Figure I may as well make it official.
"I'm Dave, and I have a problem . . ."
I just this month achieved full geezerhood and still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. Meanwhile, I'm going back to relive my past. If we consider a Kodak Brownie Target 620 to be medium format, I have MF experience back to circa 1950 or so. In the late fifties, I bought an Argus C3 "brick" (which I still have). The sixties were pretty much 35 mm, mostly slides, although I did some black and white work, processed at home and enlarged with a homemade enlarger.
I have a rather low end 4x5 originally acquired in the mid-sixties to reduce artwork for some etched nameplates and labels, but I did actually shoot some pictures with it occasionally. Somewhere along the way I pretty much lapsed into 35 mm gear (Canon A-1) and color prints (processed at the photo shop). The 1990s caught me in a real tailspin -- found myself shooting quite a bit of APS in a Canon Elph Jr. (Laugh if you wish, but it's a heck of a nice little camera for something that tucks in a belt pouch!)
Then in the new millennium -- yes -- sob -- it's true -- I bought a P&S digital (Canon A80). But I still was shooting some film. Last year (2005) I got organized and made a special lensboard with a pinhole for the 4x5 and participated in Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. That goaded me to clear the junk out of a half-finished darkroom and those old familiar smells started triggering strange reactions.
So far this year, I've acquired an Omega B-8. It's equipped for 35mm and I'm slowly getting the stuff together for using it on medium format. And now, I'm indulging in a decades old fantasy - the last two months has seen enough components appear to put together a Bronica SQ-A. After a not-so-good start with two dubious backs, I finally, as of Tuesday, have a working macchina fotografica, one good back in hand and another (good I hope) on the way.
So I'm mostly lurking here trying to catch up on twenty years of changes in B&W films, papers and chemicals with the intent of coming up with an occasional exhibition size print of architectural or landscape subjects. Among other things, an afternoon in Pompeii last year got me intrigued with the textures of ancient, weathered structures.
You probably won't be bugged too much by me, as I tend to learn by quietly researching and/or banging my head against stuff until I figure it out. But I can see there is much that can be learned by hanging around these forums. So thanks to those who so willingly share their knowledge.
Well, that's probably way more than you wanted to know ...
Dave Thomas
"I'm Dave, and I have a problem . . ."
I just this month achieved full geezerhood and still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. Meanwhile, I'm going back to relive my past. If we consider a Kodak Brownie Target 620 to be medium format, I have MF experience back to circa 1950 or so. In the late fifties, I bought an Argus C3 "brick" (which I still have). The sixties were pretty much 35 mm, mostly slides, although I did some black and white work, processed at home and enlarged with a homemade enlarger.
I have a rather low end 4x5 originally acquired in the mid-sixties to reduce artwork for some etched nameplates and labels, but I did actually shoot some pictures with it occasionally. Somewhere along the way I pretty much lapsed into 35 mm gear (Canon A-1) and color prints (processed at the photo shop). The 1990s caught me in a real tailspin -- found myself shooting quite a bit of APS in a Canon Elph Jr. (Laugh if you wish, but it's a heck of a nice little camera for something that tucks in a belt pouch!)
Then in the new millennium -- yes -- sob -- it's true -- I bought a P&S digital (Canon A80). But I still was shooting some film. Last year (2005) I got organized and made a special lensboard with a pinhole for the 4x5 and participated in Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. That goaded me to clear the junk out of a half-finished darkroom and those old familiar smells started triggering strange reactions.
So far this year, I've acquired an Omega B-8. It's equipped for 35mm and I'm slowly getting the stuff together for using it on medium format. And now, I'm indulging in a decades old fantasy - the last two months has seen enough components appear to put together a Bronica SQ-A. After a not-so-good start with two dubious backs, I finally, as of Tuesday, have a working macchina fotografica, one good back in hand and another (good I hope) on the way.
So I'm mostly lurking here trying to catch up on twenty years of changes in B&W films, papers and chemicals with the intent of coming up with an occasional exhibition size print of architectural or landscape subjects. Among other things, an afternoon in Pompeii last year got me intrigued with the textures of ancient, weathered structures.
You probably won't be bugged too much by me, as I tend to learn by quietly researching and/or banging my head against stuff until I figure it out. But I can see there is much that can be learned by hanging around these forums. So thanks to those who so willingly share their knowledge.
Well, that's probably way more than you wanted to know ...
Dave Thomas
). Hopefully you'll find some time to burn some film.
