Show Off: Your favorite old photos

[CJ Swartz]

We have threads to inspire us to get out and shoot something new (Photo Assignment), threads to show off what we just recently shot or developed or processed (Photographed or Processed Today), but what about all those images from past years -- sitting in photo boxes or albums or ignored at the back of hard drive?

So let's bring out those dusty landscapes, forgotten action shots of years past, nature images of wildlife who have migrated elsewhere -- pick out one or more of your favorites that you might have forgotten you even had and Show Off!

[Sweetlight]

Zen and the Art of Shrimping
These shrimping photos are presented in several varieties for the convenience of a client so pardon the redundancy but........ Since we are here let me explain a bit to those unfamiliar with the art of dipping the shrimp.
Much like when Grasshopper caught a fly with his chopsticks, so is the game of dipping shrimp at times but on a good night the flood of crustaceans screaming by your boat in the tide can be frustrating, bewildering, addicting and if it gets in your blood, you're hooked.
Many a night as a boy I spent in the Oak Hill area with my father and uncle waiting for tides to change, for the moon to twist into the right shape and for that first shrimp to hit the white lights submerged just below the surface as a boat full of men beat at the water with large nets trying to gain the honor of first shrimp of the night.
In those days a much-followed rule of thumb was a strong run of shrimp on the first full moon in June. The full-grown critters would catch a ride on the tide to the ocean where they would lay their little ones. Soon after the newly spawned would return back to the inland water areas.The process would then begin again.
When my arms became strong enough I could hold two nets in a criss-cross manner, just under the surface, waiting for the shrimp to find themselves deep in the sock of the net. You never knew if they would run shallow or deep but with a little testing you could feel that pop in your net as you found the right level and they started to fill the net. On the best nights it was all I could do to hold the nets against the tides but as the sock filled with the Oak Hill Reds I would have to lean my body back into it to keep from being flipped forward into the river. It was such a rush when dad would finally say, - pull your nets in, let's see what you got - What a site on those good nights when the sock in that net was one big ball of shrimp, some of them I still have photos of that would measure in the 18-inch range (we called them turkey legs). In those days only 5-gallons were allowed and the night would end quickly. Most times you were fine with that as the humidity and heat had to be at 100 and the mosquitoes so thick that your lungs filled with them on every breath.
Sunrise would not be far away so we would head to one of our fishing holes and drown a few of our nights catch, adding trout, redfish and snook to the cooler. It was a full night with me, dad and uncle braving the elements, bugs and long hours without sleep. Some of my favorite nights were ones when ex baseball player, Tim Foley, would join the group of us. This always added a little bit more awe for a young boy. Some weekends we would head back after fishing, ice the nights prizes down, go to sleep so we could wake up and do it all again. It was all I could do to keep up with the men but I was only a step behind, you can believe that.

These days I love to pass over Haulover Bridge at night when the shrimp are running. Sometimes hundreds of boats line the canal, all aglow like a Christmas tree. In my younger days most folks used Jerry-Rigged 12v white lights, glued to pvc or any other method they could find so the depth could be adjusted. Today’s shrimpers have made much more a lighting science of it. A glimpse down the boat filled canal reveals a shimmering dance floor of boats bathed in a rainbow of different colors. White lights have been replaced with greens, yellows, reds, pinks, purples, and blues and now they are on wires that allow them to be set shallow or deep without a problem.
One thing remains the same though as I sat in the shadows the Australian Pines along Haulover Canal watching the sun set and the dance of every twinkling light swaying in the tide as each boat adds his preferred twinkling color to the green water. I find the nearest boat with a young child, net in hand and eyes locked on the water, just waiting for that first tasty treat to get close enough to beat the water into a froth trying to net it. From the back of the boat I can hear my dad say - boy, there will be plenty more, just let them come to you. - Sure enough that child eases into his daddy's instructions, finds a sweet spot in his stance and becomes mesmerized as the fairylike sealife drifts by. It won't be long 'til it's all his aching arms and back can do to hold against the rushing water and not a second too late daddy says, "pull 'em in son, let's see what you got."

P.S. - Please notice the large shadows of sea trout just inside the light at the shadow's edge at rear of boat. They like shrimp too

[Photocrafter]

What a wonderful story Sweetlight.. The story was almost as colourful as your lovely photo and renditions of it.. That last photo is sweet too..

Regards, Robert

[beatles2]

This a pic of my son. It has and more than likely will always be my fav. He is now 28, so this was taken a while ago. I had an Olympus OM1 at the time
Paul

[Sweetlight]

Is he an Earnhardt fan?

[Little Fisher]

Sweetlight,

I love your story. It makes me want to see more of your shrimping photos. My favorite one is the first one on the left. I can better see what's going on in the water and the illumination of the light is beautiful all on its own.

LF

[Little Fisher]

Here's one from a series I did years ago. I was proud of it because I did it all with film and the darkroom. I have a drawing of the technique below...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unfauxh...7594540074921/

Here's the artist statement:
CHEMICAL BEINGS

"Your food in America is abnormal.", my foreign friend replied as she ate her salad. "How so?", I asked. "Well, for example, the cucumbers in America are huge in comparison to the cucumbers in Japan. It's not normal! I feel like I'm eating a science project.",she answered.

This conversation made me conscientious as I ate anything after that day. How many strange horrors have I come in contact with? Has my everyday life played a part in some bizarre science project? These are a few of the questions I began to ask myself. I began to think about how chemically dependent we are in American society: "Have a headache? Have some aspirin. We don't really know how aspirin works, but have some anyway." Without question, we seem to trust our doctors and scientists and expose ourselves willingly to various chemicals.

I'm not declaring whether this trust is right or wrong, good or bad. I only question the extent to which we expose ourselves to science (as I reach into the photo chemicals to produce my prints). What do we truly consider as unnatural? If we prevent ourselves from using science, could we evolve as the human race? This series of photographs expresses the oddities that could come from experimenting with nature. I experimented with the process of making this series to give an unnatural appearance to what we need to survive. In creating this project, I came to realize that science frightens me, and yet I am curious enough to experiment.

[Janet Petty]

I have too many to pick a favorite. Sigh. Here are three fairly recent ones. I picked the hummers because I'm no longer able to visit my favorite place to shoot them; and I'm still looking for a new place. No hummers this year. Sigh.

Janet

[chrishoggy]

These are shots of a tornado that passed directly in front of us while in a caravan on the south UK coast (Bridport) in 2002. They were taken with one of those rubbish disposable film cameras. This is a zoomed in scan, hence the poor quality.
We were sat on the beach grabbing the mid day sun when a black cloud came over us, that was moving along the coast line. The weather was nice and hot, yet we suddenly started getting hit with hailstones. We ran back to the caravan and got in just as the stones got to around 2cm in size. As you can imagine, the sound of these stones on the caravan roof was deafening. Then I spotted the twister about 1/4 mile out to sea. I took these two shots as it passed by. As soon as it passed, the sun was out and you would have never known anything had happened. That was except for the fact that everything was covered in ice
Not something you see every day in the UK, and most people thought we were joking when we told them what happened