Hello all. I discovered this group a few weeks ago and after lurking for a while have joined up. I live in New South Wales, Australia, near Canberra.

I started in photography as a child in the 1960s when my Dad and I set up a darkroom at home. He had a Leica III and a Pentax Spotmatic. I had a Yashica "J" 35mm rangefinder, and used to take Tri X. I came back to photography as an adult and slowly graduated to a Canon EOS 3. I didn't set up a darkroom but acquired a film scanner instead. A few years ago I acquired a Hasselblad 500CM which got me interested in manual photography again.

Several months ago I was trying to decide where to go next. I wanted to try movements but could not justify the price of a Hasselblad Arcbody or Flexbody. I also wanted to try panoramic, but similarly I could not justify spending the sort of money that Fujis and Linhofs went for. So I started looking at 4x5s. My decision was made for me when I found a shop in Melbourne selling a lot of Air Force surplus Horseman 45FA cameras, quite cheaply, with lenses. I bought one, and shortly afterwards a Chinese "Kang Tai" 6x17 back. I really enjoy using them both, and recently lugged the Horseman round Italy.

A few years ago I started a website while living overseas as a way of sharing pictures with family. As I have got more serious, it has acquired a few pretensions...

Photography by Stewart Skelt (http://www.netspeed.com.au/sgskelt)

Hi Stewart!

Nice to meet you.

Cheers,

Pat

Hi Stewart, from Melbourne. I had a look at your website - nice work. Looking forward to seeing more snaps from your 'blad. I use one too.

G'day from Melb 2.

Very enjoyable browse around your site!

Welcome from Canada. Nice work on your site.

Hi Stewart, another welcome from Melbourne.

I have just come in from the darkroom, feeling quite satisfied with myself, that is, until I checked out your website!

Makes me ponder if I should expedite my intention/wish to move into 4x5.

Mick.

Welcome from New England...hey are there anymore surplus Horseman 45FA cameras there???

Hi Stewart, welcome to Apug, from Perth, West Australia.
Kind regards
Nicole

Hello and welcome from the Isle of Wight, England.

I have just had a quick look at your website and I like your images a lot. Also, you have obviously mastered scanning techniques as your images appear very sharp and detailed despite the limitations of seeing them on a computer monitor. Do you have any tips on this which you could share with us here?

Steve.

Welcome from just up the road. :)

I am singing "La la la" with my fingers in my ears, every time I hear the siren song about LF. I get into enough strife with my 35mm and MF stuff...

Glenn

Love the images of Italy. Do you have any images of or from Corfinio?? ...as I have relatives there, and don't see myself getting there anytime soon, I'd probably love to buy one.


drew

Hi Stewart, welcome from Hawaii, and a regular visitor to Australia. I enjoyed looking at your images, and I'm looking forward to seeing more. So, exactly where in NSW do you live? I regularly drive the Hume Hwy between Sydney and Albury - in fact, I'll be there again in October.

Gosh, what a friendly group. Answers to questions:

The shop had about 20 Horseman FAs, acquired when the Royal Australian Air Force decided that its photography training would henceforth all be digital. They sold them all in a couple of weeks, as I recall. The cameras came with Nikkor W 150/5.6 lenses and the aluminium Horseman cases. Some of the kits were sold on eBay and I was delighted to see one go for about A$1000 (about US $750) more than I paid!

Scanning: I've seen too many religious wars break out on comp.periphs.scanners to claim that my technique is the best, but here is what I do. I scan at maximum res (4000 dpi on my 9000ED). The trick to retaining apparent sharpness in screen images seems to be to downsample only by 50% at a time, with a small amount of USM applied each time. My standard settings are amount=98, radius=0.7 and threshold=2. Once I came across this technique I did not try too many variations on the theme so it is possible that other settings may work better.

Sorry, I do not have any pictures of Corfinio.

Canberra is about 100km south of the Hume Highway, you turn off just after Goulburn.

Canberra is about 100km south of the Hume Highway, you turn off just after Goulburn.

Hi Stewart,

I was just curious which town you live in. I drive that route almost every year; I've been to Bright, Victoria 6 times in the last 8 years. I always drive down from Sydney, normally stopping at Yass, then again at Holbrook (love to walk around the submarine) and Beechworth. All areas I sure you know quite well. I visited Echuca a couple of times, and I will again this year.

Hello all. I discovered this group a few weeks ago and after lurking for a while have joined up. I live in New South Wales, Australia, near Canberra.

G'day and welcome Stewart from a Sydney sider.

I like the 10 tips you have for amatuer shutterbugs here http://www.netspeed.com.au/sgskelt/tips.html, in particular tip #5 "Consider NOT going digital" followed by some pretty valid reasons Its not because I have to justify to myself why I prefer analog, but for other folks now using exclusively digital who may been swept up in all its hype and fanfare.

regards
Peter

Stewart,
Welcome from Sydney. I'm sure you will enjoy this place which is the only web site I have ever felt might be dangerously addictive. I also enjoyed looking at Tuscany from your point of view.

Cheers... Tony

I like the 10 tips you have for amatuer shutterbugs here

Thank you. I almost deleted the "tips" page recently as I felt somewhat diffident about offering advice when I have so much to learn. I left it in because I do still get questions of the "why aren't my pictures like yours?" variety.

On the subject of digital, I used to say that I had never seen a digital setup that I wanted, but I this is no longer true. I was in Venice, taking the famous shot of gondolas in the foreground and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the background. There were quite a few 35mm photographers there and I have to admit to feeling a little bit superior as I set up the Horseman with 617 back. Then an American pro set up next to me with his Hasselblad H2D with 39 Mp back and a range of lenses. On the other hand, by my calculations he had easily spent more than 10 times as much as me!

Hi Stewart,

I was just curious which town you live in. I drive that route almost every year; I've been to Bright, Victoria 6 times in the last 8 years. I always drive down from Sydney, normally stopping at Yass, then again at Holbrook (love to walk around the submarine) and Beechworth. All areas I sure you know quite well. I visited Echuca a couple of times, and I will again this year.

I actually live in a town called Queanbeyan, near Canberra (I work in Canberra). I live on the outskirts of town and if I go for a morning jog I usually see kangaroos and sometimes a wombat. But Melbourne is my home town and so the Hume Highway is very familiar to me. I drive the 1400 km round trip several times a year. I looked at your site and particularly liked the shot of Beechworth. I'm very fond of northeast Victoria and the King and Ovens Valleys.

I actually live in a town called Queanbeyan, near Canberra (I work in Canberra). I live on the outskirts of town and if I go for a morning jog I usually see kangaroos and sometimes a wombat. But Melbourne is my home town and so the Hume Highway is very familiar to me. I drive the 1400 km round trip several times a year. I looked at your site and particularly liked the shot of Beechworth. I'm very fond of northeast Victoria and the King and Ovens Valleys.

That is a bit further off the path than I have ventured; I'm not a city person by nature, so when I travel I tend to stay away from the bigger ones. That is one reason I go to Bright almost every year, plus I love farmland, and the King Valley is one of my favorites - I've got a spot near Milawa that I go to every year, and you saw the one taken at Murmungee Overlook, that is another favorite spot.

There is a pretty good group of APUG members in Melbourne - I spent a wonderful, rainy evening, with Nige and Kevin at a pub in Ballarat, drinking Coopers and talking photography (and going over their wonderful work) - they seem to get together once in a while for some shooting. In fact, there is a group of us meeting in Alice Springs on 18 October - you are welcome to join us as well.

Enjoyed your tips as well. One thing I have found over the years, is that when you attempt to write about a subject, you wind up learning about that subject more than if you just read about it.

Hi Stewart, I don't know should I welcome you because you've been here before me :). But anyway, welcome!

I took a look at your gallery, uuh, and I feel almost sick now. Your panoramas... You see, I had a Linhof Technorama IIIS, with 72 mm and 180... I loved it, but I didn't take photographs with it.. And I sold it away. And now I really miss it :(. How a person can be this stupid as I am?? Well, but since that I bought a Hassy and I love it much more than Linhof but still. I miss it.

:D

Welcome from Oklahoma, USA

Welcome from Melbourne. Had a look at your web site - pretty darn good.
Ruminates "Now I wonder how much a 6x17 back for my Wista would cost on eBay".

Ruminates "Now I wonder how much a 6x17 back for my Wista would cost on eBay".

Isn't that the way it always is? :D

FWIW, I got a Horseman 6x12 back for the Toyo that I've been working with the past couple of months. I'm still getting into the panoramic format.

Another welcome from Melbourne. It's been a long time since I've been to Queanbeyan, but we've got friends in Murrumbateman who we usually manage to visit once a year.

Hi Stewart. Lovely photos on your site.