The Friedman Archives Helps Solve a Mystery

Also in this issue:

• A7 V book is out in all formats!
• 
  The most complex camera ever made
• The Airplane Workstation

The A7 V book is out in all formats!

A few weeks ago the book on the A7 V - all 885 pages of technical goodness - was released in all formats: printed in color or B&W, and the 3-file bundle (.pdf, .epub, and .azw3 compatible with all e-readers).  If you haven't already you can purchase all formats here.  Get yours now!

The Friedman Archives Helps Solve a Mystery

If you grew up in the U.S. in the 1960's, you'd be familiar with the huge fiberglass "Muffler Man" statues across the country, advertising everything from tires to mufflers, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.

The statues are no longer made, but there are diehard fans who like to catalog and track down the giant statues that remain. 

So where do the archives come in?  A few months ago I received a query from one such diehard fan, asking about a picture I took back in 1981 which featured one of the "Uniroyal Girls"; female versions of these giant advertising statues.  (The image he found is at the top of this post.)

"Where was this picture taken?  What business was it advertising?", he asked.  Geez, that was 45 years ago!  How can I possibly remember that?

The Happiest Slum in Africa

Also in this issue:

• A Philosophical Pontification
• Supplement for A7R V Firmware update
• Next Time in Cameracraft / In the Pipeline

The Photo Safari participants 2025

The photo safari in Kenya happened back in November, and just like last year, everyone had a great time!  You can see the some shots from both the participants and me in this google photos album.  I won't say much more about it; suffice to say it was identical to last year's successful event.

While in Nairobi, Carol and I decided to do something unusual - before the safari we hired a guide who took us on a tour of a slum.  To tell you more about it, let me introduce you to Lee Friedman, one of the Safari participants (yes, we're related, but we didn't know that when we first met!), who went with us and shares his thoughts and photos of the area:

The Villages of the Maasai Mara

Also in this issue:

• Help send a Maasai child to school

The game reserves we visited in Kenya belong to the Maasai community, who leases the land to eco-tourism companies like Gamewatchers Safaris that allow them to earn more from the land than if they had used it for some other purpose, like farming.  The Maasai still live like they have for centuries - the men still watch over the cattle (and their multiple wives); while the women do ALL the work, including hut building using cow dung.

As part of our Safari experience, we were treated to a visit to a working "Boma" (village), where people showed us how they live.  Upon my first visit, I was a little skeptical - the place is so neat; and their colors are so bright (despite having to wash them in the dirty river nearby).  Is this just a show they put on for us white folks?

Is FILM the Answer?

We can't believe what we see anymore.  The photograph's legendary credibility, which has been steadily eroding for the last century, has finally hit bottom with the introduction of generative AI.  Images and videos can no longer be submitted as courtroom evidence.  Seeing isn't believing.  The value of an image has plummetted.

In thinking about the future of imaging, I started considering some of the forgotten benefits of film.  You have an original negative which bolsters the image's credibility.  B&W images, unlike today's color ones, can last 100 years or more if printed using museum-quality archival techniques on acid-free paper (a fact that has been pretty much forgotten by the masses.)  And I grew up shooting film and working in a darkroom, so I'm more qualified than most to bring back this time-honored, old-world craft.

So I've been toying with this idea of starting a new brand of portraiture business, one that goes BACK to the days of film and hand-made darkroom work and marketing it to the millionaires who spend their summer vacations on Cape Cod every year.  (We live just minutes from Cape Cod, so it's a good fit.)  

Saving Lives in Uganda - Part 2

[Note: This is Part 2 of the blog post from 2024 when I had first visited Dr. Schiff and his team. GF]

===

The young mother was not doing well. 

Living in a remote village in the Jinja region of Uganda, she had given birth to a baby just a few weeks before, but she was feeling weakness on her right side of her body and had fevers.  She was under the care of a traditional healer (sometimes referred to as “Shamans” or “Witch Doctors”) who had instilled cuts on her body as part of the treatment, making her condition worse.  Dr. Schiff and his team examined her and thought she most likely had a stroke as well as an infection. He immediately arranged for an ambulance to come to the remote village and get her.  Empty space in the ambulance was filled with 4 other babies from the village who were also in need of medical attention – 3 had fevers, one had a discharge around the umbilical cord which wasn’t cut close to the body, one had pustules on the skin, and one had very yellow eyes, meaning it had jaundice early in life, a condition that can lead to brain damage if it isn’t treated. 

Once they arrived at the hospital, the young mother was scheduled for a CAT scan, plus treatment for an infection and high blood pressure.  But then the traditional healer called the hospital, demanding that the young mother return home.  When we last heard, the young mother was getting ready to leave the hospital early to comply with the healer’s demands.

Portrait of the King of Busoga

I just returned from Uganda, where I was working on Part 2 of my story on Dr. Schiff's work for Saving lives in Uganda.  The final day of this trip was an added bonus, as I got a chance to meet a king and create his portrait.  I can die now. :-)

For more context about how this happened, let's go back in time a little bit.  Last year, while hosting our first photo safari in Kenya, I was showing participants how to shoot dramatic portraits using wireless flash.  Here's an example (as always, click on any image to view larger and sharper):

And the behind-the-scenes shot showing how it was done using only one flash:

Saving Lives in Uganda (Parts 1 and 2)

Children’s ward in the National Hospital, Kampala.

Dr. Benjamin Warf, Professor
of Neosurgery, Harvard 
Medical School

Part 1 - November, 2024

Our story begins more than 20 years ago, when Dr. Benjamin Warf, a University of Kentucky professor and a renowned authority on diseases of the brain and spinal cords of young infants, left his academic position in the U.S. to practice medicine in Uganda.  His father had been a missionary there; and Ben felt his life calling was to do medical missionary work. 

He also founded a hospital with the help of CURE International, a charitable organization which builds children's hospitals worldwide. Most of them are orthopedic, but Ben was a neurosurgeon for children.  And this would be the first and so far only dedicated hospital to children's neurosurgery in the developing world.

Dr. Moses Ochora, 
Pediatrician at Mbarara
University of Science and
Technology, CONRIM-U
project investigator

While there Dr. Warf discovered a strong correlation between the Hydrocephalus (“Water on the Brain”) cases he was seeing in infants there, and an infection early in life.  These infections also seemed to correlate to instances of Neonatal Sepsis (a severe infection in the first month of life).  He began doing studies.

The Reward for Waiting for the Right Light

Also in this edition:

• Walt Disney was a Genius
• RX1R III ebook now available in all formats!
• 2023 annual for CameraCraft magazine now available!

So here we were on our honeymoon in Alaska 20 years ago.  I was traveling with my Minolta Maxxum 7D, a six-megapixel DSLR.  I stopped at the side of the road to take a picture of Mt. Denali.

"You know", I said to my new wife, "If we wait about 90 minutes, the sunset light on the mountain will make for a much better shot!"  

And so we waited.  

7 1/2 Weeks on the Road...

 

Also in this issue:

• The usual announcements
• RX1R III size compared to my previous street cameras
• 7.5 Weeks on the Road

The Usual Announcements

* I've been getting a lot of requests for a book on the RX1R III, which I've already started working on.  You can pre-order the downloadable versions here at a discount!  (And see some size comparisons at the bottom of this blog post against cameras with which I used to do street photography.)

* There are only three spots left for the Kenya Photo Safari - Nov. 10 - 17, 2025.  Bring your 600mm lens, get yourself to Nairobi, and we'll take care of you start to finish!  Send me an email if you have any questions - and you can learn more at FriedmanArchives.com/safari   This will probably be the last year we'll be doing this.

* Even though the pandemic is over, I'm still being asked to do zoom talks for photo clubs.  And the most popular topic being asked about?  Computational photography.  (By far!)  It's a topic few other photo lectures tackle, and it opens the minds of all who are in attendence.  I can do the same for your photo club as well!  Contact me (Gary at Friedman Archives dot com) for details.

7.5 Weeks on the Road

So we just came back from another road trip - one of the grandkids in California was graduating from middle school and we wanted to be there.  What made this trip different is that we had no set schedule or path or time frame - we could actually take our time and enjoy ourselves (unlike on previous RV trips).  On an ideal day we can drive 4 hours and then work 4 hours.

So here's a brief travelogue.  As with previous travelogues, there's nothing award-winning in here.  Just some interesting snapshots (with good light) which shares a fraction of our adventures, told through the timeless medium of captions.  As always, click on any image to view larger and sharper.

Stumbled onto 3 Star Trek artifacts...

[This blog post is an addendum to the 7 1/2 week travelogue. It has nothing to do with photography. GF]

So here we were in Sandusky, Ohio near Lake Erie. After a full day of driving the motor home, we parked for the night near a shopping mall. I went inside for a walk because I needed the exercise and besides, it was air conditioned.

The West Has Two Gods

An example of western religious symbolism, where God #2 exists outside of you, somewhere up in the heavens. 
(Contrast this with most eastern religions, where God is everywhere, including inside us.)

Recently, out of the blue, my wife asked me: "Do you believe in God?"

"It depends on which God you're talking about", I responded.