[PRCo] Re: FARTHER OFF TOPIC (COLOR FILM PROCESSES)

[hwandrews1 at cs.com]

Fred,

I've been active as a 'professional' photographer since 1966 – I apprenticed with Terrace Arcade Studios in the old Whitehall Shopping Center at Brownsville and Rt51.  If you haven't been that way recently they have torn everything down and are busy putting up a whole new complex.  We usually get there a few times each year – tho' we live near Detroit Michigan my wife's parents are still in Brentwood and we visit them on a regular basis.

Back to the subject – I say 'professional' in quotes since my primary income is now as a Manager of Computer Systems for Ford, and my educational background is as a Mechanical Engineer.  Still, since '66 I've earned some significant level of income as a photographer.  I've done most jobs: darkroom tech, studio photographer, journalist, wedding photographer, #1 assistant/lighting tech, etc.

I'm still earning $$$ from this – I typically shoot about 20 wedding per year and some glamour for print and electronic sales.   I'm fortunate to have a home on 3 acres with multiple outbuildings – one of which is 25x35 with 10' ceiling that I have converted into a fully equipped studio for portrait and glamour shooting.  I also have a small darkroom in the house with a Chromega D3 so I can handle up to 4x5 negs – I still do some B&W printing, and even though I can print color I prefer to send it out… it's much more cost effective than 'beating my head against the wall' trying to hit the color balances right – especially for the retail trade (i.e., weddings, portraits, etc).

Don't know if I could even list all the cameras I've used over time – I've shot with everything from Minox 'spy cameras' to 8x10 studio camera depending upon the job at hand.  Currently my image capture equipment consist of a few Hasselbald outfits with lens ranging from 50mm to 300mm and Metz Flashes for my Retail (wedding/portrait) Trade and Nikons with 28-70 and 80-200 zooms with Nikon SB Flashes for wedding 'photojournalism' and glamour (they still want slides for publication use).  In addition my studio is equipped with Speedatron and Dynalight Studio Strobes, a Bowen Monospot, and assorted 'hot lights'.  I do have some other cameras kicking around including a lovely Calumet 4x5 monorail studio camera.  However, I stopped doing commercial product work a few years ago, so this isn't getting much use.

I've resisted the move to digital to date, mainly because I don't have the sales volume to justify a fully integrated digital solution.  I did look at Kodak's backs for the Hasselbalds along with their proofing, retouching, and printing software but at $100,000 I just could justify the investment for my small volume.  My compromise to date has been to add a Nikon LS-2000 film scanner to provide electronic images for customers who want/need them.  The LS-2000 only does 35mm – but it meets the needs of the customers I have for digital imaging since most of they want these only for WEB site use.  Any serious digital image work I need to do I still have the lab scan from a medium format slide or negative – the larger image still equated to better quality!

With the new generation of digital cameras I think I'll finally take the plunge – they are finally getting to the point where image quality and price seem to be getting into balance.  I did shoot a digital job about a month ago – the model wanted all digital images for her portfolio use.  So to save the trouble of scanning slides I rented a Cannon D30 outfit – image quality was impressive and best of all film cost was ZERO.  The new Fuji S2 will accept all my Nikon lens, and is currently coming in around $2300 – a somewhat affordable price.  It is a business write off – but I still need to watch the pennies and justify the expense to the BOSS (my wife).  The glamour market is moving to all digital, and many of the wedding shooters are including digital 'photojournalism' – so I have a use for the camera.  Surprisingly we have a few wedding shooters doing the whole wedding on digital – don't know if I'm ready for that switch, but it is an interesting possibility.  Big reason this is now possible is not just improvements in image capture technology, but also the labs are now gearing up to print directly from file.  Kind of interesting, my lab will do digital prints direct from file at about 2/3 the cost of a negative print.  Use to be digital was about 10 times the cost of conventional prints.  Oh well, times are changing.

Final item – then I need to run.  I plan to turn my photographic talents to shooting some of my traction models – when/if I get my layout put together.  I'm starting off with a rather small layout – some may actually call it just a diorama – that's 2'x5'.  It will be modular so I can add on to it, but I figure starting with a 'doable' project is best.  I have the track plan completed and am working on the structure plan now.  But, most of my weekends have been booked with Weddings and "honey do's" – so I haven't been able to start the woodworking.  My plan (maybe "prayful wish" is a better term) is to start the woodworking for the layout structure in late October when the weddings ease off for the season…  I say ease off since I have wedding in Nov. and Dec still, but only one each month.  

Well – there you have my tome, bet you didn't expect me to ramble so.  Hope I didn't bore you to death – but then that's way there's a delete key on the computer!

Talk with you soon,
Howard


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>Tell me more about your photographic interests directed to me and not to Derrick.  We don't need to bore everyone.  You might want to copy everything also to Ken Josephson because he is getting in a little deeper than some others ... he has a 4x5 Graphic that he wants to learn to use.
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>I should add (briefly) that I am the third generation in the Schneider family that has dabbled in photography.  I'm working now with 4 Nikons, 2 Mamiya's, 1 Hassalblad, 1 4x5 view camera, 1 graphic with a flat field lens for copy work, and four enlargers from 6x6 up to 5x7 in an 18 x 28 foot darkroom.  That much said ... we can let only those who are interested ask to get in on this topic.
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>hwandrews1 at cs.com wrote:
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>> Fred,
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