Old Friend

10 X 8 Gandolfi Field Camera, Cuban mahogany with leather bellows. Schneider 360mm Symmar-S lens. Majestic model 1200 aluminum tripod. Field camera custom ordered and hand-built by Fred Gandolfi after a shop visit and my return from England's Medway College of Design. 

Fred Gandolfi, second in from right. Borland Road, Peckham, London.

 

 

 

Over some thirty years we covered a lot of ground.

1976-1977  Black Studio Portraits (downtown studio, Sarasota, Fla.)

1977-2005  Florida Field Portraits (Southwest Florida)

1989-1990  Brazil Field Portraits (Rio de Janeiro - Pantanal)

1997  Garden Portraits (Individual sub-tropical plants outside the home) Siesta Key, Fla.

1998  Cuban Street Portraits (Havana) 

2007  "Mi Familia" (book project of family portraits) Siesta Key, Fla. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long time comin’

Coming up on two years. (Bout’ a year and 9 months)

The after ....

 

 

and the after, after ... today, the property finally cleared.

 

 

 

 

 

Maine: Central Highlands

A low-key celebration of our country's 250th anniversary.

4th of July parade day, Sebec, Maine 

 

 

 

 

 

Village of Sebec (Wilson photo)

 

 

Cabin stay on Schoodic Lake.

 

'Wildlife Wilson'

 

 

 

Sandy & Santi (Wilson photo)

 

 

  

 

 

Florida: a back road

Lake Wales, Fla 

Bok 'Singing' Tower.  At 298 feet above sea level on Florida's highest central hill, Edward W. Bok, a Dutch-born immigrant, here envisioned his personal, "place of beauty, serenity, and peace." 

Bok’s singing tower, completed in 1928, rose to its famed height through a combination of imported 'carillon' bells and quarried pale pink, Georgia marble.  Edward W. Bok gifted his final fulfillment of landscaped gardens, this National Historic Landmark, to remain always, "A sanctuary to be used as a place of rest for the human spirit."

 

 

 

Spook Hill.  Florida's only 'gravity' or magnetic spot, where cars can feel or appear to roll uphill.

 

 

The ‘Thirsty Dragon’ Pub.  My oldest daughter's favorite pet. The two of us along for a week's ride.

 

 

Cassadaga, Fla

 

 

 Cassadaga Hotel 

 

 

 

 

 

My daughter's dealt cards after her reading from a local spiritualist's Celtic deck.  "Ace of Cups". 

 

 

Cassadaga's Camp founder (1894) & spiritualist, Geo. P. Colby's personal reading & early seance table. 

 

 

Seated out on the hotel's large open veranda, a late night of lightning and heavy rain.

 

 

 

Cross Creek, Fla 

Noted author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yearling cabins at Cross Creek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taxidermied "yearling" mount under glass at the cabins neighboring restaurant.

 

 

Cross Creek

 

Our cabin. Our final night out on the road.

 

 

 

colonoscopy

Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

Waiting in the endoscopy lounge, waiting to be drug back. Everyone's head appeared to be down, but I was excited. Couldn't wait.

 

 

 

Fightin' For Florida

My son Wilson's latest documentary film was recently screened at the AMC theater in downtown St. Petersburg for the Sunscreen Film Festival. His documentary titled, ‘Fighting For Florida’, showcasing the state’s multiple current environmental concerns, won the Dave Barrett Award for overall best cinematography.

  

 

Waved me over for some red-carpeting. As a group, always all a little goofy.

 

 

 

Lower Myakka River

Lower Myakka’s tidal salt marsh bordering the south-western edge of Deer Prairie Creek Preserve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

White mangroves propagating along the river's tidal mud banks.

 

 

 

An older landmark and early home along the lower Myakka River at Tarpon Point.