A Brief Bio: I have been engaged in photography out of obsession for my own needs and enjoyment for a half century. My photographic philosophies include:
__The photographic image is an entity unto itself totally separate from the photographer, the equipment and even the subject itself.
__Equipment is a means. A photograph is an end. The means to the end are of miniscule importance.
__Painting and Photography are mathematical opposites. The painter adds, the photographer subtracts.
__There is no such thing a good or bad photographic technique. There is only technique appropriately or inappropriately applied.
__Every photograph makes two statements; one about the subject, one about the photographer.
Photographic Interests: Primary interest is people photography leaning toward environmental portraiture. Little or no interest in scenic, travel, glamour or children. I shoot a lot of subjects out of desperation. I do enjoy extreme manipulation of photographic images. I prefer to work in groups of interconnected images rather than on individual images.
Photographic Experience: I've tried a little of almost everything from mixing black & white chemistry from scratch, to color printing, slides, and now prosumer digital and digital SLR.
Photographic Knowledge: I claim absolutely no expertise in any facet of photography. I do know how to do a few things and can figure out how to do a few others.
Equipment Owned: Sinar 4x5 View and Linholf 4x5 monorail field camera, Pentax 6x7, Rolie TLR, Leica Rangefinder and SLR (covet familiarity with an M8), Diana, Minolta A1 prosumer digital, Nikon D200, Nikon D700, Nikon SB800, SU800 strobe (off camera multiple wireless flash), Sekonic L358 incident/flash meter
Photographic Software Expertise: Again, no expertise. Do have some familiarity with: Corel Paint Shop Pro, Pixmatic RawShooter Essentials (now a part of Adobe Lightroom), Nikon Capture NX v,2, MS Office suite (except FrontPage and PowerPoint). I do have an older version of Photoshop LE and Photoshop Essentials but I am not familiar with current Photoshop products. Okay, Photoshop is not conversant with me.