March 19, 2017
Hi. I am slowly updating the behind the scenes of the website. Nothing will be noticeable to you apart from a new font type, and white text instead of gray.

I did add new images to "New Florida Pix" and I am in the midst of changing the "Florida Wild" portfolio (housed in"Nature's Way"), editing it down a bit. Too many pictures of alligators!!! : )

September 25, 2016
Yikes, a whole year has passed! I did not plan this, but it is almost to the day. I guess I have been busy. I have uploaded images, however. New nature shots from Florida, at this writing in its own folder. More recently- these past two weeks (which is what promtped me to write this)- I added several collections from my travels this past summer (2016) in Alaska. Incredible!!! Camping and sailing, grizzlies and otters, glaciers and water falls. Eventually this might be placed in the "Nature's Way" collection, but for now they are out on their own. Also, a couple of days ago I put up some images of the 2016 Chicago Cubs! Dare I say it, they may make it to the World Series!!! I also updated my Technotes, exhaulting Fuji for issuing major updates on my 2-year old camera; a new focus system, more programmable buttons, and a new button function, making it an almost new camera!!! Cheers everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

September 27, 2015
I spent 3 weeks traveling in Italy in June & July. I am finally getting the images online. It was an incredible trip!!!!!

June 10, 2015
Go Blackhawks!!! Well, I may not be in Chicago, but I drove down to Tampa Bay last Saturday for game 3 and scored a ticket outside the arena (thanks to some Hawk fans). It was a great game, even though we lost. It is now game four, tied 1-1 in the 2nd period. We better win! I put a bunch of my photos of the game up on the site. I also finished (finally) the portfolios for Buenos Aires 2014 and Mendoza. Both in the Argentina portfolio. Oh, I also put up a new portfolio from Las Vegas, shot last July. Viva!! Well, back to the game. Cheers. [note on June 11: I don't know how, but the Hawks pulled it out 2-1, even though they were outplayed. Back to Tampa Bay Saturday for game five. Series tied 2-2!] [Note: Hawks won it all 6 games to 4!!!!!!Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

May 23, 2015
Helloooooooo. Well, I have been busy filling in my musicians portfolio. I added recent concerts by The Who (!), Elvis Costello, and Wilco. In three months I saw three bands that I can say represent my "musical head" in three decades, The Who, from high school in the 70s, Elvis in the 1980s, and Wilco in the 1990s. Who would represent this in the "00s"? Not sure, I began to go back to a lot of bluegrassy stuff. And there is always jazz. Most of the additions in this portfolio are images I had been waiting to work on, all are in the "Assorted Artists" folder, except the Trey Anastasio Band, I gave him his own space. I am also going to try and link/embed concert videos. If you are reading this, you can find them on my You Tube channel, "Munenerules" www.youtube.com/user/Munenerules Enjoy!

March 23, 2015
Hi all. I added a few hundred images in a new portfolio about Haitian Vodou. It is a documentary project I have been working on with a linguistic professor. I haven't added any of the intro text yet. I also added a few new shots of Elvis Costello that I took last week in Jacksonville at the beautiful Florida Theater! Cheers!

January 25, 2015
Happy New Year Everyone! To celebrate I am putting up a large portfolio of my favorite city, where I was born and raised, Chicago!!! Also look in the near future for several large portfolios from recent work I have done in Haiti and Miami's "Little Haiti" on Vodou cereminies.

October 11, 2014
Well, this new jAlbum platform is working wonderfully! I have just finished completely enlarging and re-working my "Natural Wonders" portfolio. Starting with renaming it to "Nature's Way." There are several more portfolios in it now, all new. More images in many of the older portfolios. And I moved "quotations from Maine" into this collection, since only a very few images are not of Maine's natural splendors. The best part of this new platform is how easy it is for me to add new things! Hooray!!!

August 31, 2014

I hope this afternoon to launch the site on the new platform, jAlbum. I have also added a few new portfolios and completely re-designed the "Natural Wonders" portfolio, now named "Nature's Way." I am not sure how this will all turn out, but if you are reading this, then it worked!

I am changing things to make the images look better for you, the viewer, and also it is a lot easier to navigate for you. And, it is way, way easier for me to add images and portfolios on this platform. No longer do I have to create each image page by hand (from a template, but still...). I had to upload the image in each individual page amd manually set all the links to advance to the next image, go back, etc. I also had to make the thumbnail images separately. With jAlbum, I simply drop the processed images into a folder and the software does the rest! Sigh.

So, enjoy the new home! : )



March 13, 2014
Wow nine months! I did change my entrance page photos a couple of months ago, and put up a few images from a trip to Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood and from a trip to Haiti itself on the "Decisive Moments" page (of which I now have images from a second trip from this past January), but otherwise, not much action to be seen. I have been busy, just not uploading to the site. Well, here are 7 brand new images on the "Decisive Moments" page from my three week trip to Argentina in February. I returned less than 2 weeks ago! All seven images were taken in Buenos Aires. I did get to Mendoza for six days (to see the mountains and tour the vineyards, it is Argentina's wine country), and will get some images up sometime. What I do hope to do soon is migrate my website images to a new design using a skin available in JAlbum. The issue with this site as it stands is every page has to be done individually. They are templates, but I have to put each image in each page, and make the arrows link to the proper pages one link at a time! This takes more time and is more tedious than processing the images, which I will still do individually (to bring out their best!). So, the site will look a bit different. I am not sure how the linked pages to "About the Artist" and the others will work, but that will be secondary to making a nice looking site for the images first! So, hopefully sooner rather than later it will come! (I won't know how this page will work either.)

Some tech notes: In Argentina I inadvertently shot with my camera's crop set to 3:2, instead of the full frame dimensions of 4:3 (I am still shooting with my Lumix GF1, a micro 4/3 camera). This means I did not use the full processor. But, I do like the dmensions better (less square), and the slight amount I might have lost in detail (if it works that way, I am not sure), does not seem to matter. I think I will keep it on this setting. Although, I am looking to buy a new camera. Either the new Lumix GX7 which is a huge upgrade from the GF1, or maybe the Fuji X-E2, which has a 60% larger processor (the APS-C v. the 4/3). I have been reading profusely on it, and there is no definitive answer to how much better the APS-C is. It is better, but by how much? The GX7 has an improved 4/3 processor, so it will be better than what I have now, and I have few complaints. The Fuji has a larger lens, and not such a big choice in lenses, etc. So, I am not sure what to do! Unfortunately there are no camera stores within hours of driving that carry these cameras, so I cannot even hold the Fuji to see how it feels! Stay tuned, I hope to make a decision shortly.

Cheers, Richard



June 15, 2013
Today, after many months of work, I am launching the Kenya portfolio. These images were taken on a six-week trip in the summer of 2000. They were shot with my Leica M-6 (35mm film), and scanned during my big 3 year scan project. The sets from Mount Kenya and the safaris had been posted in other portfolios, but even with these, I am uploading well over 100 new images. I hope you enjoy them. An interesting technical note: even though these images were relatively recent, the color on several rolls were badly shifting. Some of the images I originally shot in black & white, but there are several here that I converted to b&w while preparing them for this protfolio. Some might be easy to guess, if they are surrounded by color shots of the same area. Others are not so easily identifiable. Is this cheating? Dishonest? I think it is just practical. Richard



April 6, 2013
I added several images from three different collections to the Decisive Moments portfolio. All were taken within the last year. Most recent was the trip to Haiti I took last week. The prime purpose was to document Vodou religious ceremonies and record interviews with people involved with the religion. This is the first of several trips. The next set was taken over new years in Little Haiti, in Miami. This is part of the same project, also more images to add and to take. Finally, from last November 3rd in Orlando. The Who! I was a bit nervous about seeing my rock 'n roll hero (Pete) after so many years, but when it was announced they would play all of Quadrophenia, I had to go. I was not disappointed. They ROCKED! For some videos I took at the show, check out the videos page in the Musicians portfolio, or go to Youtube and search for videos by Munenerules.

Thanks for stoppin' by. See you again soon. Richard



March 11, 2013
Well, it has been a while. Hasn't it? Actually, a couple of months ago I added new links to music videos. These included The Who in Orlando Florida last November and their warm up band (who rocked and souled) Vintage Trouble. As well as a song by Bonnie Raitt, and some older ones I had laying around. Enjoy.

But my mane accomplishment is launching my new Maine portfolio from a trip in August of 2011, now available from the Portfolio Home Page. It is a gorgeous state, everything I dreamed it would be. Please check it out. I still have plenty more to work on, both old (from my scanned negatives archives) and new material, including those new images of Nicaragua. Next up is a Kenya portfolio (from scanned negatives). It is huge!

Peace Richard



September 16, 2012
After many months of intermittent work, I finally completed a new portfolio of the various archaeological sites that I have visited throughout my travels. All of them are scanned 35mm negatives except for the group of images from China, which were shot with my first digital camera, the Canon Powershot S70. It was a LOT of work! I also have two other very large portfolios in progress, one from 35mm digital scans and one from my Lumix digital camera. I also now have a new set of images recently taken in Nicaragua this past summer. Lots of work to do!



August 28, 2012
I recently returned from a two week trip to Nicaragua. I uploaded a few images in the Decisive Moments portfolio. I have been busy, but I have a couple of sets of images processed in Lightroom, they need to be worked on in Dreamweaver to upload them onto the site. I hope to do this in the coming weeks. Enjoy and thanks for visiting.



June 10, 2012
While working on two portfolios, some new projects (including a video documentary which will be a year-long project), I thought I would put up three recent shots on the splash page. Cheers.



June 3, 2012
I added 4 new images to the decisive moments portfolio. All taken in and around my new home in Gainesville, FL and The University of Florida. I am also on the final stages of finishing up the "Ancient Civilizations" portfolio, and I have started a brand new photo project, I promise it will be very exciting! Stay tuned and as always, thanks for the visit.



April 8, 2012
It is Sunday. I did some cooking, watched my news shows, did some yard work, and got the last two musical groups I had images of up on the site. Ozomotli and Third World. Cheers.



April 7, 2012
Well, moving and starting a new job was a bit more than I expected. I hope to have settled down a little, enough to pay more attention to my site. I added a couple of new images to "Decisive Moments" and images of Chris Duarte in concert. I also embedded my Youtube videos directly into that artist's portfolio, and made a new set of just the videos (in a box on the "Musicians" homepage). So, 'till next time, adios amigos.



February 12, 2012
Happy late new years! Sorry I have not been around. Very busy. I started a new job this week, and I moved from New York to Florida, so the past several months were pretty hectic! I do have a few portfolios nearing completion, including a couple new musicians. Today I am uploading scenes from last summer's Chicago Bluesfest. I also shot a video of Sam Lay's Band with Billy Branch sitting in. This is uploaded on YouTube. Click here to watch it (remember to open it in a new tab). That's about it for now, I hope to finish what I had started before the move in the next few weeks, maybe put a few images in the "Decisive Moments" page.

Peace, Richard



November 6, 2011
I have been working on several large portfolios. A few new musical groups, a couple from mostly 35mm scans from the archives (although one portfolio is mixed with born digital images), and images from my trip to Maine this past August. It will still be a little while before they are ready to upload. As a preview, I just put three images from Maine on the Decisive Moments page (plus the moose on my entrance page). Also, here is a link to a YouTube video I put up of a moose. It was taken with my Lumix GF1, hand held in a canoe! (please right click and open in a new tab, there is no link to come back here): Moose in Maine 2011.



September 12, 2011
This summer, among other activities, I went on a five day camping trip to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. I am trying something a little new here on the site. Under decisive moments I posted a "mini" portfolio of images from this camping trip. Also, instead of placing new images on the bottom of the portfolio page, I am now placing them at the top. Much like I do for this note page. Whay I did not think of this earlier I cannot say. I will post single images this way also, that is at the top. I am also working on a mini-portfolio from the camping trip I took in Maine this past August.



September 6, 2011
Wow, September. Where did the time go? I have been working slowly on a few things, and then the summer came and swept me away, almost literally. The new splash page images show a couple of these activities: a free Chris Duarte concert in Rochester and an image from my camping trip in Maine. Another free show I saw early in the summer was David Bromberg. A new portfolio of these images are under the "Musicians" portfolios. Also, I used my Lumix GF1 to shoot a video of one of David's tunes. I was so pleased I posted it on YouTube. There is a link there to it, as well as here: David Bromberg video. One thing, there is no link to return here, so please right-click on the link and open it in a new tab on your browser. I also posted videos of a number from the Chicago Blues Festival in June of this year, three numbers of Chris Duarte's set, and a moose in Maine (with a couple more from Maine to come). When you are at the Bromberg video, you can open up the links to my other videos at the top of the video screen. But, back to this website-- I finally finished the portfolio on Cafés. It was a lot of work, many images, but I am pleased. So, sorry for the summer slack and please enjoy these new images (and videos).



May 1, 2011
I put up a few more images in Decisive Moments, added another 5 diptychs, and added captions to them and a few of the older ones (some I did not want to be so literal). I also replaced some lower resolution-scanned images with newer higher res. These include a few under "About the Artist"; the Wrigley Field shot, and the one of me on the volcano. There may be another... I will be slowly replacing older scanned with newer ones, expecially in the Argentina portfolio. I probably won't remember to mention these, but I will try. Otherwise, still scanning! Working on my garden (lots of weeding and cleaning to do).

And, I just have to comment on this: Lumix/Panasonic came out with the new GF-1 model, GF-2. They TOTALLY ruined it!!!! Instead of a small viewfinder type camera, they have squashed it down to now "compete" with a point and shoot, making easy access to many controls no longer available (no room on the smaller camera body), Having a touch screen command (making it harder to change things when looking thru the viewfinder?). Wow, what are they thinking? This may have been a nice NEW model line, but please, why ruin the GF line? Now, should something happen to it, I will need to locate a used one, or...??? Dear Lumix designers, if it ain't broken, don't fix it!



April 8, 2011
Hi all, happy almost spring! It has been hard for me to do much shooting in the dreary short days of winter in Rochester, NY, but spring will be here soon. I have been very busy scanning the past month or so. I have also had some other matters to attend to and am afraid I kind of got behind on adding new images. So, I just added 8 images that I recently scanned, and I also changed the splash page images. I am going to try and get a couple of more diptychs up in the next week or so, and get back to adding an image or two (or three) a week to the decisive momnents page, as well as get back to preparing a couple of new portfolios. So much to do, so little time.

Best,
Richard



January 24, 2011
I have spent a few days back at SUNY Buffalo scanning some more negatives, including a group of negs shot in Southern France in May 2000 that my friend had for all these years. I am also putting up three new images today, one from these negs. I have been pretty good at adding a couple of images each week. I may have to miss next week, however. Still working on two new portfolios... Later. Richard



November 13, 2010
Happy near Thanksgiving. I haven't written anything here in a while, but I have been adding images to the Decisive Moments portfolio (DMp) pretty regularly every week, as promised. I have also been working on a couple of new portfolios. And, I changed the entrance page images. I am going out of town for a couple of weeks and won't be able to add any images, so I just added 5 to the DMp to make up for it. Maybe I can get another couple up before I leave. Peace.



September 4, 2010
Happy Labor day weekend. You know why we are the only nation celebrating Labor day in September and not on May 1 like the rest of the world? Because May 1 commemorates the workers who were shot and killed while on strike in Chicago. We can't commemorate something like that, so the government proclained this weekend in September to celebrate strong-arm union-busting.

But, I digress. In celebration I am uploading my portfolio of Musicians. All is explained on the homepage. Enjoy.



August 22, 2010
I am re-launching the "Nicragua" portfolio. I have added many more images and I have re-processed the images that were up there. Those that have been up there were negatives scanned on my all-in-one printer. Not the best quality. All the new ones are from the Nikon scanner I had access to for a semester. I also have a comparison for you to see what the differences are. I also added a couple more images to Decisive Moments, and I hope to continue adding one or two images a week. Soon I will be uploading my "Musicians" porfolio, so keep checking. After that, I am not sure... So much to choose from, so little time.



August 15, 2010
I just launched my Decisive Moments portfolio. A place to look at new images and place old favorite single images. I will be adding a new image or two weekly (or, that's the plan), so keep checking it out. I have also made progress on my musicians set and a whole new Nicaragua set. Thanks.



August 1, 2010
OK, ok, it has been a while. But, I have made a few advancements, even if I did not note them here. Several weeks ago I uploaded another 50 or so images on the National Gallery of Art portfolio, many taken with my new Lumix GF1! I am also finishing a set of images taken at various musical performances, and almost done re-working the Nicaragua portfolio, adding many more images, and replacing the images up there with the same image but from the higher quality Nikon scans.

I also put up a couple of new diptychs. I hope to start the "Decisive Moment" portfolio soon, which will be a place for individual shots, new and old, which otherwise would have to wait for a new portfolio before they are shown. They will be a mix of images that I just like.

Today, I just added two more images to the Peru section of Nature's Way.

The biggest news is the purchase of my new Lumix GF1. For those who read my rantings on the point and shoot Canon I have up on the notes page in the Eiffel Tower portfolio (as high quality as it is, for a point and shoot), many of my complaints have been answered. I mention this in my "Photo Methods" section under "About the Artist." But, since you are here, I will paste in the old complaints, and my ramblings on the wonders of my new camera:

[From the "Some Thoughts" page in the Eiffel Tower portfolio]
On a final note, I am not pleased with the selection of digital rangefinder cameras. There is no real professional quality equivalent to my Leica (nor even to my Olympus). I do not like to carry around an SLR (digital or film). They are too big, conspicuous and a pain to carry around all the time (well, Leica does have a beautiful camera, the M-9 that will take my lens, but it costs $7,000.00. Maybe one day...). I am not real picky, but I would like a camera with the exposure options and RAW image capabilities that my Powershot has, as well as the wide-angle lense (28mm) (kudos for that), but I am not pleased with the rangefinder, it only shows about 80% of the live area. It is virtually useless, and shooting with one's arms outstretched is not very steady. Also, one cannot really see what is in the display on a sunny day. The shutter lag is also a problem, but I have heard that things have improved. Worse than the shutter lag is the time it takes to process the image, it is simply too long. Finally, the zoom control is so inexact that at times I am infuriated trying to set it. It does not stop on a dime, to put it mildly. It glides to a stop, leaving very little exact control. I have never owned a zoom lense before, now I am forced to have one that is imprecise. Are these few features too much to ask for? I don't think so. OK, enough of my ranting. Maybe the next Canon G series camera (a G11) will have some of these improvements. By then I should have some $$ saved to look for something new. But, as I have told my students, it is not the camera that makes a good image, it is the photographer. Repeat.

[from the "Photo Methods" section in "About the Artist"]
April 2010, the day I received my tax refund I purchased a Lumix GF1 (the Canon G11 has similar limitations of other point and shoot cameras). It has answered most of my issues with digital cameras and as I write this in August, 2010, I have only joy and wonderment to say about it (OK, there are a few issues, but that's to be expected). It has a processor several times larger than the point and shoots, nearly as large as a digital SLR. It is a "4/3" sensor, and has a nicer rectangular dimensions than that on my Canon Powershot. It is also 12 megapixals, has an interchangeable lens system (with a hand zoom motion, not an electronic one that does not stop when you let go) and... has an electronic viewfinder that attaches onto the hotshoe which gives you a 100% live view of what you are shooting. Now I can fully compose an image using the entire frame, and I can hold the camera up against my body, as I was trained to do, not holding it with my arms extended! The shutter/focus lapse are nearly non-existent, and the metering is killer fast as well, as is the processing time. Of course there are manual overides, etc. A few problems is that it is a small body and one's hand can easily press buttons by accident (at least I have figured out what I press now, and can fix it). They should, perhaps make them a bit harder to activate. I wish it could show a light meter like an old-fashioned 35mm. Now, even on manual, until you depress the shutter 1/2-way, you do not know if the setting is off or not. Why? Finally, of the four buttons on the back, it allows you to set one. The other three are not what I want quick access to, why not make them all changable? Ok, these are relatively minor issues and perhaps they will be improved upon with later models. Overall, it has brought the joy back into shooting, and the prints are exquisite, even at 30 inches wide! Some of the images from this camera are in my National Gallery of Art Portfolio. Many more to come.



January 15, 2010
Well I have all the captions for "Natural Wonders" done and uploaded. Still need to do a little work on some of the structure. A minor detail or two. Then on to other things.



December 21, 2009
Wow, I can't believe the holidays are upon us! To celebrate the new year I am uploading a new portfolio, "Natural Wonders." I have been working on this for quite a while. I still have to put individual captions on many of the images, but I wanted to get this up before the holidays. I promise I will finish the captions by February. Further down the road is my "greatest hits" (called "Decisive Moments") and perhaps some of my concert shots. Have a great holiday, and thanks for visiting.



August 15, 2009
I just put up a new portfolio, "Street Portraits." It is rather large (55 images) and took some time to process all the images and get them ready for the web (ok, some had been done for other portfolios). I really like this one, the theme is not based on a geographic location so it allowed me to choose images from all over my archives.

I also added another diptych.

Enjoy! Write!!

Finally, this past May a chapter I wrote entitled: "Photography in Ethnography" was published. In this chapter I discuss the historical development of photography and ethnography citing works from several scholars and ending with a look at my work as a current example of one possibility. The book is entitled: Viewpoints: Visual Anthropologists at Work, it is published by the University of Texas Press, edited by Mary Strong and Laena Wilder. I also encourage you to look at the other chapters in the volume; they are all written by working visual anthropologists.



June 1, 2009
Well, it has been a while, but I finally have a few additions. I blame the delay on moving to a new town, starting a new job, and, just when I was ready to get working, I purchased Adobe Lightroom 2. It is awesome, but it took me several weekends to tame it and mold it to my workflow (I am still not quite sure what to do with all the copies it causes me to generate). Some may have noticed that I changed the images on the entrance page. That was just to let you know I was still here.

But, to get to it: I added two new portfolios, one looking at images I took of the Eiffel Tower. I have more images from Paris to work on, some may become a part of a series on cafés. Paris was the last time I used my Leica, that next summer I bought a digital camera. There is a link on the Eiffel Tower homepage if you want to read some of my reflections on all this. Another portfolio is from some documentary film work and activism I did in Rochester, New York, marching in support of migrant farmworker rights. I have, almost ready to go, a few more diptychs to add, and I have begun working on a set of portraits cultivated from all my image folders. This barely scratches the surface of what I have in my files. (Yikes!) [Editors note: June 5, 2009: I just posted the new diptychs.]

Thanks for checking back, enjoy the new images (or just enjoy the images if this is your first visit).

All the best,
Richard.



January 27, 2009
It is 1/27/09 and I finally launched "visualquotations.com." (Yeah!). It had been posted on the SUNY Buffalo web server for the past couple of months, but now I feel it has officially arrived. I hope to use this "note" space to keep you, my readers and viewers, updated on additions and changes to the site so that you will not have to comb through everything over and over just to find a few new items, but can go directly to what's new. I also may have other things to add along the way. Please feel free to e-mail me: visualquotations@gmail.com.

Over the past several months I have scanned several hundred negatives from my files using the Nikon Coolscan 9000 at the university. More accurately, I have scanned 1,023 negatives. At an average of 12 scans an hour I have spent about 85 hours sitting at the scanner. Each file was scanned at 4000dpi and is 135mb. I will lose my scanning priviliges at the end of February. I hope to get some of the images processed and up on the site in the coming months. I am also moving to Washington D.C. this month and starting a new job, so it may be a bit slow to come for a short while. please bear with me.

I scanned more images from Nicaragua and I hope to get a few of them up in that portfolio soon. It will be interesting to compare the quality with the older scans (although I rescanned those as well and I will decide if they need to replace what is up there now). I also have more images from China to add to the portfolio and a few more from the National Gallery of Art.

The first new projects I want to get up, from my newly scanned negatives, include a set of images from Paris in 2005, especially a small set of images of the Eiffel Tower (kind of), and a set of nature images from my backpacking trips in Patagonia, some shots from my safaris in Kenya (and more cultural images from my summer there), as well as "nature" images from New Zealand taken with my Canon digital camera, and other miscellaneaous nature shots. Other projects waiting in the wings are: "tourists", Chicago, Baseball Parks, images from my 2-year backpack trip in Latin America, including several Maya and Inca sites, to name but a few projects. The cell entitled "Decisive Moments" will be filled in progressively, it is a kind of "favorites" folder that will highlight my own personal faves, even though some may also be found in their proper portfolio pages.

Well, thanks for checking out my site and for taking the time to read this. Again, I will be noting updates at the top of the page, so please check back semi-regularly to see what's new. And don't forget to write!

Best,

Richard

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