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Through the Years

Photography Hardware

Processes and Projects

Photography Galleries

Photography Class Galleries

The 2nd Career

In 1991 I started a new career as a high school teacher and moved to a new state. I taught mechanical/architectural drafting (traditional and computer-aided) and Technology Education. I lived about 10 minutes from the school so it was like gaining two more hours in my day since I wasn't doing the long commutes anymore. As I mentioned on the front page, photography was very low on my priority list as I scrambled to learn the craft of teaching and keep up with the busy family life with two small children. I set up a darkroom in a windowless basement room and put it to some use and, over time I added hot and cold running water, a sink, a connection to a drain line, shelving, some lighting, all to increase its functionality. However, the flame of passion did not burn as brightly, possibly because it competed with other hobbies, interests, and passions, but it was always there and was just waiting for me to come up with a new project. In the meantime, the world of photography became digital, the Internet came along, and analog materials seemed to be harder to acquire.

I did load my camera up and take scenic photos as we traveled around the state although I did get a digital point and shoot camera at some point. Here are some film images from Glacier Park:

Another couple of scenics:

In the mid-1990s I took a series on online science classes and in 1996 the course was in the physics of photography. We looked at optics from a simple, non-mathematical approach starting with the camera obscura, then pinhole photography, and then traditional 35mm cameras. This was really fun and launched me into camera building and through those activities I set up the original Photo Workshop page on my web site. With the remodeling of this site that I am currently doing I am collecting these "workshop" projects in one place here. Here is a quick overview:

Camera obscura - Darken a room, totally. Create a small hole in the window covering and let the light project onto a sheet of paper opposite it. Set a camera up on a tripod and take a long time exposure of the projected image.

Pinhole camera - Make a series of cameras using a pinhole for a lens.

Camera Building - This grew out of my interest in pinhole cameras and I decided to make an upscale one.

Cyanotype project - One of the oldest photographic processes around. Use the sun as a ultra-violet light source for exposure of the paper coated with the magic solution.

While not part of the original Photo Workshop project, these are processes that I had worked with on and off over the decades and decided to write up what I know and what I did with them.

Sabattier effect - The partial reversal of the photographic image by intentionally exposing it to light during the development process.

Posterization - Separating an image into discrete tonal ranges and then reassembling them either on photographic paper or through the screen printing process.

Time Shifting - Photography has the unique abiblity to capture a moment in time or to expand time to make the unseeable seeable. How long that moment is, a fraction of a second or hours, can produce images that we can't see with the naked eye.

Infrared Images - This type of film extends the range of light it can capture into the infrared, useful when shooting through an infrared or dark red filter. Surreal effects can be the result.