thanks, grandpa

“Photography was never simply a hobby or a profession for me. Once I began taking pictures, it became an integral part of my life.” Galen Rowell in Mountain Light

(It’s not as if it wasn’t obvious before this, but…) The degree to which photography has become an integral part of my life was brought home to me recently when I flew back to Pennsylvania to visit family. My carry-on luggage was my Tamrac camera backpack (with two cameras & three lenses), and my greatest concern about my suitcase was whether my tripod would fit into it. It did.

I like to think that I came by my passion for photography honestly, since my Grandpa Berty was quite the avid amateur photographer. Maybe there’s a photography gene that got passed along to me. I’ve had one of my grandfather’s old cameras for a while now (a venerable Canon AE-1), and when I returned to Colorado from this most recent visit home, I was able to bring another one of his cameras with me… a top-of-the-line Kodak Instamatic Reflex, made in Germany, with Schneider-Kreuznach 50mm & 135mm lenses. Cool.

While I was home in PA, my family got together to celebrate my grandpa’s 91st birthday. I know, Wow! As he was opening gifts and I had my camera in hand, snapping some shots of the celebration, I couldn’t help but say a silent thanks for the priceless gift he had passed along to me: a love for photography and a passion for looking at life through the lens of a camera.

My grandfather loved to photograph flowers. Below is a photo he shot of flowers at his home in Falls Creek, PA (if you’re a local, properly pronounced “false crick”) and then below it is a photo I took at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh during my visit home.

Thanks, Grandpa.