I have been a photoholic for 44 years, meddling with LF for about 30. I find this forum encouraging, informative and entertaining.

My MPP MkVi was replaced by this Walker Titan SF. It is made of ABS with Stainless Steel fittings, which resists moisture impact. Camera no longer available as the tooling went missing but Mike Walker is selling some very interesting cameras.
 
A thing of beauty is a joy forever Roger, though I had grudging respect for my scruffy old ex MOD MPP MkVI that preceded it. My 10x8 Gandolfi came out of a professional studio and it is the 'Variant' utility version - no brass or Mahogany and lots of dings and bumps - but a nice thing to use as well.
 
Hello Bill, many thanks for the welcome - what with you, me and Roger we are quite a C10 sub unit here, just waiting for the latest box this morning BTW.
 
Silently taking over the world! I got my latest on Saturday and it was reading your notes where you mentioned the name Leicamadman that I thought I had seen on here.
 
Keith Haithwaite said:
UPP C10 ? :confused:
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It is a Postal Portfolio Group Keith. The UPP dates from the 1930's and has several sub groups. C10 is film and darkroom prints only. Every month a large black box turns up and I have to take out my old print, vote on the Voting Holding Folder and add my latest print. I also comment on all new entries (constructively) and read comments given. It is an excellent motivator to get into the darkroom every month and I enjoy it very much. There are at least three of us on this forum also in C10 - hence the comments. There are spaces if you wanted to join, there is a fairly modest admin fee and the cost of posting the box every month plus print production costs so it is not free, but is a valuable alternative to those who wish not to or cannot get to a normal club.
 
Not sure my darkroom would have had much use lately if it hadn't been for C10. Definitely a great motivator to get printing.

Hi Bill!
 
Hi Roger. I agree if it was not for the requirement to make a monthly print I would not have used my darkroom at all in the last 12 months.
 
My darkroom gets used more for developing films these, I really only print when assembling or expanding exhibition sets. So printing sessions tend to be maybe over 2 to 4 days and maybe 6 or more hours a day.

I had my first camera in 1956/7

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It was a few years around 1965 that I developed my first films and made my first prints using my mothers old Brownie 127 at school. I didn't really get serious until 1968, and had my first pictures on newspaper and magazine front page in 1971 made with a Zenit E. I still have my original Gnome 35mm Universumenlarger looks like a motor bike cylinder head with it's cooling fins.

I learnt everything from Kurt Jacobson's two excellent books Enlarging and Printing borrowed from my schools library, the large two part Focal Press Encyclopedia of Photography, and also AP. I was asked to teach youger pupils photography in 1970 during my last year at school. I made my first colour pints around 1970 using Kurt Jacobson's Pavelle paper and chemistry which was sold under the Paterson brand. Later Durst bough Pavelle for their technology and expertise renaming it Durts UK and it made their higher end professional equipment including roll head printers etc.

Later while a student I contributed to the NUS newspaper in Birmingham and after began specialising in portraits and models, portfolios, this wasn't planned it was just the circle of riends at that time and things snowballed by word of mouth. I dallied with Ferrania reversal processing but it was a horrible complex process and then E3, the E4 process was too toxic except for machine use so all kits were E3 which gave identical results.

I moved to MF in 1976 with a Mamiya C33 and a C3 and the following year added an LF camera a De Vere monorail, with whole plate, half plate and 5x4 backs. By this time I'd just set up a photographic company specialising in large scale images on vehicles or advertising signs, so I was working as a photo/emulsion chemist, and also doing research. The Bhopal disaster killed that business because in 1986 I couln't get insurance to use the Iso-Cyanate Acrylic lacqeurs needed to protect the images, despite using air-line respirators and protective clothing.

So I changed direction and began working the jewellery trade initially shooting a new catalogue for friends the ended up in precious metal recovery with a spell manufacturing Gold refineries before joining one of my customers as an empoyee, eventually setting up an analysis lab. This freed me up and realising I wanted to shoot LF landscpes as I'd not benough conrol with MF and bought a Wista 45DX around 1987 which I still use although I'm also using a Graflex Super Graphic often hand held, as well as my 10x8 Agfa Ansco Commercial View, and Half plate ( using7x5 holders) Kodak Specialist 2.

Somewhere in the background from arounsd 1977 onwards I also worked with various rock and reggae bands largely though two friends who were associated with a studio and a record label, that has continued and although one of the friends died in 1987 actually expanded unexpectidly around 2004, but by then everything was digital. For over 3 years I was working with over 30 bands doing location shots and more importanly live shots but 3 nights a week and 3 or 4 bands each night and sometimes two venues on the same night alongside working 9-5 was enough and I walked away.

The last concert I photographed was a dichotomy I was there to photograph the support act who I'd been working with for 2 years, excellent musicians and music, great songs and lyrics, but a lead singer (also the song writer) who was too nasal and alway performed drunk. They had made some great videos but the vocalist let them down. I'd intended to go home I was quite tired but then the main band came on stage, I'd heard the name but not ever deliberately listed to their music, surprisingly it was the first time they'd played in their home town Stourbridge, so I stayed and kept photographing The Wonderstuff. What amazed me was I knew every number and musically they were superb.

Photography is like music in many ways, there are different approches to how we see and tell our visions.

Ian
 
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