Carlos Valadez

It was the last year of college when a family member gifted me a used a range finder Cannonet. Working with Kodak Plus-X and Tri-X there was a shop in Austin that would develop the film and make a contact sheet for a couple of bucks. There was always a notebook recording camera settings watching outcomes of decisions made on film speed, f-stop, aperture etc. The Yashikamat was used for a couple of years. The next camera was a Nikkormat FT2 which was used until the advent of digital cameras. Mixing chemical was natural to me, I am a chemist/pharmacist. I had access to a darkroom for a couple of years. Early in the digital era I was involved in multi-year collaborative projects to create yearbooks for performing groups as a volunteer. I had a couple of mentors who were professionals in graphic arts who introduced me to the digital editing and desktop publishing. I retired from my real job a couple of years ago. Photography gives me something to do; an addditional reason to go places.