The site name is a personalization of 'second fiddle,' changed to 'second cello,' as that is the instrument I play. While I have played second chair in several orchestras, the name is basically just a bit of wordplay.
As it seems wise not to publish too much personal information on the web, I will provide just some basics. I am now in my mid-80s, living in British Columbia, Canada, about an hour east of Vancouver. I grew up south of the border in Chelan, WA and you will find sets of photographs of that area. I have lived in a number of places in North America, but spent twenty-nine years in Newfoundland, Canada. The selection of Newfoundland photographs will be of interest because they show scenes, beginning in 1967, that are now quite changed.
I lived for twelve years in Michigan, seven in Kalamazoo and the rest in Ann Arbor. During those years I was heavily involved in folk music; I researched and recorded the album of Michigan folk songs while at Western Michigan University, where I taught in General Studies and worked in Educational Television.
Another of my interests is stereo photography and you can find many examples in the Photography section. All are presented in the standard cross-eyed manner of viewing. If you need help in learning to view stereo photographs, check out these sites: http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase/ihelp.html and http://www.vision3d.com/methd04.html.
The stereo medium is a natural for another of my interests, juggling. Most of the juggling stereos were taken at festivals of the International Jugglers Association, of which I am still a member.
The Starcher photographs are from my line of the name, beginning with their first-photographed home in Cow Horn Holler, West Virginia in the 19th Century. I was told that it was somewhere near Berlin, WV, but I have no specific location for it.
All of the photographs are available on the web at screen resolution for non-commercial use. If you are interested in a particular photograph for commercial use, please email me at secondcello at shaw dot ca. (Create the address in standard form; this way the robots won't gather the address for their spam messages.)
All my photos are now displayed only on Flickr. This should simplify viewing and also bring them to new devices like the iPad. If you have a Flickr account you can select the "All Sizes" option to get a full-screen display of the photo, and you can also choose the "Original" size to look at detail within the frame. Flickr has recently offered a larger default display which you should select when you use the site.
The Michigan folk songs can also be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes. I would hope that they would be useful in the schools and universities of Michigan and the general area of the Great Lakes. The album has long been out of print and I doubt that there are any plans by Western Michigan University to reissue it on CD.