Many of my images that I like best come from the simplest cameras. I'm not entirely sure why that is; possibly the simplicity of the system gets me better focused on composition. I acquired this old Agfa-Ansco box camera recently at a cost of two dollars. It is the oldest of my box cameras, probably dating from the mid to late 'Twenties. The camera is made largely from wood and cardboard; in spite of the simple materials used in construction it is put together very precisely. The seams of the parts are so tight that there are almost none of the usual blemishes on the viewfinder lenses and mirrors. This is the only old camera I have in which the core of the film take-up spool is made of wood. The picture of the Rio Grande was made from Dead Man's Curve, not far from our home. The others were taken in the old village of Doña Ana north of Las Cruces.

I get to most of the local car shows around Las Cruces. These photos are from Saturday's Lions Club Show at the Plaza in Mesilla. The event is scheduled on the one day of the year when rain is almost guaranteed. According to one of the organizers, if the Lions Club didn't have bad luck, it wouldn't have any. There were less visitors to the show than might have showed up on a sunny morning, but the enthusiasm of the car owners was not noticibly dampened. The first shot shows a mural on the hood of a truck that is in a currently popular photo-realistic style. The cameras were the Pentax Spotmatic and the Kodak Retina IIc.