[Ed Shapiro]

Hi D!

Thank you for you kind words and encouragement. Sometimes I would rather hear complaints rather than having no response at all- feedback and question are good in a forum format other wise I get feeling like the radio DJ playing classical music at 3AM knowing full well that there ain’t nobody listenin’.

I don’t get flustered by complaints and I try to fix things if I can. If people want to read my stuff, why should I make the text difficult to read? When “complaints get silly and I feel the complainant is doing it just to rattle my cage- I just respond with a bit if sarcasm or I simply- tell them off on the spot- no use harboring grudges- I prefer to shake hands over cyber space and be friends. Some folk get kicks out of turning in false fire alarms- so in comparison, this stuff is pretty benign.

Just incase you didn’t know, I have been in the photography business now going on 51 years and a have also been a teacher as long as that. I have always ended up training staff for my former employers and then for myself when I opened my own studio in 1970. I believe in explaining things as comprehensively as possible so that “students” are not left to flounder around and go on to the next level without knowing all the information the need. That’s why the long and detailed posts and articles.

To get the most out of what I write it is a good idea to print out some of the text for later reference at your leisure. The reason being is that often there is information embedded in material that you may not be totally interested in but will help you in other phases of your work- you’d be surprised- especially if I run off on some tangent. I write like I talk- fast and all over the place and unlike my more disciplined technical writing, I have no time to edit forum stuff so what ever rolls out of my head ends up on your screen- I do try, however, to edit out the bad words so that on one is offended.

I wish I could write more but my time is limited in that I am still operating a full time studio. I contribute to 2 other forum but it is not too active lately. I am aver fast but not too accurate typist but an article or post only takes me a few minutes and I can do my stuff on slow days, at lunch while sipping a coffee or late at night when I can’t seem to sleep. I enjoy writing very much and if 1 or 2 photographers can benefit- I’m cool with that.

I am pleased that you enjoyed the “baby” article- it is the result of being vomited on- assaulted, and made fun of, for 50 years, by the little angles and devils. Nonetheless, it’s a nice break from the adults and all the clowning around keeps me fit and gets those endorphins running.

Sincerely, Ed