My Bio (Edited for entire-family viewing)

[PeteScherm@xxxxxxx]

Here we go.  I hope this doesn't turn into more of a memoir than a "short 
bio".

At about age 7 (1941), on went with my parents on our first auto trip through 
the U.S. (both teachers and had summers off).  I believe that I had a Univex 
camera for me to shoot a few rolls.  My father shot Panatomic-X and a number 
of rolls of mystery infrared film.  He used a folding Kodak Duo-620 
(equivalent to a 645 format today).  The Kodak IR (not ADOX) was only 12 
exposures per roll.  He shot with and "A" filter (he doesn't recall any 
numbers on the filter, but it was possibly a 25A).  I have all of his 
negatives (he doesn't do much darkroom work any more) and the IR ones are 
great.  By the way, I discussed this medium format rolled infrared film with 
Kodak Aerial Products and they have no recollection of having manufactured 
this film but they acknowledged that many specialty packagings of IR film 
have been made over the decades and they were not surprised by my information.

By about the age of ten, I started to do some processing of neighborhood B&W 
film.  The only time in my life that I've tried to earn money from my 
photography (I was more of a capitalist and less of a socialist then).  
Around this time, I was given an Argus C-2 (perhaps a C-3 ---it's in the 
attic and I'm not motivated to check).

I took a few rolls of film during my teen years, but I spent too much time 
chasing girls (livin' la vida loca) to "develop" as a photographer.

After college, in the 50's, I went to Aruba with my wife to earn the big 
bucks with Esso as a chemical engineer.  One of my first purchases with the 
"big bucks" was a new Exakta VX and lenses and all the other gear.  This was 
the era when everyone assumed that all of their friends and relatives would 
just LOVE to spend their evenings in the dark, watching color slides of 
peoples' travels/children/etc.

After nearly five thousand color slides during my 35mm era (which lasted 
until I outgrew the phase in 1966), I realized that I really wanted to get a 
darkroom again and do more with photography.  A also wanted negatives I could 
really enlarge - two foot by three foot stuff, if desired.  And I was bored 
with color.

Before I leave the 35mm completely, I'll give you my IR experience.  I shot a 
few rolls of the Kodak stuff with an 87 filter.  I shot them all at night, in 
the oil refinery where I worked, and looking for what I thought would be 
high-infrared sources.  I always read that this film doesn't really record 
heat well, but those people should be in an oil refinery at night.  Even 
though there was little visible light (just "street" lights), many of these 
photos - at 1/25 sec. -of enclosed furnaces, etc., would generate enough heat 
to warm the body of the camera during that 1/25 sec., and cause the frame 
images to bleed-over into adjacent frames.  Really neat!!

Now to the 6x6 MF stuff.  As I became addicted to waist-level finders 
(Exakta), I continued when I bought my first Mamiyaflex, a C-2.  I quickly 
added a 55mm and a 150mm to the standard lens.  Then, later, I bought a 
second body - a C-3 - so that I could use one body for B&W and the other for 
color negative stuff - Ektacolor, etc.  I had hoped that home processing and 
printing of color negatives would become cheaper and more convenient.  
Processing the seventy or so rolls of color negative film wasn't a problem, 
but the printing part never developed as I had hoped.  So I have all of these 
rolls of film that I have seen only as difficult B&W prints and not in color 
as I took them.

When I returned to the U.S in 1970, I set out to build my own house with a 
special darkroom (I "retired" at age 36).  Unfortunately, all of my darkroom 
equipment was mistakenly sold for a song rather than shipped to the U.S.  
This put me in a bit of a funk for ten years, during which I did zero 
photography.  I spent most of my time working on my house, plus building one 
of one of my daughters, and helping other people build their houses.  Sort of 
a one-man general contractor, back in the days when you didn't need all of 
the separate licenses to do the various trades.

When I tried to reactivate the Mamiyas in the 80's, I started having sticky 
shutters, obstinate iris movement, etc.  I struggled with these problems 
until 3 or 4 years ago, when I bought an old C/M 500 Hassy and have now 
acquired a nice set of old lenses and backs.  And I'm thinking about the 70 
back to shoot the 70mm IR - hence my searching for and finding you.  
Incidentally, I searched "infrared AND film".

I now go to Ireland for 3 or 4 weeks each Fall, just to drive around and 
photograph "stuff".  Much of it is old ruined churches, medieval carving, 
etc..  But I do a fair amount of scenic things too, hence the IR interest.  I 
have shot several rolls of Konica there with an R72 (89B or RG695) filter.  
Althoughj I was in a country not reknowned for its intense sunlit panoramas, 
the photos were still not "infraredy" enough for me.  So I'm going to the 87 
filter for my next trip.  The Konica can handle it.  Thank goodness I use a 
tripod and a cable release.

By the way, the R72 works fine on Ilford SFX for me, but the 87 dropped the 
film speed to a point where I lost interest.

Here's more info (frantically trying to get back to your "bio format") on 
materials.
Hassy with 50, 80, 250 and a 2X converter.  Have used Plus-X with Acufine 
since the 60's, when I set up a zone system for me.  I'm not as rigorous with 
it now, but I still rate the film from 250 to 400 (depending on mood, 
intuition, etc.).  I've shot about 600 rolls so far.

Paper.  I wish Ansco were around to bring back Indiatone.  For now I use 
mostly Forte papers (Kodak PCRC for contacts, small 8x10 test prints, etc.).  
I still am finishing-up some boxes of 20x24 Ilfospeed RC.  It has a great 
finish.  I don't exhibit at all.  People want me to mount everything - what's 
wrong with pushpins?  I'm more interested in the photo content, guess I'm not 
a presentation-and-style kind of guy.  I give away my prints (generally 
unmounted) to friends and relatives for cheap Christmas and birthday, etc., 
gifts.

Other interests/hobbies....Reading (have accumulated about 12,000 hard cover 
books - it's hard to get around inside my house), shortwave radio listening, 
photographing my great granddaughter, went through a woodland-gardening phase 
for several years until the deer problem convinced me it was a losing battle, 
kept my fleet of five aging Volvo wagons (1969 to 1973) going - you need a 
lot of parts cars in that situation.  Now I have a new (1988) one from 
California, so I'm slowly whittling-down my stable.  I can't think of much 
else, other than my current passion.  For the last 4 or 5 years, I have been 
obsessed with Ireland, its history, its culture, its antiquities.  I own 
about 200 books on Ireland and routinely borrow others via inter-library 
loans - and use the knowledge to plan my photographic trips (although they 
"aften gang agley".

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom".  Wm. Blake (via Susan 
Sarandon in "Bull Durham").  I'm having a great life.

Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts
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