Here is the Introduction to John's new Photography Course, with some very specific information about his credentials:
John Waaser was the perfect person to write this book. As a student, both at Mount Hermon School for Boys and at Northeastern University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering, he was elected Vice-President of the camera club for two years running, four years total, where his principal duties consisted of coming up with the topic for each meeting, and securing the educational material for that topic from top companies such as Eastman Kodak and Ansco. It also fell to him to find someone to proctor the discussion, which about half of the time, he did himself. He later became a freelance photojournalist, and for two decades, he principally photographed motorcycle races, and other motorsports-related activities, including an occasional road test and other features. He took any number of portraits of up-and-coming racers as well. He did a few portfolios for models, and he photographed a few weddings. He spent about a year as assistant editor of a biweekly tabloid newspaper, where he wrote copy, set advertising, and laid out the pages. He owned Adpho Graphics, a photo studio and advertising agency, in the early 1970s. His personal hobby has long been night-time available light photography outdoors, where he frequently hand-held exposures of up to 30 seconds. He had his own photo lab at one point, where he processed film and prints including both black-and-white, and color negatives, and color transparencies (slides) as well. He constructed a film dryer and an enlarger stand with variable height easel shelf, and published articles and photos of their construction in “Popular Photography” Magazine. For several years, he was listed on the masthead of “Cycle World” Magazine as their Eastern US Contributing Editor. He has owned a computer store, and has owned digital cameras since they had 1/4 VGA resolution. He now owns an Olympus E-PL1 camera with two lenses, and carries several phones and/or tablets at all times. He also taught an adult education second-year photography course at a local community college for two semesters, while one of their regular professors was on a sabbatical.
Jay Hamilton got into motorsports when his father gave him a Travis motorized bicycle when he first got his driver's license. That old Iver Johnson frame had been brazed several times already, because it could not stand the vibration of the Travis motor, which mounted on the front fork, and drove the front wheel with a "stone," held against the tire by the weight of the motor. Needless to say, tire life was not good. And he had to climb a mile-high mountain to get to school, so it was not eminently satisfactory. He got a lot of exercise pushing those pedals fast enough to maintain 20-25 mph or so up that hill! He then got a Honda CL360, which he still has, along with a 1983 Honda Shadow 750 (which he will proudly tell you is the bike which made Harley-Davidson cry "uncle"--they asked Uncle Sam to put a tariff on Japanese motorcycles over 700cc) on which he rode over 3000 miles to a class reunion and back a few years ago. Like everybody else here, he is a geek, has a Samsung Tab S 8.4 (wifi only), an old Gateway wide screen laptop, and a P4 Desktop that he built from parts he got on the internet. He has several Calico cats, and he misses his Chocolate Lab pup that was stolen from where he was living a few years ago. He had a color photo lab in his home back in the day, but now uses digital cameras, and seriously wants one of those new Microsoft Lumia 950 phones from AT&T. He has an old Chrysler Town and Country van for general transportation, and occasional sleeping quarters, and he still has an old Honda Wagovan, which are becoming collectible. His home is wherever he happens to be, and stays in touch mostly over the internet. He has a small travel trailer which stays in a campground, and the other vehicles are kept in a rented storage unit near his parents' home.
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Anna (left) and King
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Blackie
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John Waaser is the editor in chief, the guy who makes our stuff look so good, and the owner of Crossroads Publishing. (He is open to editing work for other writers, but he is not cheap!) Educated at Mount Hermon School for Boys and Motheaten University, he is the brains around here. He has owned a computer store and several other businesses, and he currently lives in a crappy double-wide mobile home on a little over three acres, down south, where he moved after he got scared driving 18-wheelers and two-wheelers over snow and ice for too many years. But hey, at least it is paid for! He currently drives an Isuzu Hombre pickup truck, and has a Dodge Stratus, which he insists is the best car he ever owned, with a Datsun 1100 Sport Coupe and an MGA Twin Cam Roadster also dear to his heart though no longer in his possession. He has a Ninja 250, he still has a 1974 Ducati 750 Sport that he bought new, with 2200 original miles on it, but life in storage has not been good to that bike. His collection also includes an old Honda CB-77 Super Hawk, and a Yamaha RD350C that has been converted to a cafe racer, with Factory (brand) pipes.That bike will lift the front wheel while you are still heeled over in a turn, if you get on the gas in second gear. Riding on one side of one tire can be exhilarating! He had a professional color photographic lab in his home, where he turned out up to 400 8 x 10 color prints in a single week, back in the day. He currently has a pretty good collection of old film cameras (including a black Nikon F, brand new in the box, (but the dealer sold the Photomic finder off of it, and substituted a Pentaprism finder instead), but uses his HTC desire 816 and his Windows phone and his 4G LTE Galaxy Tab S 8.4" tablet along with an Olympus E-PL1 camera with two lenses. His computers include an H-P Elite Book 2560P which came from Joy systems as a refurb, and he has a Dual-Xeon Server. He is currently getting together a bank of images for stock photo sales. He has Siamese cats, the male named King, and the female named Anna. He used to have a Shep/Black Lab cross named Blackie, whom he loved a lot, back in the day, and would consider another lab or lab mix if one came along. He has several sheds full of memorabilia, though most of his old negatives are all gone, along with the collection he once had of all of his published work including as Assistant Editor of Cycle New East, and Eastern US Contributing Editor of "Cycle World" Magazine when it was owned by a division of CBS, Inc. He is working on getting some solar energy going, and currently uses a generator for most of his electricity. He has close to 50 blueberry plants and some raised beds for veggies. He gets his green thumb from his Uncle Gordon, who was the President of the American Dahlia Society back in 1940. He is working on the first part of a series of books to comprise a photography course, and will do some books over time on gardening, alternative energy, and other how-to subjects.
Glenn Stewart has yet to furnish a recent photograph of himself, but says that he only wants to be BEHIND the camera! He wants to try some fiction, including LGBT fiction that could include some colonial American and old western stuff. He can't believe that Johnny and Rab never got it on! He also has an idea for a post apocryphal sci-fi novel that John and Jay would not even consider doing, though they have to admit that the idea is amazing. He owns a Mercury Cougar Nex Gen (1999, one of those things made by Mazda, and a close cousin to a Ford Contour sedan) and a 1986 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport wagon, which he thinks is some kind of classic American car design, and a 1992 Ninja 600, which he once rode to his niece's home for Christmas dinner, a thousand mile round trip ride in which the temperature never got over 40 degrees Fahrenheit. His computers consist of an ancient Dell Laptop, a Celeron (P4) desktop that he built up himself, and he still uses an old Motorola 356C FLIP PHONE! He also has a cheap Mach Speed Trio G4 7" tablet that he likes a lot. He moves around even more than Jay does, and frequently stays with friends. He breezes into a town, spends some time there, getting whatever gigs he can for a few bucks, and then moves to another town where he has friends who will invite him to stay with them. So he stays in touch via the internet as well.