Today I give thanks to my parents who provided such a rich childhood for us.

I’m going through some old files in preparation for meeting another Schlachet tomorrow. I found this picture of my father, taken at Tan Son Nhat AFB, Viet Nam.

I have a large cache of memories from his files, including some of his report cards, postcards he sent to his parents, papers from his marriage to my future mother.

I think this meeting tomorrow is going to inspire me to scan some of these items.

The Falco is the moniker of my youngest step-brother, Ranier. When my dad remarried, he became part of a family that aleady had grown kids. The best part of the deal for me was becoming a kuya, the filipino word for older male relative. Being an older brother means you need to have all the answers, or at least most of them. It means steering your younger sibling around life’s obvious obstacles and helping them out with the challenging ones. Having long talks with Ranier about food, life, and photography, reminded me of my own childhood and being the source of so much knowledge for my brother Tom. I still have a never-ending curiosity about how the world works, and I really like that trait in both Ranier and Tom.

My brief resurgence as a brother-mentor is pretty much over, and I’m thankful that I had a second go-’round.

Ranier writes two blogs, one about fashion and one about dating – check them out!

We haven’t seen Tom and Clare since they got married last year. It was so nice spending time with my brother and getting to know my sister-in-law a bit more. They had a fairly mixed visit with touristy stuff, family, driving around on their own. On their last full day with us I asked them to pose for me for a few photos.

Ilford HP5+ developed in Rodinal 1+50. Shot with a Speed Graphic at 1/50 through an Aero Ektar 178/2,5 lens. I am not used to more than one subject with a lens like this, it’s quite difficult to get right with a curved focal plane.

This was my first time using the new incarnation of Rodinal, Adox Adonal. I used it at 1+50 just like the old Agfa Rodinal with good results.

June 1960, Sydney, Australia.

My friend Jonathan is visiting his partner Adrian this week. Adrian’s already moved there and Jonathan will soon follow. I miss seeing them almost every Monday for our Supper Club. I thought they would enjoy seeing this old photo of Sydney that my dad shot while he was over there.

Just the weeks before this shot, he was shooting pictures of Chinook helicopters taking away cargo in Tay Ninh, Viet Nam.

“Hughs Smallwood Franco” was the hand-written note for this Kodakchrome slide my dad shot in Viet Nam. I just noticed the can of Coke with its red and white checkered pattern.

In this box of slides, the shots went from poolside views in Sydney, to Dau Tieng, to views from a helicopter flying over rice paddies.

Happy Veterans Day.

dad would be 62 today. although it is easily searchable in my blog, i like to let pass the memory of his last few days and replace it instead with the day he was born, december 9th.  people have the most potential on the day they were born. i like this entry from wikipedia:

The term birth is used metaphorically to refer to a beginning, especially of a natural phenomenon, one that is impressive in its scope or complexity, or one that is viewed favorably.

thanks, branden, for digging up, scanning, and sending me this photo.

after 10 years of dating and 3 years of engagement, eillenil (my step-sister) and mark got married this month. the ceremony was at mission santa clara de asis, on the santa clara university campus. it was nice to see a formal tie between the sudarios and the dimalantas.

it was such a hot day then, i wished i was wearing a barong tagalog like the goomsmen. dealing with the heat and suit made lugging a pentax 67 not too bad.

this is my brother tom and his wife clare.

i travelled to indiana last week to reconnect with family, meet clare, and be there for their wedding.

tom and clare were married at the hamilton county courthouse on friday. after the ceremony, i took pictures of everybody on the lawn behind the courthouse. we found a nice shady spot and were able to take some pictures before everybody got too sweaty.

i have a good amount of film to go through, mostly portra 160vc and 400, but also some of the new kodak ektar 100.

this was shot on portra 160vc. camera is the pentax 6×7, 80/2.8. negative scan, dust clone-out, auto-curves, resize.

this is a picture of my parents from 1973.

i haven’t posted anything for a while and thought i would dig through the slides and find one to post. i think this is a great shot of them. the framing, their composure, and the colors. it made me think about the future, by the way they are looking off to the amazing distant horizon.