The Documentarian

I am from a big family with three brothers and two sisters.  With my father often serving overseas with the State Department for a few years and then stationed somewhere else, my siblings were who I often interacted with especially my older brother, Jeff.

Prior to starting our walk of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, Al and I decided to rent a car and drive around Scotland.  We worked out an ambitious itinerary at a pub upon arrival in Edinburgh.  After hitting the road, it became apparent we

This time my annual adventure with Al Willner would take us to northern England to walk Roman Emperor Hadrian's Wall.   Al had proposed the walk and it hit a lot of things I like....history, adventure, discovery, scenic environment, and, of course, hanging out

Al and I had planned to do the six-day guided hike over the Pyrenees Mountains from France to Spain called the Path to Freedom.  However, after the Tunisia Battlefield expedition, Spanish Civil War sites and just off the Hannibal Trail trek, we only had

On our way back from out son's wedding in Mauritius, we stopped over in London and spend two weeks in my parent's London flat.  They had bought the place some 30 years ago but after my dad passed away and my mom's stroke the

Last summer I attended the Covid-delayed 70th anniversary American School of Tangier reunion and met up with my brother, Jeff.  Both of us including another brother, Chris, were boarders at the school in the early 70ties. with my brother, Jeff | 2022 and 1971 | American

Cairo's an ancient city | One of the oldest on Earth | It's congested | It's crowded | It's noisy | It's polluted | It's dirty | Egyptians know this | They shrug and remember "Masr Zaman" | Egypt of the Past Talat Harb Square | French designed downtownSo during this visit as I

I'm here in Cairo visiting family and, as usual, I take snaps of family and street scenes as I go about my business.  I decided to use a tintype app on my phone to convert some of these relatively mundane photos and I liked

While planning the Hannibal Trail journey, I was checking sites in Spain on Google Maps and came across the site of a Spanish Republican bunker complex outside of Madrid and it peaked my interest in the Spanish Civil War.   My friend Al Willner and

Last summer my son, Shamseddiin, married a beautiful and lovely South African girl, Sophia Grobler, at the Grand Gaube Lux resort in Mauritius.  An absolutely wonderful occasion with close family and a few friends in a magical oceanside setting.  Most of the photographs were

My bullfighting adventure begin with a Guru Walk tour of Spanish Civil War sites in downtown Madrid.  I was with friends Al Willner and Norman Engvall and during the tour we befriended  fellow American and military history enthusiast Steve Jelso.  After the tour he

2022 Qtr. 2 Picture Story — Press Photographers Association of Greater Los AngelesDoug Pizac , Quarter 2 Judge This category was the most disappointing.  The definition for it is to tell a story where the loss of any images would hurt the interpretation.&

We started on the Hannibal Trail where the charismatic Carthaginian leader met his only major defeat at the hands of the rival Romans.   Hannibal Barca (L) and Scipio Africanus (R) meet on the plains of Zama | 202 BC |TunisiaIn 202 BC after 16 years

North African American Cemetery | Carthage | "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God"The Idea | Six months earlier I had made a brief visit with an Algerian colleague and friend to Carthage in what I call "Memory Lane Trips.

After my daughter was married in Topanga, she and her husband took their honeymoon in Italy and then came to Egypt where we celebrated their union Nubian style.  Most of the henna and pre-party photos were taken by Nabra's cousin and professional photographer, Mai

After participating in the Oasis Road International Forum on Photography, I decided to do a book.  However, unlike the other books that I have done in which I write my impressions and observations, I decided to quote writers and thinkers with their impressions and

Last summer our daughter married her long-time boyfriend, Daniel, at our home in Topanga.  It had been postponed a year because of the pandemic.  The vast majority of the photos in this album are done by my friend and professional photographer, Vince Bucci.   I'm

I traveled to Mauritius to see my son, Shams, and meet his girlfriend, Sophia.  Shams had moved from South African to Mauritius where he is now living. I looked up Mauritius on the internet and what many sites mentioned was the story of Paul

Hotel Offra Douz | Sahara Desert | TunisiaI was invited to Tunisia to participate in the 4th Oasis Road International Forum on Photography.   On the third day of the forum I awoke at dawn and looked out to see this beautiful pre-dawn sunrise.  I took a

I just returned from a great six week trip to the Middle East and Mauritius. We celebrated our daughter Nabra's marriage to Daniel in Cairo - Nubian style; visited my son, Shams, and his girlfriend, Sophia, at Riviere du Rempart in Mauritius: and traveled

A couple days ago, a guest mentioned she had lived in Shanghai for a year.  This got me to thinking about the trip I had taken there five years ago.  It was, and so far, has been the only time I have been to

I just recently returned from Milwaukee after spending over two months there doing home improvements and finding a new tenant.  I think I have done the round-trip road trip from LA to Milwaukee five times.  Normally, I take between three and six days to

I was given an opportunity to do a self-published book with Saal-Digital while I was in Milwaukee.  Because I only had access to what was on my computer and one hard drive that I had brought with me, I decided just to select images

After testing out the old Kodak Brownie cameras during daily pooch walks, I started taking panorama photos with the iPhone last week. I concentrated on churches and monuments as they are quite visible and easy to spot when walking Holly, my Siberian Husky (she

I tried out a new camera Kodak Brownie C No.2 dating from the 1920s and shot another roll in the 1952 Brownie Hawkeye Flash model.  This time I reassembled the camera and the results were much better in terms of sharpness and exposure.