Old LF-er, new forum

[Peter Lewin]

Since I've been posting questions (and occasionally an opinion) in the other departments, figured I ought to say "hello." After loving photography for at least 30 years, I took a 5-year break, and have recently re-opened my darkroom, and discovered this forum.
I originally started photography as an adjunct to backpacking and rock-climbing, using a Leica M4 and the collapsable 50mm lens, a nice small package I could take anywhere. Only a couple of years later, having discovered the photographs of Adams, Strand, Caponigro, etc. I picked up a used Sinar F, and discovered that while 35mm was the most practical for what I was doing, the large format was what I loved. Workshops with Fred Picker, Sally Mann (Maine Photo Workshops), and William Abranowicz (one of Tice's assistants who has become a major commercial photographer in his own right) followed. I also ended up serving as the staff photographer for a small monthly magazine for pre-school teachers, and doing some of the "obligatory" weddings and bar mitzvahs (the upside of which was that I started shooting MF, my favorite after LF, the downside was that I didn't enjoy them, and soon stopped). My "real job" as a middle manager for a huge multi-national subsidized the rest.
When I early-retired in 2000, I had an attack of second childhood (which in my case included a ridiculous dream of making the Olympic Team as a road cyclist) and dove head-first (well, not literally!) into age-group racing. Over the years I've noticed that I have a lot of trouble balancing athletics (for a long time I was a runner) & training with photography, and this time I simply stopped photographing. But the bug returned, and over the last month I've repainted my darkroom sink, and cleaned up the "dark basement". Yesterday I developed my first 4x5 negatives since 2000 in my favorite PMK, and today whisked the spiders out of my DeVere so that I could proof print. I hope to be both an active photographer and forum member for a good long time.

[snuck]

welcome back!

[Capocheny]

When I early-retired in 2000, I had an attack of second childhood (which in my case included a ridiculous dream of making the Olympic Team as a road cyclist) and dove head-first (well, not literally!) into age-group racing.

But the bug returned, and over the last month I've repainted my darkroom sink, and cleaned up the "dark basement". Yesterday I developed my first 4x5 negatives since 2000 in my favorite PMK, and today whisked the spiders out of my DeVere so that I could proof print. I hope to be both an active photographer and forum member for a good long time.

Hi Peter,

ALWAYS good to have dreams... and BIG dreams at that!

The bug NEVER goes away... it just goes dormant every so often! Like a very, very good bottle of red wine... it gets better with some maturation.

So, welcome back!

Cheers

[Frank Petronio]

Yes, welcome back. To balance in all things!