About Us (Real Estate and Landscape Photography) 

My Journey in Photography 

I have always loved photography; my late grandfather Ernest loved photography, black and white, back in the 1940’s. He had his own makeshift black-and-white darkroom in their bathroom in the house in the south of England, where I am from. When they went on holiday, he took his black-and-white 35mm film camera and shot lots of photos. He went to Paris, France, in the late 1940’s and photographed Notre Dame Cathedral. Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, the Can-Can Dance Hall, and Place de Vendôme. I went to see my uncle and aunt in Florida when I lived in England in the 1980s and photographed the beautiful beaches in Panama City, Florida. I moved to the United States of America back in 1991 in Redwood City, California, to work for a landscape firm, living in the Bay Area; San Francisco was not too far away, and I took a day trip. A few years later, I moved to Yuba City and started working for a landscape company, and the Sierra Nevada was not too far away.  On my weekends, I liked to go into the foothills as it was very wild and beautiful. I drove into the Sierra Nevada Foothills to Downieville, along the North Yuba River, which runs directly along Highway 49. I had my 35mm Canon film camera with some different lenses, normal and wide-angle lenses, and photographed the beautiful river and the foothills of the wild and dangerous Sierra Nevada Foothills, where people were gold panning along the riverbed.

 Developing Black & White Film

I was always excited to get home and send off my film to be processed and developed, but this was costing me money. I researched about black and white printing and developing college courses and learned Yuba City College had a course, so I registered and started learning about developing and printing black-and-white film. The course teacher taught us how to remove the film in total darkness, inserting into a developing container, and using all the correct chemicals, like Kodak D-76 Developer for film (and Kodak Dektol Developer for RC and Fiber Paper), Kodak Stop Bath, and Kodak Fixer, with washing chemicals to wash the negatives. I like using Kodak Professional 35mm 100 TMAX 100 ISO, and this is best for fine grain and larger prints. As you go up in the camera formats from 35mm to medium format 120mm and 220mm, the film size will be better for larger enlargements, and the next size up will be 4X5 inches, and most photographers can use a large format camera with either 4X5 or 8X10 inch film. Some large format cameras can take 11x14 or even up to 20x24 or larger; all large format cameras are single-film, a much slower process of taking pictures with your camera. He also told me about two companies who sold lots of different types of photography in New York City, B and H Photo and Adorama; both excellent photography companies. If you are going to develop and print your photos, you will need the right type of film for your camera and equipment to process your film; then, if you want to print your negatives, you will need an enlarger (same size as your film camera). I had a 35mm camera, so I got a 35mm enlarger, and lens. 

All the chemicals above, as I talked about with Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent and Kodak Professional Wetting Agent 200 for the final process of the film or prints before you hang it up to dry. When using chemicals, use protective gloves and eye or mask protection. Follow all manufacturer mixing and safety requirements. When drying, use a dust-free area or purchase a film drying cabinet. When developing film, you must develop in complete darkness, as any light will damage or destroy the images on the film. You can purchase developing tanks that are light-safe and easy-to-pour chemicals to develop them. When you print, you use an enlarger with a timer; the paper is light-sensitive, but you can use a red light in the darkroom. Resin paper is the cheap printing paper for testing what exposure you need for your print, and Fiber Paper is expensive for fine art printing for longevity for many years to enjoy in your house. I spent many years in my darkroom and slowly got into digital photography; Canon is the camera I love to use.

I moved to the Eugene/Springfield area, and my wife and I liked to go to the Oregon Coast, and one place we both enjoyed is Bandon Beach with the dramatic sea stacks and rock formations of the grand Face Rocks, Wizard’s Hat, Elephant Rock, Haystack Rock, and the Cat & Kittens rocks, and the many wildlife with the wonderful Oregon Island Wildlife Refuge. The beaches are great with the Pacific Ocean. There are many hotels along Highway 101 that run from California to Washington with incredible ocean views and wind-swept trees. There are coastal towns along the highway that have wonderful seafood restaurants and art/gift shops, with many hotels and motels to stay in. 

I spent many years using my digital camera, taking lots of photos, but I wanted to get back into black-and-white film, so I bought a new 35mm enlarger and all the equipment and chemicals to go with it. I turned my shed into my new darkroom and went out and used my old Canon film camera and got some great photos. I also formed an LLC called Real Estate and Landscape Photography LLC. 

I love photography, and I wanted to build a company to sell my Fine Art Photography and also do real estate photography, so I formed a Limited Liability Company called Real Estate and Landscape Photography. Before that, I was using my 35mm film camera, developing and printing my fine art images. Then I got into digital cameras, and we went to the Oregon Coast many times and have lots of great photos. I found Artstore Fronts to sell my images; as you will see, links to my other website https://www.qlimages.com  I have been building a website for quite some time for my fine art landscape photography. I formed a domain name with GoDaddy, which provides domain registration, web hosting, and website tools to build websites. I paid for a domain name with GoDaddy, named it www.qlimages.com, and then I found Art Storefronts to build my website. 

I also got into Real Estate Photography and started building it in WordPress.org using Ionos web hosting with a one-click installation on your hosting platform. WordPress.org is self-hosted and much cheaper; you manage everything, and WordPress.com is a managed service, and they manage the hosting. WordPress.com can get expensive, but WordPress.org is free, open-source WordPress software; you can get free themes and plugins for your site and free hosting. WordPress.org, you can only have one theme installed but as many plugins as you need. 

I like the Divi Theme by Elegant Themes; other paid themes are Astra, Kadence, and GeneratePress. When you are in the backend, you can uninstall and install a new theme from WordPress. Plugins help make your site work, like e-commerce WooCommerce, PayPal, or Stripe. Security and Backups, page builders, SEO, Speed and Caching, Contact Forms and Marketing, plus many other types of plugins. 

Security and your personal and privacy is very important to us. We have the highest security SSL Certificate installed on our website and high-level security plugins that are updated and monitored daily with an automated system that I check on 2-3 times a week to see how the system is running.

WordPress has many great plugins and how to use them. If you are new to WordPress has backup plugins; just in case you mess it up, you can reinstall your site, and using Dropbox makes life much easier. 

Below you will see my award-winning photos: Self-Portrait of my accident, Monti and Graham, my cats and the beautiful Yuba River in California, and the Wild Tree.  

I hope you enjoyed reading about my travels in photography and where I came from. My goal is to learn more about photography, work in my new darkroom with my 35mm enlarger, go out and shoot some film with my 35mm Canon film camera and my large format camera, the Toyo Field 45A camera. Developing and printing my black and white images and putting them on my website. Building clients in the real Estate photography industry and adding information to my WordPress website. I am still building my WordPress website and will be adding text information, images, and new blog articles.

All this takes time, as Rome wasn't built in a day!

Thanks for reading about myself and if you have any question, comments or concerns, please reach out to me.

Cheers John