Happy Holidays

December is the month where the Winter Solstice occurs, and in human history, the end of the shortening days and beginning of longer days has not gone unnoticed. Lights have a way of chasing out the darkness, and while in our modern society we have no lack of artificial light, it is hard to imagine what our ancestors thought a few thousand years ago.  The Solstice became the focus of many traditions, and a celebration to mark the appearance of longer days ahead.  For me, Christmas has always been about the tree and the lights, and the excitement of the season.  However you celebrate this season, I hope that peace and happiness becomes more attainable.

Photography is one of those things that has sustained me over time -- in terms of creativity, activity, and making connections.  I think I have met some of the most amazing people that carry around cameras.  I plan on shooting more medium format this coming year, and also thinning down my accumulation of 35mm cameras.  I still plan on testing and reporting on random cameras -- hence this blog, and my association with the Film Photography Project. 

I hope that more people keep coming to using film and finding how fun it can be.   You can simplify everything down to one body and a few lenses (or just one lens) and yet have a bunch of film stocks that have such different characteristics that will open up the artistic and creative process to all sorts of possibilities.  Shoot at ISO 6 sometime and see how those films determine what is possible.  Black and white emulsions, C-41 color, E-6 color-- there are all sorts of possibilities in 35mm. 120 film has fewer choices, but those bigger negatives sure are nice.  Large format? I rarely shoot that, but of you are looking for a challenge, go for it!

This has been quite a year for me, and on top of everything else, I find myself retired after working for 36.5 years at the University of Michigan.  My career has been in Natural History, more precisely, Entomology, and managing museum collections.  I have some research projects that I want to finish, and that will happen in the coming year.  I plan to devote myself more to doing photo projects as well.  Over the years, I have accumulated enough of a body of work to proceed with some small exhibits, and perhaps some publications on Blurb or elsewhere.   

I hope that you like my cameras on the tree this year!

Happy Holidays

You can't escape this time of year.  For me, the Winter Solstice is a time to reflect, to connect, and to look forward to longer days. It's no secret that the winter solstice held  much importance to ancient cultures, so much so, that Christianity ended up melding its celebration of the birth of Christ to the Roman Saturnalia and the Yule traditions.   However you celebrate the shortest days of the year, I wish you the best.

I love the lights and many of the decorations and the general festiveness, and the food. Since this is a photography blog, I hope that if you were wanting that "special" photo item, you ended up getting it, or giving something to start another young photographer on his or her way.  In Christmas 1973, I received a new  Exa IIa, which cemented my love for photography.

At one time, it seemed that a lot of people had a roll of 12 exposures in their Brownie that covered not one, but often, two Christmases.  Then Polaroids and Instamatics got them shooting a bit more frequently. Here is  a really dorky photo of me from Christmas, 1966, in which I am holding my prized G.I. Joe doll (ahem, they had not come up with the term action-figure as yet).  I was 10, so that was 50 years ago.  My cousin Brenda MacDonald was less than a year old.   Are cardboard fireplaces still a thing?

Anyhow, shoot some film, enjoy the festivities, and be careful on the road!