This is just a bit about me and my photography.

Thank you for visiting this celebration of my sublimely right-brained sense of spiritual connection with "the moment," as opposed to people, things, or even places. It really doesn't matter where I am; as soon as I forget time, I begin to see things differently (or maybe it's the other way around...as soon as I begin to "see," I can forget time). While my basic organization is still by places, I have begun to group images into "themes" by borrowing from all the place-based galleries. I am pleased to share my glimpses with you here, and thank you for respecting my copyright by requesting permission to download or use my images.

Around 60 years ago, I began photographing in northern California with a 1940's or '50's Kodak Retina and a Leica IIIb of my father's; then in college, a $5-plus-boxtop Anscomatic p&s, my first camera purchase (which helped me earn my Bachelor of Arts in Art in 1971 at the University of California, Davis). Since that time, photography and sewing have been as close as I have come to "practicing" art.

I have taken the photos here mostly

. . .a) from late 2003 to 2013 (when that condemnable phenomenon, planned obsolescence, killed the camera) with an early Canon Digital Rebel, handheld or with a monopod used as a brace against my body and without accessories other than the occasional hat held between the sun and the lens;

. . .b) from 2012 to present with a Fuji Finepix S4000 that can perhaps zoom bigger and record more than the first Canon, but is definitely not as nice to hold or use, being lighter and smaller;

. . .c) November 2014 to November 2021 with a Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS-40 that I paid extra for because it had a viewfinder--I liked its portability (it fit in my shirt pocket when I went to Mexico, and now I've designed a carry system that truly fits and makes me happy, using a borrowed hand strap on the 2nd carry clip and adding the clipped strap from the case) and it might take better images than the Fuji;

. . .d) from early 2016 to September 2020 with a Canon EOS Rebel 5ti...at last, a fine replacement--for a while--for the first Canon...it stopped earning favor when I noticed that every time the image sensor got cleaned (which was ridiculously often), it began being dirtier, sooner.

. . .e) After 30 October 2021, the lineage lengthened again, with a Panasonic DMC-ZS100 after my ZS-40 developed a spot at almost center INSIDE the lens.

. . .f) On about 5 November 2023, after a couple of summer shots in our pasture just to see if I could, I began using an IPhone 13 SE when I thought I had run out of charged batteries for the Panasonic.

I took others on slide film at many different times and places with several kinds of cameras (those early first two plus a Leica IIIg, an Olympus OM-4, and a Pentax IQ Zoom, and even a couple of the Kodak 110-formats). A friend (THANK YOU, Richard!) copied some of the slide images in 2003 with a Nikon Coolpix 950, so sometimes that byline will show up. That monopod I mentioned (which I used also with the 2nd Canon) did come from a tripod, and I do remember having mounting brackets on both my spotting scope (for birdwatching) and my camera, and I do remember schlepping one optic or the other onto the tripod, but I don't remember how or when the tripod disintegrated; I'm guessing that was sometime in the 1990's. Now, well into the 21st Century [26 September 2019], I have a tripod again, hallelujah!! Some of my images can be expected to improve going forward. Now if I would just devise a way to CARRY the thing...

I have taken a couple of weekend workshops:
. . .my uncle Galen Rowell -- http://mountainlight.com/ in the San Francisco-Oakland region (northern California);
. . .Gary Hayes -- http://www.nwphotoworkshops.com/ on the Olympic Peninsula (southwestern Washington)

and two longer courses
. . .one at American River College in Sacramento in the 1970's;
. . .one in 2007 by Craig Wirth -- http://www.cuzzins.com/ in Pocatello, Idaho

--and would love to take more...somehow life seems to interfere, even in retirement.

For a while, I had "Macular Pucker" in my viewfinder eye, and higher-than-optimal intra-ocular pressure, if we are to believe one of my medical specialists (the other one just says I have cataracts), which may be why I cannot necessarily tell whether or not a view is in focus, either through the lens or in the resulting image. If I've assumed incorrectly, please be forgiving. It was as I saw it, not as you might see it. I'm just showing you where to look.

A viewer explained that she had the sense that these were "real," that she was not looking at perfected, edited, gussied-up work. It is true: I am trying to show it to you as it was at the time I saw it, although I will admit to some cursory editing on most frames.

Until a few years ago, I rarely went "out to take pictures;" instead, I took the camera with me if I went somewhere, and if an opportunity came along, I jumped into it and went for the ride. Once, in that manner, I spent two hours going through 9 rolls of film on a mountain in the middle of Nevada. With digital now, it is SUCH a pleasure to have the only "limit" be the number of clean data cards and charged batteries I'm carrying (I've learned to "recharge" by warming batteries in my pocket, too!). And for several years, I led a monthly outing JUST for photography (well, and eating) for the local photography club.

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