CharleyL

I learned basic photography from a teacher in high school who was responsible for taking year book photos of groups and sports. He saw and liked my Kodak Brownie photos that I had brought in to show friends. Soon he had me taking the 4 X 5" Graphlex camera, and a bag of film cartridges and flash bulbs around the school doing it during my study halls and after school. I also worked the stage shows and movies shown in the auditorium. An art teacher who formerly worked for Broadway shows in NYC taught me stage lighting, and gaffing.

On graduation, I was hired to run the stage and movies for a Summer Stock Theater. It was a multi function theater with Off Broadway Entertainment, Regional bands for dances, local entertainment, and a feature length movie 1-2 nights a week.

Following collage, I became an electrical engineer (EE) and worked on the Lunar Ranger Program, a NASA project to make mapping photos of the entire Moon from an orbiting rocket. I designed parts of the camera control system that collected bits of light reflections from the back side of the Moon to lock and hold the film camera on position while the shutter was open for the period necessary for the very low light level photos, then jump to the camera to the next position to repeat the process for the next mapping segment photo. It's something like taking time release shutter photos of every house on a street from a car while driving by at 50 mph on a very dark night and having no blurred images. This was done using a Polaroid type film where developing took place within the rocket after each shot, to be later scanned and sent back to Earth electronically. The downloaded photos were then used to create maps for the upcoming Apollo Program. Although interested in photography, much of my career was in the development of control systems of large high speed high precision manufacturing machinery to build integrated electronic circuits, So my photography was mostly one of my hobbies from then on.

After my first retirement, I became more serious about photography again. I opened a small shop doing photo retouching for commercial accounts, but then began doing walk-in service when the commercial work began drying up in the early 2,000 poor economy timeframe and then sold out to another similar business, who later went out of business himself. I have since taken on several short and part time jobs in an effort to stay busy. (Sitting is NOT for me.) So when I heard that they were looking for someone to drive the train and carousel at the town park here, I took the job for one Summer, but ended up doing more electrical repairs than train driving, so I left the job at the end of the Summer (Actually November)

I have been through several serious health issues since my first retirement, and not doing much in the way of photography, until about 2018 when I began desire doing photography more seriously again. I have always wanted my very own studio, but time, space, and money prevented it. Now it had become a "Bucket List Item" for me, and with an empty and over sized 2nd master bedroom suite on the 2nd floor of my home empty, I began building my dream photo studio up there. A bucket list item yes, but not one for commercial use. I wanted to take professional quality photos of all of my friends and family at little to no cost to them. If I could get donations sufficient to cover the printing costs, then I would be happy. I just love taking good quality photos and never had my own studio to do portrait and product type work in, until now (I'm a woodworker and furniture maker too). I'm still learning everything that I can, and wouldn't be happy if I wasn't challenging myself. I still design and build exhibits for the NC Science Museums when they need me too.

Then, just about the time that I finished building my studio, COVID-19 arrived. My wife spent 5 minutes posing for me while I was trying to position my lights, but then left and wouldn't come back, so my studio has had almost no use in 2020. I did do a few shoots, but not many, Hopefully this year things will improve for my studio use. I did manage to take photos of my grand daughters wedding last October, and she loves them. It began the weekend before her wedding when she showed up with her wedding gown and mom to help. I took 84 shots of her that day. Then the wedding outdoors on the family farm the following weekend. I prepared and printed all of the photos that she had selected, so almost 200 photos total, and created an album of them for her.

The future? Well, I hope to be able to make better use of my almost unused photo studio and do some more shooting in that park across town where the train and carousel are located. It's a beautiful place with more great shoot locations than I can count. I just need friends and relatives who are willing to brave COVID-19 and pose for me to help me stay busy. Almost everyone that I know has had the vaccine here now, so it should be safer for all of us now.

Charley