I was born in Elmira and have lived in the Elmira/Horseheads area all of my life.  I got my first camera on my 12th birthday and have been taking photographs ever since.

 

After spending nearly 40 years in manufacturing environments I took my hobby and many years of photographic experience and created Packard Photographic Services.

 

In creating Packard Photographic Services I have attempted to provide a broad range of services that other local photographers are not offering.  The breadth of services is typically only found in larger metropolitan areas.

 

We have three photographers on call now with a combined wedding experience of over 250 weddings.

 

My negative and digital image library contains thousands of images, ranging from abstract, flora and fauna, landscapes, portraits, stars (not movie) and comets.  A few of these can be viewed throughout this web site with many in the Fine Art section.

 

 

 

Over the years I have had many different cameras, ranging from Kodak Box cameras, Instamatics, manual 35mm, medium and large format film cameras to fully automatic high end digital equipment.

 

Film based equipment currently includes a Nikon FM, two Nikon 8008S bodies, several lenses and other accessories (105mm manual lenses and 50mm, 18-70mm, 35-70mm, 28-105mm, 18-135mm autofocus lenses, extension rings, 2X extenders, filters, polarizers, tripods, etc.).

 

My current digital equipment includes a D200 (10.2 megapixel) with an 18-200mm lens, and Nikon D70 (6.1 megapixel) both of which create very sharp images.  I have 3 - 4GB, 3 - 1GB, and 2 - 512 MB cards, that together can hold over 700 RAW images, or 1,500 jpeg images at the highest resolution, and about 16,500 images at the lowest resolution.  Two SB-800 flash units are part of the package as well.

 

Digital images are manipulated using an HP Pavilion a1030e computer with a 2.4 GHz processor, 1 GB of ram, 128 MB video card, CD and DVD readers and burners, 9 in 1 card reader, 17” Samsung 730B LCD flat screen monitor, 500 GB hard drive, 200 GB external backup drive.

 

Software used is Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CS2, Photoshop Lightroom, Picture Project, ProShow Gold and 360dof (degrees of freedom), ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 and Print Shop Deluxe.

 

Scanners used are Nikon Coolscan III which scans 35mm negatives or transparencies, HP 5500, HP 5370C flat bed with 5”x5” transparency adapter and an Epson 4990 flat bed scanner capable of scanning up to 8” x 10” negatives at 12,800 dpi.

 

Printers used are HP 832, HP 5500, Epson 1280 (all using dye based inks) and Epson R1800 (using pigment based inks).  The Epson 1280 and Epson R1800 are capable of printing up to 13" wide by 44" long.  Paper used is Epson, Ilford, Kodak and other specialty papers depending on the effect I am attempting to achieve.

 

Studio lighting includes many different color temperature hot lights, large polarizer’s, and studio as well as on camera strobes.  Umbrellas, reflectors and various back drops round out the studio equipment.

 

I have thousands of film negatives and use an Omega C760 Dichroic Color Head enlarger with Rodenstock 50mm and 90mm lenses.  I process my own black and white film and print my own black and white, and color prints.  Print papers used depend on what effect I am trying to create.

 

Mounting, matting and framing utilizes a Logan #750 Simplex Plus mat cutter, Rototrim Professional 24 cutter and Technal Dry Mount Press.  All mounting, matting and framing materials are acid free archival quality.