Photos

This is my better half, The Boss.  He is amazing at everything she does.  She's a wonderful wife and mom, a great cook, and a fantastic interior decorator.  This is the REAL photographer in the family.

Everyone who knows her adores her.

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, Film! Old School!

Nothing calls for Monochrome Photography like an Aspen Tree.  I finally understood when I saw these.  Their shine in any light and contrast against even the brightest sky makes for perfect cold black-and-white photos.  What I need is a large stand of big trees.

I shot these young trees on a late November afternoon.  Perfect timing.

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, Deb (Millie), helped me through my divorce and introduced me to Kady.

When Millie died, he moved from Alabama to Arizona to be close to his kids and grandchildren  I took this photo ot there when we were visiting family.

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 only Southern monument remaining 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 on this planet.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

I'm a Southern Railways kid.  My dad was their Supervisor of Communications, so we rode the train 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 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 too beautiful for words.

The Woman Loves Lilly Pulitzer

Her text included a photo and said, "This Dress Needs Photos!"

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.

There are few people I love as much as this lady.  I consider Sally one of my few best friends and believe she must have the most beautiful legs and cutest feet on this planet.

I took these photos when she visited us in Church Crookham, England, in 1988 or 89.  I shot about three rolls of Tri-X and destroyed two by turning on the wrong tap and rinsing in hot water.  

This photo is one of the few I managed to salvage. It took all of my Photoshop skills.

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

A former model, 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 and went to the event, stopping at my apartment only long enough to change and grab my camera.

She taught me more about taking photos of women than anyone else.

I took a few good portraits of her.  That wasn't difficult; saying goodbye was.  Over twenty years later, she remains a true and faithful friend.

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

Berna, a former Turkish Airlines flight attendant,  is Sevda's friend and helped run Divas Ajans.  Since her second language (all Turk schoolkids choose one) is French, we had to talk using my mostly forgotten 5th-grade French skills, hand and arm signals, and through Sevda's expert translations.

All these years later, she looks the same, if not more beautiful.  She's married with a little boy.  We stay in touch on Instagram. 

I owe her a tour of the Christian churches in Izmir, which is reason enough to go back.

This young lady was the server at Matisse, a coffee shop that would become my favorite, conveniently across the street from my Apartment.

Every day when I returned home from work or the commissary, she would stop and look at me.  I took it to mean that she didn't like Americans.  Determined to prove to her that I was not an Ugly American, I walked across the street and took a sidewalk table.  She said, "We have been wondering when you would come over."

I began frequenting Matisse and took my friends there. I got to know the owner and the whole staff.  The coffee and pastries were wonderful, but I went for Burçin.

Matisse is closed.  It was a Subway for a while, then it was called Set & Co. Now, it is a sandwich shop called 15:30.

One evening, my friends and I were strolling down the Birinci Kordon, approaching Pasaport.  From the Carnivale Club< we heard a guy singing Hotel California.  We went in, took a seat, and ordered a round.  The guy was good.

When he finished his set, the next band took the stage.  Their singer was gorgeous, and she could flat-out sing.  I could tell by the crowd's reaction that they had a big following.  After a few songs, my friends left.  I stayed.  Though I didn't understand the words, I got the mood; These songs were sad.

I went back often.

I got to know the band and Handan.  She began dedicating songs to me, and I brought her flowers from the stand outside the door, a very Turkish thing to do.

I went to see her on my last night in town.  For a while, I thought I had lost her, but I found her on YouTube and then on Instagram.

She's become famous since I left.

I'd love to see her again.  I would take her flowers.

G'ser was one of my closest friends that summer.

My friends and I met her at Sarduna as she was out celebrating finishing teacher's college.

She adopted me as a cultural orphan, including me in family and friend activities, refusing to let me sit in my lonely apartment.

I took this shot with my first digital camera.  Though it was only 1.3 MP, this is one of my favorite photographs.  It expresses the absolute whirlwind that this girl was.  Sadly, it is a copy of a copy.  I lost the original file.  Where?  No Clue.

I lost touch with her but I'm sure she's still teaching math to little kids and saving the world one cause at a time.

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!

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.  I have to return to trees and water, and that means East.

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

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

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

Bee is remarried now, but we remain close.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 hooked up the phone attachment and took this shot with my Pixel 6.

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.  She moved seamlessly from pose to pose and hesitated for me to press the shutter.  I never had to give her any direction.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I met this girl and her family at Kultur Park while photographing the city of Izmir with friends.  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!

Be Prepared

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 on monochromatic when I'm there or shoot in Ilford film.. 

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.