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 lense!! |
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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... |
 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!
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!
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...
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."
- Ancient Worlds (Where History Comes Alive!), in Sweden, has asked to post some of my Tibet photos - it'll be fun to see how it all turns out, I'll post the link here!
- Peggy "Sue" PatsieIna's page will feature a toilet collage with one of my shots of an outhouse on Mt. kenya...
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...
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...
Dear Mr Wendell, July 07, 2007The 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.
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Daniel A. Wagenaar, PhD
Postdoctoral scholar
Department of Biological Sciences
University of California, San Diego
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!
During the early and mid 2000s, the Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, Kansas grew infamous for protesting veterans' funerals and gay rights gatherings. While on business in Topeka I stumbled upon their church before ever having heard of them before. It was so strange that I took a few photographs just for my scrapbook. Much to my delight, a few years later in 2008, www.says-it.com asked permission to use this photo for their Church Sign Generator!
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 |
Roger's Rant
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.An explanation?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!
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 many of the 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!
 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 motorcylce 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... |
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