Hello from Wisconsin!

Lets get to know each other better. Here's a forum to post images and short autobiographies of ourselves as well as any other info you would like to post about yourself.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Peter De Smidt
Posts: 233
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:10 am
Contact:

Hello from Wisconsin!

Post by Peter De Smidt »

I can't believe it took me this long to stumble on this site. What a great resource! The photographs and discussions here are very inspiring!

I've been photographing enthusiastically since about 1990. You can see jpgs of some of my photos at www.peterdesmidt.com and www.peterdesmidt.com/blog .

I have a full darkroom, with the ability to develop color and bw film up to 20x24" sheets, and to enlarge film optically with 4x5" film and smaller. I used to be able to enlarge up to 8x10" film, but I sold that enlarger a few years ago. These days, I mainly use the darkroom to develop film.

I mainly photograph with a Toyo AX 4x5" camera, two Fuji medium format rangefinders, and a Nikon D200, which I"ve owned since shortly after they came out. I scan film with a Screen Cezanne scanner, and I make prints with an Epson 4880 with a custom carbon pigment BW inkset or a HP Designjet 130 for color.

For closeups, I"ve dabbled a bit with a Nikon PB-4 bellows and various lenses, mostly a Rodagon 80mm. Focusing precisely is very difficult! Here's a picture of some coraline algae on the glass of my salt water aquarium:

Image

If memory serves me correctly, the colony was about 1/4" in diameter. It was taken with one exposure, and it's nowhere near the quality of the pictures on this site!

In any case, I'm happy to be here, and I look forward to learning a lot!

Charles Krebs
Posts: 5865
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:02 pm
Location: Issaquah, WA USA
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Peter,

Greetings.

Looked over your blog and while reading the current entry immediately thought of this video posted by Craig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyT7l-CZego

Sounds like what you describe. Could be set up moving the camera, or moving the film, whichever is easier.

A set-up like this made for sheet film sizes and with the proper selection of digital camera and optics would be pretty awesome!

Peter De Smidt
Posts: 233
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:10 am
Contact:

Post by Peter De Smidt »

Hi Charles,

Thanks for your reply! What a neat video.

Jbailey
Posts: 520
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:45 am
Location: Wisconsin, USA

Post by Jbailey »

Hello Peter:

I used to do some color processing at home some 20 years ago I primarily worked with monochrome in my darkroom. I only processed color film(35mm and 4X5) while pursuing a technical degree a long time before that.

Welcome to the forum....

Too bad about Kodak, huh?


Jim

Peter De Smidt
Posts: 233
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:10 am
Contact:

Post by Peter De Smidt »

Hi Jim (from a fellow Wisconsinite),

Yeah, what's happening at Kodak is very sad. While I expect that bw film will be with us for quite a while, color film, which is much harder to manufacture, might not last very long. I believe that Hollywood still uses a lot of it, but that will probably switch over the next 5 years.

Like you, I never really did all that much color processing, although I still retain the capability. Back in the 1990s, I used to spend about one week a year making traditional color prints with an enlarger, but over the last few years 99% of my color stuff has been done with a digital camera.

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