When we made the decision to leave our home of 23 years in Washington, DC, and relocated to Floyd (a return to my home for much of my teenage years), one of my goals was to sort through thousands of negatives, slides and digital photos of more than half-a-century as a newspaperman and photojournalist.

Easier said than done. An offer I couldn’t resist to rejoin The Floyd Press, my newspaper job in high school, as a contract reporter and photographer, put me back on the streets covering news, features and other things for the past 16 years.

That didn’t leave a lot of time to comb through boxes, slide trays, negative sleeves and photos that still fill boxes around the house and in a storage unit in Fairfax.

Then the pandemic left us with time on our hands and the task of going back through the thousands of images has produced some photos I remember and cherish and a few that I had to scratch my head and try to recall why I shot them.

I decided I wanted to be a news photographer at age 11, when I sold my first news photo to The Farmville Herald. I apparently had a little writing ability to go with the photography which helped, event though I never studied photography or journalism during my college ears.

Perhaps I should have. I might have done a better job.

I’m hoping to present some more of the photos shot over the years next few years to jump start my memories and, hopefully, give readers some viewing enjoyment. I was, at best, a journeyman reporter and photographer who had good breaks and enough luck to substitute for the lack of talent or training.