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From: "Bob Dial" 
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Subject: Re: (Re)Introduction (long)
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 13:53:07 -0600
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Feist" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 9:11 AM
Subject: (Re)Introduction (long)


>
> I'm Bruce Feist.  I was active on the Fidonet PHOTO echo years ago

Great post, Bruce!  There ought to be enough variety there for anyone to
strike a responsive chord.  

> back when I ran a Fidonet bulletin board.

Ah, the Good Ole Daze!, when a bunch of dedicated individuals made the phone
companies rich and paved the way for what is now known as the internet  You
sysops should all receive a lifetime pension for creating the information
age and seeing your brainchild grow!!

>
> I'm 45 years old, and have been taking photos enthusiastically since I
> was about 10.

Sort of proves you know a good thing when you find it, huh?  

>At that time my father bought a new Mamiya-Sekor 500TL to
> replace his Bolsey B2; he wanted the convenience of electronic flash
> more than anything else, I think.

That, and interchangeable lenses, is what moved me from Rollei to Mamy but
in medium format.  After starting with large negatives and growing
accustomed to the quality of their images I've never felt completely at home
or satisfied with anything less -- until the digitals came along.  Now my
darkroom is under the keyboard and all my conventional cameras are enjoying
a well deserved retirement in their cases, on the shelf. 

> I started collecting cameras when I was 13 years old..

You and Russ McMillen ought to establish a museum.  He has a couple or three
of the movie variety, I think!

> the end of high school in 1975, I had about 100 cameras... cheap stuff,
> for the most part, such as old box and folding cameras.  But, I did have
> some more serious equipment as well, although the Leica was still by far >
my most flexible camera.  In these years I also had a B&W darkroom at
> home.  Among other things, I used to photograph school plays (I was in
> the drama club) and sell prints that I made myself to the other
> students.  My prices were *excellent* ... I barely covered my costs.

Like a trip down memory lane for some of us, Bruce.  When covering costs got
to costing money, what else could a guy do but start selling a few here and
there?  Gulp!  Shhhh.. for a profit!  

> I brought them to Belgium, the
> Tambopata rain forsest of Peru, and Hawaii, among other places, and I
> took some photos that I'm still pretty happy with.

Those (the old ones that pleased me) were the ones I hated losing most when
mine fell victim to a flooded basement.  A few were among effects kept by my
parents, dupes I'd given to them over the years.  But the main collection
just no longer exists.

>
> In the late 90s, for a 40th birthday present I got my first serious
> digital camera, an Olympus D-600L.  This reawakened my interest in
> photography in general, both for digital and film.  Digital cameras are
> *fun*, and the D-600L did a very good job.  Suddenly I was taking lots
> of photos again!

That's a common result.  Entry of digitals renewed taking activity for so
many of us.  There ought to be room for both, with conventionals.

>
> In late 1999, my wife and I had our first (and only) child -- a daughter
> named Naomi.  This drastically added to my interest in photography..

I can remember those days, too!  Matter of fact, I have B&W portraits of son
and daughter on the wall in the living room.  The pictures are forty old
years old and lasting well.  Originally put them in antique gold and white
frames which is quite fitting for today.  Accidental foresight!  

> ....  My collection is up to nearly 500 cameras, and my wife
> recently strongly suggested that I stop buying for a while.
>

Is that the last thing you remember when you woke up in your hospital bed?
You are very fortunate to have an understanding wife.  

>
> I'm active on a variety of photographically oriented electronic forums
> such as this.  In particular, I'm on a bunch of Yahoo lists (I moderate
> the very low-activity Bolsey list), and also some BestStuff and Topica
> forums.
>

A lot of the old regulars here have websites where they can upload their
pictures.  I'm sure some of them will furnish you URLs to the current ones.
We are still text only, like the old days, on FidoNet.

>
> I have two trips coming up that I'm looking forward to photographing:
> Costa Rica and Prince Edward Island..

Let us know how those trips evolve, Bruce.

>
> When I shoot film, I scan it using a Nikon CoolScan 4000 ED or Epson
> Perfection 2450 Photo scanner, depending on the format, and post it to
> my web site at www.flock.org/photos.  Software I use for all this stuff
> includes Adobe Photoshop CE (until recently I was using Elements 2.0),
> VueScan and NikonScan for scanning, and Pokescope Pro for stereo image
> manipulation.  Information and photos of most of my equipment is at
> http://www.flock.org/photos/Digital/Camera%20Collection/index.php.  And,
> a self-portrait I took of myself with FSU cameras is at
>
http://www.flock.org/photos/Scanned%20Film%20Clones/2003/20030306%20Self-Por
traits%20Zenit%20122/resized/14%20Cameras%20Photoing%20SideResized.jpg
> .

Thanks for the site addr invites!  I'm sure there will be some enthusiastic
traffic from the group here.
.
> Any questions or comments would be welcome -- they might lead to
> interesting discussions!  I'm looking forward to participating in this
> echo/list/forum/whatever you like to call it, and experiencing what it's
> like these days.
>

We could spend weeks just talking about some of those cameras!

Bob



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