I've always hated hats. I'm of course the distinguished young man on the left. The guy in the center, with the beanie, is my brother Rusty and the other guy is a friend Sandy Ziminsky. Unless my memory fails me, that beanie may have had a small propeller on the top. This picture was taken in Mount Vernon, New York which is next to Yonkers and the Bronx where I grew up. We all gotta start somewhere.
I started as a photojournalist with a 4x5 Graphlex press camera as a stringer for the NY Mirror -- very old school. I transitioned to 35MM with a Black Leica M2, worn through to the brass on the edges. I traveled the world with a 35MM F2 Summicron and F2.8 90MM Tele Elmarit. Unfortunately my most beloved camera was stolen. I replaced it with a Canon F1 and lenses from 18MM F4 to 200MM F2.8. My F1 now collects dust while I use a Canon Powershot S3 IS. Digital is "now" and my darkroom has been replaced by a Linux PC with GIMP as my editing tool. The Internet is my printing paper. Photography will always be my avocation even as the technology of it changes.
Despite being a city kid, I've always loved fishing and this is a fish story with proof. These fish were very heavy and it was quite a trick holding them out in front of me while my fishing partner, Frank Arzie, took the picture. We caught them in California's San Louis Dam area. That's Frank's boat behind me and the size of my catch directly relates to his skill as a fisherman. He's been fishing those same waters since he was a kid and knows them very well.
An eleven pounder was one of the first Striped Bass I ever caught. Before that, the biggest fish I ever caught was a four and a half pound Small Mouth Bass in the Yellow River near Spooner Wisconsin. Spooner had a sports bar with a sign on the men's room that proudly stated, "John Fitzgerald Kennedy used this facility." What's life without a sense of humor anyway.