Yellowstone with my Canon AE-1

Back in October, my family took a 6-day, 2500 mile road trip through North Dakota, into Yellowstone, down through the Tetons, and back home through South Dakota. I brought some film that expired in 2013, and I shot it with my Canon AE-1 Program that's older than me that I've had since I was 17 years old. The resulting images are somewhere between "art" and "touristy" photos (I think)...

[click each image to enlarge]

Just outside of Yellowstone's east entrance.




Along the shore of Lake Yellowstone.


A classic: Old Faithful.


Walking among the pools in the Upper Geyser Basin.






Moments after a close encounter with a bison!


My boys on a snowy hike...


... working our way to Mystic Falls.




Overlooking Grand Prismatic Spring.


The lower half of the 200' Fairy Falls.


Pulling out of Yellowstone on a snowy morning.


Starting a hike in Grand Teton around Lake Jenny.


Hidden Falls up in the Tetons.


My family starting their way down from Inspiration Point in the Tetons.


A frosty final morning in Grand Teton.


Like the image of Old Faithful, here's another common pic: Sylvan Lake in South Dakota on our way home.

It Must Be Finals Season...

... because I woke up to these 2 texts on my phone:

I love that there was a realization an hour later that I might have been woken up, but then still an embarrassed follow-up text after that realization. Ha!

(Turns out it was a question about processing film - nothing super urgent.)

Film Developer in the Darkroom

When I started teaching at Concordia University just over 2 years ago (and managing their darkroom), the previous photography professor met with me and very kindly went through issues like how fast the classes go through chemistry, how much film and paper to order, etc. It was all all very helpful! Thanks again, Cate!

We've been getting to the end of our "cube" of film developer, and I made sure we had a back-up at the start of the semester. So today I was happy to have used up the final cube of chemistry from my FIRST order:

Labeled "Sept 22."

I got out our back-up, and was shocked to see that it was labeled "Sept 22" as well! When I ordered my first batch of chemistry, I was told we went through it much faster than we actually do, apparently!!

Still some older film developer to use up!!

Note to self: we go through film developer QUITE slowly...

Related: here's the post linked above about starting to teach at Concordia University, and here are some shots of that darkroom from 2+ years ago.

Contact "Sheets" or "Prints" or...

I recently had this Facebook memory pop up from 2 years ago:

Film Processing!

We've had sucess in the darkroom at Concordia so far this semester! Here are 2 pics from processing film a few weeks ago:

Love seeing the happy faces when images appear!

We will be shooting and processing film in a MUCH BIGGER CLASS at the University of Minnesota here shortly. That class started as half of the semester in the digital lab, and has just transitioned over to the last half of the semester in the darkroom. My students have a quick photogram project due on Monday before we jump to film cameras. Stay tuned!!

Springsteen on Frank

I've always wished I could write songs the way he takes pictures.

- Bruce Springsteen on Robert Frank

(Supposedly, Springsteen has multiple copies of Frank's photo book The Americans).

Department of Art Website

If you go to the University of Minnesota's "College of Liberal Arts" website and find the faculty section...

... you can scroll down and find me!

Here's my very in-depth page:

I tease, but it's nice to be recognized even if it's just a "short term" hire. Thanks CLA!

Start of Fall Semester

The 2024 fall semester is underway! Here's a first day shot from my Concordia University classroom:

And a shot from my University of Minnesota classroom:

I taught in that very same classroom at the U of M from 2005 to 2011, and very little has changed! (Pretty much just the TV instead of projection screen, and the table right in front of the camera has been turned 90 degrees.) I'm back for maybe just the semester to help out with someone's maternity leave. I've been at the U of M College of Design (St. Paul campus) for the previous 5 semesters, but now I'm in the U of M's Art Department (Minneapolis campus) for this class. And here's my exotic shared faculty office at the U:

That's a bike helmet and bottle as I'm trying to bike like I did all of last school year.

And Concordia, we just had our first "nerdy lecture" covering some good stuff:

Happy Fall 2024!!

Photography as "Mirrors" or "Windows"

I've been reading "Strange Hours: Photography, Memory, and the Lives of Artists" these last few weeks. I found an interesting thought from John Szarkowski:

What makes this more interesting for me is that my "Faribault County" work from 20 years ago would fit as a "window," but my more recent "4 a.m." work is definitely a "mirror." I don't know what that means, but it's made me stop and think about my own art making...

Olympic Triathlon Photographer

Associated Press photographer David Goldman talks about the issues he needed to work through to photograph the Olympic triathlon and open water swims:

Direct link: youtu.be/YBz-uPDpUBs?si=INfAYqPUG_2wAP0Y

A Sweet Blast from the Past

Two years ago, I posted about the sudden death of John Marshall, my undergrad photography mentor. Last year, I shared some photos from a wonderful memorial for him at his house

Last week, I stopped by his widow's home because she had some more photography equiptment of John's for the college where I'm teaching, and she also smiled and handed me this:

That was the copy of the NY Times Magazine that I'd shot the cover photo. It's not an image I'm necessarily super proud of, but it was an experience I was proud of. John still had the copy that I gave him, and I had forgotten that he had wanted me to sign it (lower right). I hadn't laid eyes on that cover for at least a decade.

Inside image.


Photo credit.

Thanks John. We miss you.

Movie Poster Project

I shared a few movie posters at the end of fall semester from an intro to design course that I teach at the University of Minnesota. Here are 4 quick ones from this past semester:

Nice layering and texture from Devyn.


Good focal point from Emma.


Erik pushed the idea that he's stepping through the end of the song because he dies (spoiler alert).


Some nice use of space by Ben.

Again, here's a bit more from last year in a different post.

Camera Lens Focus Modes

I'm never going to see the "auto focus / manual focus" switch the same after this...

Color Naming Book from 1955

I found this in one of the classrooms where I teach at the University of Minnesota:

Figure out your Munsell notation (something I became VERY familiar with
teaching Color Theory at CVA) and then turn to the correct page in this book.


Follow the Munsell chroma and value notation to get the "name" of the color


PAGES of color names!


Close-up of names.

Being so wrapped up in "true" Munsell color notation while teaching at the College of Visual Arts, I never thought about what you would "name" any of the given colors in his system. But this book does that... to an extreme measure!

Students Making Big Prints

Just like we did last year, my students recently made some prints on the design department's 44" printer:

[click to enlarge]

Some eye-catching night shots coming out.






Catching 2 of her larger prints.


Re-printing 2 darker images a BIT lighter to make up the difference
between the glow of the screen and the reflected light off the print.
(Or: prints are always darker, and darker images can easily go TOO dark.)


Comparing 2 larger prints.

I think ALL of these images that we printed in class made it into the Juried Student Exhibition, and 2 of the 5 awards in the Fine Arts category* went to 2 of these photos! Congrats Photography II and Advanced Photography classes!

Come see their work in person in 2 weeks at the Juried Student Exhibition's closing reception: Thursday, April 18th, 5-7 p.m. at the Concordia Gallery, 1301 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104.

* They are split between "fine arts" and "design" for this exhibition. A 3rd student of the 5 awards in Fine Art was a former student of mine, and 3 of the 5 award winners in Design are current students of mine! (But I can't take any credit for that as I'm their photography professor.)