It’s too bad that I can’t structure this blog to begin with the oldest, first entries, rather than the latest, newest post.

I suggest you start at the beginning.  (A very good place to start.)  The first few entries are general musings about this project and photography in general.  Then I begin to tell some stories behind the photographs.  I’ve tried to label the photographs with key words for the search function.  Those key words also serve as caption information.  Because the photos I add to this website are not in chronological order I’ve been blogging about the photos in the order that I’ve scanned them.  This give you a topical review of the photos.  If I can continue, this method will insure completeness.  00001 to whatever.

A friend who was reading the blog said that it was difficult to track down which photos I was talking about.  My solution was to create a new gallery of all the photographs arranged in order of scanning, as the blog is arranged.  I’d link to that gallery but this blog doesn’t support linking.  Instead, please go to the gallery titled Photos by Number and track down which number of contact sheet I'm talking about.

I’ve also been posting photographs on Facebook and referring back to the website.  Because the Facebook audience is more interested in particular topics, like Muscatine or Cornell College, I’ve also started a set of galleries arranged by topic.  

I continue to scan.  I’m up to contact sheet 140.  I haven’t been editing and cleaning the photographs as quickly because I’ve been occupied with the website.  I’m only up to maybe contact sheet 68.  That has been on hold as I go back through my catalog to sort the slides into topics.   What this means is that photos from the earlier scans have been cleaned up, scratches and dust spots eliminated.  The newest scans still have those defects.  As I've written before, I'm more interested in posting all photos than posting the complete photos.  I believe that the technology to clean photographs will soon get better. 

I have created two other galleries, recent and favorite.  The recent gallery shows the latest contact sheet that I’ve uploaded to the galleries.  The favorite gallery will be an assembly of photographs that I’d like to have on a slide show loop, much like the home page but more extensive.

I’m doing my best to remember names, dates, places.  If you have more information or know where I’m wrong, please contact me with that information.

This has been an interesting process, an interesting retrospective of my own life.  I can see more in my photos than when I shot them.  I can see my talent improve.  1975 was a pivotal year for my photography, after Professor Hugh Lifson’s drawing class and tutorials.  He gave me half an hour a week when I’d show him my week's photos.  He knew nothing of photography but was a master of two-dimensional art.  He told me what he thought worked and what didn’t.  His influence shows in the transition between the photos before and after that year.

Anyway, I’ve begun rambling.  I’ll go back to commenting on the photos with subsequent blog posts.  Thank you for your interest.  Please pass the word on to those who might be interested.  Eric