Dick Estel's Photo Albums

Slide Show Menu          Photo  Albums

Please enjoy these photos, share them with friends and family, but do not violate copyright laws by using them for commercial purposes. Click on the links below to open the full album. Click here for commentary about specific photos, and here for camera information. Click here for sample photos. In that section, scroll down to see more samples. Click here for other links. Click here to report non-working links or other problems.

Highway 1 bridge across Russian Gulch near Fort Bragg

Caboose at Parkfield CA

Former Tarpey Station, now the visitor center

Failing to climb this feature, I named it Hopeless Dome

Juniper on the Kaiser Pass Road

Fuller Buttes on the left; Balloon Dome on the right

A never-before-seen mutant
variation of the Mariposa lily

I started taking pictures when I was about ten years old, using (what else?) a Kodak Brownie camera. In his younger days, my dad had done some photo processing, so we got out his old trays, bought a cheap film developing tank, and gave it a try. The poor quality of the equipment, and the difficulty of creating a darkroom in our one bathroom house caused us to abandon the effort after a couple of rolls. In addition, we had no enlarger, so all we could make were tiny prints the size of 127 film, about 2.5 by 1.5 inches. A few of the older family photos were probably taken with this camera or its successors.

I continued to take pictures, however, eventually getting into color slides and a few rolls of color print film. While working at a TV station in Bakersfield, I was able to borrow several different 35 mm cameras, and that became my preferred format. I eventually bought a second-hand Nikorex camera, which I always assumed was a low end product from Nikon, but it could have been an even lower end imitation. I also acquired equipment for developing and printing, including a used enlarger, and made many black and white photos this way (this is one of my favorite examples).

The Nikorex reached the end of its useful life, and I finally bought a Nikon, which was stolen in 1987. My insurance covered a replacement, which served me well over the next dozen years. Many of the photos on these pages were scanned from slides taken with the Nikons.

In 1999 I bought my first digital camera, a Kodak DC265, and all photos dated after that time are digital. From 2003 to 2006 I used a Minolta Dimage 7, and then a Canon EOS10D digital SLR, which I still use from time to time. The following year I acquired a Kodak Easy Share, which I used when I was in places where I didn't want to carry a heavier model, but I soon sold it. Starting in July, 2010, a few photos were taken with my cell phone camera when I didn't have a regular camera with me.

In 2012 there were several changes in my photographic equipment. I acquired an iPad, and a few photos from that are or will be included in my galleries. I stopped using a smart phone and got a basic phone. It has a camera, but the photos are worthless, so I don't use it for photographs.

After six years with the Canon DSLR, I decided I needed a good quality small camera. There was a false step when I got a Sony DSC-RX100. This is an excellent camera, but has no optical viewfinder, and the view screen was impossible for me to use in bright light, so I returned it. Photos taken with this camera appear here only. After further research I settled on the Nikon Coolpix P7100, which so far looks like it will be my camera of choice for many years. It has lots of new features, some of which I will no doubt use. I am keeping the Canon for extreme zoom shots. I also acquired a new smart phone, so photos from that source appear occasionally.

Around the middle of 2021, the Coolpix went half blind - the shutter would only open half way, on a diagonal. Made for some interesting effects, useful maybe once a decade. Around this same time I had acquired a new Android phone, which had a far better camera than any previous cell phone, and I decided I would see if that could be my regular camera. Although the pictures are excellent, it suffers from the usual cell phone drawbacks - no optical viewfinder, and you have to hit the device to take the picture. In March of 2022 I decided to see if I could find a good "regular" camera. After much research, I ordered the Canon EOS Rebel 17 digital SLR. I still had my EOS 10D, which was about a pound and a half heavier, so not fun to carry on my frequent hikes. The lenses fit the new camera, and the 28-105 mm lens that came with the earlier one quickly replaced the 18-55 mm lens that came with the Rebel.

For the most part, I have typically let the camera choose the aperture and shutter speed, although the Canons and Nikon both had manual controls. Of course, it's no surprise that the Rebel did not come with a manual, and the lengthy PDF file that I downloaded was not at all easy to use. I never did find out how to keep the automatic flash from popping up at inopportune times. Following advice in the reviews, I started looking for You Tube videos, and soon learned how to use the Program setting instead of the full auto mode. The three videos I watched first were all about 20 minutes, so they certainly did not cover all the settings on this very complex product, but I can tell that I will learn something different each time I watch another one. Stay tuned - a trip to Utah in April will let me do a thorough exploration of the features of the Rebel.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I have received a number of compliments on my photos, and I usually point out that I only share one or two out of fifty shots.

--Dick Estel, August 2009; updated August 2010, September 2012, October 2013, June 2016, and March 2022