Liking a “Twelver” Over a 36-Exposure Roll

I like rolls of 12. For photography, a dozen frames is a manageable number these days when I'm shooting film. Because I tend to have film loaded in multiple cameras. (As William Eggleston says, "I take the camera I feel like using on any given day.") Just today I processed a roll of 36-exposure Tri-X...

2005: The Year Photography Changed

It's interesting to me to see how things change. When I was in school we had text books and notebooks. Students today have Macbooks and iPads. We learned penmanship and how to write and diagram sentences. Do they even learn that now? When was the last time anyone had to write a letter by hand...

The Photo I Missed (and Miss!)

I had a fun night with friends last night. We had steak with sauteed mushrooms, roasted potatoes and veggies with some cold keg IPAs. Then afterwards we played a few games of backgammon and cribbage. Lots of laughs when one of us won the game. There's no photo though. I usually bring a Fuji X100...

The Art of the Snapshot (We’re Still Making Them Today!)

A couple of friends over for a BBQ bumping elbows. I have a love for old snapshots. There's something special about those photos that aren't meant for the gallery wall, that aren't going to win awards, but are just simply destined for the photo album--the "open-the-pages-and-reminisce book" that we used to create all the time...

The Value of the Snapshot & Prints With Borders

I miss the snapshot, those small photos that would get printed with their scalloped white-edge border. I often order prints of my own and always add a white border to the print, but it's not the same as when it was done back in the 1950s, with the paper cut with a decorative edge. I...

When the Audience Changes and We Have to Show Proof

A snapshot used to be a simple thing. We used a camera to save a moment from our lives to tuck it away under the bed in a shoebox or in a photo album, so that we could travel back in time at a future date and relive it. We even did it shortly after...

David Burnett Wishes He Had Photos With His Friends

The legendary Time Magazine photojournalist David Burnett said in a recent interview that he wishes he had photos of himself with friends just hanging out when they were young. Photos that he could go back to, but unfortunately they don't exist. He didn't take any and neither did anyone else. (Do you have such photos?)...

Mr. Cowboy and the Wonder of Old Snapshots

It's a wonder to me that anyone would discard or sell their family photographs, but it happens time and again. I was at a local estate sale yesterday and saw a tackle box full of slide film from the 1970s in boxes and couldn't help but want to have them for my snapshot collection. You...