I love teaching. Working with teenagers is rewarding work… and exhausting. I see around 160-180 students per semester. It is challenging work, but I get to share the thing I love with kids every day. And I never take time off during the year. I don’t call in sick, don’t take breaks, I’m there every day. Even during COVID… never missed a day.
I just completed my tenth year of high school teaching. I teach 3 levels of painting, Advanced Placement (AP) Drawing and 2-Dimensional Design, early college Art Appreciation and early college Drawing, both for dual credit (high school and college.) That’s 6 different classes of 4 levels of fine art, quite a workload.
So, I turned 53 this year, and I decided to start taking a day for myself, every month, to do something that makes me happy. A day off with a camera, call it a mental health day, to invest more in a long-time interest of mine – photography. A grad school course in contemporary photography a few years ago re-ignited my interest in analog photography, and I began shooting film again every so often. At the end of last year, I decided to go fully analog and learn to develop and scan my own film.
The 5 frames I’m sharing are from the first mental health day I took this year. I chose a part of Dallas, Texas I’d never been to, an industrial area that is being “gentrified” as we speak. I took a drive down Caesar Chavez Boulevard just see what’s there, going all the way from downtown Dallas to where it dead ends. My camera of choice was my Asahi Pentax Spotmatic with a Super Takumar 1:3.5/28 lens that had been recently CLA’d by Eric Hendrikson. I’ve had this camera since 2002 and bought it used for $50 with 2 lenses, the matching lens hood and matching cases. The light meter still works, and the camera is incredibly reliable and well-built.
lI shot Kodak Tri-X 400 at box speed, metered with the camera, and home developed in Kodak D-76 and Ilford Stop bath and Fixer. I scanned with an Epson v600, and any adjustments were done with Adobe Photoshop. I will say adjustments were very minimal, a few I bumped up the contrast a little but that’s it. My goal is to get it right in the camera and not do a lot of “fixing.” I am learning Tri-X makes that easier to accomplish.
I want to encourage everyone to take one day a month for yourself and pour back into the thing you love to do. Keep it simple and connect with why you picked up a camera to begin with. I also want to thank everyone in this community for inspiring me to develop my own film. Do you have a mental health day you practice? Share below in the comments and thanks for reading.
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Gary Smith on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Looking forward to more mental health day results from you!
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Tony Warren on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
RichardH on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Also, thank you for listing the Pentax repair specialist. Competent camera repair technicians need the recognition.
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
David Dutchison on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Charles Young on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
I quit putting batteries in a long time ago and use selenium meters. No batteries. I enjoy other cameras but the pentax is still working good. I love to do my own processing. Sometimes in my kitchen. Your photos look great. Now I like informal portraits best. Keep up your nice work! I inherited a Nikon F. It is great but terribly heavy!
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Rachada Iturrino on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Comment posted: 08/10/2025
Jeffery Luhn on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Thanks for being a teacher! I've always taught photography as a sideline, but in 2016 I made it my full time gig. That year I taught photography at Watsonville High in California. About 85% of my 105 students were Hispanic with English as their second language. That was a banner year for me because all of those kids were hard working and respectful. It has been my observation that Hispanic kids do not smart off to their grandfather, and that's the age range I fit into. After that year, I went back to teaching at the college level because the high school photo program lost its funding. I wish I could get that same group of kids again. Several of them post on facebook, so I see what they are up to. Five are working pro photographers. That's a good crop!
Keep doing your mental health days and keep posting. I like your photos!
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Geoff Chaplin on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Bill Brown on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Michael Jardine on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
I was made redundant from my last architecture gig a few months ago after 20 years or so of hard work and it's not looking good as the industry pivots to AI: "All professional creatives, Fay and I were told cheerfully, would soon exist only as hobbyists. This was not provocation. Not irony. Just fact." (from today's Guardian https://tinyurl.com/ps334mdb). My film photography as a frame of reference to my life is increasingly important.
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
David Pauley on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
And thanks for the lovely post and sentiment. As a mental health worker, you would think that every day would be a mental health day for me -- but you'd be wrong! I've learned only over many years to recharge batteries by building in time for photography and other things that I love that don't involve work. Even still the reminder and your moody, contemplative monochrome images are most welcome. Keep at it! - David
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Eagle Omomuro on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
John Frank on 5 Frames from a mental health day
Comment posted: 09/10/2025
Comment posted: 09/10/2025