The first thing you should know about us is that we're all volunteers. We're here simply because we love photography and we enjoy talking about that subject and love it when we can help others get more out of a camera. And we're here because it's a great place to make friendships that can last a lifetime!
The emphasis here is on PhotoTalk. Getting honest, friendly, and constructive feedback on photos can be one of the most valuable services we can offer. We also strive to be a place where people can feel safe asking whatever questions they have about photography. We may not always have the answers, but we'll always try to either find them or direct you to another place online where your questions might be better addressed.
Below you will find brief biographies telling you a little about the SysOps who take care of the Photography Forums here on CompuServe. "SysOp" stands for System Operator. That really is a misnomer since the people below have little or no connection with running the host machines that serve up the files which make up the forums. The real role of most SysOps on CompuServe is to moderate the activity in forums, working primarily to maintain a positive and productive atmosphere. Regardless, the tradition of calling forum operators "SysOps" continues...
Mike Wilmer 76703,4400 - Forum Manager and Forum Founder (US)
Bruce Patterson 112615,1503 - Medium Format (US)
Frank Riddell (currently offline for health reasons) - (UK)
John Barreiro 71674,3667 - Message Boards (US)
Mark Westermeier 76741,3040 - Host, Weekly Phototalk Chats (US)
Maynard Marquis 73267,205 - Message Boards (US)
Frank Peter csillagpor - Host, Hungarian Chats
Nick Cvetkovic 76703,4414 - Photo News Items (US)
Mary Ann Robertson 73760,1106 - Thursday Chats (US)
Mark Westermeier 76741,3040 - Monday Chats (US)
Lois Wakeman 100304,3602 - Message Boards, Photo Discussions (UK)
Mike Campos CamposMik - Message Boards, Computers (US)
Linda Baldwin LindaBaldwinVA - Message Boards (US)
Jim Jeter JimJeter763 - Message Boards, Computers (US)
Emory Kimbrough PrestoPixel - Message Boards (US)
Fred Osterholtz 70314,1204 - Message Boards (US)
Biographies:
Mike Wilmer 76703,4400 - Forum Manager and Forum Founder (US)
Mike Wilmer established the Photography Forum on CompuServe on February 13, 1987. As forum administrator, Mike oversees all aspects of forum organization, maintenance and development. If you have suggestions for changes, please leave a private message to Mike in the Forum or send email to MikeWilmer@cs.com.
Mike's interest in photography grew out of his journalism studies at Marshall University in his hometown of Huntington, West Virginia. His grandfather loaned him the money for his first serious camera, a Nikkormat. After seeing the work of a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography, Mike made the decision to complete his schooling in beautiful Santa Barbara, California. He graduated from Brooks in 1970. Even though he was a motion pictures major and he used those skills in the Air Force, still photography comprised most of his studies at Brooks and was his true love, so he returned to that specialty when he took a studio job in Sacramento, California.
After nearly 8 years of studio work, Mike traveled extensively for 14 years under contract with two Chicago-based studios. With a history that went back to 1905, they had no trouble booking interesting clients for Mike, such as the presidents of Polaroid and Kellogg, and political figures like the late Governor Rudy Perpich of Minnesota.
Today Mike continues to specialize in location photography working primarily near his home in Northern California. His work has won many awards and has frequently appeared in print. He has been a member of the Professional Photographers of America since his days at Brooks.
Mike lives in Folsom, California, with his wife, Robin, who teaches music. They share their home with two dogs -- two Shiba Inus(Japanese breed) named Takara (treasure) and Makoto (truth, faith, fidelity, sincerity, trust, confidence, reliance, devotion...a lot to put on a puppy). Since they live at the edge of wetlands, they occasionally share their home with other fur and feather clad critters, like the skunk that recently got mad at Makoto. Their favorite wild friends are the owls that like to fly by their bedroom window at night. Their least favorites are the woodpeckers who love to tap on the wood shingles early in the morning.
John Barreiro 71674,3667 - Message Boards (US)
I began to get interested in photography at an early age in my native Cuba, with a Kodak Box camera that I found in my Aunt's closet. That was followed by a folding 35mm Kodak of unknown vintage. When I arrived in the U.S., the priorities of life took a front seat to my "hobby". That, however did not keep me from going through High School with a camera in my book bag, which resulted in some rather good "candid" shots for our Yearbook (Bishop Alemany H.S., Mission Hills, Ca. Class of '66).
My background is in Engineering, mostly electro-mechanical. Recently, (the last 13 years) it has diverged into the computer field, primarily Client/Server networks. When it comes to mechanical devices, they harbor no secrets for me. During the last 30 years, I have been involved in flying, having earned a pilot's license in 1972, sailing and boat racing from the early 80's thru mid-90's, and building and rebuilding a home.
As a young adult in California, I rekindled the art and was briefly engaged as a free-lance photographer while going through college. After a few years, the combination of raising a family, a job that involved extended travel and lack of a suitable darkroom, relegated me to the status of "casual shooter". Over the years there were the occasional "gems" that found their way onto friend's and family's walls at Christmas and birthdays. There they rest today. Unfortunately, most of my work was lost during the 1994 Northridge earthquake that almost leveled our house.
The hiatus lasted about 15 years, and about 3 years ago I sold the last of my "antique" manual cameras and found a nice used Minolta 3000 at a garage sale. That put some life into the spark that had been smoldering, when a trip to Northern California resulted in some rather outstanding work. (IMHO)
Since then, I have acquired several other cameras and lenses, and I am making plans for building a new darkroom.
Work schedule and medical restrictions in the last 2 years has somewhat curtailed my travel to the places where I did my best work, the outdoors and the cliffs of Central and Northern California. I have to settle for places that I can reach by car or 4x4. Hope to be able to hike to my favorite view areas in the not too distant future.
My favorite subjects are: sunrises and sunsets, nature photography, cars, motorcycles, sailboats and airplanes. Not necessarily in that order. I did some work photographing abandoned buildings in the California "Gold Country" for a local development company in the 80's. That was the last of my "paid" work.
Bruce Patterson 112615,1503 - Medium Format (US)
Bruce got his start in photography in his early teens from his mother, who previously had taught photography in WWII (had something to do with the production of aerial maps for bombing runs). He started out with a duo 620 and later an Argus C3 using a homemade darkroom. Later, when in the Air Force seeing the world (stationed one year in Mississippi and three years in Germany), he graduated to a Minolta SLR and a Yashica-Mat EM TLR. During the Air Force years he used the base hobby shop labs for B&W processing and also shot a lot of 35mm slides.
After the Air Force, during his college years, he gradually built up his Minolta system and went as a choir member and official photographer with a choir tour in Kenya, and then the following year took a student trip back to Germany and behind the Iron Curtain taking mostly 35mm slides on both trips.
After college the photo bug was dormant for a number of years until he began his present job in 1989 as an Electronics Technician traveling the country installing Air Traffic Control Systems. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to get back into photography so he started devouring books on the subject. A theft of the Minolta system provided a golden opportunity to switch to a Nikon system, but he was yearning for something larger which soon came with the addition of a Mamiya RB 67 and an ancient 4x5 Speed Graphic.
Most of his photography so far has been travel photography with a lot of landscapes, both urban and rural with a lot of other stuff mixed in, mostly 6x7cm transparencies.
Bruce lives full-time in an RV trailer which he hauls with him around the country in his travels, and connects to Compuserve with borrowed phone lines.
Even though Bruce sysops in all four of the Photo Forums, he is also the Section Leader for the Medium Format Section in the Photo Forum. Bruce scans all sections in the Photo and Photo Pro Forums (reading selected threads) and reads all messages in Section 4 of the Photo Forum and all messages posted in the Photo Gallery and Photo Model Forums.
In his 1996 debut as a Section Leader he hosted a CAMPFIRE discussion on medium format which was very well attended. It lasted about a month and was a very comprehensive discussion on the subject. It is available in Library 2 as CAMPFIRE.ZIP.
Late in 1996, Bruce started a series of discussions with Manufacturer's Reps about Medium Medium Format Cameras and Accessories. The brands discussed were Mamiya with Bob Shell (MAMIYA.ZIP), Fuji with Steve Howe (FUJI_MF.TXT), Roleii/Linhof with Bob Salomon (ROLLEI.ZIP), and Pentax with David McQueen (PENTAXMF.TXT). This is an ongoing series, so watch for future threads in this series in Section 4. Bruce also plans a reprise of the CAMPFIRE series later this year.
Another thread which Bruce has uploaded to the library was a discussion of how to get started in Medium Format cheap. If you have been holding back from moving up to MF because of the cost, consider downloading MF-CHEAP.ZIP.
Please take note that discussions Bruce holds in Section 4 are not live, primarily due to the fact that he doesn't have his own phone and has to connect with borrowed lines, but also it allows for greater participation across time zones. They are continuing threads that last a week or more each. All you have to do is read the messages and ask questions of our guests.
Frank Riddell - currently offline for health reasons (UK)
Frank has always been interested in photography starting in his school days, when he won a prize for a B&W image taken with a cheap box camera, to today with his much more sophisticated Canon equipment. The real impetus to encouraging his photography came as he watched his family growing up and photography became the means of recording the growth of the family.
Frank was a Prof. of chemistry in St Andrews University in Scotland and helps in running the libraries for the Photography, PhotoGallery and PhotoPro forums. Interestingly, for a chemist he has never really been into developing and printing photographs. Now he uses digital methods to edit, print and distribute his work.
One of the few perks of being an academic is the possibility of travel, and Frank and his camera(s) have now been on every continent except Antarctica and around the world a couple of times.
He concentrates on four main photographic subject areas: family, travel, people and flowers.
Although Frank is an amateur photographer, he is sometimes asked to do photography for friends and organizations he supports, and he has raised money for a local good cause by selling some of his popular prints of St Andrews.
You can see more of his work at his photography web site: http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_sc/personal/fgr/Photos/
Nick Cvetkovic 76703,4414 - Photo News Items (US)
Nick Cvetkovic is a computer consultant and President of NBC Associates, Inc, a computer consulting firm. Nick is also a computer industry analyst, author, teacher and speaker.
Nick’s interest in photography was sparked by an Agfa 120 folding bellows camera given to him by his father many, many years ago. He has progressed through various 35 mm cameras from an early Praktica through a Pentax Spotmatic. Photography faded into the background for many years. His interest was rekindled several years ago as he began reporting on various motorsports events online. He now shots digitally with a Nikon 5700.
Nick is one of the pioneer on-line subscribers. He is the founding wizop for Compuserve’s Computer Consultants Forum. He was a sysop in the Motorsports Forum for over 12 years and was the forum administrator for the New Technology Forum for three years.
Nick has held a variety of leadership positions within the independent computer consulting and computer user group communities. He has been a personal computer hobbyist since 1982.
He is a former national board member of the Independent Computer Consultants Association and is a past-president of the Association of Personal Computer Professionals, a local group based in the Philadelphia area.
Lois Wakeman 100304,3602 Message Boards, Photo Discussions (UK)
"Lois lives and works in Uplyme, a small rural village in southwest England. Her two children are now starting to make their own way in the world, so she and her husband Pete live a relatively quiet life with two cats (Betty and Cosmo), and a pony (Chancer).
Lois says 'I am extremely fortunate in having a job that allows me to live in a beautiful seaside location, and work for clients in other parts of the world. Most of my work is technical writing (computer software manuals, procedure handbooks, marketing copy etc.), but I also do web design and consultancy. In my precious free time, I take photographs, and also make ceramics with a group of friends. These two activities allow me to exercise my creative urges in a more immediate way than my written work (which provides me with intellectual stimulation). And they are also starting to provide me with some pocket money: via sales of ceramic figures and prints in a local gallery.'
She's had cameras for over 25 years: a battered Nikon FE that took many landscape transparencies in early married life; a series of point-and-shoot compact cameras that served well when the children were small to capture life for the family album, and in early 2000, Lois "went digital".
She says 'People are often sniffy about digital cameras, but I have found owning one (currently, a Nikon CoolPix 5700) to be immensely liberating. Instead of saving films for special occasions, I take the camera with me whenever I am out, just in case. And sometimes it's the chance view that makes a photo, rather than the planned expedition.'
Lois is almost entirely self-taught in photography. She thought about studying for a City & Guilds certificate, but having spoken to someone who was put off the craft by the tutor's extremely prescriptive view of 'the good photograph', she decided to leave well alone. 'That way, I get to keep my own eye without being bullied into adopting someone else's, and any mistakes I make are my own fault', she thinks.
Where did she learn what she does know? Mostly by taking photos and thinking about what worked and what didn't. She first learnt the basics of camera controls and their effect on the results: aperture, shutter speed, focus, depth of field, focal length, filters and so on. Armed with that, Lois could concentrate on form and composition (practising herself, and studying the works of others).
She's also taken time to find out about the formal principles of composition and perception, but doesn't consciously apply them when framing a photo. 'Anyway, part of the trick is in sensing when breaking the rules will make a better image' says Lois. She doesn't like to sound philistine, but her abiding interest is in the end result rather than the process, so although she knows something about traditional film and darkroom techniques, she has not chosen to study them in great detail."
Mike Campos 72317,3576 Message Boards, Computers (US)
Mike Campos was born in Cuba in 1955 and moved to NJ at the end of 1969. He still lives in Bogota, NJ with his wife Ivonne, who is due to give birth at the end of July, 2004.
As a child growing up his mother would show him a large collection of black and white photos of family members. These photos were taken by his uncle who was an avid amateur photographer, but had moved to France by the time Mike was old enough to remember.
In NJ Mike and his uncle reunited and at the age of 14 his uncle got him involved in photography. He told him all virtues of slides, took him to a store to buy him a Yashica 35mm camera with one lens, a projector and a screen. The flame that his uncle turned on stayed with him throughout his life.
For the last 19 years Mike has worked as a self employed computer consultant.
Mike uses Nikon equipment and in September of 2003 took the plunge into digital photography with a D100 camera.
Jim Jeter JimJeter763 Message Boards, Computers (US)
I've worked as a Turbo-Jet Engine Mechanic (in the US Navy), Life Insurance Salesman, Helicopter Mechanic (Federal Civil Service), and Professional Photographer.
In 1984 I bought a computer to help keep books in the photography business and within a few months, the computer and its software took over. Later that same year my wife, Berni, and I left San Diego and moved to Torrance, California where we both went to work for a small software company and I've been involved in the computer industry since then.
I have maintained my love for photography and continue to create images whenever I can find the time.
I started digital photography with the Nikon CP950, got hooked, and currently use a Nikon D100 with several Nikkor lenses.
I still have a few film cameras but haven’t exposed any ‘conventional’ film in over a year.
My transparencies are scanned using a CanoScan FS2710 film scanner and the medium and large format transparencies and negatives are scanned using the Epson Perfection 2450 flatbed scanner.
I live, with my wife, in Aliso Viejo, California and work for QLogic Corporation as a Design Validation Engineer.
Emory Kimbrough PrestoPixel - Message Boards (US)
A native of Alabama, Emory studied physics and math at Auburn University, The University of Maryland, and The University of Alabama. Emory first signed up for CompuServe in 1985 and soon became a sysop in the Science/Math Forum, running the forum from a 300 baud modem. Emory's interest in photography started in 1997 when he bought his first SLR to get better pictures on a trip to Iceland to study the volcanoes and glaciers. For several years afterwards, Emory was almost entirely a nature photographer, but later he become interested in many other types of photography, such as portraiture and handcoloring. In spite of his background in science, Emory has become best known as a magician and juggler, performing a variety-comedy act throughout the Southeast. He made 53 appearances in five states as the Oreo Cookie Magician, and in 1996 Mercedes-Benz USA hired Emory to work at an event they sponsored in conjunction with the '96 Olympics. Emory is also a mentor and technical advisor for BEST Robotics, a program in which high-school students design and build robots from scratch for regional and national competitions. Last year he worked with a tiny rural school whose robot advanced to the national competition, and he's currently at work on his fourth robot with this school.
Last updated February 11, 2005