Life Between the Poles

My family has known Maria for 30 years.  I recently did a few portraits of her when I thought what can I do with these other than post them on Instagram and Facebook.  For a long time I have been watching and listening to Platon a world famous photographer who talks from the heart with deep interest to his sisters he's photographing.  For me, Platon is incredibly motivating.  Since, I have a...

Starting off at the gym with new observations of absolute astonishment.  There's always new observations of interest you may find surprising and entertaining.  I then move onto the purpose of the Podcast with my observation of recent trends in photography that demonstrate in my opinion laziness in the name of breaking away from norms of 20th century craftsmanship.  Intended to be fresh and ne...

I've made some changes at the gym that has made my life a little calmer and more tolerant of the humanity that occupies the building.  Then I'm off to Yuma, Arizona for Yuma Days and the PRCA Rodeo.  Great fun seeing all the participant but I did learn a few things about photography at a PRCA event.  The crescendo of this episode was at the Costco food court which in mind was turned into...

Once again this episode deals with the incredibly rude people I observe and experience at the gym I go to.  It is absolutely mind boggling to me how some people go thru life never considering how their behavior effects other people. Since this is partially about photography I also speak about a print share event I went to last week.  This event is sponsored by the Arizona Photography Alliance wher...

In this episode I get us caught up on the escapades that occur at my neighborhood gym.   I talk about a weather event called a micro-burst that hit our area a few weeks ago.  Since this is a podcast about photography, I'm also talking about various topics of how the professional photography business has change.  I talk about my personal darkroom work making 8X10 silver gelatin collector conta...

This podcast starts with the fan favorite, a report about my observations at the gym.  I then go onto the story of the massive Phoenix, Arizona dust storm that occurred August 25, 2025.  To conclude my podcast I talk about photography and printing. Send us Fan Mail Thank you for listening and help me grow this channel.  Have a great day.  Many of the photographs I talk about here are on Facebook:...

I talk about the newspaper photo assignment photographing Liberty Wildlifes releasing a rehabbed Golden Eagle back into the wild.  While driving on a primitive road looking for the wild life group I mistakenly drove into a camp of heavily armed people shooting guns and firing bowling balls hundreds of feet into the air.  This is the story and the life of a community photojournalist on a rare and h...

In this episode I introduce my friends and listeners to my new blog bradarmstrong.blog.   I talk briefly about how Instagram has turned into a mini TikTok.  It's video and advertising.  There still is good photography on Instagram but I don't find engagement other than seeing empty emoji's.  I guess it's a conformation that people are seeing your work but it seems to fall intel...

We drove over to Santa Monica from Phoenix for a few reasons.  One to have our wedding blessed by a Catholic Priest which created quite a bit of anxiety on my part with the usual response of "No" I'm not doing that.  But, I always give in and in the end I'm grateful I did.  We also had the celebration of life for my brother-in-law Barry which was truly fantastic and special. Al...

In this episode I give my usual update of my triggers at the gym then I go into few interesting personal stories of extraordinary assignments and  projects I covered as a newspaper photojournalist. Send us Fan Mail Thank you for listening and help me grow this channel.  Have a great day.  Many of the photographs I talk about here are on Facebook: Brad Armstrong the Avatar picture is my wife and I...

I've been doing some but learning more about the craft of Street Photography by reading books and watching YouTube documentaries on various photographers old and new about their methods for moving through the public space capturing humanity.  It seems to me that Street photography is defined with a very wide brush but primarily means candid.  What is now called street photography sometimes ha...

This episode is about the Circle of Life where we lost two very close people in our families lives and we had the birth of a third grandson.   Send us Fan Mail Thank you for listening and help me grow this channel.  Have a great day.  Many of the photographs I talk about here are on Facebook: Brad Armstrong the Avatar picture is my wife and I with Smokey the Bear,  Instagram @ shade_image / commer...

This episode describes my calamity with kidney stone surgery and my experience at the company Christmas Party that immediately followed my medical proceedure. Send us Fan Mail Thank you for listening and help me grow this channel.  Have a great day.  Many of the photographs I talk about here are on Facebook: Brad Armstrong the Avatar picture is my wife and I with Smokey the Bear,  Instagram @ shad...

This episode updates us on a few triggers from the gym with pretty good news.  I also talk about cart management and the parking lot at Costco, which I'm sure many of you can relate to.  Then I move on to a heartwarming story from 1993 that I did for the Scottsdale Progress newspaper where I photographed a young  girl named Kristi McCrey.   Kristi was born with Down Syndrome  and went on to c...

Cutting the corner is more observations about humanity which annoy me on a daily basis.  I was going to talk about a photo project I did but I got caught up in keeping with my frustrations.  In this short podcast, I'm describing how absolutely rude people are unknowingly or perhaps on purpose with extreme entitlement that justifies there self centered attitude of I don't care about you....

This episode is a fallow up to observations made when people seem to have know sense of spacial awareness.  In this podcast spacial awareness will be explained and how some people in society  have no sense of where they are or possibly could care less.  I'll leave it up to you if you think I'm crazy or you can relate with your own experiences.  At the end of the video I talk about Photog...

This episode is about my involvement when witnessing three burglars who just committed a smash and grab jewel heist running from the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall.   I coincidentally happened to be at the location where the three made their escape from the mall.  There was car a jacking at gun point, a high speed chase and a foot pursuit.  As a photojournalist at the time, I was in the right plac...

This episode is a about my involvement in witnessing an accident where a young boy was pinned under a moving vehicle.  My actions may have saved his life!  As a result I was awarded the National Humanitarian Award by the National Press Photographers Association.  This event was shortly after Princess Diana's death when she was chased by paparazo.  When her vehicle crashed the paparazo continu...

This episode, I talk about finalizing an 8X10 contact print toned in coffee and my experience with the Mesa Art Center gallery show where they got my name wrong in the announcement  mailer advertising the show to the public.  Send us Fan Mail Thank you for listening and help me grow this channel.  Have a great day.  Many of the photographs I talk about here are on Facebook: Brad Armstrong the Avat...

This episode I talk about getting older and being judged by younger people.  How getting older has been an adjustment realizing I know longer blend in.  In the past 11 years the only young people I have spoken to are servers at restaurants.  My friend and I asked our most recent server how do you see us?  Do you see two grandpa's?  She said, she didn't think about, we are just people.  ...

I talk about the fun I've been having making small silver gelatin prints in my darkroom.  When I say small I'm talking 7 by 5 inch prints from 6X9 negatives.  They are beautiful and so much easier to print and a penny saver for sure.  Then I go into a side bar story of my experience at my dentists retirement party.  I talk about our conversation about playing music together and other exp...

Welcome to my first Podcast!  Yes, this is a podcast about photography, but there are those occasions where I digress with events around me such as this.  Prior to publishing this I had my friend listen to it and he thought I should do this type of podcast all the time.  Photography, is for photographers where this is for almost everyone, he said.   I was a newspaper photojournalist for 20 years a...