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My primary and preferred camera and format used to be the Phillips 4x5. This is a sturdy, lightweight and well designed camera handmade by Dick Phillips. Apparently these have become difficult to get.  I have a 90mm Nikkor (about 24mm in 35mm format), 150mm Fuji (about 40mm in 35mm format) and a 300mm Nikkor (about 80mm in 35mm format). The 90mm Nikkor is my favorite of the three. My other cameras include a 1967 Pentax Spotmatic with 28mm, 55mm and 135mm lenses. I bought it new and it is the first quality camera I ever had. I still occasionally use it for fun. I also have a Contax G1 35mm rangefinder with 35mm and 45mm lenses. This is a beautiful little camera with incredible Zeiss optics and auto focusing when you need it. I occasionally use a friend's Contax 645.  This medium format camera is second to none with amazing lenses and ease of use. I especially like the 80mm Zeiss lens (about a 50mm lens in 35mm). 

I said in the first sentence above that the 4x5 used to be my favorite format.  I am evolving and purchased my first digital camera in early 2007 for some volunteer photography I did in rural Cambodia . I knew I needed to shoot a lot of photos and also needed to know if what I was doing was working. I needed the instant gratification of digital.  I wanted something low key, but of high quality so I purchased a Canon PowerShot A640.  This has 10 MP and a swiveling LCD that I absolutely fell in love with.  I was able shoot and compose at unusual angles and got very intimate and candid shots. As long as I kept the ISO at 200 or less I didn't have to deal with  much noise back in the digital darkroom. I needed color for my volunteer work, but I was convinced I could make excellent 11x14 B&W silver gelatin prints with the Canon files for my artistic endeavors. I planned to print 11x14 inch negatives on my inkjet and make contact prints in the wet darkroom. This has now become my method of choice even when I shoot film.  I scan the negatives, manipulate them in PhotoShop, print out a large negative and make a contact print on fiber paper in the darkroom.  There is absolutely no way I can have the kind of burning and dodging control I now have in PhotoShop with the old fashioned way using your hands and cardboard cutouts under the enlarger.

When I shoot black and white film my primary films are Tri-X in 35mm and medium format and T-max 100 and Tri-X in 4x5 sheet film.  All film is developed in my own lab and I follow the Zone System very closely while utilizing 4x5 sheet film. Primary film developers are Rodinal for 4x5 film and  HC 110 for 35mm and medium format film.  Printing is done with a Saunders 4500 enlarger with a variable contrast head. Test prints and prints for friends are made primarily on  Canon and Epson inkjet printers. My fine art prints are created on variable contrast fiber paper and developed in Kodak Dektol. My current favorite paper is Oriental Warmtone.

When I have a print just the way I want it (this could take many darkroom and computer sessions) it is ready to be mounted on mat. The size of the print is usually determined by the size I feel it looks best at. This is a pretty subtle and subjective process. Most of my people photographs are printed on 8x10 or 11x14 paper while the rest of my subjects end up on 16x20 paper.  Prints are dry mounted on 4-ply bright white archival mat. Eight by ten prints are mounted on 14x18 mat, 11x14 prints are mounted on 16x20 mat and 16x20 prints are mounted on 24x28 inch mat.  All prints are signed and dated on the front.  If the print has a title, that is included on the front as well.