Retro Foto Film

Al shares his crazy adventure getting to Chicago to take photos of Lincoln's Funeral Reenactment in 1996.

Al shares his photography adventure on the battlefield up close and personal. For years he was traveling to Hardin Montana to photograph the reenactment of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and the 7th Cavalry as they charged into battle against Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians.

Al sits down with Ansel Adams during a book signing to get direction on his future in photography.

Listen as Al shares the story of Leo one of the top bead professionals. He can tell you what a bead cost, where it was made and how it was made. Learn about Leo's story.

Listen to the story behind the photograph of Tisha, the great Muse. "I am the keeper of this young woman's dreams while she was a muse". Also find out why Al takes photos in the latest episode of the Retro Foto Film Podcast.

Al shares his time working at the University of Utah newspaper in the 1970's and what made it so special. He also shares his run-in with NASA and how cheap they can really be.

Learn about the civil war remembrance story in Clinton Georgia.

Everyone needs a place to get away. Here is my place in Springfield, Idaho. Let me tell you the secret to getting rid of stress. #1 - Good food, #2 - a fire, #3 - good company. The memories made here will never be forgotten. Hear the stories about my special place and a little skunk who received a vikings funeral.

Why do you take photos? I asked myself this in January of 1972 after my first news photography gig where I was assigned to take photos of a plane crash in Wells, Nevada. What I saw has never left me since. This horrific experience was something you need to hear.

We have taken a mini series of 7 episodes to share our journey through Europe with myself and 25 students. This is the final episode. Can't wait to share many more photography adventures with you.

In this episode learn about our stop in the village of Zednick part of former Yugoslavia and the wonderful family we met. Special guest Lena on this episode.

The student journey has continued and their story leads them to Budapest.

Wenceslas Square, Prague

Today we're going to talk about Leipzig, Germany and Wroclaw, Poland and continue our student European trip. We decided to take a day trip and go to Leipzig, Germany, which was still in the eastern sector communists were still there. As we got into Leipzig, the cities on the eastern sector at this time, were very gray. They weren't lovely, beautiful, blossoming crazy cities. I mean they were very kind of drab and gray. Of course, being that it was in the spring, didn't help out any that there weren't any flowers blooming and the trees were bare. It made the city just a little bit more gloom and kind of overcast.

The fall of the Berlin Wall. I took 22 of my University students to Europe to take part in a photography journey called "Project Discovery". We start the journey with taking our part in knocking chunks off the Berlin Wall and much more.

It is the ghost photo from the train shoot in Ely, Nevada. For the past three days you have seen photographs from the same shoot. Because there is a ghost in this photo I talked about it in my podcast. I’ve had two of these ghost incidents show up in my career, I’ll show the other one another time. Enjoy the train and the ghost.

Al talks about how to capture the perfect winter scene. He breaks down how he captured this winter scene in Salt Lake City, Utah on a bitter cold winter morning and he gives advice on how to make sure you capture your best photos in the snow.

The break down of how I captured the national award winning photograph of Ted Kennedy and the process of making a great print in the darkroom.

I'm talking about the wonderful preemie brochure that I did for the University of Utah Medical Center in 1973.

Beaner Babes - The women of the Mountain Men Rendezvous

This photo was taken at the Western national rendezvous in Grand Mesa, Colorado. This is the Comencheros. Who are the Comencheros? They were some of the meanest, nastiest people, men, and I don't think any of them were ever women. But in the West because what they did was they roamed through cities, towns, villages, anything. And when they did, they actually raped, pillaged, stole, burned and left nothing behind. If they came across a wagon train, they totally killed everyone, stole everything, loaded it onto their carts if they had them, or took their Wagon Train carts and used them. And they were a banned of whites, blacks, Indians, Mexicans and it was just whoever wanted to join them and be nasty mean and crazy.

I have a photograph, which is called horse and rider. And it is one of my favorite photographs that I have taken. It was taken at a Custer battle in 1993, at Little Bighorn river bend. Hear the story behind the photograph.

Episode 1 is the story of Photographer Al Thelin as he breaks down 50 years of film and digital photography.