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My Long Affair with Photography
18th April 2014
During my college years, I completed my formal photo training by working at two different high end processing labs servicing the Madison Ave advertising agencies. In the 60’s, a process called “dye transfer” was used to make photographic reproductions for the high quality magazines like Vogue and Harper. Here is where I learned processing from the ground up: making color separations from original transparencies for printing using cyan, magenta and yellow dyes. Despite commuting between my home in New Rochelle and the photo labs in New York City and the long working hours, I thoroughly enjoyed the job as I continued to learn different aspects of photography. |
At college I taught at the photography club and introduced my girlfriend to darkroom techniques. By the way, Kris is now my wife and hates the darkroom. I was a staff photographer for several university organizations and earned extra cash by photographing fraternity and sorority events. |
Following college, Kris and I were married and shortly thereafter, photography took a backseat to raising a family, putting bread on the table and becoming involved in the software industry. Although I took and accumulated thousands of photos during this period, the bulk of these were of family faces and of the scenic vacation variety. |
Skip forward 30 years to the mid-1990s. My company Abacus, was involved with flight simulation software and I’m taking more and more aviation related photos. I now find myself dabbling in the new world of digital photography. The stars are finally aligned and I’m ready to marry two of my long time interests: photography and aviation. With digital, the equipment and processing techniques are radically different from conventional film photography. |
Several years ago, I received a surprise email from John Margotta, my photography mentor from the 1960s. I was happy to hear that at an age of 80+, he’s still immersed in photography. He’s produced some artistic renditions of still life using his “Photoshop-equipped darkroom”. His approach to photography is a lesson that hi-tech isn’t reserved only for the young. |
Lucikly, I’m finding that most of the basics that I started learning 50+ years ago are still relevant. After all of these years, I remain very excited and passionate about my love of photography. |
Very interesting story, Arnie! Photography was about patience back in the day, and it sounds like you had a lot of it. I had to laugh at your comment about waiting a month to go through 12 exposures. My dad was the same way. Film was too expensive to waste. My how that changed with digital! My dad had a Kodak Duaflex ll that he used to let me use for a few pictures here and there. Looking down into the viewfinder of the TLR was magical to me, and fueled my love of photography at that young age.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Comment by Gary Syrba — April 20, 2014 @ 9:35 am
And Gary, if you can save the vintage camera, it will be worth loads in 200-300 years!
Comment by admin — April 21, 2014 @ 6:26 am
I reached this page rather by mischance, but perhaps it was meant to be. I was a member of that “friendly cheerleading squad of circa 1967.” I was captain of that squad, exactly in 1967; fourth from the left on the last row. Thank you for your love of photography, and for bringing back a very precious memory. Stay passionate and excited, and keep snapping those pictures. But more importantly,
continue to teach and pass it on!
Comment by Adrienne — July 4, 2014 @ 10:07 pm
Hi Adrienne. I remember your beautiful face and lovely personality. Wishing you the best always. Stay well.
Comment by admin — July 4, 2014 @ 10:14 pm