[LargeFormat] Introductions

[largeformat@f32.net]

Well,

After reading all the intro posts I figured I'd add mine. I'm 45 in a few 
days, and have been into photography since highschool. Started with that tiny 
35mm (although I still do use it like now when it's like 10 here, a suburb of 
Chicago. I currently have a homebuilt 4x5 and a darkroom that I can do all my 
b&w work in. I've never been much of a color printer so all that work goes 
out. 

I'm a full time Firefighter have been for 24 years. At one point I thought 
I'd like to become a commercial shooter so I pursued an associates degree in 
photo and worked as assistants with some shooters in the burbs and downtown. 
Then life somewhat got in the way and I put the hobby down for a time. In the 
last 3 years I've realized I've missed it to much and like a flood I've 
purchased equipment for studio shooting and worked toward relearning things. 
I enjoy studio work and landscape nature photo's for personal work. I have no 
intentions at the moment to totally changing careers but perhaps I can get 
some side work which will help pay for my regained passion. 

I've recently purchased an Epson 2450 scanner so perhaps in the future I can 
post some of my stuff to the site. I'm not anti digital at all but I am of 
the mind that all this stuff is tools for us to use. You just pick the tool 
that works for you. Although I do think that one should be careful to not 
alter images to much and then pass them off as an honest representation of 
the scene when it never looked or could have looked that way. OK sorry I 
guess I did get a bit on a soap box. 
Talk to ya all later.

Greg Orlando