The Life in My Years

Every now and again a Lens Artists Challenge beckons and this most recent challenge hollered, “come on down.”

Over the past few years I’ve become so captivated by black and white or, monochrome that when I compose an image I try to image what it will look like in monochrome.

My banner photo was taken at the Südtiroler Platz-Hauptbahnhof station, in Vienna. I shot this image very early on a Sunday morning while the usual hordes of people were enjoying sleeping in.

Vienna is known for it’s grand Baroque buildings but there is some magnificent modern architecture, particularly at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Yeah, well, the photo below was not taken there because a rent-a-cop at the university asked me not to take photos. My sense is that the architect would not be pleased with someone banning photos of his work. The building below is the OBB building across the street from Hauptbanhof station.

The tallest building in San Francisco is the much maligned Salesforce Tower. A small fraction of that building is pictured below.

Below is the once maligned and now mostly beloved TransAmerica Pyramid in San Francisco. When the Pyramid was proposed the San Francisco public was in alternate states of embarrassment and outrage. All (well, almost all) is forgiven now that it’s become an iconic part of the San Francisco skyline.

The two photos below can be cataloged in the “I was just goofing around and had nothing better to do during COVID” category.

The following portraits were taken on my first SLR, a Canon A1 in 1978 on Ektachrome slide film.

On New Years Day 2026, my dog Lexi was lounging on a futon in the home office. The futon has for years been christened Lexi’s couch and the home office is Lexi’s office.

Thank you to Ritva at Ritva Sillanmäki Photography for choosing this wonderful topic. Please hop over to her site to see her take on minimalist black and white.