Hi,

As the title says, this is my first post to the forums. I have been away from large format photography for many years, but I found this place and got inspired, especially by all the home-brewers. There are some fantastic projects here!

I'm starting in on a 5x7 project of my own, and hoped you'd enjoy reading a bit about it. The project camera is a 5x7 B&J Watson portrait camera, purchased as sort of a basket case. I've started by fabricating a new back for it, which I just finished a blog post about here:

http://fpatton.net/2011/01/25/a-5x7-film-back/

I'm definitely not the craftsman that many of you are, but it's a fun project so far. I will be tackling the bellows next. I've already made one paper model (no good), and am learning from my mistakes and trying again.

For those of you who like background, I am an engineer and technical editor in Silicon Valley, and have lived here most of my life. I bought my first view camera in 1985 or so, a Wista 45DX, and had a great time with it. My weak point was always in the darkroom, but I think this time I will tackle the print portion with a scanner and printer.

The adventure continues. Cheers!

Fred