Arnie’s Blog

What’s in a brand name?

Published July 22nd, 2010 in photography | No Comments »

We started using the Abacus brand name back in 1978. In these 30+ years, Abacus has become a recognized name as a maker of personal computing, books and software.

A few years back, we started dabbling in the photography arena. Although we have more than 40 years of background in photography, when it was time to get serious about bringing these products to market, we decided to use the “Stay Focused” name. We felt that this name brings clarity to the customer. We’re hoping the name says here is a brand for a company involved with photography. So Stay Focused is now one of our imprints.

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Extending my investment

Published April 19th, 2010 in Personal, photography | No Comments »

Last Saturday I returned from a quick visit to the Southwest. The primary reason for the travel was to explore the state of the industry at the yearly National Association of Broadcasters Show where all things dealing with broadcasting - television, radio, Internet and now mobile - take center stage.

The previous Wednesday, after spending six hours on two flights and passing three time zones which conveniently added 3 hours to my schedule, I step off the plane and head directly to the Las Vegas Convention Center. There I immerse myself in the business end of this fast-changing and exciting technology. This year’s show drew more than 85,000 attendees who listened to industry experts in conference sessions as well as some 1,500 exhibitors displaying new video and audio equipment, accessories, consultation, training, software. The LVCC was bustling both inside and outside as attendees shuffled between the various halls.

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Across the Country (Again)

Published November 14th, 2008 in Personal, photography | No Comments »

Here’s some random ramblings about nothing in particular.

When the weather starts cooling off in Michigan, Mom starts thinking about going to the warm environs of her Winter home in Arizona. Normally she waits until after the Christmas Holidays, but this year she decides to travel early.

Here’s where I come in. She flies and I drive. As the designated driver, I drive her car from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Phoenix, Arizona to use for the months that she is there. I don’t mind, in fact I look forward to the 2000 mile trip. After delivering the car to Phoenix I’ll fly back to Grand Rapids.
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Waterproof and Rugged

Published August 22nd, 2008 in photography | No Comments »

Waterproof and rugged are two adjectives that usually apply to outdoor gear such as my hiking boots. When I’m in the woods or on the slopes, I want to wear equipment that can stand up to the harsh treatment that I’m likely to encounter.

Here, I’m going to describe a different type of gear that I’ve used in the outdoors to record my adventures. I’m referring to several “ruggedized” cameras that I’ve had in past years. Actually, waterproof is too mild a word to use since each of these cameras can be used underwater. While not suitable for scuba diving, you can use them for taking photos in shallow water. My goal is to share my experiences with you in case you have a need or desire to record your own similar adventures.
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My Long Affair with Photography

Published August 21st, 2008 in photography | No Comments »

I remember very clearly when Dad would pull out his large twin lens reflex camera, usually around a holiday, birthday or family event. He would lower his head and look into the lens hood while his hand would reach down to grasp the knurled knob on the camera’s side. I would see the bellows move back and forth as he zeroed in on his focus. Then he’d snap and the shot would be done. We’d wait weeks, sometimes months, to see the results. After all, a full roll of film had room for 12 negatives!

When the film was finally developed, we were thrilled to see the results. Here are two photos, one from the 40’s and another from the 50s, but they both share the same “feel” - the subjects are dressed up for a special occasion, some of them are posed comfortably and others more stiffly, but always in full black and white.

Aunt Emma, Aunt Millie and Mom circa 1940

I took this family picture as a youth circa 1957

In the 50’s, color photos were reserved only for special occasions - owing to the higher expense. While Dad sometimes shot color, the cost of the film and print processing was too extravagant for normal use. But for those special times when he did use color, he would send the exposed film to one of the discount processing services to save money. The downside: developing by mail took an additional week to complete.

I cut my teeth on Dad’s older twin lens reflex (TLR) and a Polaroid Swinger. Using the twin lens reflex was an exercise in patience. With only twelve exposures to a roll of 120 film, you made sure that you had a good shot before you released the shutter. With the Swinger, it was a blast to see instant photography. With today’s digital we’ve come full circle; we have another form of instant photography again.

As a youngster with sparse earnings, I made do with Dad’s second TLR and the Swinger that served as my equipment. I came into luck when I found that Uncle Tom, who was in the Air Force at the time, agreed to buy a camera for me at a huge discount on the Air Force Base PX. A lesson in patience: I’d to wait a whole year until he returned from service overseas to get my hands on a state of the art Canonflex RM SLR camera.

In the mean time, I learned to develop film and make my own prints. A small corner in the basement became my darkroom. I covered the windows to keep out the light, fashioned a processing area from discarded planks of wood and used Mom’s washroom sink to provide water for the chemicals. I spent many nights mixing developer, stop bath and fixer; processing film and making black and white prints. I started with a basic Testrite enlarger and later graduated to a fancy Durst 606 enlarger with a built-in color filter drawer. I was so immersed into this hobby that soon I learned to make my own color prints. It would take take three hours of preparation to make the first color “test” print and perhaps six hours to get an acceptable “final” color print. I can hardly believe that I had so much patience back then.

To further my interest, something wonderful happened. Mom arranged for me to get a part time job with John Margotta, an old acquaintance who happened to be a professional photographer. For three years, after school I would head to John’s studio to learn the photography business. In the studio I was his assistant. I would hold lights and set up equipment for weddings, bar mitzvahs, anniversaries, birthdays, modeling shoots, funerals (yes, funerals) and more. I learned about lighting techniques, portrait techniques, posing techniques, action techniques, view camera technqiues and wedding cake cutting techniques too. And of course John taught me many darkroom techniques. Of course, I used most of my earnings to purchase more equipment.

My photographic education continued. During high school I proudly served on the yearbook staff as one of the three student photographers with access to sporting and entertainment events. In the following examples, you’ll see that we continued taking black and white photos since the cost of color was prohibitive at the time.

The friendly cheerleading squad of
New Rochelle High School circa 1967

Motown’s Four Tops performing
at New Rochelle High School circa 1966

During my college years, I completed my formal photo training by working at two different high end processing labs servicing the Madison Ave advertising agencies. In the 60’s, a process called “dye transfer” was used to make photographic reproductions for the high quality magazines like Vogue and Harper. Here is where I learned processing from the ground up: making color separations from the original transparencies for printing using cyan, magenta and yellow dyes. Despite commuting between my home in New Rochelle and the photo labs in New York City and the long working hours, I thoroughly enjoyed the job as I continued to learn about photography.

At college I taught at the photography club and introduced my girlfriend to darkroom techniques. By the way, Kris is now my wife and hates the darkroom. I was a staff photographer for several university organizations and earned extra cash by photographing fraternity and sorority events.

Following college, Kris and I were married and shortly thereafter, photography took a backseat to raising a family, putting bread on the table and becoming involved in the software industry. Although I took and accumulated thousands of photos during this period, the bulk of these were of family faces and of the scenic vacation variety.

Skip forward 30 years to the mid-1990s. Our company Abacus, is involved with flight simulation software and I’m taking more and more aviation related photos. I now find myself dabbling in the new world of digital photography. The stars are finally aligned and I’m ready to marry two of my long time interests: photography and aviation. With digital, the equipment and processing techniques are radically different from conventional film photography.

Lucikly, I’m finding that most of the basics that I started learning 50 years ago are still relevant. After all of these years, I remain very excited and passionate about my love of photography.

Where am I (photographically speaking)?

Published August 7th, 2008 in photography | No Comments »

My wife says that I’m a “techie”. Judging from some of the things that I buy, she’s right.

My latest aquisition is the Photo Trackr. This gadget is a miniature GPS device, just slightly larger than a 35mm film canister (do you remember what this is?). Turn it on while you’re picturetaking and it records your location to flash memory as you move from place to place. Later, after you download your images to the computer, simply add the location data from the Photo Trackr and you’ll have a recorded diary of your shooting itinerary. Pretty nifty!
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Nikon D700 in Low Light

Published August 5th, 2008 in photography | 2 Comments »

The single feature that attracted me to the Nikon D700 was its proported low-light capabilities.

I had read several positive reports about its big brother, the D3, and believed that the large light gathering sensor of the D700 would be a big help to me as I practiced my long-lens, wildlife photography. I’ve been using the new D700 for less than two weeks, but I’ve already started exploring its high ISO settings.
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Nikon D700 Field Test

Published August 2nd, 2008 in photography | 3 Comments »

Each year we make a 350-mile journey from our home in Grand Rapids to attend EAA’s AirVenture - more commonly called the Oshkosh Air Show. This year is much the same in the past - we awaken at 4AM for the five hour car ride. The big difference this year is that I’m lugging a new Nikon D700 with me.

I’ve had the camera for only three days. To tell you the truth I’m not very familiar with its features and controls. Furthermore, as a long-tme user of Canon cameras, I’m not very familiar with the Nikon system. I promised myself that I wouldn’t read the manuals; I would learn the features the hard way so that they would stick in my head easier afterwards. I’ve already decided that I’m going to put the D700 through its paces even if I have to fumble around with its buttons, dials and menus.
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Shooting with the Nikon D700

Published July 28th, 2008 in photography | No Comments »

Last Friday, my daughter Andrea drives in from Chicago. She has organized a barbarque for our extended family in the backyard for Saturday. As usual, the fare is hamburgers, steaks, bratwurst, salmon and a variety of salads. And also as usual, as the 1:30 PM start time arrives, my daughter is nowhere to be found, leaving me to make all of the preparations for the 25 or so guests.
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Help for Wine Tastings

Published July 22nd, 2008 in Personal | No Comments »

I’ve been a wine lover for some years now. And I’ve had the good fortune to have enjoyed some very wonderful wines with close friends, usually at a fine restaurant.

The trouble is that I’m not real good about remembering all of the great wines that I’ve pleasured - at least not off the top of my head. At first this was troublesome for me as I struggled to recall the names and vintages. I often jotted the wine info on the back of a paper napkin and collected them in the pocket of my suit coat. Then I’d forget about the wine tasting notes until the next time I wore that suit.
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