Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
 Amber's self-portrait |
Photography Using simple techniques and inexpensive equipment - all for the fun of it! |
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Click Here for my goofy little YouTube video about cleaning a camera lens!! |
A photographer went to a socialite party in New York. As he entered the front door, the host said 'I love your pictures - they're wonderful;
you must have a fantastic camera.' He said nothing until dinner was finished, then: 'That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific stove.
- Sam Haskins
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I, myself, am not a photographer! Although I think composition, lighting, and other techniques are very important my primary concern has been documenting scenes, actions, and events with a camera. For me, the photograph as an archive for a small piece of history is what's most fascinating. Don't get me wrong, I love a beautiful shots of flowers, landscapes, people, and animals but for me it's more important to have captured a critical, or historical moment, than it is to create art. - Roger J. Wendell |
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Nevertheless, although I'm not a photographer I've been lucky to have some of my shots show up in various publications. Sometimes a club I belong to will ask for a photo while at other times folks have contacted me, through the Internet, seeking permission to use something of mine that's caught their attention. The equipment I use is simple and inexpensive - many of the photos, found throughout my numerous web pages, were taken with those little $4.99 disposable cameras that were available at most grocery stores during the 90s and 2000s - at times I would ask the film processor to provide digital files or I would simply scan the final product myself... |
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Around the time of the millennium I purchased one of Sony's first-generation digital cameras and was able to download most photos at under 100kb in jpeg format. In the early 2000s I purchased a Cannon PowerShot A70 for just $200 on the Internet. It provided 3.2 megapixels for just the right amount of resolution for my website. Although I really like these Canons (because they're small, easy to use, and relatively inexpensive) I'm not endorsing them or their manufacturer because I've had so much great luck using similar makes of other cameras. |
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In the later part of the first decade (of the second millennium!) I fell in love with Casio Exilim digital "point and shoot" cameras. So much in love that I probably purchased a half dozen of 'em due to loss and damage at times. These little cameras have a pretty good optical zoom (I never use a camera's digital zoom) with resolutions over 10 mega pixels on the later versions that I bought. However, in "the end" I finally broke down and purchased a Canon Rebel T2i (with an 18 x 200 mm telephoto lens) in January 2011. Obviously a great (but expensive!) camera that served me well in Antarctica and other places around the world. Nevertheless, the vast majority of my shots are still with those small "point-and-shoot" cameras that fit in a shirt pocket or can be strapped to my hand while video recording a bike ride or hike through the rainforest! |
 Butterfly Pavilion - Colorado |
(Click on any of this page's "Thumbnail" images for a larger view) |
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In October, 2006 Tami and I traveled throughout the United Kingdom, with some quick trips to Ireland and France. For that trip we took a total of 2,061 photographs (1,440 were mine, the rest Tami's...) using only the aforementioned Canon PowerShot A70. Again, although I'm not endorsing this particular manufacturer I am suggesting there is some piece-of-mind in carrying around a small, relatively inexpensive camera. Between us, for this particular vacation, we carried five memory cards of varying capacity - I recommend NOT filling a card to capacity so that you can keep it safely stored away in the event of camera loss or damage. Of course serious photographers will take a different view (so to speak!) of what I've described here but I think my "theory" works well for the casual photographer who is more interested in preserving memories as opposed to perfection... |
Some Published Pictures:
I'm always honored to be asked for my pix!
(My Video page has a list of my recordings)
 In the summer of 2009 the Veteran's Administration used this photo for the front page of their Bike to Work Week announcement. I really enjoy cycling - especially when it's used for something as practical as getting to work!
The League of American Bicyclists also used this photo for their December 2010 publication Bridging the Gaps in Bicycling Networks (An advocate's guide to getting bikes on bridges), p. 8 |
This picture seems to be really growing in popularity! Children and Youth in History used it in their "Primary Source" piece titled, Immigrant Crossing Road Sign http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/289
They describe how CalTrans graphic artist John Hood, in the late 1980s, was asked to design an image that, in the blink of an eye, would alert drivers to the unexpected sight of pedestrians crossing the road. Hood and his supervisors met with Highway Patrol Officers to review photos of accident scenes. What got to him most were the dealths that involved families... |
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 Somehow (with my permission, of course!) a photograph of mine ended up on the front page of the April 15, 2004 edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy! This particular photograph was one that I took in front of Denver's "Tears McFarland" house where the Sierra Club's Rocky Mountain Chapter was holding their meeting... |
 This is a photo I took at the entrance to the Colorado QRP Club's 2004 Field Day site up on Rampart Range about 40 miles southwest of Denver. It ended up on the outside back cover of their August 2004 Low Down publication. Also, four other photos I took that day ended up being sprinkled throughout that edition of the Low Down! |
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 On June 9, 2002 I helped teach Beginning Rock Seminar for the Colorado Mountain Club at a Maxwell Falls just outside of Evergreen, Colorado. This photo ended up on page six of their August 2004 edition of the Mile High Mountaineer. There were many dozens of students participating in the training so I have more photos posted Here. |
 "72" is a form of radio shorthand that roughly translates as meaning "Best wishes Low Power Output!" This is a scan from page 36 of the May, 1996 Low Down newsletter published by the Colorado QRP Club. I believe I took the photo, sometime earlier that year, while northbound on Highway 93 between Golden and Boulder, Colorado... |
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 During December/January 2005/2006 I had a fantastic trip through Ecuador. A number of months later, during the fall of '06, Jane Anderson emailed to ask permission to use this shot in a presentation to help the children of Ecuador. Jane wrote; "Roger, Thank you so much! Your photo really adds to my presentation. What I am working on right now is in the early stages. I put together a dvd with my pictures from my trip to Cacha and your photo. I turned the photo's into sort of a music video for Cacha's Children. That is what I am naming the project. With this video I am trying to create awareness to this area of the world. I am starting small at my children's elementary school and I am basically trying to give the children at our elementary school an idea of how other children live and survive with barely nothing. I want to open their eyes to other children's lives and how they can easily help them by just giving a little. Because a little sure will go a long, long, way." |
Go Haynesvill Shale (http://haynesvilleshale.ning.com) posted this picture of mine, without asking, for promotional purposes:
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I took this photo of my friend, Gabe Sellers (amateur radio operator W2ZGB), and used it for an article about him in the Colorado QRP Club's Low Down publication. Then, the city of Northglenn, Colorado picked it up for the November 2006 edition of their The Northglenn Connection publication. It ended up on page 7 and was titled, "Jogging Around the World Fighting Diabetes." At that time, Gabe had completed well over 50,000 miles of jogging in his life-long battle against diabetes...
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 In May of 2007 I was honored to receive a request from Deke Ardnt to use this photo on their Mesonet "Ticker" publication of the University of Oklahoma's Climate Information Group (Oklahoma Climatological Survey). The article this particular photo was used for was to illustrate how radar waves can be bent, over 8,000 feet, to bring back unexpected images. In this case, weather radar was "picking up" these huge wind generators instead of weather phenomena a few thousand feet higher... |
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 Dear Mr Wendell, July 07, 2007 The picture of a crawling snake on your Backyard Wildlife web page is a very nice photograph. May I ask you a favor? This photograph would be an excellent illustration for a scientific paper I am preparing. The paper describes a piece of software I developed as part of my research into the swimming behavior of the medicinal leech. The software detects the presence of a snake or a worm in a photograph, and determines its location and pose. When run on your photograph, it quickly and correctly located the snake in it. I would like to ask permission to include your photograph, with the output of my software superimposed on it, in my paper. Since this is for publication in a scientific journal, and I will not receive any payment for it, I can unfortunately not offer you any monetary compensation, but I will fully recognize your authorship of the photograph in a caption, with a statement that could read something like "Photograph from www.rogerwendell.com reproduced with permission from Roger Wendell." I hope this arrangement suits you, and look forward to hearing from you, Sincerely,
Daniel Wagenaar. |
 In September, 2007, Lisa Johnson wrote me to use this photo for their publication called Newsletter from ITT Water & Wastewater. Lisa said it's an in-house newsletter from ITT Flygt, and it was published in 8 languages in October, '07 - I'm honored! (Since then others have asked for, and received permission to use this particular photo - I'm not sure why it's so popular - especially with the date stamp embeded in it??)
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In the fall of '08 James Stevens asked if Little Voice productions could use this sign for an immigration documentary they were creating. Their request brought back memories of how dangerous it was to take this photo - while my wife and I were driving through San Diego I noticed the photo opportunity from across many lanes of traffic - I pulled across as quickly (and safely) as possible to take the shot - please don't try the same thing yourself!! In April 2009 Polity Books asked permission to use this same photo for a book they were editing. I look forward to seeing the final product! |
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Coming up:
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 04-23-2010 Dear Sir Wendell, We are the editors of an italian blog, www.ilpost.it, and we used one of your beautiful pictures for this article.As you may noticed, you and your website are credited above the article. If you have any concern with the use of your image please let us know and we'll remove it immediatly. Kind regards, il Post editorial staff |
 This was a self portrait Brooke Bagwell took of herself after she was hit by lightning on a climbing trip in 2008. Although I didn't take this photo, myself, Brooke had given me permission to post it. ForTean Times magazine used it for their Contents page (page 1) of their special 2010 issue with a reference to my website. The reference, off their Contents page, was for a "Lightning Images" piece by Bob Rickard. I use the image for my on Lightning Safety page... |
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 William Thomas Hollenbeck White House Protest used by http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/ for their "Longest War Protest in U.S. History is Now Over" piece on March 9, 2009 |
IEA Wind Energy Annual Report 2009, July 2010, p. 156 Chapter 30 (My photo was used in the section describing the United States as having 35 GW capacity in wind power) |
The Photographer:
Every now and again somebody photographs me, without my knowledge, while I'm photographing others! The first three shots were taken by Tami while we were on a road trip through the United Kingdom in October 2006. The last photo was taken by friend and amateur radio operator Peter Inskeep while I was photographing our radio club's annual Field Day operations in Colorado.
 Liverpool |
 Scotland |
 Ferry to Dublin |
 At the CQC Field Day site |
Tami taking pictures:
Here I caught Tami a few times during our trip through the United Kingdom in October '06.
 Stonehenge |
 Crossing the Irish Sea |
 Trinity College |
 Port of Dover |
Other Photographers:
I also enjoy watching (and photographing!) other photographers at work! On my movies page I have some shots I took of a crew filming a Jeep commercial. Anyway, I can't exactly explain why watching others shoot pictures is so interesting - maybe it's just the beauty and art of what they're doing, or maybe the setting is just great to begin with? Either way, I hope to take more photos of other photographers as I encounter 'em around the world!
Chad Pxxxxx, from Boulder is a business acquantenace that I discovered on the top of Mount Oxford one late summer day after a mild snowstorm. It took me just over 4 hours to reach this summit, at 4,314 metres (14,153 feet), and this is the exact scene I stumbled upon!! So, it was quite the surprise, to learn after I took this shot, that it was Chad! 
Chris Collins was part of the OAT expedition team on an Antarctica trip that Tami and I took in early 2011. Chris has photographed and published a lot about wildlife, around the world, in addition to providing passangers like me with lots of photo tips and information about the various animals in the area.
On August 15, 2011, NPR aired Susan Stamberg's interview with advertising and documentary photographer Elliott Erwitt. The interview took place just a day after Erwitt's 83rd birthday (obviously recorded a couple weeks earlier in July...) and he was explaining some of his technique and interests. Stamberg said, "Erwitt uses film, mostly black and white. He rarely crops, and never manipulates an image electronically. He composes in the camera. Some of his photographs, over the years, have become classics." The above emphasis is my own as electronic manipulation of photographs has become epidemic in the 2nd millennium. It's refreshing to hear of somebody who is able to capture images of the world, as it really is, and still garner huge public interest without any enhancements or manipulations... - Roger J. Wendell, August 2011
John Fielder
On 11-11-2016 I had the privledge of working privately with John Fielder in setting-up his presentation at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden, Colorado. Unfortunately my own camera failed me for this shot but you get the idea!
Roger's Rant Me in infrared... |
In March, 2007 my friend Dan Disner reminded me that there's a "war" on photographers going on out there. Dan described his attempt, early in the morning on the 19th, to take a photograph of the new EPA building in Denver (Dan, me, and many others we know are environmentalists and are always interested in what the EPA is up to...). Security guards interrupted him and stopped his shooting. Then, just an hour later, Dan was attempted to shoot a reflection in some curved glass of a rotating door on another building in Denver. Another security person attempted to interfere but relented when Dan set his tripod up on the public sidewalk.
I, myself, have had similar experiences with both government and private structures around the country and around the world. Attempting to photograph ceremonial gate guards, at various embassies around Beijing, brought me immediate attention and interference - while I was on the public sidewalk! While walking from Tijuana, back into San Diego, I photographed a huge "Welcome to the USA" sign at the border station. American border agents appeared out of nowhere, examined my camera, and forced me to delete the shot! Also, while in Ecuador in 2006 I tried photographing the American embassy from the public street. Again, a plainsclothes agent appeared out of nowhere and told me I couldn't take any photographs. I explained that I was an American (I had my passport with me) and he said it didn't matter - no photographs! |
An explanation?
My guess is that there are number of issues that make building owners (both government and private) paranoid about amateur photographers.
- Copyright concerns. Museums, zoos, theatres, and other institutions have intellectual property they don't want you (or me) to make money on. My argument is that if it's visible from a public space it's fair game for a photograph. If I (or you) should happen to figure out a way to make money off the shot then that's the time for them to pursue us - not while we're taking a photo for personal use!
- National security concerns. September 11th will be rearing its ugly head for the remainder of our natural lifetimes - every government social security office, tax collector and military installation thinks we're all terrorists trying to photograph their buildings for some sinister plot. Nevermind that the vast majority of these structures stick out like sore thumbs scarring the landscape while soaking up tax dollars quicker than a sponge in a desert downpour...
- Personnel concerns. Military personnel, uniformed police, border guards and simple ticket-takers are all afraid they're faces will end up on your (my!) website while you're photographing that big "Welcome" sign above their heads. An understandable concern but then why would anyone take a job that requires public exposure if you're afraid somebody might see your or, heaven forbid, take your picture? Some exceptions to this "rule" are the various Park Rangers I've photographed (with their permissions) and London's Beefeaters - these folks know they're in the public eye and almost seem to welcome the photographer's attention! Wondering if you're job will require some public appearances? The requirement that you wear a uniform, take tickets, or stand at an entry point are all usually good indicators!!
Anyway, paranoia and the desire to squelch freedom runs deep in the human psyche. So, if you're a photographer you need to use common sense without endangering yourself or giving up your freedom! Although I've been detained by air marshals (for filming on a flight), had my shots deleted by border guards, and have been pushed off a public street for a photo op (Hunter S. Thompson) I still keep trying for that perfect shot and encourage you to never give up as well!
Miscellanea
 Nikon F with all the fixin's |
Back in the mid '70s (another lifetime ago!) I was a radioman in the U.S. Coast Guard. Since I didn't have much money I did a lot of swapping and ended up with this Nikon F while I was in Hawai'i. Unfortunately, back then, I didn't hang onto it very long as I ended up trading it for a motorcycle to get me around the island. Had I kept it I'm sure I would have a much nicer collection of photos from my past. But, that's how youth goes... |
 Canon Rebel T2i |
Nearly 35 years later, after three decades of $4.99 disposable film cameras, and $100 digital point-and-shoots, I bought this Canon Rebel T2i with an 18 x 200 mm lens, 18 megapixels, and an 18 gb-30mb/s SDHC memory card. |
 28 Gram model airplane! |
Gary, a friend and coworker, showed me this neat little radio-controlled model airplane. It weighs only half an ounce (28 grams) - and that includes the 70 mAh battery! I really like this photo, despite the aircraft's missing wheel, but the digital translation has lessened its quality a bit... |
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Click Here for a YouTube video of this little plane in flight! |
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"A photograph is more than a mirror. In the face of mortality, it offers hope for a permanent self. Wedding albums, family portraits, the images of stars and models on screens and in glossy magazines dwell in an idealized place, separate from time and space. Photography offers a parallel universe, graven by light, a chance for perfection."
- Mary Otto in her book, "Teeth" (The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America) p.16 |
What about the selfie?
Somehow, it's become socially acceptable for us to take the narcissism of adolescence and extend it well into adulthood in the form of a self-portrait photograph, or "selfie." Yes, I myself have taken countless selfies, even during the days of bulky cameras and film processing! However, as I've gotten older and been able to travel a bit I've wondered how much I'm missing while trying to frame that next shot in some faraway village or world-class museum? Aren't we losing, really, the full experience when it comes to trying to take pictures (especially of ourselves!) during a once-in-a-lifetime visit to a sacred landmark, special temple, or beautiful setting? Maybe we can't help ourselves from trying to capture such scenes on disk but, at least, maybe we could turn the lens away from ourselves...
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