Howdy All,

My name is Michie Wong and I have recently fallen into this money pit called large format photography. I've arrived here via a canon G2, 10D, 5D, 1D MK III to discovering the magic of Velvia with a Mamiya 645 AFD II (which I have to sell to pay for my 4x5 - )

I stumbled upon this forum after my cousin said her friend had a 4x5 for sell. I frantically searched the web for all the information I could digest about this type of camera and settled to keeping only this forum as my main reference. So, I've been lurking for about a month and have purchased a used Arca Swiss 4x5 f-metric (171 standard) with a Rodenstock 150mm f2.8 Sironar-S from Jim at Midwest. I haven't had the guts to actually put a quickload into the camera - I have to seriously think about spending $5 for each sheet for processing... but alas I will have to leap over this tiny crack in the sidewalk as I am about to embark upon a 3 week vacation on the east coast with this camera in my backpack.

I've taken landscapes (my preferred), wildlife, floral closeups, and avian. I currently have my first exhibit of 11 landscapes hanging in a local coffee shop for 3 months and will have 2 images as part of a multimedia fine art gallery show for June and July.

I am still learning about composition and exposure and am pleased to find people on this forum are very generous with their knowledge without making noobs like me feel less than worthy.

On the personal side, I was born and raised here in SF and have only left this continent twice to go to France and Germany - and have only left SF to go to college in Southern California for a year and a half. I am a career firefighter with the city and currently am working as a prevention inspector. And one of the main reasons I'm still giving photography a go is my tag line below - oh and the extreme amount of support at home.

Thank you for creating such a wonderful community.