An avid naturalist, almost from birth and attached to a camera around age seven. My first "serious"
camera was a
Yashica EZ-matic It was a gift from my parents and grandparents for use to document a trip from Greenburg, Pennsylvania cross-country by bus to Philmont Scout Reservation, Cimaron New Mexico, then a number of days on the trail, followed by a train trip back to Greensburg via Chicago. I was 14 years old at the time. The camera took 126 film and had f-stop and focus control, with a meter that was activated when you pressed the shutter, The meter indicated the automatically adjusted shutter speed for the film
cartridge detected in the magazine. On that trip, I set a new family record for trip photos, taking
over 500 shots on 12 and 24 exposure 126 cartridges. by the time I returned home. That slideshow
was a family and scout group hit, that was asked for and repeated numerous times for every uncle
and aunt, and cousin, as well as scout and school groups. At that point, I really caught the bug!
I pushed that yashica to its limit with portrait lenses and trial & error shots and continued to use it
till I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S in Biology in 1973. As soon as I had a
steady job, with a pay-check, I set out to buy my first SLR, a
Minolta XE-7. About that time, I had the good fortune to get a job in the metalography and macrophotography
department at Westinghouse Research & Development Center, in Pittsburgh, PA. USA. There, I learned under
the tuteledge of Ms. Millie, Micro, Macro and Technical Documentation Photography, as well as enlargement and
developing techniques. I only got to stay there for a year, but Millie was a perfectionist! It didn't take that long to
be come quite proficient. Won a few local contest with shots of merrygoround horses, I photographed lying on the
floor at the Smithstonian taking 5 second hand held exposures on ektachrome slide film.
MORE OR LESS TO COME TO BRING UP TO DATE!
