Hello from the Washington, DC Suburbs

[byronbear]

Hey all.

I'm 16 and from Northern Virginia. I toyed around with my grandfather's old 35mm SLR earlier in the year and became interested in learning how to use it properly. He gave it to me with his blessing and it's been my main interest ever since. I'm not a good photographer by any means but I love it and I've got quite a long time to improve.

I shoot with:

Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL
Mamiya C33
Zeiss-Ikon Maximar 107/1
Various really cheap cameras

I've got no darkroom experience but that'll change soon; I'm going to go heat up the water to mix up some D-76 after I type this. I use Efke sheet film in the Maximar and I want to be able to process it on my own. Here's to improvised darkrooms in the basement bathroom.

Anyway, I hope to find friends here and learn a lot. I'm eager to learn all I can, and spend most of my free time reading, experimenting, and studying to learn more and more. I'm glad to be here and I hope a lot of good comes from this. Looking forward to meeting you all.

 

[Leighgion]

Hello from the other Washington, and welcome!

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Welcome from Washington DC! It's always great to see another local face. There's a tremendous amount to be learned here on APUG, but don't get so caught up in chatting here that you forget to go out and shoot and apply what you've learned! If you want to go out and shoot sometime, drop me a line and I can plan a group outing with some of the other APUG folks here.

 

[mopar_guy]

Welcome from Stanwood, Washington!

 

[byronbear]

Welcome from Washington DC! It's always great to see another local face. There's a tremendous amount to be learned here on APUG, but don't get so caught up in chatting here that you forget to go out and shoot and apply what you've learned! If you want to go out and shoot sometime, drop me a line and I can plan a group outing with some of the other APUG folks here.

Thanks a lot! I'd love to take you up on the offer sometime in the future - as of now, I'd just be a burden. I'd certainly be interested in watching some of the more advanced practitioners at work and picking up some tips when I know more of what I'm doing.

 

[papagene]

Welcome to APUG from western Massachusetts.

gene

 

[byronbear]

I just developed my first negative..

I can't really think of anything to say. That was incredible.

I'm hooked. Time to do some more..

 

[Anscojohn]

Welcome, Byron, I have printed in many improvised darkrooms, at home and on the road. One thing I learned: the brightest light commonly encountered by photographers is the crack under the darkroom door.
Advice: stick to the same film with all those cameras. And stick with D76 for a loooooonnnnnggg time. And lastly; have fun!

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Hello and welcome to APUG! I'm glad you did your first negative, keep it up.

Jeff

 

[SuzanneR]

From a former resident of northern Virginia, but now in New England... welcome! It's always good to see young people learning to shoot and soup film.

 

[keithwms]

Hi and welcome! I also get together with the DC crowd from time to time, why not join us (myself, Scott, Diwan, et al) next time. Don't worry about being a burden, it doesn't go like that. We eat, we chat, we show some prints, we go somewhere, we shoot pictures, no stress, no expectations. Last time we went to Kenilworth, it was quite nice.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Absolutely, don't worry about how "amateur" you are with your photography. The point of getting together to shoot is just to hang out with fellow enthusiasts, talk shop, and make some images.

 

[Chazzy]

Welcome, Byron. Don't follow my bad example: I spend so much time reading about photography on the Internet that I do little shooting anymore!

 

[fotch]

Welcome from WI

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Welcome to APUG, byron.