Dating back to the early 1950's, my training in photography came through academia’s side door, that of periodicals, seminars, white papers and practice. One of my recent photos appeared on the November-December 2005 cover of Art & Frame Review, a leading trade magazine devoted to the field of art and photography presentation and preservation. More recent recognition came when a couple of my favorite photographs appeared in the 14-month, 2007 North Idaho calendar; then again in the 2008 edition.

As a retired member of the US Navy, and later a major aerospace contractor, assignments have taken my wife, boys and I to California, Washington, Massachusetts, Georgia, Texas, and waypoints between. In the line of duty over 20 countries have been visited, awed, feared and photographed. Viet Nam was my war with III-Corps my home. But other than a handful of purposely benign shots in FREE EXPRESSION, you'll have to look elsewhere for river-action or weapons-interdiction photos documenting that piece of American history.

Cameras owned over the last 50 years have included rangefinders and SLRs from Kodak, Yashica, Minolta, Canon and Topcon; including a couple 8 mm and Super 8 mm movie cameras. Through the 1970's, my SLR of choice was the proven Topcon RE Super. However, "on the 8th day" I discovered Nikon; the other film cameras are gathering dust. I now have pocket-sized Fuji and Kodak digitals for convenience and fun, and have even added a canon Vixia still-video combo.

My Nikon travels nearly everywhere with us. Once on location, I shoot film as if there's an endless supply just around the corner. Of 100 or so frames exposed, 10 may be considered candidates for further scrutiny. Of those, one might be worthy of a place in your heart. My motto: It’s only film, take the shot. As of 2010, the digitals do the lions' share of the work, using the Nikon for serious, creative B&W photography.

Nearly every image in my Gallery was captured using a Nikon F100, 35mm film camera mounting either a Nikkor or Tamron lens, single Hoya filter, and when required, a Nikon electronic remote trigger, plus tripod. I ocassionally use an SB-800 Speedlight for fill. My absolute favorite lens is Tamron's 28-105 mm, F2.8. Current film choices are Fujicolor Pro 160S & 160C and Kodak Pro 100UC & 400UC. However, I'm begining to experiment more with monochrome film.

I prefer using film due to its greater exposure range and more importantly, the desired output being a print. In wedding and special event photography, we've yet to have a print so poorly exposed that it provided no useful information. A few have been tossed that were lacking in composition, but even they showed decent exposure.

Computer hardware used for scanning, editing and storage, include a Sony PCV-RX860 Digital Studio PC (which just died), now using a Gateway GT-5674 Digital Media Manager, an Epson Perfection 2400 Photo & negative scanner, and for photo proofing, l use, an Epson RX680, 6-color copier. Software includes Adobe Photoshop Elements, and VCOM's Webeasy 5.0 Pro Design Studio.

Web site pictures are of low-resolution and JPEG format. However, all digital images for purchase are based upon 350 dpi minimum, 24 bit color, and TIFF format. Files of 100 MB are typical for a single image as each scanned negative is edited and saved at 12 by 18 inches. The theory behind saving scans at this size is that color interpretation is minimized or eliminated, while printing smaller is rarely problematic.

All TIFF masters include cropping and scratch, dust, & film-blemish removal, but extremely limited color or lighting-contrast adjustment, if at all. Black-white and sepia-tone images are, however, deliberate corruptions of the original color scans and intended for those who prefer the look of monochrome & age-appearing, special effect images. Otherwise, few artistic liberties are employed. The intent is to maximize authenticity of the final product. Now that I've ventured into posters, layering is utilized for the lettering and signature.

All images are delivered to you on a Compact Disc. We encourage you to choose your favorite art & frame shop carefully, using a local business whenever possible. My recommendation is that you insist on archival material. Use UV filtering glass, but if you anticipate shipping or moving the print regularly, consider heavy weight acrylic protection.

Bud Holley
CdA Photographer
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