By Hal Walter
If a picture can paint a thousands words, then I should keep this short. My columns are usually 800-1,000 words, and this one is accompanied by a few photos.
It may baffle and surprise some readers to learn that I often picture a written essay as an image. It forms in my head and then I attempt to project this image into words. Sometimes it’s easy to get those words out, and sometimes not so.
I started out in journalism because of an interest in photography. I joined my high school newspaper class and saved to buy a Minolta SRT 101 camera. My folks later bought me some darkroom equipment and we turned a small bathroom into a makeshift lab.