Photography
I've been interested in photography for about 17 years,
but have only been actively shooting intermittently during that time. I originally
got into it shortly before high school, and then ended up getting fully sucked
in when I ended up as one of the photographers for my
high school's yearbook. It gave me the opportunity to spend a lot
of time in the darkroom, but taught me how to print for speed, not quality.
Since then, I've been trying to learn quality instead. Over the course of high
school, I ended up restoring an old Korean War Pacemaker
Speed Graphic 4x5 press camera, but not early enough to shoot with it before
I had to return it to the school. I also managed to get a loan from my aunt
to purchase my Canon
T90, which is the tool I ended up watching my world through during my junior
and senior years. I still owe her a debt of thanks for being willing to risk
loaning me more money than in retrospect made any sense at all from a practical
viewpoint. I shoot mostly black and white, with something of a fondness for
good old Tri-X, but have started looking
for finer grain and higher detail in the last year, so doing more work with
the 4x5 and slower film. I've also found a lot of reward in making or refurbishing
photo gear to try and cut costs on this expensive hobby. Seemingly at odds with this, I took the plunge and picked up a medium format camera last fall, and am enjoying playing with it until it makes sense for me to make the jump to digital. Some links on the photo bits
are given below.