Introduction to Sutter Stuff

My first camera was a Pentax Spotmatic which I purchased in 1967 while stationed at Bitburg Air Base, West Germany. Yes, Germany was split East and West.  The Commies were in the East and the good guys were in the West.  It was NATO (USAF) vs the Warsaw Pact.  It was the Cold War.  We won thanks be to Ronald Reagan.  But that's not why I decided to start this blog.  The reason I started this blog was to pass on some photography tips to friends, relatives, stranger, whomever.

With that Pentax I learned about exposure, black & white film, developing it, slide film, and some basic photo techniques.  I got out of the Air Force in 1970 and did not travel very much.  I had no use for the camera and somewhere along the way I sold it to a friend; camera, 2 lenses, flash, film, bag, etc.  The next camera I picked up was a Speed Graphic 4 x 5 as a Houston Police officer in the Accident Division.  Since then I have owned a Canon 35mm A1E.  I remembered how great slide film was in the 60's and I began to shoot more and more.  I decided to get an upgrade in camera and settled on a Nikon F90ss.  I bought some lenses and a tripod and started taking photos on hunting trips.  Eventually, I enjoyed photography more than the hunting and since then concentrated on photography.  I have bought Nikon equipment ever since 1988 and stuck with it.

When digital photography came out I resisted it until I bought a small Kodak digital camera for my wife to take photos of the grand kids.  I found it a lot of fun and inexpensive to use.  If you mess up just delete.  This step led me to my first digital SLR, Nikon D70, which led to a Nikon D200, which led to a Leica Digilux 2 then a Digilux 3 and now I use a Nikon D3s and the D200 as a backup.  I have gone through lenses like women go through shoes and settled on a 55mm macro, 85mm f/1.8, 24-85mm, 28-200mm, 16-35mm, 70-180mm, 70-200 f/2.8, 300mm f/4 and a TC 1.4.  At one time I owned a 500mm f/4 but found that I could not focus it well.  I am still looking for a long telephoto to buy eventually.  I will be writing about photography; composition, exposure, light, subjects to photo, if it's something to do with a camera, I'll probably write about it.

That's a Mk28 Thermonuclear weapon we worked on at Bitburg.  The Phantom F4E carried one on the center line.  The 36th Tac Fighter Wing kept 12 F4s loaded with one of these on pad alert 24/7 in what was known at "Victor Alert".  There's an old saying,"Without ammo the Air Force is just an expensive airliner."
I'll try and stick with photography.