On, Now Off, the Road

A few days after presenting my photography workshop, I headed to the southwest on a roadtrip. Along the way, I followed the advice I tout in my photo workshop "7 Steps to Make Your Photos 10x Better" (see previous blog post)

Step 1. "Take Lots and Lots of Photos"...

Along the way we checked out:

• Gateway Arch National Park
• White Sands National Park
• BOTH sections of Saguaro National Park
• Then I spent three days on the Grand Canyon National Park south rim
• A couple days of "rest" in Sedona

After that, we had the long drive home.
The first day we drove quickly through Oak Creek Canyon,
then just a little more leisurely through Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Park.
The final two days included just a pause to say hello to friends in St Louis.
...all the above are just the highlights.

I took over 1800 photos on a 17 day trip when a number of those days were just pure driving. I'm just beginning to wade through them all, but at first glance, here's some of my favorites:

Sunrise, Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis MO

White Sands National Park, NM

Sunset, Saguaro National Park, AZ

Sunrise, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Sunrise, Sedona, AZ

Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Park, AZ

New Year's Resolution - Finally!

I know it was one of my New Year's resolutions for 2025, and quite possibly 2024, but I finally did it!
I developed and taught an introductory photography workshop:

7 “steps” To Make YourPhotos 10x Better !
I have been developing the workshop, with photo examples and outlines, since at least mid-2024. The presentation itself, for well over 6 months. This past Saturday I had 9 people in the house as guinea pigs to take my 3-4 hr workshop. I invited a broad range of experience and interests to try to get the best feedback possible. I'm still waiting for some of the post workshop surveys to come back, but the vibe and the verbal feedback at the end was encouraging. I covered the basics of the exposure triangle, compositional considerations, Point-of-view vs Field-of-view and other ideas to help an interested person get better photos.

View from the back of the "classroom"

My view (pretend the "pupils" aka guinea pigs, are in the chairs)

Some of the samples of things they can do with their photos

Examples of problems and issues i,e, dust, home vs professional printing and so on

The "Revisit"

There are two types of "revisiting" that I've been known to do. The first type is when I wander back through my catalog of old photos and "revisit" them in terms of editing and processing. I've had a very long blog post in draft for a bit on that topic. It's so long that I'm considering moving to Substack for it and other essay style pieces I like to write...but

The second type of "revisiting" is what I'm here to talk about. Revisiting a place or setting. i.e. going to the same place on vacation every year and taking a similar photo each time. Or maybe recreating a specific pose or family portrait every year at Christmas or some other annual event. These photos show changes over the years from "hey that big tree is gone" to "that's the year Aunt Edna was sick and didn't come." It can be nice to see the changes over the years, yet get a sense of stability from the things that stay the same, visit after visit.

We make time for a getaway fairly regularly to Hocking Hills area of Ohio. The drive isn't too bad, just a couple hours or so. And the scenery, hiking, and quiet are all much appreciated. A great place to spend a few quiet days by ourselves or maybe another couple. So over the years there are a few things I've taken very similar photos of almost every trip.
Cedar Falls is the place I'll feature today.

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills Ohio June 2017

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills Ohio January 2021

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills Ohio A Day Later - January 2021

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills Ohio April 2022

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills Ohio May 2025

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills Ohio December 2025

Two in the Past, Two of the Future

Everything is political. That's been driven home time and time again this past year, both in my personal experience as well as in the news of the world today. It affects my photography, because it affects how I see things.

Gas

Derelict

Winds of Change

Sunny Days Ahead

"Thinking" in Black and White

One thing that's changed for me in the digital age is...I'm not stuck with the film that's loaded in the camera. That means it's more difficult to "think" in black and white. But, not only do I not have black and white film loaded, I haven't chosen a filter (Red, Yellow. whatever) nor do I need to decide the film development/processing when I get in the lab.

All that (and more) can be done these days in the software processing. I still occassionally "think" in black and white, but more often, I bring a photo up on my computer and I say to myself "Hey, that will look good as black and white." Of course then I have to chose the filter, the development, the equivalent of the paper...and so on. It quickly becomes a paradox of choice.

Lately I've been going through some old photos and I've immediately thought..."that's black and white." I still had to chose the software equivalent of filters, processing, paper etc, but I was at least starting out with a vision. Here are some of these photos.

The Tree

City on the Sea

Flashing His Colors

When Fall and Winter Collide

One nice thing about an early November snowfall is that the fall colors are still around. The white snow gives a nice contrast to the reds, yellows and oranges of autumn. This year we got such an early snowfall. My favorite "golden gingko" was just letting go of it's leaves. Pumpkins were still on porchsteps. Burning bushes were burning and flowers were still in bloom.

The Golden Gingko

The Burning Bush

Last Flower of the Season

Fall Colors Along the River

The Pumpkins Are Not Happy

Why I like My Phone for Photography

Over the past year or so I've found myself taking more and more "real" photos with my iPhone (iPhone 15 if you care). My iPhone photos are now incorporated into my LightRoom catalog. What and when do I use the phone's camera? I primarily use it in four situations:

1. To get a "blur" effect but I don't have a tripod handy

2. In difficult lighting situations just to make sure I have a different "view" than I get with my DSLR, and frequently with less time spent in processing

3. When I don't have my DSLR with me for some reason

4. To create an easy panoramic photo, good enough for social media

And of course I still take and send via text messages, timely photos to family during events, when I'm traveling etc. That's something I've done for years and didn't do with my DSLR.
Below are examples of each of those four situations (and you may notice there's frequently a couple of those situations in play for a particular photograph).

Dunloup Fall - New River Gorge National Park

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo - Asian Lantern Festival

A Walk in My Neighborhood

Cherry Grove, North Myrtle Beach, SC

A School Production