Many lurkers. Come out from behind those trees!

[Robert Brummitt]

There are 111 of us in the group and you all can't be lurkers!
What's up? What's happening? Where is everyone? Am I the only person sharing whats happening in the group? I'm sure there are things happening in your area that maybe you would like to share? Or better yet, how about those of you who are joining the group. How about a little something about yourself.
There is 111 of you out there! Share!!! Write!!! Don't be shy.

 

[Terrydh]

Well, I'm meeting you for lunch tomorrow in hopes of regaining some direction in this endevor of analog image making.

 

[Robert Brummitt]

That's one lurked bought out into the light!
Terry, it will be grand to spend sometime talking about photography. I'll bring a couple of books to share over lunch.
See at 11:30am
R
Now, I see we have 112 members. Stop being a Lurker and share with the rest of us.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Robert;

I am not lurking; I am just involved in lots of things.

Photography is not the only interest here. There are also radios, search and rescue, ski patrol, kites, the cats here in the house, and a few other things.

As a point of information for you, this week I was down in your area, but I was engaged in trying to complete a task outside before the weather really gets uncomfortable. One of the final things to be done to make an airplane ready for returning to flight involved washing the wings and other flying surfaces to remove all of the little colonies of moss that grew all over the place while the plane was sitting on the ground for two years. It took three days working carefully to get everything clean enough to meet the standard required for comfortable flying. One of the nice aspects of this work was the occasional "natural rinsing" that all of us who were in the Portland area enjoyed this week.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[Robert Brummitt]

I'm glad you're involved with other interests. What kind of plane? Sounds like hasn't taken wing for sometime. Is it yours? My father was a pilot. He got into all sorts of trouble. Once he flew over Fort Knox by accident. He had the local police and military waiting for him when he landed. They didn't take his license then but he lost it after getting in a car crash and bang his head on the steering wheel. He also was working in the airport in Las Vegas. He told us how Howard Hughes would hang around the planes, mechanics and pilots. Mr. Hughes never had any cash on him when lunch came around.
OK I have two people coming out from behind those two trees. What about the rest of you? Stop hiding. Share.

 

[mopar_guy]

Robert,
Ok, I'll bite. Hello to all, my name is Dave, I am 50 years old and a plumber by trade. I have also been dealing with a busy schedule. Most work days see me rolling out of bed at 4:30 AM and getting home around 5 PM.

I have been interested in photography for around 30 years. Lately I have been getting into the darkroom a little more frequently and doing a little black and white printing. A year ago I was shooting as much Kodachrome as I had time for. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were babysitting for our 13 month old grand-daughter so I shot a roll of Tmax 120 with my Crown Graphic and got a few nice shots. Now if I could only bottle all of that energy that a one-year-old has. I haven't been that tired in a while. Coming up in a few weeks is our 20th wedding anniversary.

I'd also like to hear from fellow Northwest Photographers.

Best regards,
Dave

 

[dpurdy]

My custom lab work picked up for awhile there. Processing some film for a few new people and making exhibition prints for a Dr/photographer. Plus in September printing for portrait photographers always picks up a bit. My business seemed almost like the old busy days there for a while. My spare time for a few months was spent making enlarged negs from 120 originals shot with the Rollei or the Pentax 67 and then printing them in platinum. I like it a lot but it is a lot of work. I donated a couple of prints for the auction in Springfield next month. The Photography at Oregon benefit auction that used to be at the Schnitzer museum for years until recently they moved it to the Emerald Art Center in Springfield. It is a great chance to buy good work at cheap prices.
The last week I have been working on a still life series with my 8x10 upstairs in my little still life room. Kind of peculiar work. I have worked with wire as still life elements for years but this week I was working with heavy gauge, more like metal rods that I bent up and made sculpture out of and photographed that. I printed 5 shots yesterday in platinum. I will scan them today and share them some places like flickr and pbase and facebook and the apug gallery. See what reaction I get.
Dennis

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Robert, Dave, and Dennis;

Robert, the airplane is a Cessna C-172E with the standard Lycoming O-300B engine in it. I admit that the O-320 would be nice. The engine was the original problem starting this period of inactivity and was totally unexpected. Prior to the engine problem it was flying at least once per week. The two year period of inactivity was prompted by the financing the main owner had arranged suddenly becoming a renegotiation problem. Is it exclusively mine? No, I admit that it is not, but then a 55 year old aircraft might be getting into my own price range, if I were not buying cameras and lenses. I just took out of the shop this afternoon an original Minolta SR-2 SLR camera after its CLA, and a Minolta SR-3 just went in for a CLA. I did promise the wife of the camera guy that I would do what I can to keep his shop in business. At this time, I am still using film from 16mm through 35mm and 120 roll film and ending at 4 by 5.

Dave, the MoPar Guy. Nice to have you here. My own interest in things of that type included a few Hemi engines tuned for competition work, and a few others modified but still on the street. I remember one of the other guys in Washington, D. C. being very proud of disconnecting the front 4 BBL and running only on the primaries on the back 4 BBL on his 440 Wedge, and, cruising at a steady 60 MPH around the Beltway, he actually got 5.6 MPG.

Hello, Dennis! It has been a while since we have talked. Nice to know that you are also still around. Robert has been talking about having lunch with a couple of other photographers, and I am getting down to the Portland area often enough to think seriously about asking him where and when he has an occasional gathering of that type.

Enjoy;

Ralph; Latte Land, Washington

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Hey I got three of you to come out and talk. Thats a start. Now, if we could get the others to sound out as well?
I would be happy to meet you all for lunch sometime. We can meet and discuss and maybe do some cityscape photography.
Mopar dude, Is that your salute to the cars? What's you favorite? My son right now likes to new Challenger but he hasn't seen a Super bee either. I never had a beast car. I drove a '73 Mercury Capri. But, I rebuilt the engine added a larger intake and some headers. It sounded sweet. Had no speed but it sounded sweet. Today. a capri goes for 3 times the amount I paid for my in the 80's.
I had a room mate who rebuilt Chevy Malibu's for fun and profit. His largest engine was a big block. He bought it in LA, had to drive it a night to the Bay Area because the thing smoked so bad. He sold it for a nice purse.
Anyone else want to talk? 109 of you out there still.

 

[mopar_guy]

Robert, its a little bit of a funny story about my internet handle "mopar_guy". One of my favorite photographs of my grandparents shows them next to their 1949 DeSoto. When I was a kid, my grandfather had passed away and my grandmother's car was a blue 1962 Dodge Dart with a Slant Six and a pushbutton automatic transmission. As a little kid, I thought that it was really cool to have a car with pushbuttons to make it go (just like George Jetson). My dad later bought her a green 1974 Dodge dart and my cousins "inherited" the blue car to drive to school. I really remember two things about that green Dart: 1) My grandmother hit a deer with it, and didn't hurt a thing on the car and 2) she always kept my grandfathers hat in the back window.

Later on I had bought a Dodge Dakota and when I met my wife, it was one of the things that attracted her to me. We had been married about three years and we found her the perfect car: a 1962 Imperial Crown four door hardtop. That car is identical to the one Milton Berle was driving in the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". I also liked all of the 1962 Dodges that were in that movie. Later on we found another Imperial, this one a 1960 four door hardtop.

These days, I drive a newer Dakota and my wife's car is a Concorde. All-in-all, our Mopars have been very good to us over the years.

Dave

 

[Robert Brummitt]

I have to laugh! A friend of mine had the very same Dodge Dart with a slant six engine. Boy, did we beat that poor car! Four of us took it off road once, drove it up a steep hill and when we got to the top there was a patrol car waiting and watching if we would make it up. When we did we dropped it into neutral and slowly went back. The patrol car waited for us down at the bottom. He was amazed we didn't roll or something. He gave us a lecture and let us go. Hey we were stupid 18 year olds.

 

[Vaughn]

I drove the equivilent Plymouth Valiant in high school, as did a friend (his no longer had a working reverse). My dad picked up a couple used ones at City of Los Angeles auctions of ex-city cars.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Mopar stories. All right.

The 225 Slant Six probably was an error on the part of Dodge and the Chrysler Corporation. They built that engine too well. As long as you kept oil in it, you could not kill it. An amazing engine.

The most interesting application for a Mopar engine that I found is in the infrequently seen Allard automobile with the swing axle front end. An interesting car to drive hard. Also their drive shafts and universal joints were somewhat delicate. Or was it the size of the engine feeding the torque to the drive shaft?

No photographs remaining here. All of the early camera gear and my photographs and negatives did not survive a divorce. And, now I am driving a Subaru that just rolled 350,000 while in Portland last week.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[dpurdy]

Count me in the old Dodge Dart club. In the 70s I had gone to school and tried to freelance in the San Fran area. I decided to move to Portland and so bought a 200 dollar old blue Dodge Dart with the slant 6 that I had to wire one of the head lights in place with a coat hanger. I loaded up my darkroom and music equipment and dog along with clothes and drove up to Portland. I drove that car around Portland for a few years never spending any money on it that I remember. It got completely covered in St Helens ash. I eventually left it sitting in the driveway of a house in the suburbs when I moved to a small apartment downtown and I never saw it again. In 1985 I bought a 79 Volvo sedan with 47,000 miles on it and it is my only car to this day. Now with 165,000 miles on it.
Dennis

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Well, you all have me beat. My oldest car is a "82 Isuzu Rodeo that I call "The Beast". It has a tractor engine in it, I've been told. It has over 120K in miles. It has a hole in the exhaust so it growls when I drive. My daughter is a shame to be seen in it when I take her to school. I want to get rid of the beast but the darn thing just won't die. When Portland got socked with that big snow storm a few years back. My wife's big suv got stuck while the Beast liked to play in the snow.
I took it once to Crater Lake during a snow storm, I did get stuck that time but the tow truck driver was impress that I got that far up to the lake.
So, I have more of you talking now. That's just fine and dandy. What about the rest of you?

 

[gmikol]

Well...my first car was a '85 Dodge Omni. Does that count? Oh, wait, that's not what we're talking about (or is it)?

Got back from a California road trip a couple weeks ago. Mostly to visit family, but we did get to spend a week in and around Yosemite. My first time there...it's an absolutely gorgeous place. Could have used a few more days. I shoot mostly digital, but I do have 3 rolls of 120 that I need to develop.

Biggest issue I had was that no matter where you went, there were 2 or 3 or a dozen other people shooting with SLR's and plenty more with P&S's and cell phone cams. Hard to feel like you were doing anything original.

--Greg

 

[mopar_guy]

Greg,
Nice to hear that you could make a trip. I wanted to make a road trip this year, but it didn't work out. There were too many crazy things happening this year and I have had to stick close to home. I will have to settle for planning something for next year.

Dave

 

[M Stat]

Yosemite is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to photograph there.

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Well, I have been wanting to visit my aunt and Uncle's old business. They owned a small hotel on the Eastern side of Yosemite between Mammoth and Bishop. I have that urge to remember them by visiting the hotel and I'll have to travel thru Yosemite.
Yosemite is like Point Lobos. They've been photographed by so many folks but there is that magic feeling once you get there and next thing you know you have a camera in hand and looking for a subject.
I have an opportunity to head South to Santa Cruz in Spring. I probably will visit Weston Beach and maybe the industry plant at Moss landing and the pier there as well.

 

[APLJ]

Hi guys,

I've always been interested in photography but just got my first camera last year (Nikon DSLR) for my 20th birthday. After a few months of learning how to use the Nikon I got a set of Ansel Adams books, The Negative, The Print and Natural Light Photography at a yard sale. I went through those and started to feel like I was missing out on the full experience of photography with a digital camera, so I saved up some cash and bought a gorgeous Hasselblad along with some film and developing supplies in February. I haven't looked back since then and I hope to put together a small makeshift darkroom over the next few months to make my first print!

I haven't been to Yosemite and I don't own a car.

-Andrew

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, guys;

Andrew, welcome to the USPNWRWOI&STBSJ forum. Nice way to get into film. I am impressed. My own start was with just a Yashica Lynx-1000 rangefinder 35mm camera. You will have no need to "upgrade" your equipment.

Robert, your Isuzu (Eee-swooo?)* Rodeo could use some more exercise. Take it out and let it run for a while. The 1991 Subaru Legacy station wagon here rolled 350,000 miles on it while on the way out to the airport on Tuesday morning two weeks ago in Portland. And, there have been several times when I have noticed that I was more involved in taking photographs of the scenes and places where I was instead of just enjoying being there. I am trying to make a more concerted effort to resist allowing my photographic interests turning my trips to visit places for enjoyment, into a photographic assignment.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

* That's OK, kid. I can't say "Shev-er-ray."

 

[Curt]

My dad was killed in a cessna 172. He was a flight instructor and lived aviation, he died for it too. He had a restored Bobcat and several others.

 

[flatulent1]

You want an intro? Okay, here goes.
I got my feet wet 25 years ago using a T90, which is just as well; if it'd been a sawzall I suppose I would have been electrocuted...
Studied photography at the UW for a year before I lost my funding, fell absolutely in love with darkroom work.
Since then my creative interest has oscillated between photography and playing the trumpet. As a result of a botched bit of brain surgery eight years ago I can no longer play the trumpet.
My usual format is 35mm, with only occasional forays into MF. Still shooting a T90; in recent years I've added a 645 Pro TL, 1V, an RTS-III and an XD-11, amongst others.

It's hard to say what kind of photography I prefer, as I've never been disciplined enough to stay to one path. I can say with certainty that I do not shoot sports, children or animals (my own cat excepted). I also don't photograph UFOs or movie stars. I enjoy nature walks, city walks, local tourism, and early mornings. I would like to venture into studio/product photography and the world of macro. And when I get my space ship working I'm going to go out and take some of the most awesome photos of Saturn that anybody's ever seen.

Ah, I see signatures don't exist here.

Fred Latchaw
Seattle

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Fred;

Welcome to the group, again. And, due in great part to your economic activity with Matt King, we may have a small USPNWRWOI&STBSoJ group gathering at Kenmore Camera, or across the street at the Tully's coffee shop, if Bob Donovan complains about us cluttering up his store. We will be watching to see when this will actually happen, but we do know that it is coming. I am trying to get Matt to encourage DancesWithClouds to come down also on that day.

Enjoy;

Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[mopar_guy]

Ralph,
I was just at Kenmore Camera a couple of days ago. I bought some Ilford paper and a few packs of chems for some darkroom work. It would be a possibility I could come to a gathering.

Dave