By day (and most nights and weekends), I teach computer science at Willamette University, and most of the time, can't believe I'm lucky enough to get paid for doing this. Many other, equally passionate though unpaid interests include the classical guitar, literature, recreational mathematics, wilderness travel, and running.

Photography arose out of my passion for wilderness travel: like many, it started with being disappointed at the way trip photos turned out and wanting to improve them. It wasn't long after that the art of thing took over, and became an end in itself.

With a small number of exceptions from a Canon G7 point-and-shoot, I work only with slide and B&W negative film, both 35mm and 4"x5". I like digital just fine, but I can't afford proper gear, and I'm not sure I'd want to. Transparency film has a look that I just love, and have not seen matched very often in the digital world. More to the point, I love the anticipation of waiting between the time of exposure and the time of development. It's more work, and I lose more images, but I end up feeling much more engaged in the whole process.

Post-exposure processing is another story. I enjoy the chemical darkroom for black and white printing, but there never was an analogue color process that could come close to the kind of control available from digital editing. I still try to keep it to a minimum, though. Typically, my workflow consists of a 4000 dpi scan, followed by manual cleanup of dust spots, crop, some adjustment of curves, the occasional touch-up on saturation, and unsharp mask. I doubt I've used even 10% of the capabilities in my copy of Photoshop.

Critiques, both positive and, um, "constructive" are always welcome. This site has proven a great way for me (and others) to learn from some first-rate talent.

http://www.modelrun.com/photographer/melvin

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