Stuff in My Drawers Day

I took these pictures 25 years ago, in January 1991, as a requirement for the Photography merit badge. This was long before digital cameras and color printers, and the negatives were developed in our basement darkroom.

The badge required a set of black and white photographs that demonstrated good and poor lighting, with no penalty points docked if your family was less than enthused to participate.

This merit badge really drove home the importance of lighting, as you can see. On the left, my dad just looks my dad, but put him in the shadow of a menacing deciduous tree and he could be the "mysterious stranger hanging around the lake when all of those co-eds disappeared last summer".