Does anyone make photo albums anymore? In July of 1969, I flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where I spent a few days wandering around town, taking a few photos. Included here are a few black and white photos taken with my Exakta 500 – purchased used at the photo store on Main Street in El Segundo to take surfing photos. It came with a 50 millimeter / 2.8 lens. I didn’t have a light meter and guessed at the settings. I would have been using Kodak 35mm black and white film, not sure what speed.
On Instagram, and other social media sites, we might view, I don’t know, hundreds of pics an hour? Light literally flashes through the eyes, faster than a camera shutter – where does it go, that light? What do we get from those quick views? What do we remember? There are other sites, some devoted to more serious photography (500px, for example). I follow a few good photographers on Instagram. The ones I’m most interested in these days are the street photographers. Here’s one I follow that does some black and white and I think does good work: David McCarthy. He has a book out, titled “The Portlanders,” which features Portland street scenes taken in black and white.
My photo album I dug out from a closet this morning I’ve had since 1969. It’s amazing to me it’s survived all these years. Click to view galleries.
I kept an eye out for Steven McQueen’s Ford Mustang, but I didn’t see it anywhere around.
I would have taken the photos out of the album, but they’re stuck to the pages now under the plastic sheet covers, which are also stuck. I edited a couple in Google Photos, but that’s much ado for not much more, and anyway I prefer the attempt at getting the originals with my camera as shown here, with no touching up.
The Coming of the Toads 