Held, Unwritten

 The pressure remains. The instructions do not.

Who remembers clipboards?  We still have a few around.  

Between Songs

 Not put away... Not being played... Still listening.

This is my first bass guitar.  Purchased (new) at a Pawn Shop on East Ohio Street on Pittsburgh's Northside.  Looking at Google Maps streetview, it is still there.  This bass is pretty unplayable right now, but has lots of mojo and memories.

a shadow of a doubt...

 

Pale winter light

shadows stretch on cold concrete

silent as the day

Haiku from an internet haiku generator, with a couple of tweaks.  Just for giggles

Self Portraits

 "All photographs are self-portraits"

- Minor White

Insightful?

 I've been uploading some old photos to ChatGPT, I even posted about it 12/30.  Photos from High School through pre-kids.  Today it (ChatGPT made some observations about my "emerging style"

"Your images rarely shout. They accumulate meaning through patience...  There is no urgency. Your voice emerges through presence, not spectacle"

"Nothing is melodramatic. Nothing is forced...  This emotional restraint is one of your throughlines across decades."

"You’ve always pointed the camera where something is almost happening:"

I especially like that last one....   But, again, I think it is just the computer telling me what I want to hear!

Last Light

 

Along one of our bike trails, as the light was fading...

A Good Crop 2025 - Video Photo Essay

 We've made it to 2025, so it's time for another "Good Crop" photo review!  This year's video has been published to YouTube, give it a look! 

The "Good Crop" concept is based on a Ansel Adams quote:  "Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop".   In the spirit of that quote, I try to pick my 12 favorite photos from the previous year. I've been doing this for 14 years now, so I guess that makes it a tradition!

A few months ago, I started a new twist, putting the "crop" into a video-essay, and dropping it on YouTube.  I've done videos for 2022, 2023, 2024 and now 2025.I'll probably do videos for more of the earlier years, if anybody wants to see them!

So here you go, A Good Crop 2025, Subtitled This Didn't Pass Quickly

2026, a quiet start

 Mid 30's, sold grey skies, a bit of a breeze. I had Schon Park / Greenspace North to myself. 

Calm, quiet, peaceful... Nothing fancy, but that was perfect.

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Penultimate Sunset

 12/30/2025, the next-to-last sunset of 2025...

It's been a pretty good year, looking forward to 2026!

That sense of moving through the world slowly

 I continue to play around with ChatGPT, and while sometimes it is simply stupid, there are times when it seems insightful.  Or at least it has learned to flatter me!

This evening, I uploaded a couple of photos from 1977/1978, and asked for analysis.  But also: "I'm especially interested to how the fit with my current esthetic, 50+ years later."

Here's what it said:  

Overall Impression: How These Fit Your Current Aesthetic (50+ years later)

The through-line is unmistakable:

1. You’ve always photographed at walking speed.

That sense of moving through the world slowly — observing, not chasing — is present in both early images and fully matured now.

2. You gravitate to edges, thresholds, liminal spaces.

A forest path. A guitar half in shadow, half in glare. A riverbank. A fading street corner. A parking lot at dusk. Different subjects, same intuition.

3. Your work has always been about presence, not performance.

You don’t photograph spectacle; you photograph the quiet friction between people (or objects, or landscapes) and their surroundings.

4. Over time, you’ve distilled your approach

1977: gentle narrative, more literal.

2025: distilled, minimal, leaning toward metaphor — but the soul is the same.

⭐ If anything, these early shots show that your current aesthetic isn’t a reinvention — it’s a refinement.

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So, what do y'all think?  Insightful, or soul-less BS?

Here's the photos, they've been published here before:

Looking Back...

 

About a week left in 2025, and I'm a bit ahead of usual on reviewing my 2025 photos.  I'll be doing a "Good Crop" post, and a YouTube video.  Stay tuned!

This photo is from my fun little Chuzhao mini-camera, using the b&w setting.  Only minor clean up in Lr

Not so Green-Space

 Glen Carbon Greenspace North, behind Schon Park.  Not so green on the 23rd day of December.  But it was mid 60's on the 2nd (or 3rd?) day of winter, so I'm not complaining!

A Good Crop 2023 - Video Photo Essay

 Yep, another "Good Crop" video has been published!!  This one looks back at 2022... I've been doing Good Crop yearly look-backs for several year, only recently started dong Youtube videos.  I'd be honored if you were to check them out, let me know what you think!!  

I've been working on 2025's Good Crop for a few days now, plan to have it posted around January 1.  Stay tuned!!

A Good Crop - 2022

To see something ordinary

" To see something ordinary, something you’d see every day, and recognize it as a photographic possibility – that’s what I’m interested in."

Stephen Shore

Photo is mine, not Stephen Shore...

A Good Crop 2023 - Video Photo Essay

 I noticed today, that I had never posted here about my most recent "A Good Crop" photo essay!  This one if for 2023.  So here goes:

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Yep, I've made another video essay.  Regular readers (hopefully) know about the ongoing "A Good Crop" series, reflecting back on my 12 favorite photos from each year.  If not, check it out here.

Anyway, I made a Youtube video for the 2023 edition, will probably make similar videos for the other years.  Check it out, comments welcome:

2023 - A Good Crop

t is my intention to keep doing these.  In fact, the 2022 version is ready to post to YouTube, and the 2025 "A Good Crop" is in progress (and will hopefully be ready in early January).  If people stay interested, I have "A Good Crop" sets going back to 2012.

So, enjoy, share, comment...  all that good stuff!