Retirement, film photography, and travel

Brian, there is also a good side to involvement in an activity which is far more important than one's self. The Navy was that for me. It was more like a calling than a job. Being raised on a farm was like that, too. The farm and livestock are very demanding. We had to fit our personal lives around that.

There are a lot of self-centered kids that seem to get most of the attention today. There are also many others that are too busy laying the foundation for a long productive life to be so conspicuous. The best of high school and college age people today are better than those in the 1940s and 1950s. Unfortunately, the worst are far worse. Opportunities for both good and bad are greater now. People have more choices to accomplish much or to be really stupid.

Hey, everybody, I'm back...

APUG member Michael R has started a new and, to me,interesting thread about related issues. I recommend everyone who has posted here and/or is following this thread, to look it up. See - (there was a url link here which no longer exists).

Being me, I've posted yet another of my long-winded threads about aspects of retirement and money, a subject very dear to most of us, whether retired, about to, or still facing decades of work and youthful living before the big six-five hits us full in the face and we find ourselves the guest of honor at the last big lunch.

Some of us (not all, as I've learned from your posts) in our 30s, 40s and even 50s tend(ed) to focus more or living and enjoyment of life than any great effort at planning for retirement. Hitting sixty is a good age to sit back, I think, and seriously examine one's financial situation, lifestyle and where we are headed. I left it somewhat later, and finally had to face facts at the ripe old age of 62 when certain economic events made my self-employment somewhat more insecure than it had been over the previous 20 years. Business dried up, contracts were few and far between, full-time staff became part-timers and many ended up drifting away altogether, and for the first time I had to face the facts of not only my own ageing and mortality, but to ask myself how I was going to fund what could be up to another 20 or even 25 years of my life, in my old age.

So we now have two threads of life issues facing those who are about to retire, or have already retired.

A lot of interesting information in these two.

Will we make it to one hundred posts? I do hope so.

Again, many thanks. This old dog has learned a few new tricks from you all, and it's always good to learn new things, at any age.

It's "funny".....when I turned 40 it was, kind of, just another number.....or maybe I was officially Middle Age.
But when I hit 50...!!.......that was different. It was The First time in my life that I thought, I am not going to live another Fifty Years (or 2x the number of whatever age I was at that time).
For the first time in my life...50...made me contemplate my own mortality with any real meaning.

I am revisiting this thread, for what may be one of my very last posts on this site - a decision has been taken to curtail my participation in web sites, and concentrate more on the here and now or, as my beloved partner calls it, the hurdy-gurdy of the circus of my day to day life.

Like Vaughn (#13) and DW Thomas (#21), to note two among many, I too am making changes to adapt to the ageing process without giving up too much, as I edge on towards my three score and ten (December). I had a health 'scare' this year, fortunately minor, which made me step back, sit down (for a few weeks) and do a major stock-take of my life and what I've achieved, am doing now, and want to do in future.

Over the past year I offloaded a lot of my gear-stash.The Hasselblad kit went (surpringly, not missed), also my two GA645s, including the cherished but little used wide angle camera. Ditto 15 smaller MF cameras which were moldering in cartons, neglected far too long. All went to shooters who are using them, good one! I kept the Voigtlander Perkeo I, the Zeiss Nettar 6x9, and thethree Rolleis, in fact the 'flex collection has expanded to four as this week I acquired a 3.5E2, bought at a price too good to pass up. All are being used, anyone with cash to invest please note this may be a good time to invest in stock market shares from roll film manufacturers!

I also bit the bullet and bought (again at a too good price) a user condition Leica M3 kit for my beloved, who has long wanted one to travel with. Indeed, we are a camera fanatic family...

A few 35mm kits were also sold but I've kept the Nikkormats and Contax G1 and am using these as well.

For the above-mentioned health reasons our planned return visit to North America, to relive my years (1962-1974) as a young photographer in eastern Canada and New Mexico and reshoot the many places I shot in that long gone era, had to be postponed. We will go next year, in the early spring, to see the cactus flowering in the Southwest desert, the last snow of winter, and the first greening - me for the last time, my partner (who is Asian) for the first time ever.

We will also sell up in Tasmania and move again, likely back to (or close to) Melbourne. I am dreading this as the sorting and packing will be a major effort with yet more photo gear sales. One (of many) consolations will be all the good photo shops and darkroom supply outlets near to home, especially Vanbar, my supplier for everything photographic since the '80s.

Also we may, in 2018, do a brief European tour of Italy, Spain and Portugal, if my energy and our finances allow. But then my partner also wants to return to Ipoh and Taiping in Malaysia for family reasons, and of course I will tag along with my cameras, which may derail Europe for us. Whatever, life will go on, also photography.

After that, what? Well, there is always the rocking chair with a good book (or a 'warm' video), the cat on my lap, my darkroom, the two scanners, Rolleis, Nikkormats, Contax G1 and of course the Voigtlander Perkeo, to play with. It all seems endless, doesn't it?

So much for the summing up of the past year. Like many, I am slowing down a bit with the passing of time, but am still greatly enjoying life and participating in same, and looking forward to more years of (perhaps less strenuous) photo expeditions and treks.

I hope you will all do the same.

I have enjoyed this thread and it has been fun to post on it. Please keep it going if you can.

Gee Whiz, you have been a member since 2006.
Perhaps you will still check in from time to time.?
I hope to hear from you in the future.....we need the older guys to teach the younger guys.

Ah, we are back in the loop again. Well and good. I hope this thread will go on and on and on, like all of us.

I have in fact been a member for much longer than 2006. 2003, as I recall. Or maybe 2004. Something happened in or about 2006 and I rejoined or rejigged my membership or whatever.

I will most likely be checking in every couple of days for some time, as part of a gradual withdrawal plan. I may even leap into a thread now and then, when said partner is not around to monitor my every heartbeat and dictate the household commandments. All of which I approve of, BTW. Like castor oil, "it's good for you!" I am also determined to try to laugh at myself often, which is a good tonic for the ails of the elderly.

Ten years ago I was an opinionated old late middle aged b&gger. Now I am an opinionated almost 70 year old b&gger. I have always lived by the credo that in a democratic system, everyone is entitled to my opinion. Nowadays I try to temper my tongue, my consumption of good Tassie pinots is now (sadly) by the glass and not the entire bottle, and my opinions on matters of social concern as well as my language both spoken and written, have somewhat improved, to the state that now and then I can taken out to dinner with respectable folks and not end up in the back pages of the local tabloids.

Life is fun, but finite. But yes, I will be following, and reading,and who knows what else?

Otherwise, I wish a long life for this thread!

I am hitting 63 early next month -- what to do. Do I take the easy way out and just backpack up Redwood Creek with the 4x5 for 4 or 5 days (24 sheets of film loaded up, ready to go)? Low elevation, giant redwoods in cathedral-like groves...silent with many centuries upon centuries of trees encircling me. Coastal fog for the mornings and returning in the early hours again, high temps in the 70s and deep pools to swim in all day. I have had river otter swimming by my camp. Elk and bear tracks along the creek. Eagles moving silently above. Might be a few humans around.

Or do I go medium format (do I dare 4x5?) and spend a week in my old stomping grounds in the Yolla Bollys - the sun comes up early and hot, heating the oaks, Doug firs and pines -- and along the ridges are twisted, lightning-scarred cedars, junipers and foxtail pines. I would spend some cooler evenings dry-camping on mountain tops with the stars and more stars, and a full moon on my birthday. I can visit the headwater spring (in a glacial cirque, even!) of the Middle Fork Eel River for the first time in 18 years. Only occasional pools of water on creeks big enough to dip in, but some incredible springs that leap cold out of the ground, and a hidden pool high up against the ridge that looks too pure to swim in. Many meeting of bears on the trails and once, ring-tailed cats stole my sprouts. Rattlesnakes, of course, and once, when I was deciding if I wanted to make camp, a flying squirrel swoop onto a tree at eye level just a few feet away. So I camped there. Oh, and not another human in sight for a week.

It is a tough choice. I am in lousy shape. The first I can do easily now. The hike in is 1 1/4 mile down to the creek, fairly steep but good trail. Then 3 or four miles up creek, many crossings (pack held over head occasionally) then camp in one spot and photograph until it is time to head back. The second one I need to do soon if I am to do it...it will start to get dry out there. Pacing myself, it will take the first 3 days to build up for the last four days. At least that is what I found out carrying the 8x10 around Death Valley for a week last March. And my pack in the Yolla Bollys will weigh less than the 8x10 (or will as I eat food)!

The redwoods would only be and hour and a half away...8 miles of good dirt road at the end. The Yolla Bollys...4 hours or so to the end of the pavement, then 30+ miles of not-so-good dirt road. Damn! Just read that road is closed until July 14th. Redwoods it is!

That was easy.

osmoose your absence will put a great void in the web of APUG which will badly warp the fabric. Please consider regular visits.

Sirius Glass, I fully intend to be a 'closet' member in future - when Beloved is away or otherwise occupied, I will hide in the closet and look up APUG...!

With my big mouth, I am more than likely to leap in and start commenting. APUG is really too good to give up entirely.

Vaughn,if at 63 you are still able to cart a 4x5 kit on forest tracks, you are in better shape than you believe. When you hit 70, consider paring down to something lighter - a Rolleiflex?

I plan to do similar treks in future, but with one of my four Rolleis with all the fiddly bits and a dozen 120 films in my pack. Maybe a small tripod. And - well, you get the picture, I'm sure. Friends or family who are younger and fitter will do the carrying, maybe,it's one of the perks of old age (which I believe nowadays officially clicks in at about 80)...

Activity is everything. Keeps ageing at bay and the joints supple.

A glass or two of good red wine also helps to lubricate the inner being. My doctor says so, and she would know.

Otherwise, I am so pleased that this thread is back. So much information to be shared - and valued.

Rolleicords are even lighter...
But I just bought an 11x14 -- same weight as my 8x10. It looks like I'll keep getting exercise, one way or another!!

CMoore said:

Gee Whiz, you have been a member since 2006.
Perhaps you will still check in from time to time.?
I hope to hear from you in the future.....we need the older guys to teach the younger guys.

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At 56 i am an "older guy" myself, but i am also a beginner. We need the experienced to teach the inexperienced is what i was getting at.

Eat drink and be merry. And take a few shots of the proceedings. At least that's my plan. Don't actually plan on retiring as from what I've witnessed it accelerates the downward slide. Seems to be taking a break when first retiring becomes retirement itself. That and I've not the money for such frivolities.

Vaughn (#61), an 8x10, and now a new 11x14? Gee golly gosh. I am, for a rare moment, speechless.

Please consider starting a new thread about all this, especially to relate your experiences with the thing. I now find myself very curious about this unusual and, to me, unwieldy format. Here are a few questions for you for your initial post. Where ever did you buy an 11x14? Who makes film for it (or do you stick together 5x7s to make four-pack panorama images?) and what sort of emulsions are available, B&W surely, but also color negs and slides? Where did you source your contact paper? Do you hand develop your films?

These should get you going. Of course we will then demand you post images.

Reading your post brought back some long forgotten memories. In the 1980s I had,for a brief period (about a year), a beaut old Linhof Teknika, the camera itself acquired for pence on the pound from a Sydney camera store that was closing. I very quickly added two or three lenses (I recall the 68mm Angulon had incredibly super sharp optics), film backs (I believe they were called Rollex) for 6x9, 6x7 and 6x6, lens hoods, and other fiddly bits. I took the thing with me to Java (Indonesia) in 1986 and shot quite a few good images. What defeated me in the end was composing on the ground glass. I could never adapt to upside down images. Eventually I traded in the kit for another Rolleiflex.

Overlooking a 5x7 Home Portrait Graflex I was given as a teenager in theearly '60s, and used to make ONE image which I still have, that was my only experience with fiddly MF and LF (if the Graflex can be termed thus) cameras with tilts and lifts, in this lifetime.

I must look up those Indonesian images, wherever they are. See, there you are, now you have got me going again...!

(The above was written in the closet.)

I am 71, am I supposed to be slowing down? No one told me.

ozmoose said:

Vaughn (#61), an 8x10, and now a new 11x14? Gee golly gosh. I am, for a rare moment, speechless...

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But not for long it seems, LOL!

I have had the 8x10 since 1995 and it has been my main camera since then (sometimes using it as a 4x10). I went in with a friend on an 100+ year old 11x14 a few years ago, but it needs rebuilding by someone who would love it. The 8x10, with pack, 5 to 7 film holders, 2 or 3 lenses, meter, darkcloth and tripod weigh about 60 pounds...and I can still carry that a few miles. The new 11x14 camera is the same weight as the 8x10 camera, but the film holders will be significantly heavier and everything a little bulkier, so I might get some kind of trail-worthy cart for the 11x14!

I bought a brand new Chamonix 11x14 from the manufacturer in China. http://www.chamonixviewcamera.com/1114.html Still can't believe it.
I already have lenses, holders and film. My Reis A100 tripod I have been using for 8x10 will be steady as a rock with the 11x14. The camera -- beautiful (teak w/ black hardware), well crafted, well designed (with features I now wish my 8x10 had). No film thru it yet. Ilford film will be my go-to film, but I have some odds and ends to use. I only use B&W.

I develop my film -- exposing and developing the film for whatever the process I will be using to make prints. Either Platinum or carbon printing processes.

You gave up 4x5 because the image is upside down -- and traded for a Rolleiflex that (with the waist-level finder) shows everything backwards! I love Rolleis -- I learned with one and have several (of which none work properly).

One of my boys is in Oz for the summer (your winter) -- learning the dairy and avacado trade. He'll appreciate the books when uni starts up again (2nd year Berkeley in August)!

Gee, after reading some of these posts maybe I am supposed to give up photography because I am 71. People are giving up photography when they become 70, so I am a year over due!

Sirius Glass said:

Gee, after reading some of these posts maybe I am supposed to give up photography because I am 71. People are giving up photography when they become 70, so I am a year over due!

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We told you last year....but a man of your...shall we say Advanced Youth.....you probably "forgot".

frank said:

Retirement is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Lov'in it!

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I agree.retirement is highly underated while money is overated. Having both is just perfect.

hdeyong said:

But one day I realized that time was like most other things. If you have a lot of it, you start to waste it. Days went by with nothing really accomplished, and I started to get seriously bored. My will power and motivation seem to have drained away... It certainly doesn't sound like ozmoose has this problem, but does anybody else?

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testify, brother!!!

i have been to the bottom of that dark hole... sent there by the double hit of retirement and reaching the stage in life were one's responsibilities have been largely discharged. my world was upside-down. after a few years, finally realized that i had to jujitsu may way out by embracing the change and making a total, irreversible break with the past.

now having reached this side of the ocean, the ships must be burnt! so, i am in process of dismantling my former life, ruthlessly discarding unneeded possessions. we will then embark on a search for a new and very different location from which to reboot and rebuild.

as for film photography, it has been part of my life since i was 12. it has always been a way to explore - the world as well as myself... i shoot film, therefore i am.

Sirius Glass (#65 and #67), Pension Age is almost seventy now, and Old Age apparently clicks in at ninety or so. So you have almost twenty years left to think about it all, while you carry on as usual.

Vaughn (#66), "speechlessness" (the word,not the deed) has somehow eluded my vocabulary - according to my beloved late grandmother, my yapyapitis started at age five when the Polio Scare hit in the '50s, and I was accidentally vaccinated with a gramophone needle.

mhanc (#70), what you wrote describes what many of us have faced at the end of our so-termed "useful years" as salary and wage earners in the jobs and careers world. When the realities hit home that we have ended the longest period of our time, work, and now need to build something new to sustain us for the duration. Be assured that can be done (you already know this, I think). In my case, I had long wanted to go off and travel slowly, to wander with a pack and a camera and just hang out wherever I was. Fortunately, my partner is understanding of this need, which I had to put on a back burner, so to say, for twenty years while I established and built up my architectural practice. All that ended (in 2012), and has now been replaced by free time for me to roam, explore, savor, and dream.

Like you are doing now, next year (2018) I'll face the task of selling our home, sorting and disposing possessions, and culling my stash of photo gear and much of my darkroom (as another poster wrote earlier in this thread, do I really need those three enlargers?) to clear the decks for our move to another state, to what may be my last home. Five years ago when we came to Tasmania, everything was made so easy when we were offered an "all in one lot" deal by a local removalist with empty trucks returning to Hobart. Everything was loaded into one big van and came with us. Not so next time. This time we will pay more, so a big "cull" is a needs must.

I will be traveling (a little) less next year, for financial as well as practical reasons. So the requirement for us to relocate, and for me to reboot and rejig my new life in a different locality, will be a mental and spiritual as well as a physical cleansing. Part of me is greatly looking forward to this, and another part of me is already fearful of what will happen. Human nature at work again.

Meantime, tomorrow I plan to load a Nikkormat with a 35mm f/2, a K2 filter and the last of my Panatomic-X, and go on a walk of at least ten kilometers. To refresh mind and body and as the Indonesians say, "cuci mata" - wash the eyes with new scenes.

In writing this, I've already gone back on my intent to remove myself indefinitely from APUG, with all these new temptations sounexpectedly offering themselves in this thread. From tomorrow...

Sirius Glass (#65 and #67), Pension Age is almost seventy now, and Old Age apparently clicks in at ninety or so. So you have almost twenty years left to think about it all, while you carry on as usual.

Vaughn (#66), "speechlessness" (the word,not the deed) has somehow eluded my vocabulary - according to my beloved late grandmother, my yapyapitis started at age five when the Polio Scare hit in the '50s, and I was accidentally vaccinated with a gramophone needle.

mhanc (#70), what you wrote describes what many of us have faced at the end of our so-termed "useful years" as salary and wage earners in the jobs and careers world. When the realities hit home that we have ended the longest period of our time, work, and now need to build something new to sustain us for the duration. Be assured that can be done (you already know this, I think). In my case, I had long wanted to go off and travel slowly, to wander with a pack and a camera and just hang out wherever I was. Fortunately, my partner is understanding of this need, which I had to put on a back burner, so to say, for twenty years while I established and built up my architectural practice. All that ended (in 2012), and has now been replaced by free time for me to roam, explore, savor, and dream.

Like you are doing now, next year (2018) I'll face the task of selling our home, sorting and disposing possessions, and culling my stash of photo gear and much of my darkroom (as another poster wrote earlier in this thread, do I really need those three enlargers?) to clear the decks for our move to another state, to what may be my last home. Five years ago when we came to Tasmania, everything was made so easy when we were offered an "all in one lot" deal by a local removalist with empty trucks returning to Hobart. Everything was loaded into one big van and came with us. Not so next time. This time we will pay more, so a big "cull" is a needs must.

I will be traveling (a little) less next year, for financial as well as practical reasons. So the requirement for us to relocate, and for me to reboot and rejig my new life in a different locality, will be a mental and spiritual as well as a physical cleansing. Part of me is greatly looking forward to this, and another part of me is already fearful of what will happen. Human nature at work again.

Meantime, tomorrow I plan to load a Nikkormat with a 35mm f/2, a K2 filter and the last of my Panatomic-X, and go on a walk of at least ten kilometers. To refresh mind and body and as the Indonesians say, "cuci mata" - wash the eyes with new scenes.

In writing this, I've already broken my promise to remove myself indefinitely from APUG, but new temptations unexpectedly offered themselves in this thread. From tomorrow. Now I'll shut up and go into reading mode for a time...

Richard.L said:

I’ve been retired (20+ yrs) almost as long as I worked - an oddity for the self-employed. Over the past few years several similarly fortunate gather for what we call “Studio Tables” - artists sitting at a table, talking about recent exhibits, books or topics related to art process, problem, and product.

The basis of my retirement is completely due to having done well in NYC - that was based upon my ability to talk to ADs about image needs, not about darkroom process/studio equipment.

I made a couple hiring mistakes. Fortunately, they were caught early - that taught me to avoid students from places such as RIT, instead my best employees were from Cal Arts, VSW, RISD - they rapidly understood the direction of client conversation without getting it off track, thereby allowing it to deepen. The Studio Table concept was an enlargement of what I did with my assistants

Best wishes to those of you trying to find a pathway.

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Wow...VERY Interesting. You a valuable resource.
It does not apply to me...i am 57 years old, and will never be a "professional photographer"...but i know there Must Be Young/Wanna Be photographers that are wondering about the wisdom of different photography schools and the best way to get into The World Of Photography.

Lot's of tough decisions this time of life. Do I want to crack open another box of color paper tomorrow or print b&w? Put my 4x5 Norma in the pack, an 8x10, my Texas Leica? ...Couldn't make up my mind last wk, so took two of em. Eat another plate of incredible scallops my wife cooked and risk another gout attack? Choices, choices.

CMoore said:

Wow...VERY Interesting. You a valuable resource.
It does not apply to me...i am 57 years old, and will never be a "professional photographer"...but i know there Must Be Young/Wanna Be photographers that are wondering about the wisdom of different photography schools and the best way to get into The World Of Photography.

Click to expand...

Several professional photography schools will not be with us next year -- shutting down. Job market in photography -- best job prospect for new aspiring professionals will be as assisants, managing the digital film backs, etc for the person behind the camera -- transferring and copying the files, handing the empty back/card or whatever back.

Being retired means I can be an artist-in-residence in the SF Bay Area for a couple months (this Sept and Oct in Hayward) and give a workshop, be on a panel discussion, meet local photographers, spend weeks working in a great darkroom, see photo shows in the big city whenever I want, and help organize (and be in) a show of hand-made prints by the likes of Linda Conner, Jerry Uelsmann, Sarah Van Keuren, Brian Taylor, Kerik Kouklis, and others.

Retirement is going to be a lot of (fun) work!