35mm Recreational Photography

General Information
Born and raised in the Netherlands I came to the USA with my wife Annemarie in the early fifties where I found more opportunity and a better life. The US has given me and my family a fine quality life in return for my contributions in special machine design as a mechanical design engineer to a few companies until I became owner of a large marina and marine related dealerships. I got interested in photography around the age of 15. Using a simple box and bellows camera (tools of that era,) I became well educated in photography which has helped me creating effective picture supported advertising for my business. My retirement has given me a new opportunity to pursue digital photography and the digital darkroom. The creation of the website is a way of communicating with many and exchanging ideas.
This web site consists of photographs taken over a period of more than 50 years. After the box/bellows cameras, and with early earnings, I purchased a German made Retina. It was a simple 35 MM. camera of post WW II design and manufacture. Because of the 35MM - 36-picture format, this camera got me hooked and I have made many snapshots with it using Kodak and Ilford b/w film of good quality (for that time period) but still with considerable grain by to days standards.

Since then, I have traded cameras often and owned some interesting "used" ones like Rolleicord (liked the format but did not liked the parallax,) Leica, Miranda, Vivitar and others, until in 1973, I purchased a Nikon F2 Fotomic and a Nikkormat with auto-winder. As time went on, I acquired a variety of Nikon and Vivitar lenses and the camera bag got bigger and heavier. It is this camera equipment that created most of the images displayed in this web site.

My wife Annemarie and I on our 50th.(Oct. 2003) anniversary toast in Atlanta GA..

Back in the early fifties, I did my own enlarging until to much damage to the carpeting and to many late dinners (because I was using the kitchen sink) made the practice prohibitive. For domestic and political reasons I relied on the photo industry to make my enlargements until a few years ago I got involved in digital darkroom technology.

Currently I am using a Hewlett Packard S20 photo scanner and an Epson R1800 color stylus printer (my Epson 2200 went bad after about 4.5 years of service) connected to a 2..25 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 250MB HD iMac computer. The Canon Elan 7e and Canon 20D digital cameras with the 18 - 55 mm, 28-135 mm and 75-300 mm IS Zoom lenses, the HP S20 scanner and the Epson 2200 printer provide me with a set of powerful image tools that go a long way toward excellent picture making.

35 MM Slides, color and b/w film scanned at 2400 DPI, printed at a high quality digital printer using resolutions between 1440 and 2880 DPI, provides for magnificent quality 8 x 10 prints and larger. However, images made with the D20 @ 100 ASA are so outstanding in resolution that enlargements large then 13 x 19 are unbelievable.

When I used an Epson 1700 printer, I used to spray all my larger prints which were processed on the Epson 1200 stylus printer, with a good quality photographic UV inhibitor lacquer to help protect the print from fading in bright sunlit environments with a good quality photographic UV inhibitor lacquer to help protect the print from fading in bright sunlit environments. However, the Epson 2200 uses UltraChrome Dye based inks of superb quality making this practice no longer necessary but lacquer spray still improves the overall appearance of the print.. Images printed with this ink on Epson Semi Gloss paper are colorfast for 80 to 85 years according Epson product testing laboratories. The best photographic color process including CibaChrome start to fade in a few years when the picture is exposed to average room light. All commercial work is now done on Epson Semi Gloss and Luster paper printed @ 2800 DPI on the Epson 2200. The quality is outstanding. recently I installed an Epson R1800 which comes with a 8 color cartridge color lineup including a clear lacquer eliminating the color voids where highlights and white areas are thus finally producing a uniform textured print.

Near the end of 2001, I traded the Nikon equipment and the accessories (this equipment was more than 25 years old) for lesser bulky equipment acquiring a Canon Elan 7e of excellent capability with a 28/135 and 75/300 Canon IS zoom lenses fitted with UV filters. This allows me to travel with just the camera and the two lenses providing me with just about "all around" capability. This camera has fascinating capability weighting only a few pounds making it effortless to carry and the Canon IS (Image Stabilizer) lenses which have gyroscopic stability control, allows hand held shots at low shutter speeds thus eliminating the carrying of a tripod. The low hand-held shutter speed capability is important to me because I like to use 100 ASA or less in order to preserve picture quality. I have used 200 ASA for action related shooting and ventured once into the ASA 400 films. 400 speed film is nice for snapshots but to grainy for serious enlargements. For the Holidays of 2004 I purchased a Canon 20D digital camera. I had heard a lot and read numerous evaluations about the Canon 10D and had decided that I would go with the 10D when canon announced the 20D which is an improvement over the Canon 10D and a deal maker for me. I will offer my experiences with this "machine" after I have had a change to get accustomed with the "total" digital workflow.
Digital photography is a marvelous invention. Almost instant results and no more wet chemical development, space robbing enlargement equipment and chemical damage to environment. The digital darkroom with a decent computer and good software is a marvelous tool to create outstanding images or even interesting ones from mediocre shots. My experience with digital photography is detailed throughout this website with reviews and articles related to equipment and situations.
My current equipment
At the moment my equipment is geared for minimum weight, maximum utilization/efficiency and compactness. It all fits into a standard 7 x 6 x 10w (int.dim) # -2400 Canon bag.

Canon 20D experiences
Click on the above link to go to the proper section

Website picture quality
All images are of "web site" (72 DPI) quality and the large format make reasonable enlargements up to 5 x 7 without showing disturbing grain/pixels. However, anyone interested in obtaining a high quality digital print up to 1.5 x 18.5 can go to our Product Page for details.

Picture Identification
All photographs have a title, image number and an explanation indicating where they were taken however, no effort was made to include exposure settings for they vary from camera to camera depending on the type of light measuring technology employed. Until recently almost all color film used, is Kodak 64 & 100 ASA Kodachrome or Ektachrome. Current images are shot on Kodak Supra 100 ASA or Kodak Royal Gold and 100 Ektachrome VS slide film both 100 ASA. (Supra and Royal Gold are Kodak's new fine grain films and seem to work well producing superb color and unnoticeable grain in enlargements up to 13 x 19) * although I have heard that Kodak intents to discontinue the Royal Gold product.