Hey everyone. I've been lurking around here for a good while, soaking in all the info that can be had around here. So first of all, thanks to everyone who makes this place the outstanding resource that it is. The information found around here has helped me immensely in my project to get back into LF photography in the last year.
I'll try to keep this short, but it might not be easy. In high school (late 70's) I was into B/W small format, had a darkroom setup in our basement (23CII) but always wanted to do 4x5 and just didn't have the money. After High school, sold some guitar stuff and bought my first 4x5 (a used Omega View 45E monorail, cuz that's what the local camera shop had). Went off to college (Art major) for what turned out to be a very short time (3 semesters, a whole story all by itself). After leaving college, I found myself with a camera that really didn't lend itself to the field work that i liked to do, no access to darkroom to work on 4x5 and no money/space to put one.
Fast forward 25 years, a job, marriage, 2 kids, etc.....
Last year, I saw an Ansel Adams exhibit for the first time in a lot of years that was up for a while here in Salisbury (where I live) and started thinking about how much I missed making photographs. I went home, talked to my wife about doing photography again, she said I should, "it'll make you happy" (20 yrs and she still keeps giving me reasons why I married her). I started cleaning out the attic before she was finished saying "yes". The darkroom project is coming along well (I'll put some pics up on a new thread in the darkroom section later), I have a new camera coming in July (can you guess which one?), I have some things to sell so I can get a lens or two by this summer, so maybe by fall I'll be up and running.
I've been meaning to break my silence and introduce myself for a long time and thank everybody for all they do here. Today I'm home nursing a nasty cold, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do just that. Hopefully, in the future I'll be able to add just a little to all the great info that is already here.
Thanks again,
Kurt