Gary summer 2006
Photographed by son Andrew
Grace, Idaho
age 49

Gary Etchison age 4 or 5
Photo by James D. Etchison
Gary's Father
He passed away in 1973

35MM Photography Training

Let me introduce myself
My name is Gary Etchison, I am a native of Idaho
Photography has been a part of me all my life.
My dad had his own black and white darkroom before I was born.
Therefore I spent a lot of time with him and my mother taking photos, developing film and photographs and learning from them.
I took photography in High School, College and used it in the career I'm in for the past 30 years.

I'm the Detective Lieutenant at the Caribou County Sheriff's Offic in Soda Springs, Idaho and have been the past 28 years.

During those years I've had to photograph every type of crime scene and evidence one could imagine.

In 1996 I got a Federal Grant to attend the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, known as FLETC
I got to attend the top law enforcement Photograhic school in the nation and learned many things.

It takes a combinaton of learned skills and having the right equipment for the job, without either you maynot be successful in film photogrpahy.

They taught 9 people during my course, mostly Federal agents, IRS, Postal Inspector, Army Criminal Investigation Division, two law enforcmement officers from Indianapolis, Indiana who did mainly arson investigation, a man from California who did homicide photographs for a large department, his only job was to photography high profile cases, develop the film and testifiy in court to his photographs, he was a civilian.
We had three instructors, so it was intense training and we would go from 8am till sometimes 2am in the morning.

We did nighttime surveilence, evidence at a made up crime scene, daylight, low light and no light photogrpahy.
We shot 3,500 photographs between the 9 of us in 10 days.
We worked in the darkroom a couple days as well.

When we finished the head instructor named Sully, Sullivan told the class everyone of us were capable and had proven our skills to take a photograph in almost any situation given the time element and proper equipment.

We painted with light, did double exposures, used telephoto and closeup lenses, photos through windshileds, photos in bright sunlight of a building and when we finished we were able to see inside the building on campus and see clocks on the wall and people walking up stairs during bright daylight. We learned a host of things and ways to use the cameras.

I am going to teach some people 35mm photography, and this web site will assist me in doing so over the internet at work or here at home. I intend to teach the department use of the 35mm camera, I own a FM2 and so does the Sheriff's Office so most my material shows the FM2 Nikon

After using the Nikon in Georgia, I was convinced this was the best 35MM I'd ever used or had my hands on.

Hope any who read this can learn things about a 35mm SLR camera and if you have quesitons, email me and I'll do my best to help you with your particular quesiton.
Remember this is a class room assistant, and in the class I'll cover much much more, like film seleciton, Depth of field illistrations, and the use of and settings on the camera, some things are done better in person from within a class room.