On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
When Watergirl asked if I would like to participate in this series, reflecting on my photographic journey, I frankly wondered if I could make a narrative out of what seems to me to be a meandering path to where I am today. I’m not a trained photographer or artist; I’m a research biologist who has dabbled in photography for decades. But with the help of some background history, both personal and familial, I decided I could make it work. At least it works for me. You, the worthy reader, will have to judge for yourself if that is true.
My photographic journey begins before I was born, since my father was a photographer from a very early age. All of my brothers and sisters got a camera (Brownie box camera, in my case) for our tenth birthday. My dad majored in photojournalism at Kansas State University, which coincidentally is the institution where I eventually found myself as a professor in the Biology Division. He graduated in 1942, which means that Pearl Harbor happened halfway through his senior year, and just everyone enlisted in the armed forces after graduation.
After basic training, his photojournalism background got him on track to go to war not as a combat soldier, but as an officer (eventually captain) in a Army Air Force photoreconnaissance unit that was shipped to North Africa in 1943 and then to Italy. I have lots of pictures that he took during the war, mostly from Italy. This is a personal favorite: the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 1944. Those B-25s were not moved out of danger as the eruption started, even though this was the Pompeii Airfield… Most of them were destroyed. If you have read Catch-22, which is set in this same Italian theater, that probably sounds familiar.
After the war my dad moved back to his home town (Garden City KS), met my mom, got married, and had 6 kids. He went into the photographic business for himself and with others, but apparently was a better photographer than he was a businessman. Eventually he went to work for Frank D. (Pop) Conard, who had been running a photographic studio in that town for decades. Conard is famous for his exaggerated postcards, like this one, featuring huge grasshoppers, jackrabbits, etc. from the Dust Bowl days that hit that part of the country in the 1930’s. Those postcards bring a pretty good price from collectors these days. Here is some history for Conard, courtesy of my friend Patrick Clement. I should note that this image is scanned from one of the original Conard negatives, not a postcard, and that I managed to get 5 of those negatives when the Conard/Rintoul studio closed in the mid 1980’s. They are priceless to me.
In high school and college I kept up with photography, but my chosen career in biological research focused that a bit. I developed a lifelong interest in insect macrophotography, which was difficult to do at the time and is a LOT easier these days. I also became interested in bird photography during my time in graduate school at Stanford University, since one of my best friends there, Mark Chappell, was and still is an amazing photographer. Here is his photo site. Gaze upon these images, and if you don’t come back to look at any more of mine, I wouldn’t blame you.
Mark was an excellent mentor, and I had the bird photography bug from then on. After passing my prelim exam I bought a good SLR and a good bird lens, the legendary Novoflex 400 mm follow-focus telephoto. I followed Mark around and photographed birds with him, mostly with Tri-X B&W film, sometimes with Kodachrome. I spent long hours in the darkroom, which is about the most therapeutic activity I know. Here’s one of those early images, a Song Sparrow in the salt marsh at the Palo Alto Baylands.
As a graduate student in the Bay Area in the 1970s I had the opportunity to go to concerts and other events. In the summer of 1974 Joan Baez and Arlo Guthrie performed in the Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford Campus. I don’t take a lot of pictures with people in them, but concerts have interesting characters sometimes. Here’s Arlo on the stage, gazing up at Joan as she sang one of her timeless ballads.
When I started my job at KSU and started a family, I did not have a lot of spare time for photography, but I did keep up as much as possible. Gradually B&W film gave way to color slide film, and I have several thousand slides from that period, which now live in boxes in the basement. Scanning slides to make digital images is tedious, so they are definitely not all scanned, nor is it likely that they deserve to be. One of the images from that time is this Kentucky Warbler, which gave me this great wing flapping as it was being released after being banded. Interestingly this image appeared in an issue of Science magazine, but without my permission. Some intern grabbed it off a government website where bird images from many people had been uploaded; the website had the clear caveat to contact the individual photographers before using one of them. The intern apparently failed to read that fine print. I was a bit surprised to open my weekly copy of Science and see my picture! I got an apology, a fine-print acknowledgment of the error in a later edition, and the satisfaction that I had one of my pictures published in Science!
Digital photography slowly overtook film, and I took the plunge in the early 2000’s. This is the very first image I took with my new digital Canon SLR as soon as I took it out of the box and charged up the battery. It is my cat, the dearly beloved and dearly departed Snickelfritz, gazing out the back window and thinking deep thoughts, no doubt.
In subsequent years I was able to travel more and practice my photographic hobby in some exotic locations, such as New Zealand, Brazil, and Ecuador. Many of those trips were Study Abroad classes taught by my brilliant spouse Elizabeth and my brilliant colleagues Marcellus Caldas and Martha Smith-Caldas. I tagged along as the teaching assistant, paying my own way but having a great time learning and interacting with students in these foreign lands. Most of the time the photographic subjects on these excursions have been birds, but sometimes I try my hand at landscapes. This is a view of the formation known as Kicker Rock (aka Leon Dormido) on the north side of San Cristobal in the Galápagos Islands, as seen through a sea arch known as Darwin’s Window. As you might notice, there are still some birds in this picture.
After I retired I told Elizabeth that I was going to get serious about my photography. She giggled, but it is true that spending more time on this avocation has allowed me to grow in ways that I could not do when I was still working. One of the things on my bucket list was to go to East Africa, both for the wildlife and because it is, for all of us, our ancestral home. In 2018 I did that (Elizabeth was in the Galápagos at the same time), and I was simply blown away by all of it. Here is perhaps my favorite image from that trip, a Lilac-breasted Roller, grumpily waiting out an afternoon thundershower in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania.
My other post-retirement obsession has been getting good images of birds in flight. That Novoflex lens and manual SLR from my youth, which was one of the best rigs for birds in flight, has long been superseded, so I had a lot to learn (and I am still learning). I also have learned from former biology students, some of whom have gone on to become world-class nature photographers, like Judd Patterson. Innovations in autofocus, faster lenses, image-processing programs to bring out the best in digital images – all of these help to get much better images, but all of them have some steep learning curves as well! Here’s a recent shot, a Rough-legged Hawk over a snowy field here in Kansas last December.
And, like Steve in Mendocino, I will include a portrait of the artist as an old man, sitting with a statue of Charles Darwin on San Cristobal Island in the Galápagos. If you are interested in seeing other images from the digital phase of my career, I have a portfolio site. Steve’s caveat applies here as well; there are many images there, and more are added regularly. So check it out and maybe bookmark it for more looking on a rainy day in the future.
H.E.Wolf
Beautiful photos, and an absorbing personal memoir. Thank you for sharing both.
WaterGirl
I think it should be a rule that all photographers have to include a portrait of the person, and an amazing cat photo.
Snickelfritz is very handsome, and I love that photo. I love that name.
Looks like he could be a contender in a stare down with Tunch, Steve, and Tikka.
WaterGirl
I am guessing that everyone it out and about on this Sunday afternoon.
eclare
What a wonderful personal history! And that Lilac breasted Roller did not like getting wet! I have some photos displayed from my trip to Kenya, that would make a lovely addition. How do I do that?
Rob
@WaterGirl: I was watching though not photographing birds, just got back a half hour ago.
This is a lovely post. It is great to read about Dr. Rintoul, his photography, and his background.
Betty
Great story, and I enjoy all your photos.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Guess that leaves me out; I actively avoid photos of myself(Think of the Children!) and no cat.
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: Thanks. Yes, Snickelfritz had a look that resembled a glare. But if you knew him, you know that it was mostly just a vacant stare. He was a great cat, but as they say, not the brightest bulb on the string… In his dotage he became quite rotund, and we considered changing his name to Hindenburg.
debbie
Great story and great photos—what an interesting life! I am certain I will have nightmares about giant grasshoppers!
donatellonerd
thank you, that was lovely. i love your bird pictures. i got a brownie box camera for my sixth birthday.
Raoul Paste
Wouldn’t I love to say that I have had all of these adventures. It’s a good selection of pictures, and the narrative is inspiring
tybee
That plane in the foreground sure looks like a P-38 and the one to the right could be a P-47
raven
I wonder if your dad knew Art Sinsabaugh?
He also started with a brownie, was a Signal Corps photographer in WW2. He was a professor at Illinois and he shot landscapes with a “banquet” camera.
Art hung out at the House of Chin in Champaign and he was a really interesting guy to know
eta In the Army he would lay on the runway and take pictures of planes taking off.
Albatrossity
@tybee: Dunno what other planes were there. Most accounts I’ve read, like this one, only talk about the bombers being lost.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Incredible history. Thanks for sharing. The common name for the ‘Tarangire’ is ‘John Cole birb’.
Nelle
Wonderful photos. I especially like that you included your heritage from your father in this memoir of your life as a photographer. Our parents do imprint on us.
Is there a drop in the Western Meadowlark population? After returning from living overseas, I saw fewer. But that may be a difference between living in Lawrence (where we were for four years before Iowa) and where I grew up in Wichita and went to college in Hillsboro.
I find a bit of an overlap in the story line, too. My father brought home a similar photo of volcanic eruption from Italy. He also served in North Africa and Italy (and a few stops in southern France). He was a Mennonite who accepted the draft as a non-combatant and served on a hospital ship, picking up wounded and bringing them back to the States for eleven round trips across the Atlantic. Since German was his first language, he also served as a translator for prisoners-of-war. I likely shouldn’t be surprised but do often find that people my age often had fathers in the the same areas of combat during WWII.
raven
WW2 Xmas card from Art.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: You must have missed the OTR in June that had a giant grasshopper at Anza Borrego.
BeautifulPlumage
Great history! Love knowing about those novelty postcards, also. I still haven’t ordered the purple Martin in the rain from your website….might switch for the lilac breasted roller. Thank you for sharing.
raven
@Nelle: It’s always interesting to have people say “did you know such and such”. There were over 500,000 troops in Vietnam in 69 and the chances were pretty slim. Then again you never know, I met up with a person here who’s father was most likely right next to my father in the Corregidor landing.
Nelle
@tybee: My husband said that the P-38 has tricycle gear and a twin tail so he thought it was more of an air coupe. (I know nothing of this but his father helped design the B-25 and P-51 for North American, so he grew up studying all the different planes.)
frosty
Abatrossity – I had good results sending some slides from the 1960s to Scancafe to get them digitized. The hardest part was going through them all and picking the ones to keep. I only had a few hundred to deal with though!
Nelle
@raven: And when I lived in NZ, it wasn’t uncommon to have someone ask me if I knew such and such an American. Growing up in an ethnic group where we were supposed to marry within the group (lest we be “unequally yoked”), I learned as a teenager to play the Mennonite game to figure out family connections, both as a way to establish relationships and avoid those who were to closely related when it came to dating (my mother had over 70 first cousins on one side alone, so it paid to stay alert). I eventually just bailed on Mennonites when it came to dating.
MazeDancer
Wonderful story, well told, Albatrossity
Thank you so much for taking us through your journey.
And while all the photos are outstanding, gotta love the Lilac-breasted Roller and the late, great Snickelfritz.
Would also love to know who the woman is next to Arlo. But unknown she will remain.
Nelle
Albatrossity, did you get up to the Platte in spring this year for the crane migration? Do you go every year?
Chief Oshkosh
@tybee: I think you’re right.
But Wow! Great photos and stories – thanks!
frosty
@tybee:
@Nelle:
Not to hijack the thread, but it’s definitely a P-38 in the front and most likely a P-47 to the right. I can’t distinguish the others well enough to ID them.
A well described photographic odyssey, Albatrossity!
raven
@Nelle: My dad’s cousin died of disease on Guadalcanal and was buried in the US cemetery in Wellington. My old man spent a whole day taking the train up to visit the grave and, after the war, the family had him exhumed and brought back to the states. My old man bitched about that until he died.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Happily, I did! ?
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s okay, you are grandfathered in! :-)
raven
@MazeDancer: His wife Jackie?
Albatrossity
@raven: Cool! That’s a great Christmas card.
I have a group photo of my dad’s unit in Italy (4th Photographic Technical Squadron) from 1945, and no one with that last name shows up there. I do love the unit logo, a giant winged hand pointing the way for some bombs!
WaterGirl
@BeautifulPlumage: I have purchased 4 photos from Albatrossity’s website – printed on metal – and it’s a great medium for the bird and wildlife photos. No frame, all photo.
Albatrossity
@Nelle: Did not get to the Platte this year, alas. Hopefully next spring. We don’t go every year, but probably 3 out of every 5 years or so we find our way back there.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I am considering banning snakes (shudder) from OTR. Of course I’m not serious about banning the snake photos, but they do give me the willies. (double ugh)
raven
@Albatrossity: All his Bio says is “Far East”. A shot in the dark.
4D*hiker
You may describe yourself as “artist as an old man,” but your mind is young and lively. You are an inspiration. Thank you for this post.
zhena gogolia
Incredible photographs, as always.
That Arlo Guthrie photograph sums up an entire era!
zhena gogolia
@4D*hiker:
I have always assumed that Albatrossity is about 35 years old!
Immanentize
@Albatrossity: great photo essay. Thanks! I love your Twitter bird of the day, too.
Also, the squadron photo is A+! Your dad was a good looking fellow. Also, I am glad my name is not W.H. Pigg
Louise B.
Wonderful story! Thanks for telling it.
Albatrossity
@Immanentize: I actually know someone who is related to H.W. Pigg. That is a small world story, for sure.
And yes, my dad was a handsome fellow. He would have been 100 years old this last year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: I’m with you on that NO ?’s.
MazeDancer
@raven:
Possibly. Though her hair was lighter.
Jackie and Arlo were married for 43 years before she died. So, if it’s not Jackie, just a passing fancy. Of which, most singer stars have many.
Tehanu
The Lilac-breasted Roller is now my favorite bird! Thanks for this, really enjoyed it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty: I bought a scanner a few years ago and have scanned all of my slides as jpg and a few as DNG’s. I reprocessed one this morning(sharpened, sky replacement). I like to have total control over my stuff.
cope
Thanks for the compelling bio and, as always, wonderful images.
Immanentize
@Albatrossity: If you place your thumb and forefinger two inches apart; that’s how big the world seems at times.
Starfish
Thank you so much. I have skipped most of the “On the Road” threads since Alain died. It just felt too sad.
Anyway, I was really curious about your photos because they are gorgeous. Your birds are a highlight of my Twitter timeline. Thank you.
WaterGirl
I should add that anyone who is interested in being featured in our Artists in Our Midst series should get in touch with me. Photography, drawing, painting, music, etc. If you have some talent, we are happy to feature it.
MazeDancer
@Starfish:
You are not alone.
WaterGirl
@Starfish: Albatrossity is every Monday morning.
You should check out our Paris After Dark series, that was really nice. I like to think that Alain would approve.
Lapassionara
@Albatrossity: I’ve always enjoyed your photos and your essays. We once lived in Salina for a few years, and I grew very fond of the prairie and its bird population. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
JeanneT
Love this post, Albatrossity! -I didn’t know I wanted to know about how you grew in your life and your craft, but I did! Thank you.
persi
@Nelle: My father also served in Morocco and came home after a stint in Italy. He waited for a boat home and spent 6 months in Rome. Small world.
WaterGirl
@persi: Welcome! Your first comment has to be manually approved, but after that your comments show up right away.
J R in WV
@Starfish:
I’m just the opposite, I think these photo sets are a great memorial to Alain.
We corresponded quite a bit about trout creeks in eastern WV, mushrooms in the woods, etc. I was shocked when he passed, and am grateful to Watergurl for keeping On the Road active and thriving.
And David is a great nature photographer, I learn from him every time I look at his work. And all the details about the birbs!
Thanks Albatrossity!!
Geminid
@Albatrossity: Thank you for your excellent bird posts. I share them with my friends and my sister, and they really appreciate them.
I recently read The Testament (1999), by John Grisham. When the protagonist flew to western Brazil and took a riverboat into the Pantanel, I immediately thought of your trip there and the photographs you brought back.
Mark in Algarrobos
Thoroughly enjoyed the story and the photos. Makes me want to run out and photo all the birds and iguanas and things that I see.. but probably won’t get to it.
pinacacci
Lovely post top to bottom. Thank you!
Steve from Mendocino
I think you underestimate yourself, David. Your work is consistently professional, lovely, and tasteful. You compare well to your friend. It’s a pleasure to share this platform with you.
Steve
JanieM
Haven’t read all the comments yet but thanks, Albatrossity, your pictures are an inspiration, as always, and it’s great to hear your story. I especially love your wife’s giggle when you told her you were going to get serious.
raven
It might be Alice Brock!
Albatrossity
@Steve from Mendocino: Thanks, Steve. I will always be in awe of Mark’s pictures, but I appreciate your comment. It is also a pleasure for me to share this site with you; I learn from your photos and your commentary every time you post!
Yutsano
I’m gonna pile on here. I am just in awe of your photographic talent. And I love your pictures. It’s so hard to pick the one I like the most every time I see one of your photo sets. But I do love raptors. I also love being an alum of a university* that pioneered raptor biology sciences.
*I started at Boise State. I actually contemplated switching from music education to raptor biology while I was there. Unfortunately it was only one year. Still a formative year of my life.
lashonharangue
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m with you on that NO ?’s.
Wouldn’t that make life difficult for FPers posting on politics? /s
Laura Too
Stunning pictures, wonderful stories. Thank you for sharing!
BigJimSlade
@albatrossity, thanks for the great story/background and wonderful pictures!
That Lilac breasted Roller is something else! Looks like an 80s rocker on top, with a multi-flavored sorbet for a body.
West of the Cascades
Wonderful photographs, wonderful history. Thank you!
Darwin’s arch, RIP (in May 2021 – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/18/galapagos-rock-formation-darwins-arch-collapses-from-erosion)
Albatrossity
@West of the Cascades: Wow! I did not know that it had collapsed. That is sad, but I guess I am glad to have seen it a few times before it disappeared. Thanks for letting me know.
pat
Thank you for this. I have a burrowing owl eyeing me from the wall calendar next to my computer!
As one who has dabbled in photography since the 80’s I am always blown away by your photos.
Do you ever share info about how they were taken? ISO, shutter speed, aperture, lens, how close you were to the birds and whether you had to crop the photo?
JoyceCB
Wonderful photos and story, Albatrossity. I lack the patience (and skills) to photograph birds, and have great admiration for those who can.
WaterGirl
@lashonharangue: Wait a minute, weren’t those your snake photos last week? :-)
J R in WV
SNAKES!!
For many years we had a black king snake living in the house. I think he was trapped when the house was closed up, and he made sure we never had a rodent nor beetles or bugs. Rarely we heard a sliding sound that we couldn’t identify.
Then while a friend handyman was installing a new water heater, he asked me to come downstairs, and showed me a shed snake skin on top of the main HVAC return duct, 60+ inches long. A biologist neighbor studied it under a magnifying glass to ID the snake, told us shed snake skins shrink after the snake peels them off, expected the snake was closer to 6 feet than to 5 feet.
I think he either escaped to the great outdoors or died of old age, no sign of him for quite a while now. Black snakes of many types are common on our farm, and copperheads are rare to the point where I haven’t seen one in decades. All a good thing.
Before we got any livestock we were fencing around the back of the place, up on the high ridge. At lunch break sitting on a big log, I saw a black snake who had climbed a big old tree in the crevices of the bark — it was poised at a woodpecker hole waiting for someone to pass through that space, coming or going, it was going to be lunch, or dinner, whatever. Snake was immobile, waiting as long as it took.
Back when we kept livestock I was standing in the barn one evening late, when a big black snake fell off a rafter, landed next to me on a pile of empty feed sacks — I like snakes, but was always glad he didn’t land on me!
lashonharangue
@WaterGirl: Yes they were. I acknowledge banning snake photos from OTR is within your editorial authority. But given your reaction to snakes, are you going to ask the others to stop posting pictures of some politicians we could name? ;-)
Sandia Blanca
Albatrossity, I have always loved your photos, and I thank you for sharing more of your story. I was happy to discover that you and I were at Stanford during some of the same years (my undergrad was 72-76). Would love to see more photos from that era. Thank you!
Albatrossity
@pat: Thanks! Glad to hear that a burrowing owl is keeping you company!
I do sometimes share those technical details, but have found that most people don’t care much about them. As for cropping, yeah, I do that, depending on the image and the quality, it can be a lot, or a little. For example, the shot of Darwin’s Arch is not hardly cropped at all; a lot of the birds in flight shots are cropped significantly.
Albatrossity
@Sandia Blanca: Neat! What was your major at Stanford?
I do have more photos from that era, but they are all on film, and I haven’t scanned most of them. Someday I might get around to that, but it works bee a chore, and I don’t have a lot of shots of the campus. Most are from hiking or beach trips, for sure.
MomSense
We are so lucky to have such wonderful artists in our jackaltariat. Albatrossity, Bill, Steve, Janie.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Madeleine
Yesterday morning, having coffee with friends at an outdoor table, I spent some time taking in the details of a fancy sparrow—a house sparrow probably. I’ve decided that I want to get to know sparrows better. Thank you, Albatrossity, for waking me up to common birds, as well as to the faraway or spectacular.
Thank you too for your photographic life story, words and photos: your father’s Vesuvius, your cat’s reflected face, the beautiful little angry bird . . .
wvng
@frosty: My wife recently sent several hundred slides to a scanning service. They did a fine job and the prices were very reasonable.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
The fewer of those, the better!
pat
@Albatrossity:
You can count me as someone who cares about them!
Mostly I guess I wonder how you got so darn close to those birds in the perfect light, with the perfect camera settings, and then I realize you spend a lot more time in the field than I do… Sigh.
WaterGirl
@lashonharangue: No, I don’t actually feel that I can/should ban anything on OTR unless it’s racist, sexist, etc.
It just startles me, i shudder, and then move on. I do think I can whine about it a little bit, though. :-)
mrmoshpotato
@lashonharangue:
Non-existent problem seeing as how no one posts pictures of Rick Scott. :)
Sure Lurkalot
My interest in birdwatching really increased during COVID though my photographs remain poor. I use a camera for water birds and binoculars for the peepers and the big ones in flight.
I love your posts because of their breadth of knowledge, beauty and variety but also because I know how hard it is to capture what you do so very very well. Thank you!
JPL
Thank you for sharing your photo journey with us. Your pictures of birds in flight are amazing.
susanna
Thank you for the magnificent photographs, enhanced by your narrative. I join the chorus here praising the enjoyed results of your work/play, and now I’ll use my spare time looking over your site and that of the other mentioned photographer.
My granddaughter(6) took a nature summer class last week and now pledges love for all things birds. I’ll safely assume your pictures will stoke her birding enthusiasm.
I’d also like pictures from the early-mid 1970s as that’s when I moved to this area(not connected to Stanford) and remain to this day. Of course, trips to beaches and hikes in the Santa Cruz Mtns+ continue to be popular venues.
lashonharangue
Albatrossity thank you so much for all the beautiful photos. Your dedication to capturing all those critters is much appreciated.
Regine Touchon
Thanks for sharing your photos and artistic journey. I so want a ride on that grasshopper though.
WaterGirl
Albatrossity’s website, which you can find any time by clicking on his nym.
Albatrossity
@Regine Touchon:
Me too!
Sandia Blanca
@Albatrossity: I majored in journalism, with a second major in Russian. I wrote feature stories for The Stanford Daily for a couple of years, which was great fun. I did spend some time up in the hills on the edge of the campus. Highlight of that time was being frightened off by a vicious . . . cow?!
tybee
@J R in WV:
amen
evodevo
@J R in WV:
King snakes eat copperheads…just sayin’