I have frequented these threads for a long time and recently signed on.
I have been a serious hobbyist in photography since 1973 when I was introduced to darkroom process while in the Army stationed in Upstate New York. That the Army provided darkrooms in their hobby shops helped keep my sanity while I did my service there in New York, then New Jersey, and finally a year in Europe.
After getting out I took a job in a medium-size color photo-finishing lab in Southern California and worked my way from film-cutter, to printer, to quality control tech. I did that for about 5 years on the graveyard shift while plugging away at at college classes on the GI Bill.
I left that to work as a mechanical drafter and kept taking college classes with a long-term goal of becoming a high school teacher. I eventually obtained my degree in Industrial Arts, concentration Photography, and, a few years later, moved to Montana and changed careers as a high school teacher (drafting, technology, computer programming.) I retired from that 5 years ago.
All during this time, ever since I got out of the Army, I have had my own darkroom. First was a bathroom in an apartment. Next was the spare bedroom in a rented duplex. Finally the spare bedroom in the first house I purchased. Except for the bathroom one, all were dry. Once I moved to Montana I was able to set one up in a window-less basement room where I installed a drain line and hot and cold running water.
I have tended to be a haptic photographer, letting the processes and my interaction with them drive my creativity and the resulting images. I love experimenting in the darkroom and, to some degree, see the camera as just a necessary tool for having darkroom adventures.
Since I retired I decided to expand my haptic approach and to embrace something more visual and conceptual. To that end, I have enrolled in a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Montana State University-Billings. I have 5 semesters behind me and absolutely love it. Courses include visual and 3D art, art history, as well as digital media. The professors are great and are making a point of pushing me in that visual-conceptual direction I wish to expand.
Technical-wise, I work in 35mm and medium format. I have some 40-year old Minolta 35mm cameras and an assortment of lenses and accessories. For medium format I have a complete Mamiya 645 system and also a Rolliecord VB. For exposure I rely on my Gossen Lunasix3. In the darkroom I use a Beseler 23C with Schneider lenses and have an assortment of other tools like an Arkay drum washer and a ferrotyping drum dryer. Over the years I have processed pretty much everything except Kodachrome including lots of E-6 and Cibachromes. I done cyanotypes and and lots of pinhole photography. I have also combined my darkroom skills with my interest in printmaking and silk-screened some of my images.
While I have done digital photography, film is still what I like. I have a loaner Canon Rebel T3 from the school and have had some fun with it, but I doubt I will be abandoning film any time soon.
I have been a serious hobbyist in photography since 1973 when I was introduced to darkroom process while in the Army stationed in Upstate New York. That the Army provided darkrooms in their hobby shops helped keep my sanity while I did my service there in New York, then New Jersey, and finally a year in Europe.
After getting out I took a job in a medium-size color photo-finishing lab in Southern California and worked my way from film-cutter, to printer, to quality control tech. I did that for about 5 years on the graveyard shift while plugging away at at college classes on the GI Bill.
I left that to work as a mechanical drafter and kept taking college classes with a long-term goal of becoming a high school teacher. I eventually obtained my degree in Industrial Arts, concentration Photography, and, a few years later, moved to Montana and changed careers as a high school teacher (drafting, technology, computer programming.) I retired from that 5 years ago.
All during this time, ever since I got out of the Army, I have had my own darkroom. First was a bathroom in an apartment. Next was the spare bedroom in a rented duplex. Finally the spare bedroom in the first house I purchased. Except for the bathroom one, all were dry. Once I moved to Montana I was able to set one up in a window-less basement room where I installed a drain line and hot and cold running water.
I have tended to be a haptic photographer, letting the processes and my interaction with them drive my creativity and the resulting images. I love experimenting in the darkroom and, to some degree, see the camera as just a necessary tool for having darkroom adventures.
Since I retired I decided to expand my haptic approach and to embrace something more visual and conceptual. To that end, I have enrolled in a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Montana State University-Billings. I have 5 semesters behind me and absolutely love it. Courses include visual and 3D art, art history, as well as digital media. The professors are great and are making a point of pushing me in that visual-conceptual direction I wish to expand.
Technical-wise, I work in 35mm and medium format. I have some 40-year old Minolta 35mm cameras and an assortment of lenses and accessories. For medium format I have a complete Mamiya 645 system and also a Rolliecord VB. For exposure I rely on my Gossen Lunasix3. In the darkroom I use a Beseler 23C with Schneider lenses and have an assortment of other tools like an Arkay drum washer and a ferrotyping drum dryer. Over the years I have processed pretty much everything except Kodachrome including lots of E-6 and Cibachromes. I done cyanotypes and and lots of pinhole photography. I have also combined my darkroom skills with my interest in printmaking and silk-screened some of my images.
While I have done digital photography, film is still what I like. I have a loaner Canon Rebel T3 from the school and have had some fun with it, but I doubt I will be abandoning film any time soon.
