Hello and welcome! My name is Bill vander Sluys. My interest in photography started early. As a young teenager I had great fun shooting B&W with old 120 folders. Growing up on a dairy farm instilled in me an appreciation for the many faces of nature, be it plants, animals or weather. Now, my photographic interests include landscape, waterscape, clouds & skies, natural abstracts and found objects.

My color film of choice in 35mm (Nikon F3 and Nikon glass) used to be Kodachrome 64 but I also shot Ilford and Kodak B&W as well as infrared. Fujichrome Velvia and Provia were the preferred color films for my medium format cameras; Mamiya C330 Pro, Mamiya Press and Mamiya RB67. A Horseman "L" 4x5 monorail usually had the sheet film holders loaded with Ilford FP4 or HP5. All B&W negs, B&W prints, color and Cibachrome prints were developed in my darkroom. E-6 and C-41 processing was handled by a commercial processing lab.

That was 26 years ago, now (2008) I'm finally in the digital age, although I still like the unique characteristics of film. I really like the Canon 5D and the convenience of slapping the 8GB CF card into my computer, but there's times when I want the controlled discipline of shooting with the RZ67 Pro II or my Rittreck View 5x7 folder mounted on the tripod. Fujichrome Velvia is still my choice for color transparencies, and Ilford B&W films are old friends.

My current gear...

Canon EOS 30D
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro
Canon EF 28-105mm USM
Tamron SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di LD IF

Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with Mamiya Sekor Z 110mm f/2.8 and 120 back

Rittreck View 5x7 metal folder with 4x5 rotating back, Fujinar-W 15cm f/6.3 in Seikosha-SLV shutter
Polaroid 550 back and 4x5 sheet film holders
Horseman focusing loupe

Minolta Digital Auto Meter IIIF
Pentax Digital Spotmeter
Manfrotto 055 with #168 ball head and #128LP head

Leafscan 45 film scanner