Conch Cameraman

..Welcome to the Conch Cameraman’s MySpace from the Beautiful Tropical Island Paradise of Key West Florida aka Margaritaville. The word “Conch” pronounced “Konk” not only is an edible snail, but also refers to one who was born and raised in Key West. A second type of Conch is a person who has lived for many years in Key West and is affectionately referred to by the locals as a “Fresh Water Conch”. I fall into the later category. I had spent many vacations in the Florida Keys until finally moving permanently to Key West in February 1983. The philosophy of Key West is: "We are all Members of One Human Family."....Photography has been a hobby of mine since I was 13 years old when I bought my very first camera with money from my newspaper route. It was a Kodak Retina Reflex S, with a Schneider/Kreuznach f2.8 Lens. It was a precision made blade shutter SLR camera from Eastman Kodak of Stuttgart Germany. That camera cost $228.00 and this was the very beginning of a hobby which has lasted all of my life. Living in Key West for more than 25 years, I’ve assumed the name of The Conch Cameraman...I was born on May 26, 1946 in Detroit Michigan at Mt. Carmel Mercy Hospital. I lived on the north west side of Detroit at 16875 Archdale Ave. which is 2 blocks from the Southfield Freeway and just off W. Mc Nichols Road. At the age of 6 I attended kindergarten at Crary School which was located on Puritan and Asbury Park. After kindergarten I went to St. Scholastica Grade School for the next 8 years and then on to Benedictine High and ultimately graduating after 4 years taking college prep courses. Visit my Benedictine High Alumni Web site on Yahoo. Just type the following link into your browser: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Benedictine_High_School_Alumni /..Well after high school it was time to pick a college. Close to home and only 15 minutes away was Lawrence Institute of Technology. I went there for 1 year majoring in Industrial Management. I quit college and went to work for the City of Detroit downtown at the City/County Bldg as a tax examiner for the city income tax division. After 1 year of working on individual tax returns, I was promoted to handle Corporations and Partnership tax returns. I stayed with the City until Uncle Sam decided he had big plans for me. You may recall that in the 1960's a war was going on over in VietNam. So in May of 1968 I was drafted into the US Army after receiving my induction notice. ..I was ordered to report to Ft Wayne, an old army fort in downtown Detroit, where I passed my army physical and was immediately inducted into the Army and sent to Ft Knox Kentucky to complete 2 months of basic training. After basic I was granted 2 weeks leave and then had to report to my new assignment at Ft Campbell Ky, as a data analyst because of some prior experience in data processing with the income tax division. I was awarded my primary mos of 74A10. pmos is an acronym for primary military occupational specialty. Ft Campbell is the home of the 101st Airborne Division; however they were in Viet Nam during my tour in the states. I did not enjoy my duty at Ft. Campbell so I volunteered to go to Alaska, Korea, Germany or Viet Nam. My request for Germany was approved because they had an immediate opening for my PMOS which was upgraded to a systems analyst 74C20. ..I arrived in Frankfurt Germany on May 26, 1969 and had to report to Heidelberg Germany, which was the Headquarters for the 7th Army Europe, for an interview. I took the train to Heidelberg went for the interview, and got orders for Wuerzburg Germany. I had no clue where this city was, but because the trains in Europe are so punctual, I was told to get off the train at 5:08pm and I would be in Wuerzburg. They were right. I had no problem finding my new assignment. I was assigned to the 3 Administration Company, 3rd Infantry Division at Leighton Barracks, My military service in Germany was very enjoyable compared to my stateside duty. I achieved the rank of SP/5 E-5 in my 2 years of service and was offered the rank of SSG E-6 if I would re-enlist. Well I said I enjoyed my time in Germany, but I wasn't convinced that I enjoyed the military way of life, so I was discharged and took a European separation because I loved all of the old countries and it also allowed me to do some unfinished traveling and photography. I studied photography and took some courses from the Austrian Photographer Hans Strobl. He also taught me some advanced photographic lab skills for working in the darkroom. Another one of his students Jeff Parks, the son of the late Bert Parks who was famous for hosting the Miss America Contest, won a 4 year scholarship to a photographic school for his Black and White rendition of a duck’s eye pecking through some feathers and titled “I See You”. Jeff and I became friends and together we would go touring Germany and shoot rolls and rolls of pictures. One day Hans Strobl planned to get married at the beautiful Chapel at the Residence Palace in Wuerzburg. Hans invited me to his wedding, and I accepted as long as I could take pictures. He said he had hired a professional photographer, but had no objections if I wanted. As it turned out Hans told me that the pictures I took were far better than the ones taken by the professional photographer. I told him I had an excellent Instructor...I eventually got a job as a salesman for a Swiss company which paid me to travel. I stayed in Europe for a total of 14 years and used to spend some of my vacations in Florida and the Florida Keys. Finally the weather in Florida convinced me that I had had enough of the cold and damp weather of Germany. I left Europe in February 1983 and moved to Key West Florida. Being from Michigan I was used to water from the Great Lakes, lakes, rivers and streams, but the Atlantic Ocean was a brand new experience for me. The Florida Keys are protected by the only living coral reef in North America. The average annual temperature in Key West is 77F or 30C degrees. Key West is basically a beautiful tropical paradise...In 1990 I became an Official Honorary Saltwater Conch and was presented a Certificate from the late then Mayor of Monroe County Wilhelmina Celeste Goehring Harvey who was also the First Woman Mayor of Monroe County. Twenty-four years later, I'm still enjoying the weather, water and sunshine. For me this is truly "Paradise Found."..In 2005 I purchased my first Digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses and pursued my hobby further. I found a website where photographers could post their photos and have other photographers critique them. To visit that site, go to "www.photography-gallery.com" which I can highly recommend to anyone begining a hobby or a career in photography. The site started a contest and I entered a sunrise photo titled “The Burning Sky” which is also available here in my sunrise section. As a result, I won first prize of $100.00; however there were other prize worthy photos in the contest. Then the website ran a series of contests 2 per month, ending in December 2006. Points were awarded for the photos entered in each contest and at the end of the year the person with the most points was the winner and named “Photographer of the Year”. It was a very close contest, but in the end, I was selected the winner by the other photographers. This honor I still hold until January 2008...My parents are living up north in Port Richey on the Gulf coast near Tampa, Florida. I also have a younger sister Kathy and she is living in Gold River, California near Sacramento. We always have a family reunion once a year at Thanksgiving and enjoy a huge Thanksgiving feast with family and friends...Also I have 2 friends in the photographic profession, Barbara A Brundege and Allen Kuhlow, who offer classes and workshops for aspiring photographers. Barbara and Allen are highly and extremely qualified to offer their expertise and can be found at their following website http://www.summitphotographic.com/ Please check them out if you are interested in improving your photographic skills and you will also find some magnificent photos at Barbara's and Allen's personal websites...Finally I'd like to give a plug to my former classmate from St Scholastica Grade School and Benedictine High School in Detroit Michigan, Peter Rivera from the music group Rare Earth (late 60's early 70's Rock Music). Peter was the former lead singer and drummer of Rare Earth and the band was the first white group to sign on at Motown Records. You can view a short video from his newest band "Celebrate with Peter Rivera" You can buy his CD's (over 25 million sold), his book "Born to Wander", or drumsticks at his website: www.peterrivera.com "Pete is awesome on the drums and still has it!" To see exactly just how awesome he really is, click on this short video clip below:Celebrate with Peter Rivera

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