JNeel Photos

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!

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.

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.

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 has always 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

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.

Now, developers are building a bunch of housing in the area, so my Old Truck's days are probably numbered.

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.

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

She was my favorite of all my kids' 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 children and a member of my family.

Bee is remarried now and living out West, but we remain close.

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.

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."

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.

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 these in color and Photoshopped them in Black and White.  That's allowed in 505 Photography.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..