My First Published Photographs

Around 1990 (give or take a year or two), I was working for the San Diego District Attorney's Office as an Investigative Technician in the Technical Services Unit.

One of my jobs was to take photographs of crime scenes and other things that the DA's Office needed for preparing cases to go to court.  But one day, my supervisor asked me to go to Coronado, CA to visit the USS Independence (an aircraft carrier) to take photos for an article that was to be published in Law Enforcement Quarterly - a magazine that was published by the DA's Office.

The article was going to cover the work of the NIS (Naval Investigative Service) and how they deal with investigations, so one of the Lieutenants on the ship showed me around and helped pose in several of my shots.  The NIS is now more commonly known as the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Services), but back then, they were just the NIS (you can see it on the front of the jackets in the photos above).

My supervisor was scheduled to do this special shoot, but unfortunately could not make it so he assigned me to go instead.  He was really looking forward to touring the aircraft carrier, but he had no choice but to assign me instead since he had another commitment.  It was the first and only time I had been on an aircraft carrier.

After the shoot, the Lieutenant stopped by the ship's store and bought me a cap (which I still have today).  I thanked him and brought it back to the DA's Office to show my supervisor what I got.  Boy... was he jealous!  He asked if I knew what I had in my hands... "Sure, a cap from the ship!"  Well, he went on to tell me that not only was it a USS Independence cap, but it had bars on the visor... it was an Officer's cap!  Apparently the crew member saw the Lieutenant's rank on his uniform and sold him an Officer's cap!

These photos were the images that were published for that article.  The original images were taken with a Nikon FM2 camera (can't recall which Nikon lens) with Kodak Kodachrome color slide transparencies.  I converted the images to 45.7 MP quality and corrected the exposures and colors in Adobe Photoshop.  While the lens was not anywhere close to my best lenses today, I'm still glad to have these images and the rest of the grouping of images I shot that day.

Thanks to my former supervisor and to the Lieutenant for a memorable time!

Component Stereo - Skokie IL

For seven years, I worked at my dad's stereo store... Component Stereo in Skokie, IL.  It's where I learned about running a business and the art of sales.

Originally, we started out at a small single space store on Gross Point Road and Church Street in Skokie but after two years, we moved to the store depicted above on Oakton Street and Kolmar Ave. in Skokie... right across the street from Record City.  We thought being close by a record store made sense.

The larger store had three sound rooms which my dad, brother and I built.  The front of the store had all the accessories and tape and cartridges in display counters.  Later, another company joined in our store and opened Component Service which took in equipment for repair.  The technician rented space from us and ran that part of the business separate from us.

Over the years, the equipment changed starting with companies like Marantz, Technics, Koss and others to more high-end audio equipment.  I'll try to list as many as I can remember below.

I can credit my dad for having the foresight to create a business where I had an interest and also to do so to keep me out of trouble.  Now I don't know if I'd actually get in trouble if I didn't work at the store, but that's what my mom told me.  "Your dad opened the store to keep you out of trouble."  Not quite sure what she meant by that.  :)

At the time we operated from 1978 to 1985, our competitors included: MusiCraft, Pacific Stereo, United Audio, Audio Consultants, Victor's Stereo, Paul Heath Audio, and Quintessence Audio.

I wish I had more photos of the store, but these images converted from 35mm film negatives were all I could find.

Here's a list of equipment companies I can remember we sold:

Superscope
Marantz
Technics
Rotel
Nikko Audio
Hitachi
Toshiba
Denon
Luxman
Audio Technica
Shure
Ortofon
Grado
Sumiko
SME
Premier
Grace
Alphason
Platter Matter
Dudley Glass Sound Mat
Monster Cable
Ariston
Dual
Optonica
Sota
JA Mitchell
Hafler
VSP Labs
Amber
Wharfedale
3D Acoustics
Kirksaeter (Loudspeakers)
Rich Acoustics
BML / Tracer
Koss (Loudspeakers and Stereophones)
Sony Headphones
DCM
Visonik
Allison Acoustics
Cerwin-Vega!
Paisley
Jamo
JVC Video
Ampex
TDK
Maxell
RKO
Bone Fone
Discwasher
Audio Control
AudioSource
Terk Antennas
Texas Instruments
Bone Fone
Switchcraft
Gusdorf Cabinets
Dane Furn Cabinets
Chicago Speaker Stand
Sonex

Gene Wolberg - San Diego Police Department Firearms Examiner

These are a couple of my favorite images that I shot while working at the San Diego District Attorneys Office.

Gene Wolberg was the firearms examiner for San Diego Police Department and I was assigned to take a photo of him for an article to be published in “Law Enforcement Quarterly Magazine”. I asked him if I could take some photos of him while he was working in the firearms lab. He agreed and we got some great portraits. But after we were done, I asked him to give me one good pose of a "madman with a gun" so he picked up this Uzi and gave me this shot!

I remember Gene as the most knowledgable guy about firearms around and most people in law enforcement in California would agree. He was a great guy, but I learned a few years ago that he had passed away. He is definitely missed.

I shot the B&W images, developed the film and printed the prints at the DA’s Office’s darkroom.

These images were converted from B&W negatives to high resolution digital files... a service that Balanced Exposure will be offering starting next week. 35mm color or B&W negatives or slides can be converted to very high resolution files. Stay tuned for more info!

I've been playing guitar for about 50 years and playing the electric bass about 40 years. I normally set up all of my own guitars, but I've never done it for my bass.

I purchased this 5-string Fender Jazz Bass perhaps 15 or 16 years ago and never had it adjusted from when it was purchased new. When new, it wasn't bad to play, but over the years, it just got harder and harder. I believe the neck was most likely bowing slightly and it needed its truss rod adjusted.

Never having done that myself on a bass, I thought it best to have a professional do it, so I brought it to Guitar Works in Evanston, IL. I had been there in the past to watch my friend Doyle Dykes play there and from my visit there, I knew they would do a good job.

A very nice older Japanese gentleman took my bass in and did the set up. He is also a bass player, so I knew it would be in good hands. I'd rather a bass player do the setup rather than a guitar player who really has no idea of how a bass should be setup properly!

I was right! He did an amazing job! The setup makes the bass play so much easier now! It feels like a new bass again!

Highly recommended if you've never had a professional setup done on your instrument!

By the way, my daughter took this bass and learned how to play it herself and joined the 8th grade Jazz Band! She was actually quite good for self taught! I remember at one of the jazz band seminars (they had a guest conductor), the conductor asked the jazz band, "Who do you follow in the band?" Everyone answered, "ROBYN!" It was quite funny! I think the conductor was going for either, "Follow each other" or "Follow the direction of the conductor."

To this date, she can't remember how to play the bass any more since she hasn't picked it up in all these years!

For her 8th grade graduation present, I bought her a matching Fender Stratocaster. She can't remember how to play that either! ;)