Grand Isle.

Hey mac. Jake has been primarily fishing various bayous either in a canoe or small motorized skiff. But when it works out a few guys from LSU head down to the gulf together for a few days. Now that he’s been there several years he seems to be in his element.

Yup good eats. Having lived in Oregon all his life he faced quite the learning curve dealing with techniques in LA. Glad he figured it out. He was chasing trout with a fly rod at 12 yrs old and became “hooked”. Happy for him.

Thanks. It’s a phone shot but captures the moment.

Our son with a real prize. Caught offshore south of New Orleans.

Spring has sprung. Northern flickers are just so gorgeous birds. Thanks.

Nice efforts. They are so fun to observe. I once watched one grab a summer steelhead on the Rogue River. The fish was so heavy the bird basically drug it to shore. Then it balled up its talons and kept punching it in the head until it died. Now the fish wasn’t fighting him and he took off rather clumsily heading downstream and finally caught enough air he could fly. Fella was way over his recommended tow capacity.

I have several primes all from Nikon some dating back many decades. In particular I use the short primes 20/24mm for things like the milky way and landscape and beach scenes. Also I use fixed micro lenses. But I also have a few zooms and particularly like their 16/35. My favorite of all of them is a decades old ai, 105mm, f4 micro.

Typically when traveling I use an Oly, rather than Nikons, and two of their pro zoom lenses. Seems a good outfit for me and cuts weight and bulk dramatically.

I think it all comes down to what you like to shoot under what conditions and what you’re comfortable with. They both have their place, at least for me. A couple years ago I went on vacation in Louisiana and intentionally only took a Nikon body and the 24mm prime. Enjoyed myself and got some images I was thoroughly pleased with. No gator shots though! Seemed a good experiment. Each to their own.

First off I admit to a mono preference of subjects like this. I enjoy the seeming historical bent to that image.

I would darken the sky a tad and fiddle with contrast. But that’s just me, I like it regardless of your preferences. Nice effort.

Yes Butcher is a true modern master. Love his work.

Thank you one and all for your kind thoughts and words.

You are right about being in the fortunate side of family affairs. My older sister has been on SFO since attending college at U of SFO, so many decades. Our folks are long gone. My sister Kathy hooked me up with one of her best friends who owned a mono processing lab in the city that catered to professionals and did many processings and prints for shows and museums over her many years in business. So she knew her stuff and took me under her wing as her only hobbyist. Lucky me.

But my sister uses Leica. Not in my financial league.

On my birthday today I received a gift from my older sister. She knows I love mono images and am a great fan of A. Adam’s images and the many others if that era.

So today I received this great book to enjoy. What a great evening.

Yup. Pretty much everybody had a Vivitar. They were great.

Necessity is the mother of invention. I have not done the cup business as shown but many times when doing still life I’ll just use white paper under the subject and bounce the flash off our fairly light ceilings. That way no unwanted shadows from the bounce. Great idea you had there.