Greetings from central Virginia

**Stephen S. Mack** · 1-Feb-2008, 21:32

Hello, everybody!

I found this forum at APUG and decided to join after I had a look.

I live in central Virginia, the suburbs of Dillwyn, to be precise. (Dillwyn isn't on any map; real places never are.) I'm a retired special education teacher, and I live with my wife and two cats and a dog, all rescue animals, in an old farm house on 6 acres of land in a tree farm.

My interests in photography, besides starting into large format, are 35 mm range finder cameras, and an occasional foray into medium format. I've been taking pictures for about 55 years, and I would classify myself as the "Sensei of the Snapshot". (I'll collect my thoughts on snapshots and post them in the philosophy section.)

I first owned a Bender 4X5 kit camera, tried it out, lost interest, and after it languished a long time in the local camera store, sold it, and promptly put the cash into a T.O. Warfield field camera and an old Grafex Optar f/4.7. (BTW, if anyone can tell me anything about the company that made my camera, I would appreciate it.)

I usually take pictures of whatever catches my eye in my neighborhood and county. I am also taking guitar lessons, and I play the Highland bagpipes as well.

I want to do a photo story on abandoned houses here in Buckingham County, Virginia. I think the view camera would be ideal. I'll be working in black and white initially since I plan to process my own film. I continually find things that interest me in my surroundings, little surprises that are there if you take the time to look.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My best regards to everyone on the forum.

Stephen S. Mack

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he could learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

**Ralph Barker** · 1-Feb-2008, 22:07

Welcome, Stephen.

**John Kasaian** · 2-Feb-2008, 00:04

Welcome aboard

Your pursuit sounds like a fine project!

**John Bowen** · 2-Feb-2008, 06:48

Welcome Stephen,

I'm in Midlothian - Chesterfield County

**Scott Davis** · 2-Feb-2008, 18:20

Welcome from Washington DC!

**Ted Harris** · 2-Feb-2008, 18:25

Welcome from the north woods.

**Capocheny** · 3-Feb-2008, 00:11

Hi Stephen,

Welcome from Vancouver, BC in Canada!

Your project sounds perfect for a large format camera where movements will be needed to keep your vertical lines vertical. And, a large format camera will also allow you to obtain maximum sharpness through proper placement of the plane of focus (and, of course, f-stop.)

Sounds like a great project!

Cheers

**Michael Heald** · 3-Feb-2008, 02:49

Hello! Welcome. My parents live around Charlottesville. Central Virginia is a lovely place. Large format sounds like a good choice for your project. What equipment have you settled on?

Michael A. Heald