American Road Trip 1979 on Kodachrome

Richard G said:
Your compositions are amazing. I’ve got to hand it to the guy leading the tour. Put you in some great spots.
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Thanks Richard! The tour company was Trek America, who had a standard itinerary, although tour guides had flexibility as long as all passengers agreed on any change. One such deviation was to the Havasupai reservation in the Grand Canyon, which other groups I spoke to when we bumped into them had not visited. That was defiinitely a highlight.

Early on in my photography I found a copy of Andreas Feininger’s marvelous book Principles of Composition in Photography, and this along with the Masters of Contemporary Photography series and Ernst Haas’s book The Creation were my main influences in those early days.
 
lynnb said:
#USA32-34 Yosemite National Park, 07 June 1979.
Hard to see at this size, but there’s a group of people where the trail in the lower left corner meets the white water, and another hiker on the trail lower down. Those trees are enormous.

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Mamma Mia, trees are really impressive! I can spot someone with a red jacket or backpack!
 
#USA33-25 Gateway Arch (Dragon Gate) on Grant Ave at Bush St, San Francisco, 10 June 1979.
The buildings have had some cosmetic changes since this picture 45 years ago. You can spot the Aussies and New Zealanders in this picture by their footwear.

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Did you make most of these amazing, exceptional, wonderful images with a Nikkor 35/2.8??

I had one of those, and in the brief period I owned it I never made an image I thought acceptable with it. So I sold it and bought a well-used ex-new photog's 35/2.0 which I loved from day 1 and still own and use, when I'm motivated to put a roll of something long expired thru one of my Nikkormat FT2s. All of us have lenses we adored from the first, and other lenses we never bonded with. My 'other' minus was a Nikkor 43-86 which I was given by someone who hated it (even more than I did). I used it a few times in Melbourne in 1986 or 1987 to dispose of 4 rolls of long outdated Kodak Ektachrome Infrared I had. That film had to go to Adelaide for processing and cost me a small fortune, but I still have the slides, occasionally I look at them and find them amusing, especially the portraits I took of our then house cats who came out green, pink and purple with flaming red eyes. Star Wars felines they were...

Something I must thank you for, Lynn. Like most of us I have hundreds of folders of old color negatives sadly faded and color-shifted to the point that either they no longer scan decently or the degraded colors mean what is left of my short lifetime will be at my PC to do post processing. What a good idea to convert them to B&W!! You have given me a new project for when I return to Australia later this year.

I see you have now taken us as far as San Francisco. Interesting to say I was there at about the same time you were. My hotel was on Powell Street which I recall was not too far a hike from Grant Avenue (one of the photos you posted, which I particularly enjoyed as I walked up that hill many times during my photo rambles). Parking a car on that steep hill running down to Market Street was an act of defiance against all the gods of both geography and physics.

Also interestingly, or even by some strange, inexplicable coincidence, when I went back to North Am in 1982 for a year of casual employment as a relieving news reporter, the main office of the media syndicate was across the street from my 1979 budget hotel and directly in front of the place I parked my old Ford Maverick - a car so worn out and broken-down looking, today it would be towed away a few minutes after I parked it anywhere in the USA. The times they sure do change...
 
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DownUnder said:
Did you make most of these amazing, exceptional, wonderful images with a Nikkor 35/2.8??

I had one of those, and in the brief period I owned it I never took a photo I liked with it. So I sold it and bought a well-used ex-new photog's 35/2.0 which I loved from day 1and still own - and use now and then, when I can be motivated to put a roll of something long expired thru one of my Nikkormat FT2s. All of us have lenses we adored from the first time we put them on a camera, and other lenses we never bonded with. My 'other' was a Nikkor 43-86 which I was given by someone who hated it (even more than I did). I recall using it in Melbourne in 1986 or 1987 to use up 4 rolls of Kodak Ektachrome Infrared I had been gifted by the Nikon 43-86 ex-owner. I still have those slides, occasionally I look at them and find them amusing, especially the indoor shots I took of our cats who came out green, pink and purple with flaming red eyes.

Something else I must thank you for, Lynn. Like most of us I have hundreds of folders of old color negatives sadly faded and color-shifted to the point that either they no longer scan decently or the degraded colors mean what is left of my short lifetime will be at my PC to do post processing. What a good idea to convert them to B&W!! You have given me a new project for when I return to Australia later this year.

I see you have now taken us as far as San Francisco. Interesting to say I was there at about the same time you were. My hotel was on Powell Street which I recall was not too far a hike from Grant Avenue (one of the photos you posted, which I particularly enjoyed as I walked up that hill many times during my photo rambles). Parking a car on that steep hill running down to Market Street was an act of defiance against all the gods of both geography and physics.

Also interestingly, or even by some strange, inexplicable coincidence, when I returned to North Am in 1982 for a year of casual work as a news syndicate journalist, the main office of the media syndicate I worked for was directly across the street from my 1979 budget hotel, and directly in front of the place I usually parked my decrepit 1970 Ford Maverick - a car so worn out and broken-down looking, today it would be towed away a few minutes after I parked it anywhere in the USA. The times they sure do change...
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Thanks for the compliment! I’m 99% sure the pictures were with the 35/2.8, but the small doubt is that when digital arrived (in the form of the Coolpix E4500, my first digital camera which cost about AUD$1200) I sold my manual Nikkors (35/2.8, 50/1.4, 105/2.5) in anticipation of upgrading to a DSLR (which I later did with a Canon 5D). I regret that sale, but eventually replaced them when my father in law gifted me his on his passing, along with an F2 Photomic. So I now have the 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.4 and 105mm f/2.5 AI lenses. I don’t think my original 35mm Nikkor was the f/2 simply because I probably couldn’t have afforded it at the time. Sadly I never kept a record of the purchase.

I’ve been delighted with how well Kodachrome converts to BW. That’s opened up a whole new world with my archives.

I have quite a few pictures of San Francisco to add to this thread next. I hope you enjoy the memories as much as I am from that holiday long ago.
 
lynnb said:
#USA02-02 Hollywood Blvd and Las Palmas, LA, 01 May 1979
Check out those cars. It was a different world... The corner building on the right signposted Swensen's is now the Hollywood Bazaar Food Market according to Google street view. Visiting Hollywood Boulevarde was a must-see in LA. It was here that I had my first (and only) run-in with the cops. I had decided to cross the road, so casually stepped off the kerb after checking for traffic as one does in Sydney. A police car came to a screeching halt and an officer admonished me for jaywalking. I apologised profusely explaining that I was an Australian tourist just arrived in LA and crossing the street was something one did back home in Sydney. The officer told me it wasn't allowed in LA and let me go with a warning!

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More of my past. My hotel (I think it was the old Ambassador) was not far from here, on the same street.

I too was "done over" for jaywalking in LA that year. And I used the same excuse as you did, at which the cop looked at me suspiciously and said, "you don't sound like an Aussie!" which I didn't, with a Canadian accent. I had a digger hat with an Aussie pin I'd bought from a disposals shop in Central (Sydney), and gave him the pin as a memento of the occasion. Which got me out of paying the fine.

I was relieved he didn't ask me for ID or looked at the registration slip on my Ford Maverick which was parked nearby and looked very much like the sort of wreck a truant 16 year old would have stolen. It was (conveniently) registered in the name of a friend in New Mexico, the tires were bald, the windscreen wiper on the passenger side never worked, and I didn't have any insurance cover for it. Those good old days. Ahem!!
 
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Me again. Yeh!

Good of you to give us some tech info, Lynn. Many of us are interested in what gear you used and how you made your images, as well as the locations - and of course admiring your superb compositions. You may have missed your calling in life as one of the early travel writer-photographers... the Sydney Morning Herald had several travel sections every week back in those days, in fact I did a fair bit of writing and 'subbing' for those sections in the early '80s until the work was taken back to in-house and I lost that contract. the Herald sure could have used your good image making skills to improve those sections.

I was in Vegas in 79, on my way back to Los Angeles to fly out to Sydney. Those $5 steak dinners were a great 'lure' to get the crowds into the casinos. Being my usual skinflint self I didn't want to throw away a lot of money on the gambling tables, so I stayed with the poker machines - I recall I won enough to pay for my gas all the way back to LA with a pleasant stop in Palm Springs - and the nice gals who were handing around the free drinks mostly ignored me, one older lady took a shine to me (she later said I reminded her of one of her grandsons, ha!) and kept giving me drinks. They were well watered as I suspect the bartenders had worked out I wasn't a big spender and opted to not waste any alcohol on me. But I did win a small packet of coins and I somehow got out of the place with all my pockets full of them. Good for me!!

The vibrant (Kodachrome) colors in your posted images rekindled many memories. My only other visit to Vegas was in December 1982 when I was flying to LA from Toronto to catch a connecting flight to Sydney. I fell asleep and "forgot" to change planes at Chicago - so I ended up in Vegas and had to stay overnight. It was my 35th birthday and Vegas was blanketed in wet snow from a blizzard. After walking around in the cold I found a men's club with rooms and booked in for the night for, as I remember, $5. I was the only guest and when I handed over my passport as ID at the desk, the staff saw it was my 'special day' and made me a gala dinner of delicious leftovers. I didn't have much cash with me so it was a bonus and incredibly kind of them to do this.

The next day I flew on to LA where I had a day's layover. I made my way to the Farmer's Market for an alfresco lunch of bits and pieces and ended up at a table with the writer Christopher Isherwood and others of the local literaty. I wasn't their equal but they were kind to me and I recall someone paid for my lunch. As Lynn wrote, Americans could be amazingly kind to strangers and visitors. I hope that still is their way.

Not exactly a photo memory but oh boy, the good times I had that year...
 
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Thanks for the amusing anecdotes. On returning to Australia I made the rounds of photo agencies and anyone else I could think of… an enlightening and deeply disappointing experience. The universal response was “you’re not a known photographer, we’ll give you nothing but you’ll get image credit so you can get known”. On protest I was offered $10 a picture. Laughable.

Eventually a travel magazine offered me enough for my Grand Canyon Havasupai pictures to cover the cost of my airfares. I was happy until I found the magazine editor had sold my images to third parties without my knowledge or permission. I had to hire a solicitor to get a small compensation payment. The whole experience turned me right off trying to sell my images again.

Fast forward four decades and I was contacted by a leading ad agency to use some of my 1970s pub photos they had found on my Flickr account. This for a blue chip company’s national ad campaign during Covid. That was a very professionally handled approach in stark contrast to my early experience. They paid well.
 
@lynnb @DownUnder Reading your experiences from years past is something I deeply enjoy about RFF. Thank you both (and others in this incredible thread) for continuing to share your anecdotes. Photography as a medium attracts those who want to preserve experiences for later, so it's only natural that a forum like RFF brings us all together.
 
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Lynn, you and I must have gone to the same so-called agency - I had that same experience in Sydney in the '80s. I was referred to a mob of shysters by a publisher I did work for, so they must have felt obligated to at least look.

A hefty sleaze bag (male) in a murky office in a decaying old building in the CBD made a cursory examination of my images and made such intelligent comments (while looking at a crowd image taken at a busy intersection near the Town Hall) "do you have model releases for all these people?" To which I grabbed my portfolio and left. My publisher client later got an earful of my less than polite thoughts about all that, and admitted he was embarrassed. That dismal experience 'cured' me of wanting to hand over my images to any third party reseller.

A few years later I contacted an agency in Toronto I had dealt with in the 1960s, who apologetically responded that they no longer dealt with travel photography but they recommended an agent in Holland. That was a pleasant experience with some good sales. In the late '90s this gentleman retired but when he returned my slides, suggested I should set up my own dedicated web site (this in the infancy years of the WWW) to sell privately. Which I did, some years later, with mixed results as by then the great masses had discovered posting digicrap photos on the 'net and the market was oversaturated. We live and we learn.

Anyway, it's good to know you made a sale. To my eye your images as posted here are certainly of publishing quality.

Interesting they found you through Flickr. I need must now rethink my pessimistic attitude to that site.
 
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