Love At First Sight: Key West

The title of this post says it all. Well, not all, since I'm still typing, but you get the idea. I visited Key West for the first time in January of 1991, long after its best years, but before it was too far gone down the path of mainstream development and commercialization. It's a wonderfully bizarre mix of natural beauty, kitsch, eclectic creative energy and pathos. With or without a camera, I couldn't help but fall for its charm. The sunset above is a scene witnessed by countless tourists just about every evening at Mallory Square. The ship is probably the Schooner Western Union on a sunset cruise.

Sloppy Joe's Bar - Duval Street. No, it's not the original location, but it's still very cool. I was just beginning to learn to shoot at night with only available light.

Two sides of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in late afternoon. Wires and a flagpole make this building difficult to shoot, but I just love these old photos. This church sparked in me a new interest in architecture photography, which persists to this day.

Paradise 101 - The Virgin Islands (Part One)

I can think of no better introduction to the tropics than a visit to "America's Paradise" - The U.S. Virgin Islands. I was privileged to have several opportunities to explore and photograph the USVI from 1985 to 1995 and each trip was an amazing experience with my best friends. I amassed hundreds of photos, mainly of St. Thomas and St. John, but was startled to go through them and see how many were - well, bad. Luckily, we kept going long enough for me to get some good shots, and I've included a few here. Crank up the reggae and enjoy. The photo above is the obligatory shot of Trunk Bay, St. John (all tourists are required by law to shoot this scene).

Above, we have the view to which my exceedingly gracious host awoke every morning. The waterfront on the far shore is Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. (1986)

I have eleventy shots of Magen's Bay, but none of them do this gorgeous beach justice. This photo taken in 1989 from high above comes close.

I learned to celebrate sunsets long before I ever set foot upon Key West. The 1987 shot above was taken looking west-southwest over Charlotte Amalie and Water Island.

One lesson I learned in the Virgin Islands was to turn around and check out the sky opposite the setting sun. This second shot from 1987 shows why that's always a good idea.

I'm not sure which St. John beach is shown in this 1985 photo, but the fact that it is so unspoiled by development is a testament to the genius of making three-quarters of the island a U.S. National Park.

Okay, this 1989 picture is not particularly good, but it's my first halfway-decent shot of what would become one of my favorite tropical subjects - the pelican. I also like that this one is sitting on a roof. I haven't seen that since.

Again with the setting sun more or less behind me and just below the horizon, I captured Charlotte Amalie and its harbor still aglow in March, 1989. I'm not sure if the crowd of boats was there for a regatta or a blue marlin tournament, but something was definitely afoot.

I told you it was possible to take a bad photograph in paradise, so here it is. I love the colors in this 1985 shot of St. Thomas at dusk, but I had no tripod, as evidenced by the blurry lights and edges. In my 16x20 print of this frame, the lights show exactly how the camera was moved during the quarter-second exposure - they look like little cobras, poised to strike.

THANKS EVERYONE, for the comments and kind words of encouragement!

COMING SOON: Once Around Key West, and later... Trains!!

Bang, Zoom Go The Fireworks!

One of the goals I had when I bought my first SLR was to learn to photograph fireworks. It's a challenge for some obvious reasons. One kind of has to know exactly where in the sky to point the camera, and fireworks have a tendency to blow up wherever they please. It's hard to change your aim quickly with a tripod, and you really have to capture those first few explosions, before the sky becomes too full of smoke. There's technical stuff, too. You need long exposures and a closed-down lens, but long exposure equals Hold Still! and too small an aperture means thin, weak images. If it sounds like all this would ruin the fun of watching fireworks, it does. But sometimes the results are totally worth the effort.

The two shots above were taken July 4, 1988 at Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville, Maryland.

Desert Storm Victory Celebration in Washington, DC - 1991. See - I had no tripod for this one, and the result is a squiggly monster. Still, I was proud just to have been there.

January, 1995 - Fireworks over Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St. Thomas, USVI in celebration of the inauguration of Governor Roy Schneider. Again, no tripod. Again, I was proud just to be there.

Frederick, MD in 1995 following a Keys game.

Washington, DC - July 4, 1990

Join us next time, as we discover that yes, it IS possible to take a bad picture in paradise. It's just not easy... :)

Lizards hate me!

Okay, maybe they can't actually hate, but they certainly do NOT care for having their pictures taken. They're skittish and shy and amazingly fast. Add the fact that I was still working with a manual-focus zoom, and you've got tough shooting. Since we don't have many lizards in Maryland, I was intrigued when I found that the Virgin Islands are literally crawling with the little buggers.

These five lucky shots were taken on St. Thomas at a friend's house in '85 & '86. In each case, the subject was stationary for a fraction of a second. (I have dozens of blurry pics of nothing but a tail, or in some cases, just a tree trunk.)

#5 is actually a young iguana, content to sun itself on the floating chlorine dispenser in the pool. Content, that is, until I showed an interest in photographing it. They don't so much run away, as simply vanish.

These adult iguanas were living in a giant cage at CoralWorld Ocean Park, Coki Point, St. Thomas and much more relaxed about being photographed than their little lizard cousins ever are.

This last shot comes from a 2007 visit to the Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina. My wife and I were there to shoot the lighthouse, but I still love the challenge that lizards present.

The SLR Learning Curve

In June of 1985, I took several Erol's Video Club paychecks' worth of cash to W. Bell & Co. in Rockville, MD and bought my first 35mm SLR - a black Minolta X-700 with a 50mm lens. I didn't have the cash for a lot of film - or a darkroom - with which to experiment, so many of my early 35mm shots were taken using the camera's fully-automatic exposure mode. Early on, most of my photos were just targets of opportunity in or near home and the quality was spotty, but it gets better. I promise!

This shot of my elderly cat Elizabeth was the second frame I ever shot with the X-700. The exposure is kind of jacked up, as it was amateurishly shot with severe backlighting. My scanner didn't appreciate the matte finish of this print, but I still like the way the cat's shape comes across via minimal highlights.

Later in 1985, the space shuttle orbitor Enterprise took a couple of low-altitude laps around the Capital Beltway atop a modified NASA 747, en route to its retirement in a hangar at Dulles Airport. With a borrowed 70-210mm zoom, I was able to catch it as it flew over Chevy Chase, MD.

January 1986. Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The USS Constellation, under an overcast sky. Again, the exposure was fully automatic, but I was beginning to see the lines and angles, perspective, balance and context that would influence my composition as I continued to learn.


January 1987 - Icicles! Young photographers just adore icicles. Leaning out the den window to shoot these as they were rapidly melting, I was lucky not to lose an eye. This was one of my first black & white shots. I do everything out of sequence.

January 1987. I was in San Francisco at the end of my last, best railroad excursion with my father. The man in this photo had been working at the top of this tall ship's rigging when we passed, on our way to Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf for lunch. On our way back out, we happened to catch him as he climbed back down. It was one of the first times I had planned a composition and executed it exactly as I had intended.

Summer 1987 - Sparrow in Dogwood. Birds are a pain to photograph, but this little guy was cooperative enough to get the shot. I tried to mimic his call, and this seemed to fascinate him. Each time I whistled, he turned his head to listen and then -click-.

Summer 1987 - Lincoln Memorial, looking over the sleeping tourist toward the Washington Monument and Capitol. You can't be a photographer in the DC area without shooting the architecture on the Mall.

Stay tuned, as I learn to photograph fireworks, lizards and the tropics...

Gotta start somewhere...

Every photographer has a first camera. Mine was a Kodak Instamatic X-15F (allegedly the last of the Instamatics). It was all plastic and used 126 cartridge film. What can you say - it was a starter camera. Here are a few surviving shots from my first years taking photographs - the late 1970s. These capture a July 1978 railroad excursion with my father. The locomotive is the massive Southern Railways #610, which led the Piedmont Limited from Alexandria, VA to Charlottesville, VA and back. The photo of the two of us in front of the Charlottesville turntable was taken by a kindly stranger.