Author: Tom (Admin)
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Namibia: Helicopter Safari
Everyone who visits Namibia wants to go on a safari – there are game parks and private farms all over Namibia that will drive you through the bush on a 4×4 outfitted with bench seats so you can “ooh” and “aah” over the endless animals and landscape of the country. And of course, there’s Namibia’s…
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Boys Beware: Views on Homosexuality in 1961
For a change from the standard fare offered on YouTube, it’s fun to stop by occasionally at the Prelinger Archives, a diverse collection of thousands of preserved films from the ages, all available for download in the public domain. In addition to being interesting, the collection offers insights on changing attitudes over the years. Most…
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Silly AFN Commercials
If you’ve had the pleasure of watching the Armed Forces Network which is produced for U.S. military and many other categories of government employees serving overseas, you’ll remember those irritating commercials. After you’ve been without AFN for awhile, according to many people, the feeling you have for these commercials becomes a fondness. But this takes…
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Found film: Cowboy Outfit – Yellowstone!
One more installment in the “found film” series. This series of photos came to us via eBay from an unknown camera. The first and fourth photos feature a little girl – one posing in a cowboy (-girl) outfit, and the other is from what looks like a camping trip perhaps. They appear to be from…
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Photos from the Oregon Country Fair
Since 1969, the Oregon Country Fair has been a gathering of the wacky, existing as a three-day fair in Veneta (near Eugene) with a counterculture theme that attracts as many as 45,000 visitors. This year, those visitors included us. We had great food, met interesting people, and heard lots of great music (even buying a…
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Final Stop in the Great Western States Odyssey: Crater Lake
In our continuing Western States Odyssey in a rented 31-foot RV, our final stop was a return to the place we had originally intended to be our first stop: Crater Lake. Unfortunately, we had gotten a late start and ultimately decided to postpone it to the end. Crater Lake is always a special treat –…
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Scenes from Eastern Oregon
One of my favorite places in the U.S. is Eastern Oregon. Some people find the landscape boring, but I’m definitely not one of them. There are so many interesting, hidden little places to see, especially on some of the lesser-traveled roads. Abandoned buildings and barns from better days make great photography subjects. Along the Interstate,…
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Cliff Diving into the Truckee River
They say few things are as American as baseball, apple pie….and add to that “jumping into the old water hole.” As we headed west from Reno/Sparks, Nevada, the temperature climbed steadily toward the maximum it would reach that July afternoon – 109 degrees Fahrenheit. Just off to the right, winding alongside interstate 80, the Truckee…
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Reno and Squid Hats
…so the (teen) kids didn’t want to see the inside of a casino when we stayed overnight in Reno. Apparently gambling has gotten a bad rap in our family, which is not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. But as parents we insisted they see Circus Circus – “just humor us”, we told…
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The City By the Bay
Marin County Coastline The latest turn in our Western States Odyssey took us into San Francisco. And if you’ve never had the opportunity, a great thrill ride is to take a 31-foot RV and drive it over the Golden Gate Bridge and straight through the heart of San Francisco. I believe if you put it…
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Really, Really Big Trees
Our continuing RV Odyssey in the Western States today took us through what botanists like to refer to as Really, Really Big Trees. The Avenue of the Giants was particularly impressive – not really captured accurately by this timelapse: It’s really not possible to capture the grandeur, scale and magnitude of these trees, some…
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More Adventures in ‘Murr’ca
Today was an eventful day in our Western States RV Odyssey. For those just tuning in, we are touring Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho in a rented monstrosity of an RV, in order to satisfy a Congressionally mandated Foreign Service “home leave” (between overseas tours), and in order to avoid camping with relatives for an…
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The Great American Fast Food Odyssey – part 2
Yesterday I posted about our efforts to satisfy American fast food cravings while on “home leave” after a 2-year absence. And about how the menus change gradually, but how after two years the all-familiar fast food menus suddenly appear loaded with strange and unfamiliar menu items. The major shifts among the big contenders are pretty…
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The Great American Fast Food Odyssey – part 1
Foreign Service Officers (i.e. U.S. “diplomats”) are Congressionally mandated to spend a decent amount of time in the United States between tours – presumably so that we maintain a good understanding of our home countries while we’re out representing America to other countries. This means is that every 2-3 years, between foreign tours, we’re required…
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Matchbox Pinhole Camera II
A couple of days ago I posted about a project where I taught teens in one of Windhoek’s vulnerable communities to make matchbox pinhole cameras. I lamented how few of the photos had turned out because I had failed to actually make one of the cameras myself in order to use my own experience to…
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Denver Photo Essay
Missing a flight can be frustrating…but can have unexpected benefits. We missed our flight from Denver to Eugene, Oregon, and were told the next flight was not until the following night at 9:54 pm – and to Portland. While we were disappointed, the added benefit was that we’d have an opportunity to spend the day…
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In Search of my Camera’s Original Owner
I picked up a Kodak Monitor 620 on eBay not too long ago. It’s a heavy thing, probably the heaviest folder I have come across, and it’s described on a number of websites as “one of the most sophisticated folding cameras of the 1930s and 1940s”, “robust, and well-crafted.” It’s interesting in that it has…
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Matchbox Pinhole Camera Project
One of the last projects I attempted with the teens I worked with during the last two years in Katutura, Namibia was a photography class. The idea was that I would explain how cameras work; bring a half dozen of my vintage cameras for them to examine and touch; explain basic principles of photography, and…
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Fun with a Baby Brownie
Not long ago, I was looking for a way to cut down on the 7-week turnaround for black and white film processing I’ve had to deal with in Namibia (3 weeks to the U.S., 1 week for processing at Blue Moon Camera, and 3 weeks to get back to me). I was referred to a…
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Found Film: Day at the Beach
The latest photos in my “found film” series is a set of four 6 x 6 cm photos from an unknown camera. These show a family trip to the beach – possibly but not necessarily memorable – but they won’t be remembering them from the photos they took that day, because they never saw their…
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Found Film: Gone Fishing
I’ve published a few posts recently about “found film” – old rolls of film that pop up from time to time, of unknown age and origin. This set of photos seems to be from a family fishing trip They are all 6 x 6 cm negatives on 120 film, which means there would have been…
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Found Film: Check out my Hat
Here’s a fun thing to do. Well, I think it’s fun. Most people I talk to just give me an odd look when I tell them about “found film”. Occasionally on eBay you’ll see a listing for “exposed film” from an unknown age and camera. Or, like what happened to me, you’ll find a roll…
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Redscale Photography – First Attempts
Being new to film photography, I had never heard of “redscale photography” until I spotted this on on Flickr and had to know how he had gotten this effect: Wanting to try it out on my own, I did a bit of research and discovered that the “redscale film” being offered by some vendors is…
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Fun Photography Trick: Star Trails
Here’s a fun trick to try at night if you own a camera that can take 30 second exposures, a decent, fully-charged camera battery, and a tripod. This is not the best example, but it’s what you should be able to get on your first attempt, with about 25 minutes’ worth of shooting. To get…