Take A Bow

Early Sunday morning at Annapolis Harbor Boatyard in Eastport.

Old School

I get to play with Jim B's Leica IIIc.

Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day!

Green Energy

Found on the sunny side of Berman House, an 1890's building in Annapolis that's now an elegant bed-and-breakfast called Gibson's Landing. Berman House is a block from City Dock in one direction and a block from US Naval Academy in the other.

When I was in college, I worked summers and holidays at Stansbury Photo in Reisterstown Plaza. The owners, Mr. & Mrs. Ehrenzweig, treated us boys as family. It was a pleasure to work there, and I learned a lot.

This photo is probably from summer 1970. The cheapest SLR we sold back then was the Praktica Nova 1B from East Germany. I noticed when I held it up to my ear and fired the shutter, it would go sproooiiiinnnggg instead of a more solid thunk like the Pentaxes, Canons, and Nikons. We loved making fun of the Pratica, and I had one of my comrades snap this photo of me being a wise-guy.

Ironically, many years later when I got back into photography, I bought and used several later-vintage Prakticas. The later models, from the 1980's, particularly the MTL models, were about equal to a middling 1967 Japanese SLR, which is to say, perfectly good.

Morning Shadows

Early morning, bright light, mini-blinds, nice vase, spiky plant.

A good recipe for a nice image. Worth getting up off the living room sofa and retrieving my camera for.

I Hearby Declare...

In early January 1957, a little before my 7th birthday, Mom took me downtown to apply for my citizenship. I remember a very patient gentleman carefully explaining to me the concept of citizenship and the obligations attached to it, to which I solemnly agreed.

I had to sign several small photos along the edges. Mom said, "Now Stevie, write neatly, because President Eisenhower is going to see this."

Would my Mom fib to me? No way, so I took it seriously and signed as carefully as my not-quite-seven-year-old motor skills allowed. What she said made sense to me, anyway. I pictured our grandfatherly President going through papers on his desk, coming to my application, smiling, and saying, "of course, Stevie should be a citizen!"

So on that long-ago January day, I took the following oath, linking me to a long line of those who came before me, those who have come since, and those still unborn who will one day adopt our country as their own:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God