Greetings from Australia

Prospero · Jul 29, 2006

Hello all. I discovered this group a few weeks ago and after lurking for a while have joined up. I live in New South Wales, Australia, near Canberra.

I started in photography as a child in the 1960s when my Dad and I set up a darkroom at home. He had a Leica III and a Pentax Spotmatic. I had a Yashica "J" 35mm rangefinder, and used to take Tri X. I came back to photography as an adult and slowly graduated to a Canon EOS 3. I didn't set up a darkroom but acquired a film scanner instead. A few years ago I acquired a Hasselblad 500CM which got me interested in manual photography again.

Several months ago I was trying to decide where to go next. I wanted to try movements but could not justify the price of a Hasselblad Arcbody or Flexbody. I also wanted to try panoramic, but similarly I could not justify spending the sort of money that Fujis and Linhofs went for. So I started looking at 4x5s. My decision was made for me when I found a shop in Melbourne selling a lot of Air Force surplus Horseman 45FA cameras, quite cheaply, with lenses. I bought one, and shortly afterwards a Chinese "Kang Tai" 6x17 back. I really enjoy using them both, and recently lugged the Horseman round Italy.

A few years ago I started a website while living overseas as a way of sharing pictures with family. As I have got more serious, it has acquired a few pretensions...

Photography by Stewart Skelt

PatTrent · Jul 29, 2006

Hi Stewart!

Nice to meet you.

Cheers,

Pat

Kevin Caulfield · Jul 29, 2006

Hi Stewart, from Melbourne. I had a look at your website - nice work. Looking forward to seeing more snaps from your 'blad. I use one too.

Nige · Jul 29, 2006

G'day from Melb 2.

Very enjoyable browse around your site!

ricksplace · Jul 29, 2006

Welcome from Canada. Nice work on your site.

Mick Fagan · Jul 29, 2006

Hi Stewart, another welcome from Melbourne.

I have just come in from the darkroom, feeling quite satisfied with myself, that is, until I checked out your website!

Makes me ponder if I should expedite my intention/wish to move into 4x5.

Mick.

Drew B. · Jul 29, 2006

Welcome from New England...hey are there anymore surplus Horseman 45FA cameras there???

Nicole · Jul 29, 2006

Hi Stewart, welcome to Apug, from Perth, West Australia.
Kind regards
Nicole

Steve Smith · Jul 29, 2006

Hello and welcome from the Isle of Wight, England.

I have just had a quick look at your website and I like your images a lot. Also, you have obviously mastered scanning techniques as your images appear very sharp and detailed despite the limitations of seeing them on a computer monitor. Do you have any tips on this which you could share with us here?

Steve.

Glenn Mathison · Jul 29, 2006

Welcome from just up the road.

I am singing "La la la" with my fingers in my ears, every time I hear the siren song about LF. I get into enough strife with my 35mm and MF stuff...

Glenn

Drew B. · Jul 29, 2006

Love the images of Italy. Do you have any images of or from Corfinio?? ...as I have relatives there, and don't see myself getting there anytime soon, I'd probably love to buy one.

drew

roteague · Jul 29, 2006

Hi Stewart, welcome from Hawaii, and a regular visitor to Australia. I enjoyed looking at your images, and I'm looking forward to seeing more. So, exactly where in NSW do you live? I regularly drive the Hume Hwy between Sydney and Albury - in fact, I'll be there again in October.

Prospero · Jul 30, 2006

Gosh, what a friendly group. Answers to questions:

The shop had about 20 Horseman FAs, acquired when the Royal Australian Air Force decided that its photography training would henceforth all be digital. They sold them all in a couple of weeks, as I recall. The cameras came with Nikkor W 150/5.6 lenses and the aluminium Horseman cases. Some of the kits were sold on eBay and I was delighted to see one go for about A$1000 (about US $750) more than I paid!

Scanning: I've seen too many religious wars break out on comp.periphs.scanners to claim that my technique is the best, but here is what I do. I scan at maximum res (4000 dpi on my 9000ED). The trick to retaining apparent sharpness in screen images seems to be to downsample only by 50% at a time, with a small amount of USM applied each time. My standard settings are amount=98, radius=0.7 and threshold=2. Once I came across this technique I did not try too many variations on the theme so it is possible that other settings may work better.

Sorry, I do not have any pictures of Corfinio.

Canberra is about 100km south of the Hume Highway, you turn off just after Goulburn.

roteague · Jul 30, 2006

Stewart Skelt said:
Canberra is about 100km south of the Hume Highway, you turn off just after Goulburn.

Hi Stewart,

I was just curious which town you live in. I drive that route almost every year; I've been to Bright, Victoria 6 times in the last 8 years. I always drive down from Sydney, normally stopping at Yass, then again at Holbrook (love to walk around the submarine) and Beechworth. All areas I sure you know quite well. I visited Echuca a couple of times, and I will again this year.

PeterB · Jul 30, 2006

Stewart Skelt said:
Hello all. I discovered this group a few weeks ago and after lurking for a while have joined up. I live in New South Wales, Australia, near Canberra.

G'day and welcome Stewart from a Sydney sider.

I like the 10 tips you have for amatuer shutterbugs here http://www.netspeed.com.au/sgskelt/tips.html, in particular tip #5 "Consider NOT going digital" followed by some pretty valid reasons Its not because I have to justify to myself why I prefer analog, but for other folks now using exclusively digital who may been swept up in all its hype and fanfare.

regards
Peter

Tony Egan · Jul 30, 2006

Stewart,
Welcome from Sydney. I'm sure you will enjoy this place which is the only web site I have ever felt might be dangerously addictive. I also enjoyed looking at Tuscany from your point of view.

Cheers... Tony

Prospero · Jul 30, 2006

PeterB said:
I like the 10 tips you have for amatuer shutterbugs here

Thank you. I almost deleted the "tips" page recently as I felt somewhat diffident about offering advice when I have so much to learn. I left it in because I do still get questions of the "why aren't my pictures like yours?" variety.

On the subject of digital, I used to say that I had never seen a digital setup that I wanted, but I this is no longer true. I was in Venice, taking the famous shot of gondolas in the foreground and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the background. There were quite a few 35mm photographers there and I have to admit to feeling a little bit superior as I set up the Horseman with 617 back. Then an American pro set up next to me with his Hasselblad H2D with 39 Mp back and a range of lenses. On the other hand, by my calculations he had easily spent more than 10 times as much as me!

Prospero · Jul 30, 2006

roteague said:
Hi Stewart,

I was just curious which town you live in. I drive that route almost every year; I've been to Bright, Victoria 6 times in the last 8 years. I always drive down from Sydney, normally stopping at Yass, then again at Holbrook (love to walk around the submarine) and Beechworth. All areas I sure you know quite well. I visited Echuca a couple of times, and I will again this year.

I actually live in a town called Queanbeyan, near Canberra (I work in Canberra). I live on the outskirts of town and if I go for a morning jog I usually see kangaroos and sometimes a wombat. But Melbourne is my home town and so the Hume Highway is very familiar to me. I drive the 1400 km round trip several times a year. I looked at your site and particularly liked the shot of Beechworth. I'm very fond of northeast Victoria and the King and Ovens Valleys.

roteague · Jul 30, 2006

Stewart Skelt said:
I actually live in a town called Queanbeyan, near Canberra (I work in Canberra). I live on the outskirts of town and if I go for a morning jog I usually see kangaroos and sometimes a wombat. But Melbourne is my home town and so the Hume Highway is very familiar to me. I drive the 1400 km round trip several times a year. I looked at your site and particularly liked the shot of Beechworth. I'm very fond of northeast Victoria and the King and Ovens Valleys.

That is a bit further off the path than I have ventured; I'm not a city person by nature, so when I travel I tend to stay away from the bigger ones. That is one reason I go to Bright almost every year, plus I love farmland, and the King Valley is one of my favorites - I've got a spot near Milawa that I go to every year, and you saw the one taken at Murmungee Overlook, that is another favorite spot.

There is a pretty good group of APUG members in Melbourne - I spent a wonderful, rainy evening, with Nige and Kevin at a pub in Ballarat, drinking Coopers and talking photography (and going over their wonderful work) - they seem to get together once in a while for some shooting. In fact, there is a group of us meeting in Alice Springs on 18 October - you are welcome to join us as well.

Enjoyed your tips as well. One thing I have found over the years, is that when you attempt to write about a subject, you wind up learning about that subject more than if you just read about it.

HeliH · Jul 30, 2006

Hi Stewart, I don't know should I welcome you because you've been here before me . But anyway, welcome!

I took a look at your gallery, uuh, and I feel almost sick now. Your panoramas... You see, I had a Linhof Technorama IIIS, with 72 mm and 180... I loved it, but I didn't take photographs with it.. And I sold it away. And now I really miss it . How a person can be this stupid as I am?? Well, but since that I bought a Hassy and I love it much more than Linhof but still. I miss it.

Gay Larson · Jul 30, 2006

Welcome from Oklahoma, USA

OldBikerPete · Jul 30, 2006

Welcome from Melbourne. Had a look at your web site - pretty darn good.
Ruminates "Now I wonder how much a 6x17 back for my Wista would cost on eBay".

roteague · Jul 30, 2006

OldBikerPete said:
Ruminates "Now I wonder how much a 6x17 back for my Wista would cost on eBay".

Isn't that the way it always is?

FWIW, I got a Horseman 6x12 back for the Toyo that I've been working with the past couple of months. I'm still getting into the panoramic format.

paul ewins · Jul 30, 2006

Another welcome from Melbourne. It's been a long time since I've been to Queanbeyan, but we've got friends in Murrumbateman who we usually manage to visit once a year.

anyte · Jul 31, 2006

Hi Stewart. Lovely photos on your site.

Greetings from Australia

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