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Not a good image but an important one no less. This is a picture that I took of the International Space Station as it flew overhead at 17,500 miles per hour, two hundred and fifty miles away, 4a in the dark. I did it hand held. This is one of my favorite pictures I have taken because as I stood there in the dark, I was able to operate my camera by memory. The multiple buttons are not lit, I am starting to understand my camera.
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| April 13, 2026 ~ Rapeseed Field, Trimble, Tennessee |
I had the purchased an 18mm lens and I knew the picture I wanted with it. This wasn’t it. Often pictures I take from a shoot are not the ones I wanted but the one I like. This is the one I like.
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| March 9, 2026 - I like this for no other reason than the industrial composition |
I see a picture then I take it. Most of the time it’s the other way around. I just bought the AF Nikkor 24mm f2.8 D and after work, I was heading out to take a few photos. Before I got in the car, I saw the red fitting and how it contrasted with the background. I had a good perspective from where I was standing, lifted the camera and took one picture.
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| March 6, 2026 - Across the street from Arcadia High School |
I had just purchased the Nikon AF DC-Nikkor 105 f2 D and I already had a target for my first shoot with it. There is a Yucca or a plant like it near work. I take lunch from 11:30 - 1p and the crown of this plant just glowed in the sun. I knew if I just pointed a camera in its general direction, I was going to get a good shot. I was driving there and saw this bed of plants and thought the DEFOCUS would really work at blowing out the fore or background. I stopped and the picture above is what I got. Look into the lens link to see the target of this shoot.
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| Titled. “Nothing” January 15, 2026 ~ Pacific Ocean |
Really all I want is nothing. I’m here, in my bed, face aglow in the dark, tired, ready for sleep. I’ll get up in a few hours, freshen up, throw on my black pajamas and go to work. I’ll dream of nothing, and count the days until my next dose. If I’m in a pinch or jonesing for it, I can find a nice place in the grass and lay down and look up. There it is, nothing. It’s not that I don’t like people, I don’t but I do like nothing. I think of nothing when I see it. That’s what I want, nothing. In return I get nothing. It’s a fair trade.
This picture of nothing is a couple of miles offshore of Ensenada, Baja Mexico. I was port near the bow and it was quiet, the fish were not here but my camera was. I grabbed it and stole nothing, for you, I share nothing with you. I am a fisherman therefore I lie (about nothing.)
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| September 3, 1995 - Skyed out in my hang glider 60 mi from take off |
I got my first hang glider in my senior year in high school. I would run down grassy hills in the park, never flying but I knew I was cool! One day, everything lined up and I flew a few feet high down the slope and it scared me. I wanted to fly and there I was flying but I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to fly like the guys at Shaw Butte but I didn’t want to get hurt or die. I sold my hang glider after the first time I flew. Later, I joined the Army and was stationed in Hawaii.. I took hang gliding lessons and learned to soar. I bought another hang glider after taking lessons and got really good at it.
I came back to AZ and learned fly (again) in the desert thermals. I would circle up and glide looking for another thermal, circle up to the clouds, glide. If I was halfway up to the clouds, I flew the clouds, halfway or below, I flew the thermal triggers from the ground.
On this flight, I took off from Mingus Mountain, climbed and glided, over and over. At this point, I was pretty far from where I took off. I got the camera out and took a quick shot and put it back in my harness. This flight got me third place in the 50 mile class of our year long cross country contest. After flying sixty miles, I was now in the 100 mile class. This is a boring flying story and that’s ok, I like keeping the excitement controlled and not scary is just fine. This was one of my best flights. I think it was 3 hours in the air and 13,500’ at my highest point. I landed putting my glider away in the bag. My ride picked me up, I was flying with Len, a news helicopter pilot for Cannel 12 (that is a whole other story) and we went to a saloon in Seligman and celebrated.
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| November 7, 2025, undisclosed location Dine’ Reservation - Mother of Game |
This place was heavy. It was very exciting for me to visit, literally a long drive out in the desert, a long way away from everything. This whole thing was heavy. Long drive alone and afterward vibed for sharing my pictures (no location ID) online. I was misinterpreted and disgusted by it. In my story about the pic, I identified non native defacement and impact but because I am white, I was lumped into the same category I despised. Imagine that, I was judged for being the same color of people that were the problem! And I understood why. I’ll be back to visit and photograph places near here. This was far more impactful on my presence in sharing my love for indigenous peoples art than any other Tapamveni that I have photographed to date. Ignorance is prejudice and prejudice is ignorant.
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| October 2025 Phoenix, AZ No Kings Protest |
October 18, 2025 ~ Nikon D780 - Nikkor 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 G
This was a new to me lens that I bought for indoor rock pictures of my son’s band. I knew it was going to be good for close quarters. I had two cameras with me this day, an F100 and D780. I had been primarily shooting with film but I had the D780 out and walked up on this couple. I recognized the light on the gentleman and captured it immediately. It is one of my favorites.
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| Tohatchi + T’iis Tsoh Sikaad Chapter, Dine’ Reservation |
January 30, 2025 - iPhone 16 Pro 24mm f1.78
Dine’ Reservation, a story behind the photograph, this one never used, the ghost in the photo (road) was not intended.
I’m always trying to capture the beauty of the land. I travel by car and often I will photograph the roads we use to get to where I want to go. This one crosses the Dine’ Reservation in New Mexico in the way to the San Juan River for a little fishing. I brought the FE2 on this trip and managed a few good photographs, this was not one of them
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| The Copenhavor Castle on Camelback Mountain |
August 27, 2025 - Nikon FE2 - Nikkor ED IF 300mm f2.8
I love the area that I live in. Camelback Mountain is always in my view. I’ve stood on its summit many times sometimes waiting for the sun rise on the first day of the New Year. I’ve circumnavigating it on a bike, camping on it as a young teenager complete with a campfire. I’ve climbed it direct, straight up off trail, built forts on it and always look up to it. It was an early playground of mine. I taught myself to climb with a rope, climbing the Monk with a couple of friends, climbing it solo too. Anyway, the Copenhaver Castle has always been THE house, the king of Camelback Mountain.
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| …on the way back from church. |
April 20, 2024 - iPhone 11 Pro 23mm f2.2
I’m not sure what year I started camping in Glen Canyon. At least thirty six years ago. I don’t know how many people I have directly introduced to this place over the years, quite a few, more than I know, a lot more now that I think of it.
I would camp with hang gliding friends on top of a big mountain around the campfire. I think it was about 1990 that my friend Mike Markgraf began to tell me about Lees Ferry. We flew and fished together and he kept telling me about the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. I finally took a week off and we went upriver and camped.
It was epic.
I don’t think I’ve missed a year since.
When I take friends, I don’t really fish. We stack a big pile of firewood, hang out around the fire ring and burn it. My buddy Robert seems to think I bring too much. I don’t listen to him. Funny, the guides up there know me by name. You can only get to our spot by boat or helicopter. That’s the way I like it. The group you see here, I think we are on our six or seventh consecutive year. It doesn’t matter. Last time this young kid backhauled us upriver. I asked him to tell us some stories. To this day I can’t figure if he was just making stuff up. He talked about a native sheep farmer that lowered his flock down into the grassy slopes. Sometimes a lie is better than the real thing. Fucking Otis the lying river guide, I’ll never forget that.
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| An unnamed stream near the Mogollon Rim, AZ |
June 25, 2022 - iPhone 11 Pro 13mm f2.4
I have been fly fishing nearly my whole life. I also flew a hang glider for a long time but I knew it was dangerous and after so many of my friends dying, I decided to dedicate myself to it. For a while, I was fishing crazy. I simply shared my love of it through the Internet. I became really good at it and travelled doing it. I fished the stream | river | lake | sea with my fly rods and created web sites on it early on in the timeline of the internet.
Fly fishing took me to Japan and I was taught fly fishing Japanese style with the experts. I wrote about them, I worked with them. I helped a young man here in the states spread the love of this type of fishing far and wide. We did a good job. But I found an ugly side of it, people. The funny thing is, I go fishing to escape the ugliness of man to enjoy the beauty of nature.
Recently, I stepped away from writing about it. I should have done that sooner but it was still a good decision. I’m in a much better place just making my own blog about what ever it is that makes me happy. Fly fishing makes me happy! Alone or with a friend.
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| Shacks on Dirt Avenue, Rocky Point, Mexico |
February 24, 2025 - Nikon F3 - Nikkor 28-85mm f3.5-4.5 AI-S - Fuji Provia 100
I have travelled to Sonora, Mexico since I was in my teens, like 16. It was one of my first drives out of state. I wanted to be a professional surfer and the Sea of Cortex was four hours away. It’s a place where the Altair desierto meets the sea. Intense hot dry desert and that alone can generate wind not to mention the local “chubascos” that drive up the sea and curve inland. That wind on the water creates waves, so guess who used to surf down there in the early eighties?
Surfing turned to fly fishing the beaches in the nineties and kite surfing in the two thousands. I got to know some of the panga captains. I used to fly fish from the small skiffs out of the port. In the between times fishing or playing with our kites, our dollar was strong against their peso and the Mexicans had shops on the dirt road to Sandy Beach. We affectionately called the shops “Shacks” a sarcastic comparison to Saks Fith Ave, or Shacks on Dirt Ave.
Recently submitted to the Nikonians contest, this picture was one of the finalists. It was one of my first images through my F3 and a travel lens, the 28-85mm.
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| Lavidge Building and Altocumulus |
September 4, 2025 Nikon FG (Shiny) - Nikon Series E 28mm f2.8 AI-S - Fuji Velvia 50
I took a gamble with a roll of Velvia 50. This was from a camera that I had sourced online, a shiny Nikon FG, a 40+ year old camera that I had no idea if the shutter worked properly or the internal electronics still functioned to adjust the aperture. I cleaned the camera up and loaded the film. This picture was from a daily carry and the opportunity from having my camera on hand. Taken on or about the first week in September, our local weather pattern still contains monsoon moisture. I had also just acquired a lens that has an opinionated view of its performance. Some even saying to avoid it while others applaud it. I don’t blindly trust public opinion and it appeared to be a nice and inexpensive wide angle lens so I used it until I finished the roll. Needless to say I really like this lens and it is still mounted.
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| Mar de Cortez, Mil Puntos de Luz |
November 5, 2024 iPhone 16 Pro 24mm f1.78
It was George H. W. Bush that made the term popular during his , “One thousand points of light” campaign trail of speeches. He used it again, I believe for his nomination acceptance speech. I remember some of my peers talking about, “new age bullshit” but from what I remember, the president was speaking about the army of volunteers helping our country, the helpers, the bi-partisan efforts in the service of our great country… We were so innocent then in comparison to now.
But the Sea of Cortez is one of legend and on this beautiful day, the sun was shimmering on the water. I’ve fished here quite a bit from the beaches. My friend, S.Brooks Bedwell tagging along with his F3 back in the day. I would get these slides back from him of me standing on a thousand points of light. It really was cool to capture them on my own.
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| Rochester Panel |
May 1, 2025 Nikon F3 - Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S - Fuji Velvia
Detail from the Rochester Panel just outside from Emery, Utah. I had been planning this trip for some time and the detail from this petroglyph panel is mind twisting. This rock art panel was made thousands of years ago. I drove 9 hours into Utah to reach it and this is just one photograph from one of three cameras.
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| 35mm Film: Red Rock Road Door #1 |
July 29, 2025 Nikon FG - Nikkor 50mm f1.8 (JP pancake ver.) Ilford HP5+
I enjoy making a lap after work, dreaming of owning a home on this road. This is a garage door, I’ve seen it prior to the enclosure, literally excavated out of the side of the mountain. What car would I choose to park in it? A 911 GT3 RS or an 849 Testarosa or a Ghost? Perhaps a Batmobile would be a choice to run to the Stand to get a burger.
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| The Weatherford Hotel, Flagstaff, Arizona |
August 28, 2025 - Nikon FG (Shiny) - Nikkor 35-70mm f3-3-4.5 AI-S - Fuji Velvia 50
This is THE first image through the Shiny FG, my back-up every day camera. I risked a roll of Velvia 50 through it and it paid off. The camera electronics don’t kick in until the 1 shows up on the frame counter. I’ve been trying to guess settings on the fly and this is what came out. This is image two, the fist is the half image from the film take up. I should have posted that one as I’m not telling the exact truth about this being the first image, actually it’s the first whole image.
I took some nice nature photographs as well as some landscapes up on top of Agassiz peak, the top of the lift at Snow Bowl. Those images although very nice, lack character, sort of a prerequisite to making it on this page.
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| Me and my bedroom mirror, image by my Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S |
April 28, 2025 - Nikon D780 - Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S
For so long I’ve wanted this lens. It is absolutely one of the most interesting lens I own. The most I’ve spent (don’t ask) at the time and I love(d) it. But it wasn’t my favorite, not by a long shot. At heart, I’m a skateboarder. I still own one, but I don’t ride it, I’m far too brittle for that but I’m still a skater. Back in the day, this was a lens that I saw a bunch of shots through in skateboarding magazines, or that’s what I thought…
I had to have one and saved and saved, boom, bought one for real.
I took a photograph that I have enlarged, framed and hung on the wall in my home. This lens is such a cantankerous beauty, but it was an important lesson in paying attention when researching a lens. See the blue blob in the above photograph? It does that, just like they said it will and it isn’t a fish eye lens, that’s what I thought it was when I bought it. Little did I know that this was going to be an amazing experience owning this lens but in short order, I sold it after learning what I really wanted was half the price and much smaller, the Nikon 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye-NIKKOR AF-D. The Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S was a mistake purchase that taught me a valuable lesson. The interesting thing is, later I bought a similar lens that has become one of my favorites. The AF-S Nikkor 14-24 f2.8 ED N G FX which I will never sell…
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