Richard de Lhorbe
I currently live in North Vancouver, British Columbia. By day I am an Electrical Engineer, currently working in Codes and Standards for my company which manufactures a wide range medium and low voltage electrical equipment, as well as industrial control and automation components. On some weekends, and all vacations, I am a landscape and nature photographer. Unfortunately, the day job often gets in the way of the later ! I have not yet been able to devote all my time to photography, but perhaps one day that will happen. And I would MUCH rather be out shooting than updating web sites, so if things here do not change often, you now know the reason.
I enjoy hiking out in the wilderness, and especially enjoy being out at first and last light. I have been shooting colour and Black and White in about equal portions these days. I started in photography many years ago, 1963 to be exact, and still have that first 6x6 B&W negative (FP3 developed in ID-11) taken with my Dad's own first camera when he was young, a twin lens Altiflex. That first negative was a shot from the top of Sulphur Mountain, overlooking Banff in Alberta.
I started using large format in 1998 and have found it really slows you down which is a good thing, and makes you think carefully about each image. Certainly when I shot 35 mm years ago, I shot too fast, with medium format slowing me down but not enough. Large format has made me a better photographer.
A lot of people ask me if I shoot digital. The answer is yes, with a strong preference for Nikon equipment, but for all my serious work film is still the answer, is my preference and probably will be for a while yet. A single sheet of 4x5 film holds over 1.5 Gb of information, and is very portable with no batteries to run out. However for printing colour, converting these images to digital is the way to go. For B&W, I still prefer traditional darkroom work including Palladium printing using the sun as a UV light source.
OTHER INFORMATION
I do all of my own B&W processing. E6 colour I send out to a pro lab. Scanning is done mostly on an older Imacon Flextight. Digital work is all done in Photoshop on a Power Mac, and I only use Epson printers. Any print for sale is output using archival Ultrachrome inks on archival paper using an Epson 7600 printer.
EQUIPMENT USED
Lots of people want to know what equipment photographers use. While interesting, always remember that equipment is only a tool, simply a means to an end. The end one aims for, of course, is a dramatic image that means something to the photographer and hopefully to others.
Currently I use mostly large format equipment. I use a Wisner Traditional 4x5 wooden field camera (see photo above) on a Gitzo Carbon Fiber tripod with a RRS ball head. For lenses :
80 mm Schneider Super-Symmar XL Aspheric
110 mm Schneider Super-Symmar XL Aspheric
150 mm Schneider Apo-Symmar
210 mm Rodenstock Apo-Sironar N
300 mm Rodenstock Apo-Ronar
450 mm Nikkor M
I also have a 75 mm Schneider Super-Angulon which is in semi-retirement since I got the 80 mm. It was used for a number of images on this site but has a smaller image circle than the 80. It requires the use of a bag bellows but the 80 mm does not, making backpacking slightly simpler. If I could only have one lens, the 110 would be the one.
For film, I generally use Fuji Provia 100F. For Black and White I either shoot Ilford FP4 Plus developed in Photographers Formulary PMK Pyro, or Fuji Acros 100 in Quick Loads, also in Pyro. My preference is FP4 but the convenience of having the Acros in Quick Loads means I am using it more and more.
Some older images were taken on Medium Format, where I use a Bronica ETRSi, with 40 mm, 75 mm, 110 Macro, 150 mm, 250 mm and 500 mm lenses. Most of these medium format images were taken on Fuji Velvia, some on Kodak E100SW and some on Kodak Lumiere (discontinued)