I don't do much air travel anymore but a few years back, traveling from Oklahoma back to Texas I was inspected for explosives, but passed. Earlier that day I had been in the "oil patch" working with a crew that was doing just that...blowing holes in pipe!

My assistant who is native American gets extra screening usually, so we usually expect more screening. Only once did I have a bad experience leaving Houston, I traveled with light clothing but his wand indicated 'something'. I was asked about hip replacements, heavy buckles etc. I had emptied my pockets early on, so the only thing left was to drop my pants and I offered! Nearly missed my flight.

I'll have to agree, that there is a reason why certain words send off alarm bells. There have been enough murder and mayhem where disturbed people have announced their intentions only to not be noticed in time.

I've been pretty quiet on FB, but I too could have used the word--'k**ler shot' or 'my client k**led the job' or similar, and probably been banned. It's also true that a 'review' of the case should be done in a timely manner, but it's not your or my company either. Also would you really like the job of doing a blow-by-blow investigation of all these cases--and what would that cost us and them?



but it is a good thing that there are keywords that trigger possible perversion and/or acts of violence. I don’t see your indignation. Big deal, you are in Facebook “jail”—wh**ever that means.[/quote]

I guess the question remains, what does one do with all this RAM that I paid big dollars for--some 20 years ago and some only a couple of years? Can it be recycled in some way? A have a dozen boards and have limited space for that kind of thing.

Darn nice shots. I've captured some similar views over the years.
The Big Boy is due back here next month--last time we had too large a crowd and rain!

I'm in Santa Barbara, Calif and just had started Brooks Institute. Everybody had a 4 X 5 view camera, generally in a fairly large case and typically a Majestic tripod, also fairly large. I had stopped along the road for a shot. After that I found a interesting item in a gully. So I put the view camera and tripod near the trunk and grabbed my 2 X 2 and went down into the gully. I then came back put the 2X2 in the back seat and drove away. I again stopped a mile or two down the road and discovered my 4X5+tripod was MIA. A quick U-turn resulted in a lonely case and tripod setting along the road--never again! Those were big ticket items at that time in my life!

I once was scammed into buying a Nikon 135 DC lens on E-pay. the guy had great feedback scores (at the time). The ringer was he was from Sweden and this was before PayPal!--okay he had to be honest, right. Well the guy sold a whole series of high end photo items but nothing arrived. Turns out the guy had been buying baseball cards for 1$ just to build up his feedback score. One of the guys (besides myself) started to do some tracing and followed him from email address to address, mostly in Europe, but we didn't really know that either. At the time Ebay did send us a couple hundred dollars and 'banned' him under all his names and addresses.

I also do a fair amount of dealing in model railroad items. There the scams besides schilling, mostly it's claiming something as rare, when hundreds of thousand of grandpa's trains were made and are now, just as crusty as the rest!

However, we do have a 100% sell rating (but like any retail situation you will snag one now and then), plus most of my purchases have been positive.

Sure do!
Our Paypal is Bob@BobWphoto.com

Boy, this thread has brought out some products and techniques from the past--Pako, Heco etc. some good some bad! I don't think PhotoFlo will cause any problems if used for a short time--it's really just a mild detergent. However one word of warning, anything with the words Kodak & stabilizer should be avoided. I spent many months working in the stuff as the final bath/chemical in the E3 process. It was basically detergent (PhotoFlo) and formalin (embalming fluid). After a few months of working in the stuff, (and it had to be pretty much hands on or in), I started getting really nasty skin problems. I can't get near the stuff now--basically the detergent opens the pours/grain and the formalin soaks in. So the stuff in close contact, will kill you eventually plus it was used in wood paneling where the airborne fumes will do the same thing (think mobile home paneling, wood flooring, fire proofing fabrics and FEMA trailers)

This lens has been a great provider to my business for several years--sharp and fast focusing in dim light. Has a macro position and brake to slow down the zoom in the vertical position. Barrel and glass all look great. Shade, caps and pouch case are all original. $225 plus shipping or I'm interested in a swap for a Micro Nikor 60mm 2.8 if your trying to part with one

It's been many years now but someone brought in a oval convex glass mounted print. I'm certain it was the most expensive way back then. It was also welded into the glass. Our idea was to just make a copy photo, but the convex glass picked up all the reflections from 180 degrees around. We finally resorted to having an airbrush artist work on all those reflections. I still wouldn't have any better recommendations, except PhotoShop.

The only times I've been able to use Snap on was when a mechanic left a screw driver or wrench in my bumper area! for their second life, they're doing quite well. For hand tools I generally considered Stanley to be just fine. However I have purchased several Craftsman garage door openers, compressors, power washers, drills and saws etc. Most have died terrible pre-mature deaths, but I wasn't aware of that happening--one at a time was easy to live with. The worse were, the door openers, compressors and battery powered screw drivers with a 1/2" drill coming in fourth--the chuck loosens and won't hold the bit for long. With the battery screw drivers, I always end up with a dozen unused bits while the batteries have died. Then don't get me started on the compressor and power-washers--while I wait for new garage door openers!

As a weekend 'worker bee' at best, I typically bought either Craftsman or Makita tools. Most are still with cords but I did buy a battery powered Craftsman multi tool. It's the tool that kind that vibrates-- cuts holes, sands and removes paint. I found it a valuable tool. The problem I have is that it's so strong the battery vibrates loose. So I have to hold it together from the back after turning it on up front. It's a few years old now and now the battery only lasts 10-15 minutes per charge. So I really don't want to add a new battery as it's only used a couple of times per year but I really don't need a whole new unit either. So while charging I take a long break!

Since the breakup of Kodak I'm sure if their products are still around but...The studio I worked at produced a lot of backlit transparencies for displays at trade shows and along the typical airport walkways. We used the term 'print film'. We could work with either a color transparency or color neg, so any digital file should work too. You might try talking to a company that still makes up trade show displays.

I forgot to mention that the ad agency ran the final ad through some 'legal eagles' and it was determined that--somebody was going to put those glasses on somebody, back off 20ft and try to redo the ad. It was pulled, & probably rightfully so. Some people will try anything! However, I did get paid and didn't have to pay a city fine, nor was the borrowed gun used in any felony, and I didn't have any warrants under my DL either. So all was good. We ended up with the ad showing a male model with a bruised eye socket. I hired a really good makeup artist for that and we had a great time bashing his eye!

I had a commercial assignment to capture an explosion that sends a very sharp ended bullet into a rock formation typically called preforating. In the drilling of a well, you have to penetrate the drill pipe (really thick stuff) generally a several levels. Those bullets will travel several feet into the rock. All this allows the oil (in our case) to seep into the pipe and travel upward. We ended up working in a concrete bunker, with an explosive expert, who made up various charges that were loaded into the gun--magesseum (flash powder)was one of the components. I worked in total darkness, prefocused with the shutter locked open with simple verbal commands. I was able to do a couple of test shots, then a handful of finals but with varying degrees of explosive power. I then superimposed one of the bullets as if it was leaving the gun. A really fun job.
Later on I also had to shoot an ad showing how well industrial safety glasses would withstand impact. The ad agency chose a 22 cal bullet--apparently the glass were tested that way. So I borrowed a 22 from and a handful of shells. I drove the end of the city near where is had lived a few years back. It was an underpass where some guys had been shooting turtles back when I lived there. I knew the glasses would show an impact scare from the 22--this wasn't Super Man stuff! So I stuck the glasses in a pile of sand with another mound of sand beyond that. I backed off 20' and fired a round. As expected, the glasses showed a 'wound'. I then shot a second and third round into additional subjects, so I could pick the best looking. All of a sudden I had three patrol cars sweep down on me. The area I had once determined to be open country was now within the city limits of a small city, despite not having any culture nearby. They ran my borrowed gun, my driver's license on their puters but really had no choice to accept my word. Why else would I try to shoot at safety glasses!