As was the case of a prior version of this website, I once again dedicate my love of photography and this revised website to my brother the Reverend Richard C. Alton. He was Rector of Saint Clement's Church in Philadelphia from 2014 to 2024. He died on All Saints day of 2024.
During my boyhood years, Rick was into photography and had two cameras. One was my father's Polaroid camera from the 1950s. I remember how he showed me, successfully, how to operate that camera. Later, he received a Christmas gift of a Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic camera. On that same Christmas morning, I received a Kodak Instamatic 314 camera. We were both thrilled by our new photographic acquisitions. Rick immediately got to work discovering and using the new 35mm camera, whose metering system was a novelty in those days. He became a fan of Kodak's Tri-X pan film, a black and white film that had an ISO of 400. That meant that he could take some indoor pictures without the need of flash. He later took shots of activities at his high school. In the meantime, I made plenty of use of my new Kodak and would move on to a Vivitar SLR camera in 1978. By that time, Rick was on to different but important endeavors, including his theological studies that would eventually lead to his priesthood.
My brother was a man of light during his work as a priest. Despite the darkening and dispiriting global situation, I must continue to 'draw' with light, that is, photography, now that my brother is a part of that light.
