie.

KS and Coffee

KS

My daughter-in-law has always supported my photography; she is always willing to sit for me. I've had some success but capturing how I see her escaped me until this shot, taken during one of our coffee dates. She was my daughter's college best friend and part of the family, long before my son showed interest. She proved that angels live among us, entering Jay's life at the perfect time. She saved him.

Nikon D850, 50mm, f2.5, 1/25, ISO-100, RAW

The Old Truck

I ran across this old workhorse while walking on a new neighborhood path. I didn't have my real camera. Luckily, the path and the truck were close enough to return that afternoon. I visited it often before the landowners closed the path down.

Fourth on the Maury

CE

My daughter is, and always has been, a classic beauty; she looks like her mom. Sadly, she never lets me take her photo. I don't get it.

She's an Afghanistan Veteran, still in the Army, and recently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. She's a Paratrooper and wears the AA Patch on her left shoulder.

Each time she allows me, the photos turn out great.

CE in Light

The Small Brit

Catch Up

Finally, This Guy!

AJ with Coop

AJ

Finally, a fine man comes along. I couldn't have picked a finer husband for my daughter. Though a Damn Yankee, I liked him from the first.

He is the perfect calm opposite of my fireball daughter. They are a great team, and he treats her like the Princess Royal she was raised to be.

Cooper liked him instantly; nuff said.

Bee

I've taken photos of this youngster since she was Sweet 16.

She was my favorite of all my kids in high school friends. She married my son and gave me my Grandson, JK.

Though the marriage didn't work, she will always be one of my kids and a member of my family.

Bee is remarried now, but we remain close.

22 - Before the Wedding

With Bess, 24 May 2005, Logan Martin, Day One

What She Aspired to Be

The Institute

I worked at Virginia Military Institute for seventeen years, retiring on 1 February 2018. Over the years, I have taken thousands of photos, most of which I have deleted.

This is the last photo on the roll, taken on my final day at VMI.

Mamiya RZ-67, 50mm, Ilford FP-4

The Ghosts of VMI

My grandson is one of the most photographed young men in America. We all took thousands of him when he was little. The Cadets and the school's public affairs office joined in. He's smart, articulate, and quick-witted, with a tendency for good-natured Neel sarcasm. His intelligence is not to be ignored.

It's hard to believe that he just graduated from High School. I'm excited to see what his next big step will be.

Seriously, ES

ES

I spend a lot of time with my granddaughter. She's super intelligent, has a near photographic memory, and is into science like I am.

I enjoy taking photographs of her, and she enjoys posing. She knows what she wants and must approve every shot.

SGM at Play

SGM

This baby and I are great collaborators. She is usually ready anytime Granddaddy wants to take photos, as long as she gets to review each shot and then push all the buttons on the camera.

When she has had enough of my camera and me, she gives me an emphatic "All Done!" This also means, "Let me have a go with that camera."

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C-2023 A3)

Celestial Stuff

Astronomy became my hobby through my father; he gave his boys the Universe. I'm working on my astrophotography, but it's not there yet. I've been lucky a few times.

I shot my first Comet, Neowise, while in Manhattan, Kansas. I took this in Charlottesville.

D850, 85mm, ISO 6400 f/5.6, 4-Seconds, WB 4000K

Little Apple Neowise

Daylight Moon

I took this daytime shot of Luna from Peoria, AZ.. My sister-in-law asked me if I could repair her telescope, which was destroyed by a herd of her great-grandchildren running helter-skelter through the house.

After I fixed it, I took this shot with my Pixel 6.

Savannah Facade

Savannah

I love Savannah. It is a photographer's paradise.

I took these for a Charlottesville Photographer's Group photo contest. The theme was "Filthy Facades."

I didn't win.

The winning photo was a blue bench covered in potted flowers. The "judge" said she liked the colors.

So much for themed photos.

That was my last day in the group and my final photo competition.

SS in Pooler

SS

The day after Christmas, 2017, I took a few shots of SS to test my new 50mm lens. I was happy he agreed. The man has such an interesting face. I took it in Available Light, which worked nicely. I should have shot from a little farther back. The tree lights are a little distracting, though I like them.

We met him on the Internet way back in 1999 or 2000. He has become a member of the family. We enjoy time down in Tennessee on his farm.

Wasatch in November

Wasatch

To celebrate my 2018 retirement, we took a trip out West. It is beautiful out there but after a while, all you want to see is some damn trees! Enough with the red rock formations already!

East of Park City, Utah, we drove through Wasatch National Park. It was cold, but we kept driving up to find snow and trees. It gave me a chance to channel my inner Ansel Adams. I shot this in color and Photoshopped it in Black and White. That's allowed in 505 Photography.

Nikon D5100, 18mm, f10, 1/250, ISO-200

at 404

CFN

I've taken photos of this beautiful woman twice, once for her Father's birthday, and again in Charleston when I was there for a VMI-Citadel game. Both sessions produced some of my favorite portraits of one of my favorite people, but that was years ago.

I need to work with her again.

She faithfully stays in touch and checks on me more than anyone else.

Battery Park, Charleston

Approach

Antelope Canyon

Our Native American guide pointed out shapes and forms at Antelope Canyon. I saw Light and Changes. I bracketed, checking out each setting until I found the best one for each location.

The wind, rain, and floods constantly change the canyon. Where I stood, my camera angle and settings, and the time of day determined what I recorded. It made the place even more spectacular.

Telamonian Ajax

For Us All

The Operator/ Chef

B&HH

My Niece and nephew are such an amazing team that I can't write about one without mentioning the other. They have built a great life out in Arizona, in a beautiful home, constantly full of children and grandchildren.

HJ is a professional family and addiction therapist and serves as the family fitness guru. I have never asked her about anything physiology-related that she didn't know about. I could listen to her all day. BH is an ex-Army Special Forces NCO. He works as a drilling engineer now. He is also an amazing cook and a born comedian.

These are two of the finest people I know, always willing to help someone in need. I enjoy visiting.

TS Time

TS

While our niece lived with her grandparents, I asked her to sit for me. What photographer worth his salt wouldn't?

I underexposed and was unable to make a decent print in my darkroom. I kept the film.

Technology Improved.

I found the negatives, scanned them individually, and worked on them in Photoshop. Finally. Amazing!

Never give up on those old negatives!

Fun Fungi

Mushrooms are one of my Things. When I began looking for them, I realized that Mushrooms are everywhere. I don't attempt to classify them, but I can't walk by a good one without taking its photo. I shoot them with my camera set on "Vivid." It's like the Kodachrome of digital photography.

A Little Night Fishing

Sunset and Sunrise

A "professional" photographer once said, “The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset."

Well, she's an idiot. Sunrises and Sunsets are probably why photography was invented.

A cursory search of the internet for her images shows how little she knows and how uninteresting her stuff is. She teaches at a college . . . in California, of Course!

This sad person needs to go to the Keys. I can guarantee more people visit Mallory Square at Sunset in a week than will ever see her crap.

I hope she is only teaching mechanics and not form.

Gulf of America Sunset

Sunrise on Virginia Beach

Sunrise on Tybee

Morning on North Beach

"It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream." – Bernard Williams

SA in Church Crookham

SA

There are few people I love as much as this lady; I consider her one of my closest friends. She has the most beautiful legs and cutest feet on the planet.

She sat for me when she visited us in Church Crookham, England, in 1988 or 89. I shot about three rolls of Tri-X and destroyed them by turning on the wrong tap and rinsing in hot water.

These photos I managed to salvage using all of my Photoshop skills.

Harper's Ferry Rails

Trains and Rails

I'm a Southern Railway kid. My dad was their Supervisor of Communications, so I was around trains a lot when I was growing up.

Nothing relaxes me like the sound of a train whistle in the distance.

There's a Sleep Sound for that.

Departure

Charlottesville

Clifton Forge

Staunton

Virginia Transportation Museum

Bull's Gap. Tennessee

AR 2018

AR

This youngster was once a cadet and a bit of a thorn in my side for continuously wearing her cover on the back of her head. She became a close friend and a member of my family when the VMI community was dealing with the death of one of her Brother Rats.

I've had the good fortune of photographing her a few times. She's a natural in front of the camera and is as sweet as she is beautiful.

On The Mall

Though The Angels Sleep

Southern Monuments

Southerners are the only people who are not allowed their history in this nation. That's just wrong.

The only Southern monument in Charlottesville is in the UVA Cemetery. Its days are probably numbered. Hell, they even removed the Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea monument.

I spent the better part of a day photographing all of the monuments in the city before they were removed. I love this town, but it is home to some of the biggest bozos in the solar system.

Photograph your history before the vandals come for it and it is gone forever.

There Stands JacksonOnce, this Moses Ezekiel sculpture, depicting Jackson at Chancellorsville, stood in front of Old Barracks at VMI. Now he stands, relegated to guarding the toilets at New Market Battlefield. The Institute was not heard from THIS day.

Shot in Savannah's Forsythe Park, Savannah, with a Mamiya RZ-67, Ilford FP-4

Lest We Forget. Lest We Forget

The Girls of Summer

In the summer of 2001, back in Turkiye from my tour in Kosovo, I met and photographed some of the prettiest young women I have ever seen. They were the sweetest!

Gülümser

Smiley

My friends and I met this youngster at Sarduna the night she was celebrating the completion of her teaching degree.

She adopted me as a cultural orphan, including me in family and friend activities. I took these shots with my first digital camera. Sadly, they are copies of copies. I lost the original files.

I've also lost contact with her.

Sevda

Sevda ran Divas Ajans in Izmir. After I demonstrated what I could do, she had me photograph her business and her models. Tough Job!

When she needed my help, I left work, grab my camera, and went to the event.

Send me back! Let me take photos of this beauty with my new camera.

Berna

Berna is Sevda's friend and helped run Divas Ajans. Since her second language is French, we had to talk using my mostly forgotten 5th-grade French skills, hand and arm signals, and through Sevda's expert translations.

I owe her a tour of the Christian churches in Izmir.

Field of Lost Shoes

Battlefields

I've been a Civil War buff since I was a youngster. In the Army, I studied the battles and began walking battlefields, learning the lessons and applying them to my profession.

Now, I spend my time sitting and listening, feeling . . . dreaming."

Battlefield photos begin to look the same. It is the stories of great valor that set them apart.

Regreting Cold Harbor

Older than His Years

Like the Crashing of Thunderbolts

Dreading Swring

Resting Under the Shade of the Trees

Guns, Guns, Guns

"In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls..." ~ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Ayşe

I met this girl and her family at Kultur Park while photographing the city of Izmir with friends back in 1985 during my first tour. She had striking emerald-green eyes and beautiful chestnut hair. My AE-1 Program was loaded with black and white.

Not long after, I bought a second Canon Body (A-1). I kept one loaded with color and the other monochrome. Digital is so much simpler.

Ah, but Film is so beautiful.

Be Prepared

Tybee, GA

Lighthouses

Who doesn't love a good lighthouse? I'm an East Coast Boy hunting for them all. Next, I hope, is Montao.

Bodie, NC

Hattarus, NC

Corolla, NC

Key West, FL

Ocracoke, NC

Havre de Grace, MD

That's Mine

Coop

My daughter had to have a dog. I disagreed. One look at this guy and I was sold. Cooper was faithful, happy, and hell on UPS men. He loved showing me his ass when I got out my camera.

I outfoxed him here. I sat him in a chair and held his ball above the lens. Laser Focused!

He was the Best Boy.

Virginia Giold

Birds

I'm a Legacy Birdwatcher. Mom gave my brothers and me Nature and Music. I carry my bird book and binoculars everywhere. Now that I have a proper wildlife lens, I'm photographing them more. I'll spend hours by the feeder, hoping to catch one in my viewfinder, but I need to be more patient when out in the woods.

Scouts Out?

Scout

Somewhere in all this fur is my new love, my daughter's new pup, Scout.

He's a treasure— well-behaved, trained, and happy. I didn't think I could love another dog after Cooper, but this guy won me over.

When I'm there, he's My Dog.

Blueberry Barn

Getting Back to the Farm

The barn at Blueberry Hill Farm in Tennessee is a great one. I dig all barns, but this one has a special character and is the centerpiece of many good memories. It is a perfect photo subject.

BRS

This guy and I have a very long history. Though we went to rival high schools, we toured with the 66th Street Baptist Church Youth Choir together the summers after our sophomore and junior years. He dated a girl that I wanted to date in our junior year.

We met again at the formation of Machaira Church (later Doctrinal Studies). He and his lovely wife, Millie, helped me through my divorce and introduced me to Kady.

When Millie died, he relocated from Alabama to Arizona to be near his children and grandchildren. I took this photo when we were there visiting family.

No Luck at Luckett's

Luckett's Store

Proof that one man's junk is another man's photo subject. My wife and daughter love to scour Luckett's Store for fun things. I search for working period cameras, though I haven't found one worth buying... yet. I set my camera to monochromatic when I'm there or shoot in Ilford film..

Zara in Spring

Zarah

My daughter's college roommate, and a frequent flyer in our quarters, came to work at VMI for a short while. She did a fine job. Everyone loved her.

We snuck out of the office during exams for a photo session on the Blue Ridge. She was, by far, the easiest person I have ever photographed. I never had to give her any direction. She moved seamlessly from pose to pose and hesitated for me to press the shutter.

She's married and a mom now, living in California.

Turkish Boats

Boats

I took this in 1985 when Kady, the kids, and I visited a "summer house" in Kaynarpinar. It wasn't a good time, but the little town was pretty.

The Foca shot was taken in 2001.

Foça Harbor

Shem Creek

Aboard the Susan Constant, Jamestown

Hattaras Heading

On Rockbridge Backroads

Nohe

Bolivian export and former Cadet, Nohe, wanted me to take photos of her with her Jeep. I, of course, said yes.

We went out to Collierstown, to an old mill and bridge. We took a lot of great photos that day.

This is my favorite, taken as we headed back to Lex. I pointed my camera as best I could from the dash and hit the shutter. It was the best shot of the day and still my favorite photo of her.

Orchard Breeze

"Take lots of pictures. You'll only regret the ones you didn't take." ~ Jo, Safe Haven, 2013"You can delete the ones you regret taking." ~ Me

Shout Outs

First Influences

Mom's Photo of Dad with his 35mm Rangefinder, using her Kodak Brownie, about 1961

Thanks to these lads, Army Photographers and my first photo mentors. Bob helped me pick out my first SLR, a Canon AE-1 Program, a flash, and a couple of lenses. Jim went with me to buy a good camera bag. Gill gave me expired film, taught me how to develop it, make prints, and operate the NATO Darkroom. They walked me around Izmir, teaching me to use the camera, giving me a ton of advice.

"Color takes care of you; you have to work really hard to get a good black and white photograph." ~ Gil Moreau

Self Portraits

I began taking portraits of myself when I got my first SLR. As I studied the camera's controls and practiced techniques, I needed a subject. I was always available.

I like reviewing those old photos, thinking, "Hot Damn, you were Handsome!" Vanity runs deep in this guy. Comparing them hurts a little. Ah, Time!

But I'm keeping it real.

When I opened my social media accounts, I determined to always post a current photos of myself. I take one each birthday, so the last photo of me won't be a mall Glamour Shot from 1985.

C Türkiye 1985

Church Crookham 1989

Agora, İzmir, 2000

Charlottesville, 2025

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