[LRFlex] Introduction

A few familiar names here on the LRflex list may remember me as "Tree
LUGger" from a few years ago before the LUG became over 100 e-mails a day.
Have mostly been a lurker since then, more active with cameras and Photoshop
than with e-lists lately.

I have used Leica M cameras since 1967, starting with a pair of used black
M2's that are described in an article in the LHSA "Viewfinder", which is
also on my web site at:
http://www.northcoastphotos.com/article1.html

After some early career experiences in photography and chemistry, I switched
to computer programming work for about 25 years to pay the family bills
better. Now I'm back to photography again, along with computers instead of
chemistry. I'm still using Leicas for the professional work, having upgraded
my SL and SL2 to an R8 and R6 a couple years ago. It took selling off a fair
amount of other gear, but that finally afforded me the 70-180/2.8 zoom, a
heavy but reliable workhorse that matches the quality of previous Leica
prime lenses. A 28-70, 90 Summicron and 100/4 with bellows round out the R
set. The M cameras I mostly use for wide angle work now.

My favorite work is aerial photography, with a lot of shooting from Cessnas
and Coast Guard helicopters. As the first photographer with the Coast Guard
Artist Program, the HH65 "Dolphin" has been my six million dollar tripod for
some one-of-a-kind views of the landscape and other aircraft. A Ken-Labs K-6
gyro stabilizer keeps that "tripod" steady, both with the Leicas and
Hasselblad ELM cameras I use in the air. The R8 motor drive is especially
helpful with the three frames a second auto-bracketing mode.

Look for the new coffee table book on the Coast Guard, due out this fall
from Hugh Lautner Levin Associates Publishing, the same group that has done
all the big books on Army, Navy, Marines, etc. The editor just told me they
are using about 20 of my CG photos.

My photo workflow these days is what you might call "hybrid" mode. With more
film than cash, I still shoot mostly analog, but convert to digital with the
Imacon Flextight film scanner. With all the computer career background, I
got a bit carried away on the equipment, but really appreciate the power of
the three PC network that is now my digital darkroom.

One PC is dedicated as a file server, using a RAID5 (Redundant Array of
Inexpensive Disks) approach with four Serial ATA 250GB hard drives. Three
drives give me 500GB of safe storage where nothing is lost when (not "if")
one drive goes bad. The fourth drive just sits there as a spare to
immediately rebuild the three disk array. Basically its just a big fat disk
drive. Another PC is dedicated to the scanner and other tasks like this
e-mail. The third PC is my actual "darkroom" with Photoshop running on a
used high-end machine I bought from a gamer.  With dual processor AMD
processors and a 15,000rpm SCSI drive, Photoshop is really happy and snappy.
Another SCSI drive is the dedicated PS scratch disk, which was a cheap but
fast improvement. The three machines are connected over a gigabit
(1000baseT) switch, so transfers from the file server are practically at
hard drive transmission speed. A little KVM box at the center of everything
lets me run all three PC's with one keyboard and mouse. Dual 21" monitors
keep a clear screen for Photoshop on my color calibrated monitor, with a
cheap used monitor for the PS tools palettes. An Epson 1200 printer produces
an occasional inkjet proof, but all my print output is done by labs on Fuji
Crystal Archive paper.

Phew, now you can see why I haven't been e-mailing much! Actually, by buying
good used equipment and careful local and Internet shopping, the overall
cost hasn't been that bad, certainly less than I've invested in Leica R
equipment. Like the Leica lenses that are now my basic "input devices",
paying attention to detail in every step of the workflow is still what it
takes to make good photographs.

I would have loved to have been at the Spring Shoot up in BC, but went about
the same mileage south instead of north for an Imacon scanner training
seminar in San Diego. Seems like the more I learn about photographic color,
the more I realize how little I know, so back to school I go!

As always, anybody on the list going through Eureka on Hwy 101, give me a
call and let's get together!

Regards,
Gary

Gary Todoroff
Datamaster Designs
Eureka, CA  95501
datamaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.northcoastphotos.com
707 445-8425







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