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Nature Boy Navigating a Digital World

Slowly but surely, our humanity is being drained by smartphones, apps, digital devices, intelligent appliances, and artificially “intelligent” agents pretending to provide us with support.

Once upon a time, I was given the nickname Nature Boy. At the time, I was mortified because the troglodytes who gave me that name thought it was an insult. Close to sixty years later, I hold that nickname — and my connection to the natural world — close to my heart. I still scuba dive and enjoy photographing, painting, drawing, and writing about the natural world. It’s a great defense against losing our sense of who we are.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not rejecting the digital world entirely. Since I was one of those bastards who spent his career implementing this pan-Gaian digital monstrosity that we now have to live in, I feel somewhat responsible for the inhuman state of our world.

The best thing I think one can now do is keep one foot in the digital world — as a necessity for the everyday business of life — and one foot in the natural world — to make life worth living.

The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

Sometimes the winter kicks you in the butt and you just can’t – or don’t want to – get outside to get your creative on.  My creativity definitely diminishes in direct proportion to how much I am shivering, or if my fingers are too numb to press the shutter button.  And since my creative starts with photography, and I’m not about to brave ice, snow, slush, sleet, psychotic Philadelphia drivers, and that special hell known as the Schuylkill Expressway in order to get to a decent photo location – or my screen print studio as a backup –  I just have to get even more creative to come up with in-the-home photo activities.

The concept for this shot was introspection.  My model was a one-inch-tall plastic action figure – the character was Too-Ticky from the Finnish/Swedish Moomin-Troll universe created by the late Tov Jansson.  At the time of this shot, as I was pondering retirement from my tech career. I was trying to capture the feeling of my state of mind – in essence where I wanted to go and where I had been.  Could I achieve my goal of re-inventing myself as a photographer and artist in my sixties?  Could I somehow fine relevance is such a young and cutting-edge industry?  This is what I wanted to express with the photo.

Black and white was definitely the way to go here – and I wanted it to be dark, moody and dramatic. It would be a bonus if I could throw in a bit of rim-lighting because I love it. 

About this Photo:    This photo required: 1. The edge of a jacuzzi tub.  2. A couple of black fleece throws. 3.  A Too-Ticky Moomin Troll action figure. 4. A desk lamp.  5.  A digital camera.  6. Five minutes from concept to cleanup.    I love film, but when I am experimenting with lights, digital provides the feedback and immediacy that I need to work out the niggles in a shoot.  Film is awesome, but the name of my site is ‘Film Sometimes,’ not ‘Film Always.’ I was able to adjust the dark framing around the borders, so as to give the subject the illusion of constraint and in the end, I was not unhappy with the shot.

Photo Gallery: Things That Drip, Grow and Bark

This gallery is from a test of a film camera and lens to see if it was worth taking on trip to Yellowstone National Park. You have to click ‘Continue Reading’ in order to see all of the photos.
It’s best to extensively test a lens and camera combination prior to taking it somewhere important or where you might not have backup in case the combination is disappointing. From these tests, I found that I was happy enough with the Nikon F100 film camera with the Nikkor 28-200mm G ED f3.5-5.6 ED, F-Mount lens. I took gallery of shots was taken at home and at a local park just a few miles away. It includes some of my favorite subjects; Things that drip, grow and bark.

About the Photos: The flower shots were boceh/lens blur tests which came out better than expected considering that it is a very inexpensive (relatively), compact and lightweight superzoom lens – what I would usually consider a recipe for mediocrity. But in order to be outstanding, you have to stand out. And the separation in the flower shot, between the subject and the background, is excellent. Again, much better than expected. This lens is a winner.

I also love the Nikon F100 for vacation film photography – when you cannot go back to reshoot a subject later – because, while you can use it on full manual, you also have the option to run it in aperture priority or full auto, a luxury I sometimes need with wildlife and street scenes. The only downside of this camera, for me, is that it weighs in a little heavy. But if you throw a nifty fifty or a lighter weight prime lens on it, it really isn’t that bad.
The film used, Ilford HP5 400 – showed some lovely grain and contrast. The water shots – my favorite go-to subject matter these days is anything water. There are a couple of indirect portraits in here, to further test the capability of the setup, and of course, the dog. A dog with human eyes, I get told often. All in all, a good workout for the lens and camera, which I did indeed take with me to Yellowstone, with good results.

I love testing ‘new-to-me’ film cameras.

What Do You See?

With all art, you have a message that is intended by the artist, and the message received by the viewer. Often – usually – those messages have at least some level of disconnect. Posting this shot for viewing and critique seems to bring up some strange interpretations. What do you see?

I have been told it looks like ice, plastic, and a bunch of other materials. It’s actually water and air. As a scuba instructor for more than 25 years, I taught people how to blow bubble rings while underwater. If you puff them out just right, you can watch them float to the surface, expanding the whole way, before they break apart. They are astonishing to watch, they seem alive, and they catch the light in ways that are incredibly beautiful. This photo is of one of those bubble rings, caught as it is rising towards the surface. Very few viewers have ever figured out what this photo is about.

Scuba geek, meet photo geek.

A Kinder, Gentler Age.

I like old cameras, I like old film, and I like old houses, so this image gave me a happy. I’m not so fond of the pickup truck, but you can’t always get everything that you want.
Cape May, New Jersey is the last town heading south on the Jersey shore. It’s a throwback in many ways – more civil – calmer – and less overtly obnoxious than the glitz and over-the-top ostentation of the New Jersey beaches to the north. It’s not like they don’t show off here, they’re just more subtle about it and adhere to community set standards. And what that creates is a beautiful town with grand old houses that make for wonderful photography.

About the Photo: This shot was made with a small, handy Ricoh AF-5 point-and-shoot camera – manufactured around 1983, and shot on long expired Kodak Gold 400 film, most probably from the 1990s. The house is at least 100 years older than either, and the truck, well who really cares?

The great thing about the Ricoh is that it’s cheap and small and has a great lens – a 38mm f/2.8. It produced such lovely colors and awesome grain, even with ancient film. On beach excursions with this camera, I usually bring a quart ziploc bag with me to keep it safe from water and to keep it free from sand. And then I slide it into my backpack pocket to have a great, light and compact film camera always ready to go. One that I don’t have to worry about.
Cheap film cameras (relatively cheap, anyway) are great. I purchased this one five years earlier for $20. I see they’re now going for $75-$100 on ebay. Retro fun doesn’t mean that you have to break the bank, but as these cameras start to disappear, it’s getting more expensive every day.

Woodstock Dog

This dapper dog and his personal slave were very happy to pose for a portrait in on New Year’s Day in Woodstock, NY. Because of the cold light and the overall lack of color that you get in mid winter, I chose Ilford HP5 400 black and white film and tried to leverage the rich contrast on this overcast day.

My camera was a Nikon N90 with a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8g lens. The dog was the best model I have worked with in years.

Breathing Underwater


Back in the 1980’s I started shooting film underwater with a Minolta Maxxum Film Camera sealed in an Ikelite housing. I was terrible at it – mostly because, by the time I had my film processed, I had completely forgotten the camera settings and the reason behind the photo compositions. I wasn’t learning anything, I certainly wasn’t improving, and I quickly lost interest and stopped shooting underwater for twenty years.

In 2003, I started shooting underwater again, but this time with a digital camera in which I could view my results after the shot. Having immediate feedback allowed me to adjust my composition and settings and I was able to learn something with each photograph. I was off to the races.



2020 – Building Creative Energy

2020 – In hindsight, was all about a gathering in of energy and creativity. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were actively resetting our social, family, financial and professional worlds – all isolated in our little bubbles – but as an uncoordinated, parallel, world effort. Who we became as a result of this process was, in many ways, unrecognizable from who we were in the past. Some changed for the better – others lost their souls to the crazy to come.

While I did not post between 2020 and early 2022, I continued to shoot photography at a varying pace. I’ll attempt to back fill this photo blog with the shots that make the most sense now, in hindsight.