Journal Entries

I try to do or make interesting things on a regular basis. Here are some words and photos about my exploits.

Ground glass protective cover

Now that my 8×10 camera is getting heavy usage (Kari is out in the field with it as I type) I have been working on either repairing pinholes, making parts so it can be used...

New lens boards for the big cameras

I’ve had my Arca-Swiss 4×5 view camera for several years now, and more recently bought an 8×10 camera from my friend / mentor / boss Brenton Hamilton. It didn’t come with any lens boards, though...

Shiprock, Valley of the Gods, and the Goosenecks

I used my recent trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park as an excuse to further explore the Four Corners region of northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, and southeast Utah, and make some tintypes along...

Great Sand Dunes Centennial Tintype Weekend

As I wrote about earlier, the National Park Service asked me to be part of their Centennial Celebrations by spending two days at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve giving demonstrations on making tintypes...

Wukoki Pueblo and the Grand Canyon Tintypes

For reasons I go into in another post, I recently made a new darkbox to facilitate making tintypes in the field. That ordeal is a different story, but here are the best results from my...

Portable Darkroom Version 2

Within a few months of learning how to make tintypes in the Haas Lab (thanks, as always, to Kari Wehrs and Brenton Hamilton) I enjoyed some quality father-son time making a darkbox in the woodshop...

Tintype Workshop: Great Sand Dunes National Park

Most of you are probably aware, but just to be sure: first, the National Park Service is celebrating its Centennial this year, and second, I love the National Park system. I don’t remember the first...

DIY Soles for my Birks

For the longest time back in college, whenever a pair of my Birkenstocks wore out (and I mean, nothing between my big toe and the pavement) I’d just hang ’em on a nail (through said...

Carnevale, Venezia, 1992

As I was clearing out some storage space I came across my boxes of old photos from the early days of my obsession with photography, and during a short trip to Maine I got access...

More than one way to create with light

While not strictly photography, per se, I have nevertheless been busy lately making things with light, just light of a different kind. One of the many very cool things at TechShop, the shared workspace I...

Great Sand Dunes National Park Tintype

I recently made another stop at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, as I often do on cross-country road trips. This trip – only 5400 miles, from Rhode Island to Maine, then down through West...

Type Drawer Coffee Table

One of the first things I saw on my tour of TechShop was the ShopBot, a computer-controlled router than could take material 4ft x 8 ft x several inches thick. If I hadn’t been sold...