My photography hobby

Among my most passionate of interests is photography. I am very happy with my Canon 20d digital camera after a long romance with an Olympus E-20. The Olympus was a lot of fun and has a fantastic design, but wasn't as clear, and had a lot of trouble focusing in the dark--I called it my "high noon" camera.

I had a lot of fun recently at a workshop by Nancy Rotenberg. I took the "Macro Weekend" workshop May 12-14, 2006 and took 905 photos. Probably 200 of those pictures used a spider or two as subjects. I've posted 7 here. Although it might not have been her main message, Nancy inspired me to "think small" and look into the little worlds all around me in the wild.

In the film days, I would take my Ektar/Kodachrome rolls to a photo store for genuine Kodak processing (no matter what it was called, Kodalux Schmodalux!).

I used to use a manual-focus Olympus OM-2n and, when I needed to shoot two rolls at a time, I also hvae a vintage (1976) Olympus OM-1 MD. The lens I used most was the stock 50mm f1.4 lens, allowing me to use polarizing filters and the slowest, sharpest film available (most often: ISO 25). I also used an Olympus 75-150 f4 zoom and a Vivitar 28mm f2.8. My good old OM-1 died on the voyage, however I have replaced it thanks to a pristine used one available at Cameta Cameras.

A polarizing filter for each and every camera and camcorder I own helps give the images maximum color saturation and that good old "post card" look.

(above photo by Jack Harris; all others are my own)

Photo of the month

Lunar Eclipse February 20, 2008

AMCIS 2007 Fireworks at Keystone Resort in Colorado, August 2007

AMCIS 2007 double rainbow at Keystone Resort in Colorado, August 2007

Sunset from the top floor of our apartment building in Philly

Love park again but at the end of Oct 2006 with a rainbow and larger art museum (shot at 55mm; or a little over 90mm in 35mm terms)!

The Grand Tetons from the Schwabaker turnoff just above Jackson Hole, in August 2006. One of my new favorite spots. Same mountains, but from the Oxbow Bend approaching Yellowstone from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here is the best of the lightning bolts that supplemented a fireworks display after the wonderful AMCIS 2006 fiesta on Saturday evening, August 5 in Acapulco. Thanks, Guillermo, for arranging this spectacular natural fireworks display!

Here is another shot of the AMCIS 2006 lightning storm in Acapulco.

Here is a lightning storm that I caught at about 2:30 AM, early this morning as of this writing, June 22, 2006. Standing on Mount Washington from 1:00 AM to 2:30 AM is probably not the smartest thing I've done, but I've waited months for a storm to come in from the north.

Top of a dandelion from our front yard. We have not used a lawn service for the 2nd year straight, and it shows! The full sized version is much sharper looking, but this is a hint.

It's great to have nephews and nieces. Josh and Emily provided the cutest pose I could imagine as they walked along in the water.

A toucan in Brazil. It was only a few feet from me. I had to blur the background with gaussian blur to make it more pleasing.

A cat appeared to be laughing at us in his "new home" in this sidewalk display in Abigny, France

A brave squirrel was looking for food, as usual, in Philadelphia's Washington Square park.

Spider that photographer/author Nancy Rotenberg coaxed out of its comfortable surroundings on her house and into a plant during her excellent macro workshop May 12-14, 2006. I used Photoshop to soften the focus near the edges--the focus was too sharp all the way out to the edges that the impact was reduced a little.

An abstract made by Rain-X on a window, water beads and various designs, made at Nancy's Workshop.

Nancy asked us to sit in one pre-assigned spot for a half hour and study our surroundings. This is where I learned to "think small." Anyway, she also asked us to be creative. So I decided to take an unpopular angle of a flower, complete with little bug and raindrops.

Nancy had some frogs and a fancy setup for photographing them.

This is one patient frog!.

At Nancy's workshop, we were up at 4:45 the first morning and I got this shot that I'm very happy with.

The caterpillar from the underside.

If you zoom into the above shot, you can see the little webbed feet of the caterpillar.

Las Vegas with Philadelphia fireworks superimposed on it. This was shown at ICIS and Reza said some kind things about it. I liked it without the fireworks, but after putting them there, the old shot seems ill-cropped and dull.

Reflection of the Cathedral of Learning (five times at once!) in Mervis Hall glass

Cathedral of Learning in fall splendor, framed by two lampposts

Cathedral of Learning in fall splendor with a tiny sign removed

Reflection of a "bottomless" Cathedral of Learning in Mervis Hall glass

Philly's Love Park, plus the Art Museum in the bottom left foreground

Philadelphia fireworks, July 2, 2005, from the top of our apartment building. Facing Camden NJ. (retouched to remove some sparks that messed up the Camden skyline).

More of the same!

Pittsburgh at night, West End Overlook.

Pittsburgh by day, same spot.

This is an unretouched (except for darkening a little) photo of a storm June 6, 2005--the first placed on this site from my Canon 20d, in Philadelphia off our 16th floor deck. The storm was approaching from the west and the lightning was the most frequent I've seen. This was one in a series of 20-second time exposures. Thanks to the 20d, I did not have to wait at all between exposures and was able to get several dozen photos (of which this was the best). About a half dozen had any lightning at all, but these were very cooperative in their strength and placement. Thanks, Mother Nature!

Pittsburgh from Mount Washington

Cathedral of Learning, Univ. of Pittsburgh, from Frick lawn

This angle of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken in March 2004, really struck me as surreal. I think that it is a common sight, however, but I am still proud of it. More shots are available at galletta.business.pitt.edu/galletta/photos/stanfordsanfran

Ok, so I cheated. The top and bottom halves are from two different shots. I didn't have the camera pointed properly to get both halves, but I only had to turn the camera a few degrees between shots. The couple watched the lightning storm from the beach at Cedar Point. The top part with the 28 second exposure with lightning was taken at about 9:49 PM and the bottom part with the 20-second exposure of the couple was taken at 10:08 PM. Both halves were taken on August 1, 2003, at ISO 80.

A small number of my photos have been used in a variety of "publications." Naturally, they are non-refereed and I've only exhibited my work informally once. However, here is a sample (some remain needing to be scanned and linked):

1995: cover of AIS Americas Conference Advance Program

1995: Other shots in and around downtown Pittsburgh for the 1995 AIS Americas Conference (see the "This is Pittsburgh" pages for the 1995 conference.

1995: Shot of Maureen Jenkins used in University Times

1977-1980: Various wedding photos used in newspaper announcements

1977: Two shots used on the cover of a brochure for a proprietary business college in Erie, PA: one shot of the front of a building and another shot of my wife at sunset.

Self-timer (I think) portrait used on cover of Northern Connections Magazine (Pittsburgh), even though they got the number of days wrong!

And here are some pictures that were not used anywhere, but which have some special entertainment value:

Our neighbor's new dog; perhaps my favorite shot yet from my Olympus E-20N.

Saw this bus on fire on McKnight Road (August 2002) on the way home. This is perhaps my second favorite shot from my Olympus E-20N. See more at http://galletta.business.pitt.edu/busfire/busfire.html.

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

I almost missed this one!

I actually like Pepsi better but they gave up small glass bottles!

This boat came along just in time.

Sometimes when kids pose, they don't fully realize they're posing.

Two dogs who never saw a camera before.

A very tired pup!

Some kids are so intent on little puppies.

It almost looks as if Natalie were telling us how old she would be on her next birthday.

Some kids are so serious!

A halloween pumpkin.

Taffy is asking "now what?" (note; this one won Honorable Mention in an Erie Color Slide Club contest)

From my thinner days at Penn State-Erie when I went cross-country skiing every day rather than eat lunch.

A time exposure as the Gateway Clipper slowly drifted toward the fountain at Three Rivers in Pittsburgh.

Miscellaneous shots around Helsinki and St. Petersburg in December 1998.

Here are 500 shots from our around-the-world trip on Semester at Sea in Fall, 1999. My favorites are (with descriptions next to each shot):
A child having lunch in Vietnam