journal – Fotomonkey Photography

Jan 17

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: canon, israel, jordan, paris, rebel

End of an Era

In 1991, I purchased my first SLR. I was in the Navy and had come home on leave. I knew that I’d be traveling the world and I wanted to make sure that I’d be able to capture it all. I walked into Wal-Mart and walked out with a Canon EOS Rebel. It was an absolutely fabulous camera. This camera literally traveled the world with me. I had both a 35-80 and a 75-300 and they made a great combination. They weren’t the greatest lenses ever made, but for a poor sailor with an incredibly low income at the time, they were fantastic. I also had a pretty extensive collection of Cokin filters. Everything you could image. I had graduated filters, starlight, neutral density, and more. I built a nice collection of images from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I had the opportunity to take pictures in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and many more exotic locations. It was so cool to see with my own eyes places I’d only seen in books. In the last image in this set, wild camels are roaming the banks of the Suez Canal, for example. I’m still in the process […]

Jan 12

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: leica, photowalk, st. augustine

Braving the Cold

I hate to see a weekend go to waste, but things weren’t looking so good yesterday. Not only was it pretty cold (high in the 50s, which is cold for us) but the skies were cloudy and overcast. This morning, I woke up to colder temps, but sunny skies. After breakfast and coffee, I loaded up and headed to St. Augustine to see if I could capture any new images on familiar grounds. Arriving in the early afternoon, I was rewarded with some pretty good lighting and shadows along St. George Street, the main tourist thoroughfare. The crowds weren’t too bad considering it’s still somewhat the holiday season. Unfortunately, many of the ideas I had never fully came to fruition. I’d hoped to take advantage of some nice juxtapositions of light and shadow with color-coordinated subjects but the crowd didn’t seem inclined to cooperate. I probably ended up capturing more empty scenes than I’d planned for. There is a landmark I’ve wanted to stop at so many times yet I never made the effort. And now I can’t. The Kings Head British Pub, an icon located on US1 between Jacksonville and St. Augustine has been providing British fare, beer, and […]

Jan 04

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The Longest Day

Ok, this isn’t my story of how I stormed Normandy on June 6th, 1944. No, this is the story of how I spent my longest day trip scouring for photo opportunities. I use the app Geotag Photos to record a GPX track that I can use to tag my images with GPS coordinates through my ingest workflow with Photo Mechanic. Yesterday’s track was only 99.64 miles but it took me just over 6 hours to travel. And that doesn’t include my travel to/from the start/end points. It was, indeed, a long day. But it was very productive. Worthington Springs My first stop was Worthington Springs. This is a very small community with less than 400 residents. It was incorporated in 1963 and is close to the banks of the Santa Fe River. I’d wanted to get some pictures of horses and spotted some very soon after turning off of the interstate. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to pull over quickly when you have other cars bearing down on you. Fortunately, I was rewarded a few miles down the road with the largest gathering of horses I think I’ve ever seen. The photo below doesn’t capture the scope of it since […]

Jan 01

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: beach, boardwalk, pier

Kickoff!

New beginnings. Resolutions. Fresh starts. January 1st is different things to different people, but we can probably all agree that it provides a time for reflection as we start a new year. What went right over the past twelve months? What adjustments do we need to make? Are we on the right track to meet our goals, whatever they may be? For me, today marked two points: first, that time to reflect on last year’s photographic growth (hopefully) and second, the last day of my vacation. I dread the idea of having to actually set an alarm for the morning. To help clear my mind, I headed back out to look for fresh, new photo opportunities. Today’s target, the beach. There was a lot going on today. I decided to skip the pier initially because of the line to get in. I headed down the boardwalk in search of new things. I thought I’d see if I could find any interesting reflections with the sand dunes and people walking around. Some people wanted to be part of the action instead of just a reflection. 🙂 The annual Deck The Chairs event just wrapped up so I thought I’d take a […]

Dec 31

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: photowalk, police, shooting

The Last Photowalk

Well, here we are. It’s time for the last photowalk of the year. 2024 is coming to and end. I struggled as usual to decide where to go and finally ended up at my regular stomping ground, downtown. I didn’t stay too long. I knew I had to get home in time to make dinner with friends so I put $4 on the parking meter to cover me for a couple of hours and set out. I really wanted to make this a fresh experience. I don’t want to just shoot the same things until everyone, myself included, is sick of seeing them. You have to really stretch and look for new things. Maybe it’s an alley you’ve never stumbled upon. Maybe it’s the glow of a neon sign you’ve ignored every other time you’ve walked by. One thing that I always seem drawn to is shapes and patterns. I love shadows and leaving it to the viewer to decide what cast it. I definitely found myself in new places just by wandering a few extra blocks. I suppose it’s true, there’s a lot to see around us if we only open our eyes. It doesn’t have to be serious, […]

Dec 30

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: leica

Cool Story Time

I’ve had the Leica M4 loaded up with a roll of Santacolor 100 film since I started my vacation but the weather has been nasty and cloudy for the most part. Today, however, the skies cleared, the sun rolled out, and I grabbed my bag and ran for the door. I had a two options for nearby towns that I thought would be good candidates for Christmas decorations and opted for one to the north. It was an hour trip to get there but I lucked out and scored a spot not far from the Historic Downtown district. Unfortunately, I was surprised at the lack of decorations. It’s a very popular area, especially during the holidays, and I was expecting a lot more. I wandered about 10 blocks or so before turning around and heading back down the other way. It wasn’t all for naught, however. I met a cool, older gentleman with three adorable dachsunds. It was a mother, father, and their daughter. Apparently they’re a very rare type of dapple dachsund and the male is the only AKC registered one in the US. They were very cute and the daughter was more than happy to hop up on […]

Dec 29

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In For the Zen

Every time a new year rolls around, I look for a way to improve things. Whether that’s my outlook on life in general, a certain area of my photography, or whatever floats my boat. As 2025 looms just a couple of short days away, I think I’ve settled on Zen. I’m not really speaking in terms of the religious aspects, and I’m not ready to convert to Buddhism. I’m talking more in the sense of awakening my creativity. Digging deep to find out who I am. What, with respect to photography, makes me tick? As I look at the thousands of images which make up my portfolio, what motivates me? What’s my style? Do I have a style? Learn to see what is. Something I want to do is, pardon the phrase, to be more focused. The weather has been hit or miss since Thanksgiving so I’ve been spending a lot of time cleaning up my Photo Mechanic and Capture One catalogs. Something that has become painfully clear is that I hit the shutter button far too frequently. It’s time to embrace the spirit of my Leicas and slow down. I actually purchased a screen cover to turn my M10 […]

Apr 28

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A Little Portra

Not a whole lot to say today. I spent a little time pulling gear together that I think I might be hauling to Arizona and Utah in a couple of weeks. One of the things I’m really looking forward to is seeing what places like the Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion look like with Portra 400. That’s right, I’m stocking up on film! Since I want my unexposed film hand searched by TSA, I don’t want anything in the camera. I knew that I had some shots left on the roll in the Nikon F3 that I needed to wrap up. I went out to the beach yesterday to do just that. Well, technically I was at the “town center”. But close enough. And I did actually walk out to the beach. So here are a few shots from the M10 and filmicized (?) with DXO FilmPack 7. I think they came out pretty good. I’m not sure the mural turned out quite how I’d seen it in my mind, but I definitely like the beach and pizza colors. Let me know what you think!

Mar 29

by FotoMonkey in journal, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: film, leica, yashica

An Era Revived

I recently embarked upon a journey to my past. Where it all began. Film. It all started with a Canon EOS Rebel. I had joined the military and was home on leave. I grew up near a lot of Air Force bases so I took my freshly minted military credentials and headed to the Exchange. I walked out with the Rebel kit and it began a love affair. I took that camera all over the world. One of the few benefits of being in the military. It’s taken pictures across Europe. Spain. France. Italy. I’ve carried it through the Middle East. Egypt. Jordan. It was a great camera and I still have it to this day. Though I’ve been shooting digital for many years now, I’ve felt a resurgence in my desire to shoot film. I’ve been picking up film here and there and Santa (aka mom) presented me with some Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X. I’ve also picked up some expired film on Etsy. Film definitely slows you down. I’m more intentional with the firing of the shutter. My son ribs me because of the work I do. Taking the picture is just the beginning. Next is countless minutes […]

Jul 16

by fmadmin in journal 0 comments tags: crisp chrome, sooc, x-h1

A Splash of Color

I’ve really been on a black & white kick lately, but I’m not opposed to color. In fact, I’ve been simultaneously trying out a number of new color recipes to see what I want to make permanent residents on my camera. This is going to be a quick post to share some of my color images from downtown. One thing I’ve noticed around Jacksonville (and not around the downtown area) is that there are a number of very good murals. The detail in some of them is amazing. Once I have a nice catalog of them I’ll try to share. Here are some for your review to whet your appetite.