John G. Van Winkle

For nine days, we started in Edinburgh, drove to the tip of Skye, then back to Edinburgh where we met up with some other like-minded photographers and traveled by bus through much the same area.

The images in this gallery are from my first road trip after the COVID 19 pandemic and its variants. In addition to these images, please follow along by reading my Blog post where there are other images and a description of the trip.

For information about this gallery, please read the newest post in my Blog here.

Here we are again, this time in the midst of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and I have continued the project of scanning old negatives, editing them in Photoshop, and making 17x22 prints. This gallery contains images from my 4x5 and 8x10 negatives.

For information about this gallery, please read the newest post in my Blog here.

Traveling on HWY 200 in Idaho, west of the Montana border, there is a rock quarry that has a collection of old beat-up, rusted, and abandoned cars. Permission was granted to photograph them. I’ll be going back to photograph more.

This road trip through Banff and Jasper National Parks was during the early Fall of 2019. We were lucky enough to be there during the first snows of the season. Nothing intense and the storms passed quickly lending texture and contrast to the photographs. It was just cold enough during the trip to make each day’s hikes enjoyable.

Any attempt to put into words how beautiful the Canadian Rockies are would seem insignificant and piffling. Enjoy this gallery.

Mono Lake is a unique saline lake. It exists in an area that was once a huge ancient inland sea. Now it rests in a bowl surrounded by rows of volcanic cones and the eastern scarp of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. This is a wonderful area to photograph. I’ve experienced absolute silence, hot weather, cold weather, along with powerful lightning and thunder storms and the resultant downpours. Each day offers different photographic opportunities.

Mono Lake, along with the surrounding area, is a unique place to photograph.  This part of the  high desert of California has interested me for many years.  I’ve traveled there many times over the years and I always return feeling refreshed and amazed at the rich beauty of this region that is a remnant of a once vast inland sea.

This trip started in Spokane, Washington. From there, with our daughter and son-in-law, we traveled to McCall, Idaho, Twin Falls, City of Rocks, Idaho Falls, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming, then Bozeman and Missoula, Montana, ending back in Spokane.

This trip started in Spokane, Washington. From there, with our daughter and son-in-law, we traveled to McCall, Idaho, Twin Falls, City of Rocks, Idaho Falls, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming, then Bozeman and Missoula, Montana, ending back in Spokane.

For this road trip I decided to take back roads from the San Francisco Bay Area through eastern Oregon (with a short dip into northern Nevada), western Idaho, and eastern Washington. Priest Lake in Idaho was the furthest north that I traveled. The return trip took me through the Columbia River Gorge, down the Oregon and California coasts, turning inland at Jenner, then home. The trip had lots of lovely scenery, and an extra bonus of visiting with family and friends.

For this road trip I decided to take back roads from the San Francisco Bay Area through eastern Oregon (with a short dip into northern Nevada), western Idaho, and eastern Washington. Priest Lake in Idaho was the furthest north that I traveled. The return trip took me through the Columbia River Gorge, down the Oregon and California coasts, turning inland at Jenner, then home. The trip had lots of lovely scenery, and an extra bonus of visiting with family and friends.

Although you will find images of water (waterfalls, rivers, lakes, waves, etc.) in other galleries in my website, this gallery is dedicated specifically to the theme of "water", a subject that I enjoy photographing in monochrome.

Several people have told me how beautiful the Painted Hill in Oregon are.  They were right!  I arrive on a clear day and later wisps of clouds began to form adding wonderful contrasts to the colorful patterns of the hills.

Here is a group of photographs that are not associated with any particular category or road trip.  They are just some photographs that I would like to share.  Enjoy!

Here is a group of photographs that are not associated with any particular category or road trip.  They are just some photographs that I would like to share.  Enjoy!

The monochrome images in this gallery are a compilation of scanned traditional film and digital images. 

One of my favorite areas to photograph in California is along Highway 395.  The light on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains is special for many photographers.  Part of my plan for this trip was to also take a side trip and return to Death Valley and photograph the narrow canyons and panoramic vistas.

A quick eight day trip around Montana and Idaho through various weather systems and elevations garnered many opportunities for photographs.  I hope to go back and explore more soon.

Montana is beautiful and Idaho is beautiful.  Each has different and engaging topography for the photographer.  Look to the sky for indications of interesting weather patterns that change rapidly.  Also look directly down and isolate colors and textures.

Recently, a friend alerted me to a camera walk being offered by the Leica™️ Store in San Francisco. Ten of us were loaned a new Leica T, were shown the features of the new mirrorless camera, and then let loose on the streets of San Francisco.

Initially, I saw the rather disjointed figures of musicians in a store window, but then noticed how the reflections from the sky and from across the street added another interesting collage-like layer to the grouping below.

Incredible clouds and light made for some wonderful monochrome photography.

This gallery is about an all-to-short 19 day trip to New Zealand. Five new images have been added to this gallery and I have started a New Zealand Monochrome gallery. Flights offered wonderful views and we had some spectacular clouds which I photographed from above or below. Please visit my Blog for more commentaries.

The flower photographs were mostly taken around California.

Please visit my BLOG for my thoughts on photographing flowers. Read More

The flower photographs were mostly taken around California. The Star Iris and Iris photographs are either from my yard or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Dahlias and the flower with the spider are from Spokane, Washington.

Please visit my BLOG for my thoughts on photographing flowers. Read More

It's fun looking through the fog. Watching it come in and partially obscure the view is not always disappointing to see. Wait a while and observe how things change, often times from one minute to the next. Sometimes for hours. Waiting for the fog to be "in the right place" takes a lot of patience. While waiting, observe what else is happening around you, keeping an eye on the subject you originally intended to photograph. This was the case of the first photograph in this gallery. I was waiting to see how the fog was going to form on the rocks above Curry Village in Yosemite. I turned 180 degrees and saw North Dome and Washington Column emerging above the fog. 

Trees:  They capture your attention in Spring when they are in full bloom. In Summer you see them swaying in the warm breeze. Fall colors continue to amaze with natures beauty. In Winter, some are bare and stark while others retain their foliage; both are waiting for renewal in Spring. Photographing them offers so many choices. Read More.

Some trees just beg to be photographed in black and white. Observe them at different angles. Finding the right place to stand is an exercise in contemplation and sometimes frustration. Once the position is found, is the light right? Will a cloud obscure the sun and turn everything you had hoped to capture into a dull gray? If what you had in mind was a soft, dreamy, evenly lit subject, will the sun suddenly appear and turn everything into harsh reality? Is the wind blowing to a degree that the movement of limbs and branches will blur the graphic detail? Perhaps there is no wind. If there had been, it would have made a wonderful abstract image. Frustration happens. It is always satisfying when everything comes together and you have the image that reflects what you imagined at the time of exposure. 

Sometimes it is fun just to see how far you can push and manipulate pixels. Take any image and experiment. See where your imagination takes you. Is what you come up with ever finished? Only you can tell. Knowing WHEN to finish is key. Is this to everyone's liking? Nope. Is it fun? Oh, yes!

Some abstract subjects occur to me by isolating them from their surroundings or as pure fantasy.  

This gallery is the monochrome offshoot of the Abstract-Color gallery and will be added to from time to time as inspiration and exploration allow.

If you got to the bottom two photographs of the Abstracts Gallery and thought you recognized some things that resembled faces, then you are part of the human race whose adaptation, from caveman times, gave you the ability to recognize such things. Cavemen had to develop the ability to recognize dangerous animals in their surroundings. If they didn't, they were going to be dinner. Read More

The images below are a combination of my digital files and scanned images from negatives.

It doesn't matter where you are in Europe. Colorful subjects are all around you. 

I have worked for many years with monochrome images using traditional darkroom techniques. I will be adding more of those images to the Europe-Momochrome Gallery after I have prepared them for this website.

The images below are a combination of my digital files and scanned images from negatives.

When traveling, I prefer to sit next to the window on flights. Shutting out the commotion around me and watching the world go by in slow motion, as I am being hurled through the air in a tube at 500+ miles an hour, is somehow relaxing to me.

Having an interest in geology I enjoy observing land forms and patterns as I fly over and reflect on their history over eons of time and wonder how they will change in eons to come.

Clouds also generate interesting compositions. Seen from above or horizontally while flying through them presents a different perspective than observing them from the ground.

I am often asked how I get such clear photographs out of the notoriously dingy aircraft windows. It's quite simple, actually. I always ask for optical quality glass in the window next to where I will be seated. Well, it doesn't hurt to ask.

For this gallery, I have pulled a selection of images that have been prepared in this format. Each image is not a series of merged images, rather it's a single image that is cropped to focus on what I was seeing at the time that I made the exposure. You will see other examples of this format in some of my other galleries.

Photographing up and down the west coast is always a rewarding experience. Landscapes, seascapes, wildlife, beaches, and unique subjects when viewed close up are some of the subjects that I enjoy photographing. I look for subjects close to the surf zone where I need to photograph them as quickly as possible knowing that with the next wave or the next tide they will no longer exist. 

Photographing along the coast can be a rewarding experience. Waiting for the right wave pattern or group of wave patterns, the right light, or for a bird to be in the right place can be time consuming and frustrating. That said, there is nothing like seeing the final print in your hands as a representation of what you saw and thought about at the time you made the exposure. 

The images below are a combination of my digital files and scanned images from negatives.

The time of day, weather conditions, and being in the right place at the right time with the right equipment isn't always easy, but it's a good start. The rest isn't easy either, but it sure is rewarding!

Okay, I've heard it said that Yosemite is over-photographed, stay out, don't even try, etc. That's why I try to return every year. Not to compete with those who have made or are going to make iconic images in the park, rather to experience a place like no other on earth and photograph it because I love seeing it in its many moods, then express the feelings that I experienced through my photographs.

The images below are a combination of my digital files and scanned images from negatives.