Let’s go way back, shall we?

This was a photo from one of my disposable Kodak 220 film cameras that I always tried to carry around because they were so small and effortless.

Of course the quality wasn’t all that great… but sometimes you just want to capture the moment, right?

For a couple years, I had the privilege of doing a tour in the USCG and our constantly-repainted, insanely BRIGHT WHITE high-endurance cutter was pretty much all over the Pacific, doing various missions from Alaska to the FSM, San Diego to Seattle… We were all over the place, and at sea for months at a time.

So of course anywhere we had a few hours to moor up (often just to refuel), I was doing all I could to get out and about. These crappy little disposable 220 cameras became kind of a ubiquitous tool for me.

In this image, some kids were just heading home from school near Kolonia, Pohnpei. Earlier that day, our ship came around to drop off thousands of various school books for them to use. Then yours truly went out and tried Sakau for the first time. (Bucket list, check) Also tried to check out Nan Madol, but I got way too distracted by the old Japanese military debris that was sunk, half-buried, or otherwise being replaced by new jungle trees and vines. I think I spent like eight hours there before we shipped back out into the wild blue yonder again.

So the photos back then aren’t my best… but still, they are really great memories. I’ll see if I can find some more to share.