Rich Beaubien
New member
I have been interested in photography since I was quite young (I’m a refugee of the 50s). My first camera was a box camera my mother bought for me. I remember taking some wonderful shots of a rocket-ship standing on a rock - they looked like a tiny rocket-ship standing on a big rock.
My first 35mm was a borrowed Yashica rangefinder while at basic training in San Antonio Texas. I took a whole 36-exposure roll but got nothing because I had miss-threaded the film - I was hooked.
My only training was with the photo clubs at the Air Force bases, reading books, and from other photographers I met along the way. I did get some guidance and instruction from Minor White while he was at MIT in the early 1970s. The most significant memory is the day he handed me a Kodak Instamatic camera for an assignment using one 12-shot roll of film. The fact that the equipment is only 10% of the photograph has remained with me ever since.
Being a long time "shooter" I have extensive experience with film and darkrooms. During the mad cow scare I took a trip to London (yeah I'm known to go the wrong way when there's trouble). With all the money I saved I bought my first digital camera to play with - a 3.2mp Olympus. Today I have completely converted to digital. I shoot with Nikon gear, exclusively in RAW format, though one of these new rangefinder-like cameras that are appearing are tempting.
My own photography is centered round urban themes - cityscapes, streetscapes, documentary street photography etc.
Since Lightroom has been released I can emulate many of the things I use to do in the darkroom without the smell. So while my style is mostly "in the viewfinder," the look in most of the photos is in the composition, exposure and processing. Unless otherwise noted an image is a single photo and though I do take them on occasion, not a multi-exposure HDR. They are also generally not layered using Photoshop. (In fact I hardly use Photoshop any longer).
It's the image that matters...
--Rich
My first 35mm was a borrowed Yashica rangefinder while at basic training in San Antonio Texas. I took a whole 36-exposure roll but got nothing because I had miss-threaded the film - I was hooked.
My only training was with the photo clubs at the Air Force bases, reading books, and from other photographers I met along the way. I did get some guidance and instruction from Minor White while he was at MIT in the early 1970s. The most significant memory is the day he handed me a Kodak Instamatic camera for an assignment using one 12-shot roll of film. The fact that the equipment is only 10% of the photograph has remained with me ever since.
Being a long time "shooter" I have extensive experience with film and darkrooms. During the mad cow scare I took a trip to London (yeah I'm known to go the wrong way when there's trouble). With all the money I saved I bought my first digital camera to play with - a 3.2mp Olympus. Today I have completely converted to digital. I shoot with Nikon gear, exclusively in RAW format, though one of these new rangefinder-like cameras that are appearing are tempting.
My own photography is centered round urban themes - cityscapes, streetscapes, documentary street photography etc.
Since Lightroom has been released I can emulate many of the things I use to do in the darkroom without the smell. So while my style is mostly "in the viewfinder," the look in most of the photos is in the composition, exposure and processing. Unless otherwise noted an image is a single photo and though I do take them on occasion, not a multi-exposure HDR. They are also generally not layered using Photoshop. (In fact I hardly use Photoshop any longer).
It's the image that matters...
--Rich
