phranksphotos365

Since this is leap day, it is technically not part of the 365 project. I’m putting up one of my earliest shots. In 1973, as a greenhorn fresh out of college, my company sent me to Iran for 3 months to test out and commission the electrical control systems on a 400 mile oil pipeline stretching from Teheran to the Persian Gulf. Throughout the middle parts of the country I saw many of these nomadic tribal families. They were constantly on the move, looking for grazing for their sheep and carrying all their belongings and tents with them. It was not an easy life. The women would work at turning out amazing Persian rugs from the wool, which they would sell. The Shah’s government hated these people and were trying to eradicate them. Being a photography novice, I bought an Olympus Pen FT camera to take with me. I chose this model because it was a half-frame 35mm SLR which would get twice as many exposures on a roll of film. It was a wonderful compact camera with a built in light meter…a collectors item now. Unfortunately, I had few skills in using it properly and didn’t know much about photography in general. I just had the slides scanned recently and obviously they had deteriorated over the past 40 years.