About

The Story of a Life

Phil Block

BlockPhotos.com is a key part of my life story. The pictures capture many highlights of my adult life, as seen through my camera’s lens. I became a photographer at age 19, during my senior year of high school. That was the beginning of a lifelong interest in photography as a hobby, and sometimes a business.

The photo galleries supplement my autobiography, The Story of a Life. The title is taken from the name of a favorite Harry Chapin song, The Story of a Life. That song has haunted me for decades now.

Profile

I’ve been a photo enthusiast since the mid-1960s. My fascination with photography began in high school, when I received a Montgomery Wards 35mm rangefinder camera as a gift.

Using that camera and lots of Kodachrome slide film, I photographed much of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula during my college years at Michigan Technological University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

For over twenty years starting in the early 1980s, I focused mainly on the historic lighthouses of the Western Great Lakes. My Great Lakes lighthouse photo site, Lightstations.com and public slide show Lights of the Lakes was the result. I presented Lights of the Lakes over 60 times to over 3,000 people during those years. I have converted this program to 100% digital and still present it. To schedule a show for your group, contact me.

An experienced photographer, I’ve taken New York Institute of Photography’s professional photography course, studied photography at Concordia University of Wisconsin, and have attended various photography workshops. I’m an active member of the Milwaukee Photo Pictorialists, a camera club which was established in 1904.

I am retired following a career in management, corporate training, and technical communications. My background includes web site design and development, business analysis, technical writing, training, and marketing communications.

About this Site

BlockPhotos.com was established in 2003 as a traditional HTML web site. The photo galleries were built using a PBase template. The content of those galleries can be seen in the Legacy Galleries section of this site.

This site includes thousands of images that were migrated from other hosting platforms including SmugMug, Flickr, and Facebook. Images from those sources now reside in the Modern Galleries and Facebook Albums sections of this site.

In 2014, the site was completely reconstructed using WordPress. The galleries were rebuilt using NextGEN.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your willingness to spend part of your day with me. If there’s any way I can help you, please let me know.