Instagram filters applied to historic photographs by the likes of Diane Arbus, Robert Capa, Alex Soth, Weegee, Robert Mapplethorpe, and many more. Great experiment, I hope he keeps it up.

[via Kottke.org]

The Denver Post photo archive has put together a wonderful collection of old images of American Cities. Really makes one appreciate how fast we’ve constructed the United State (for good and for bad).

[via Scott James]

Dan and Francesca

Fantastic shot. Love that car and her shoes. Wow.

Wow, what a fantastic collection. Amazing. Here’s a fun one of George Clooney.

[via Kottke.org]

Mid-1970′s, Yosemite Valley, California. This picture was taken by my then girlfriend and climbing partner Faye Nakamura. I’m not sure which climb we were on but it’s not a wall since I don’t have a haul line or aiders. I’m guessing its the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock, one of our favorite all day climbs in the Valley back then.

You’ll notice a few “Friends” (expandable protection) on my rack on the right. These were original pieces made by and bought from Ray Jardine who invented them long before expandable protection became popular and generic.

Most of the photographs we took on climbs in those days were slides and I have yet to scan my extensive and unfortunately deteriorating slide collection. I hope to get to it before it fades away.

Yes, I was a serious climber for about ten years and climbed quite a bit in Yosemite Valley including some walls. These days my knees knock cleaning my gutters on an extension ladder and hiking is what I do for adventure. I’m glad I experienced the climbing scene when I did; I never got into the indoor climbing gym scene, competiions, or speed climbing with and without equipment. I was what modern climbers call a “trad” (traditional).

For those of you interested in climbing (and entertaining stories), you might enjoy this (true) story I wrote a while back: A Climbing Story.

July, 1969, Yosemite Park, California. I took this out our car window against my father’s advice. We went to Yosemite as a family each year until I went away to college; my parents continued to go for many years after. Those were amazing years in Yosemite and we even experienced the famous Yosemite Firefall where park rangers got a pile of logs burning on top of Glacier Point and pushed the embers over the 3000′ cliff to the delight of the tourists below (well, not directly below).

Yes, we went to Ansel Adams’ slide lectures and met him numerous times at his gallery in the Valley.

Those were the days. A few years later I was back in Yosemite as a climber. Those were even better days.

Shorpy has a fantastic image of the digging of the underground rail terminal in Grand Central. Note the above ground station coming down next door to the right. Check the image out full size.

Smith Rocks, Oregon. Pete Pollard (front) and me walking along the Crooked River at Smith Rocks toward Asterisk Pass. We went over the pass and hiked back north on the other side to the base of Monkey Face where we climbed a nice route called West Face Variation on Monkey Face.

This picture was taken by Faye Nakamura who did the climb with us.

Yes… in another life I was a semi-serious climber.

That’s me leading the first pitch on West Face Variation on Monkey Face. This was a warm-up route for something else we did that weekend but I can’t remember what it was. Pete Pollard was belaying me while Faye Nakamura took the picture.

The three of us swapped leads on this and if memory serves I got the scary lead out of the monkey’s mouth. The free rappel off the top is "memorable" if memory serves.

The photographer Pierre Yves-Petit, who called himself “Yvon,” wandered the streets of Paris between the world wars looking for the moment when the shifting light and clouds would perfectly reveal the city’s ephemeral, iconic beauty. The dramatic images of the city and its people that he made during those years would become the most popular postcards in France.

These images are fabulous, they make me want to get to Paris immediately with small camera in hand and the great part is, they’re some of the earliest images that were turned into postcards that brought Paris to people in other parts of the world. Yvon channelled Paris beautifully.

Robert Stevens’ book of Yvon’s work can be bought on Amazon: Yvon’s Paris.

September, 1972. My late father took this picture of my mother and me at Crater Lake. I had just moved to Eugene, Oregon to begin my second year of college at the University of Oregon and my folks came up from California to see how I was doing.

I was 20 years old here, my mother was 57, a year younger than I am now. Kind of messes with your mind…

No doubt my father bugged me about my hair which came off for good the next year but I grew a beard which I’ve not cut off to this day.