BIO

I am one of the many photographers who's main income has not been generated through photography. Photography was secondary to my main job and is now one of my many hobbies. My real income generating profession was in the electronics industry. I am a retired "Test Engineer / Engineering Manager" from the world largest manufacturer of computer chips. I developed test tooling used at various locations throughout the world with the major focus on interface hardware. I also managed hardware development teams as well as managed test floor operations. Interface hardware is the electrical interconnect between a test system and the device (or multiple devices) under test. I developed hardware for testing silicon circuits for units that have already been put into package form as well as hardware for product that is still in the silicon wafer form. The interface systems that I developed have been used in a number of different testing environments. They were used for initial product testing, test program generation and debug, device failure analysis, and production testing.

I don't remember when my interest in photography first started but I know it was at a very early age. I believe the photo shown on the left was taken when I was about 8 years old. I can remember that the camera I used was not very good. It used roll film and had no controls other than a shutter release and a film knob. As you can see it also leaked light. As I recall the back of the camera was slightly curved. At this young age the camera was just another toy to play with.

When I was a little older in my teenage years I found the camera shown at the right. It belonged to my father and he had stopped using it, so I decided to try to figure out how it worked. It is a 35mm Agfa Karat with a 55mm f3.5 lens. It was old even back then! I still have the camera even though I have not used it since I was a teenager. The camera has a pop out bellows and all the necessary controls: Shutter speed from B to 1/250", aperture from f3.5 to f22, manual focus from approx. 1 meter to infinity and even a self timer. The shutter has to be manually cocked each time you want to take a picture. The film counter only goes from 1 to 12 and I found out why when I used it. In order to use the camera you have to load the film into special cartridges that are removable from the camera. Of course, you have to do this in the dark. (What a pain) If you go much beyond 12 exposures the film drive gears will strip out the holes on the edge of the film and you are forced to stop. Of course the film once exposed has to be removed from the special cartridges before processing. (Again, What a pain) I did take quite a few pictures with this camera, even some fairly good ones while hiking in Yosemite. Unfortunately I no longer have any of the photos taken back then. But I still have the camera!

In my early twenties I became the proud owner of a Minolta SRT-202. I used it as often as I could, but in those days finances were very tight raising a family and I was not able to use the camera as much as I wanted to. I did take a few decent pictures, at least I thought so at the time. I also remember shooting a wedding or two for friends. The Minolta along with the other gear I had was stolen at my sister's wedding and once again I was without a camera.

An opportunity presented itself several years later when my employer presented me with a new Minolota Maxxum 5000 as a prize in a logo design contest. Besides that, I started to travel and was able to take advantage of my new toy. I still was not serious however. In 1999 I decided to start taking photography a little more seriously and started to buy some gear and started to participate in the art of photography. I enjoy many types of photography, but tend toward scenic and macro photography. I have always considered myself to be a serious amateur since I have never relied on photography to support myself.

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My job has provided the opportunity to travel to some interesting places. The photo below is a picture of part of the city of Kitakyushu which is at the north end of the southern island of Japan (Kyushu). The city of Kitakyushu is where Nipon Steel is located.

© Michael Fedler 1997 - 2023