Graduation ceremonies in 2003 were remarkable for several reasons not the least of which was the fact that Anthony Tanbakuchi was the speaker representing the graduating class of all students in the College and who graduated along with Trevor Ehman, Chris Wong, Justin Laird and Randy Klimek seen left to right in the accompanying photograph. Along with them, the following students were also listed in the 118th Commencement Program but they have already finished requirements earlier or will do so during the Fall quarter: Jack Calcines, Sergio Guevara, Rose Klinger, Jason Peterson, Luke Sorensesn, Richard Topel, Mark Updegraff and Justin VanAlstyne.

CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!

Randy Klimek it seems to me has found his "element" while a student in the program! During a time of the year that most others are huddled inside in front of their fireplaces, Luke Sorensen, Jessica Gehlhar and Randy (plus friends) undertook several mid-winter "treks", so to speak, to locations near and far. Randy took the trouble to make some photographs of their advetures and if you explore the links that follow you can see them enjoying the thrill of a challenge in the Adirondaks and elsewhere. Here is the set from the Adirondacks Ice Expedition January-Feb 2003, and this is the Reynolds Gully Ice Waterfall Climb March 2003. Visit this link to see the rest of his photo collection. And all this without forgetting to hit the books!!!

The unscheduled barbecue/picnic whatever thing brought several tech students to the southern parts of the county and witness to the event are photographs made by Jon Lorang that you can check out here: http://www.rit.edu/~jdl5208/Tech_BBQ/

Noteworthy among the activities concoted by the visitors was a double kite pyramid (Kites courtesy of Matt, Alistair and Brian) but flown in tandem by none other than Anthony who even lifted a 2 liter soda bottle with the kites. Or maybe it was a levitation experiment??? Seen a soda bottle flying around your backyard lately? BTW, the top kite was 500 feet off the ground when the duo broke their tether and flew off into the wild blue yonder.

Michelle and Jessica, the horsewomen, helped the group stay calm and focused as several hardy souls got to experience the thrill of a western saddle while galloping around on Totally Awsome or the comfort of an english saddle aboard none other than Baby Bee. Emily had great fun on Tote on whom she was a veteran rider.

Die hard board game players stayed till the wee hours playing Pictionary. The early lead was taken by Jessica and Elizabeth but in the end it was Anthony and Sue who relished victory while Sergio and Andy hardly got out of the starting gate.

Finally, Mike, Kim, Grant, Kerry, Darlene, Pilar and Mary arrived also unannounced as expected but by that time Jon had taken his digital camera away! Maybe Anthony has some candids to share. In fact, he does!!! HERE!

Prof. Steve Diehl, Dr. Bruce Kahn and Prof. Andrew Davidhazy entered photographs in the 2003 Annual School of Photographic Arts and Sciences Faculty Show that opened in the SPAS Photo Gallery on April 4, 2003. The photographs exemplify current work of the faculty and as expected the images portray areas of interest to them at this time. Prof. Diehl's exhibited a color photograph of a natural forest landscape. Dr. Bruce Kahn exhibited images reflecting an area of current interest to him as well as many students participating in his Lenticular Imaging course. Prof. Davidhazy's photographs reflected his interests in high speed photography and stroboscopic motion photography.

Lisa DeBettencourt (left) has been with Bose Corporation in Framingham Mass for some time now. Although she told me what she does ... something with "Systems ..." I honestly don't remember the details! Anyway, she recently moved into her own condo in Lowell and between work and play (among her favorite pastimes are spending time with her boyfriend and going skiing to the nearby slopes in New Hampshire. And this reporter, of course, never loses a chance to be photographed with a charming young lady!.

Sara Lynne Johnson (right) dropped in unexpectedly but I recognized her from a mile awyay! She has been working in the NYC and Connecticutt area for four years assisting with the development and bringing to commercial viability a VERY interesting product called the Vizta Display System. It is a volumetric computer display ... a "variant" on 3D display technology that does not require glasses or visual aids. I hope the company makes a success of this product designed for several niche markets. We spent a delightful time together at McGregors and Don Pablo's and this reporter, of course, got another chance to be photographed with a charming young lady!.

Keith Krause works for Digital Globe in Colorado. The company uses a sophisticated orbiting "push broom" (read "strip" in film terms) camera to photograph the Earth below. Keith gave a smashing presentation in the CIS Auditorium to a packed audience. He concentrated on explaining the technology that makes high quality images possible using the "push broom" approach by neutralizing or correcting for various anomalies that usually plague such imaging systems.

Jack Calcines and Jason Babcock, both currently grad students in U of R and RIT graduate programs respectively joined Colin Day at McGregors for an evening of merriment and reminiscing especially about the Vomit Comet experience Keith and Jason had down at Johnson Space Center. Of course we took advantage of the situation and devoted a significant part of our conversation to gossip about fellow Zero-G voyageurs Sam Hill (currently in a grad program at the Media Lab at MIT) and Crystal (Embry) Schroeder, who actually returned to NASA JSC and works in area of digital imaging services.

Chuck Torzilli (who works at Symbol Technologies in Long Island, NY) sent this photograph of a fellow Tech grad Taek Gyu Kim who last I heard was working at DuPont Imaging Systems Graphics Center in PA. He sent along the following message just to see if my memory was all it used to be: "Take a look who I ran into at LaGuardia Airport on my way out to Colorado last week..... its been 16 years since I have seen him last. If you do not know who it is let me know. Regards, Chuck." Well, Chuck, good test but you have to come up with a more difficult one to stump me!

Anthony Tanbakuchi was named an Outstanding RIT Scholar for having achieved what few (only about 8% of all RIT grads have equalled) other students have achieved over their academic career at RIT. That is, maintaining a Cumulative Grade Point Average above 3.85. This is truly an impressive accomplishment. Anthony invited his teachers from high school to come from California for the occasion and they came for the festivities. We wish there were more teachers like these two!

... this NEWS PAGE is currently being worked on ... more text is being prepared ... what can I say!

Dateline Rochester: Students enrolled in the Photoinstrumentation Seminar once again exceeded the midnight barrier during the construction phases of the (in)famous Light, Sound and Dark activated synchronizer with delay that can also serve as an intervalometer for time-lapse photography. The functionality and usefulness of this piece of electronic gear constructed almost from scratch (starting with PC board etching) is wide ranging. From tailflash synchronization effects to "X" beam and acoustic triggering while also providing the photographer with control over delay is legend. Here you can see Trevor Ehman, Jeff Detricxk, Jessica Gehlhar, Trina Willoughby, Luke Sorensen, Bruce Butkus, Randy Klimek, and Jamie Bushley (Jon Lorang missing from photos) hard at work during the middle stages of the constuction project.

Dateline Hawaii: This telegram was received on Tuesday December 10, 2002: "Andy, I thought you would like to know that I tied the knot last week! I got married in Maui on Sunday Dec 1st. It was a beautiful ceremony on a grassy knoll overlooking the ocean. We were even in bare feet!! Anyhow, I'm very happy and wanted to pass the good news along to you. I'll be changing my name in the next few months to Sheryl Dunnette Locke. I'll still be at the same address and phone numbers. I hope you are doing well. Happy Holidays!! Sheri & Jim Locke"

CONGRATULATIONS Sheri and Jim! (Sheri is a Tech grad working at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX)

Several Imaging and Photographic Technology students visited Niagara Falls in the Fall of 2002 and had a great time touring the typical tried and true tourist attractions. Emily Antoine in particular got the experience of a lifetime when she bravely waded into the torrentously raging Niagara River to commune with nature and feel the power of the mighty Niagara swirling through her feet on its way to the brink and ultimately the Atlantic by way of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence seaway. Speaking of which, the group then risked traveling across the border with nothing more than driver's licences as IDs. They made the trek across the bridge on foot and were almost blown off its sky-high walkway by the brisk winds blowing from the SW. Once in Canada the group walked to the top of the Falls and Carl Smith shot a rainbow. This was followed by an experience highly recommended to anyone visiting this natural wonder. They embarked on a voyage that would take them to the thunder at the bottom of the Canadian Falls on the famous Maid of the Mist. They could only say: WOW!

Rochester, November 2002. Prof. Glenn Miller exhibited several of his sketchbooks as part of a new exhibition at Gallery r, a RIT metro showcase for contemporary art. The exhibition, "Constant Companion: the artist's sketchbook" is based on the sketchbook, a record of an artist's progress, doodles, dreams and scribbles. A sketchbook is the "mind" of the artist emerging on paper. If you are in Rochester before the exhibition's closing on Dec. 29, do consider dropping in to the gallery. In this reporter's opinion Prof. Miller's work lends an air of class and credibility to this unique exhibition! You can drop him an email using the prepared "mailto" link provided to him above.
 

October 2002, received news from Nitin Sampat who said: "James O'Hara, Gretchen Gast, Andrew Oransky and I met for dinner/IPT get-together at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego last night (Sept. 29, 2002). James, Gretchen and I were attending the IS&T Digital Printing conference while Andrew was the 'local guy' (he came in with paint all over him - he had been working on the new house he just purchased). It was great meeting 'the kids'. James is managing of team of engineers in Boise; "Lady" Gretchen works for James (seems like Boise must a happening place or maybe these 'kids' just like potatoes :-)) and Andrew is managing a team of sales people. It was nice to see how successful these three have become. Of course, credit goes to their abilities but I suspect we must have at least taught them something useful.

Heather Penk and Michael Klayman tried to come but couldn't (supposedly Heather is 5.5 hours from San Diego); Michelle is no longer in San Diego and Katie Nifong never replied to my e-mails (maybe her e-mail has changed?). Anyways, we had a great time and yes we did miss you all in Rochester! (we took the attached picture saying "We have to send Andy a picture!")
 

Dateline: October 2002, from Stephen Wages
Hi Andy, Hey, if you ever hear from someone needing a person in the Santa Barbara/Ventura County area, let me know. As you might remember, I was working at Adventure Photo as:

1. - Photo Editor/Photographer liason (working with 150 photogs)
2. - Library Manager (team of 4 people doing image "metadata" entry)
3. - Production Manager (producing & designing catalogs, CD-ROMs, direct mailers, and the website)
4. - IT person (made sure computers, servers, email, scanning equipment, etc. worked)

Well AP&F was bought by ImageState, a group out of the UK. After initially promising us it would be based in Ventura, they decided to move us to Seattle. I went with them for what I thought would be 4 months. It turned out to be a year. At that time, they decided to move operations to NYC.

While at ImageState, I handled the above duties (although for a much larger company). IT took more and more of my time. I now was managing multiple servers, email accounts for 60 people (many in Europe), remote accessing of applications using Citrix, mass storage for image files, merging image data sets from different collections and companies. Actually, everything took my time. I worked crazy hours trying to keep up with all the demands.

It was already hard enough to be away from my daughter (I would fly down from Seattle every other weekend). BTW, That's a picture of my daughter, Jill and me in Yosemite from this summer. Anyway, NY was a whole different ballgame. They really wanted me to stay on, but I told them I would go to NY for a couple months to get systems set up, but then I was done. I left the company in March.

Since then, I spent a month in Italy with my girlfriend, Jill. We then moved CA (we met in Seattle), and I've been flyfishing, backpacking, rock climbing, and doing just enough freelance work to keep the bills paid. Also been teaching myself Dreamweaver...that's been fun. Hope you are well. Keep all the Tech Photo updates coming... Steve Wages
 

Eric Sciacca has wonderful news to share with all. As you might know from earlier news he is now with BF Goodrich in Massachusetts, bought a "new" 34 year-old house and his family has now grown to three with the birth of his daughter Ashley Esther Sciacca, born May 30, 2002 in Concord, MA, 6 pounds, 7.5 ounces. You can meet Ashley at her website!

Rick Behrens (here seen with our most colorful faculty member, Glenn Miller) dropped in to visit Tech Alley and faculty while he was participating in a conference that was held in Rochester. Rick now works for the Mitre Corporation in Washington, DC after leaving the Navy where he had a successful career working in the area of photogrammetry, surveilance and related matters. Rick's family has also grown with the arrival of a baby son. All details are not yet on record with this office but will be posted here as soon as they are found in the "to do" box!

Peter Tate, who just graduated last May is now gainfully employed at the NASA Glenn Research Center working for the InDyne Corporation as a Imaging Specialist with "specialties" connected with ultra-high speed photography of processes affecting the lifting efficiency of aerofoils traveling through atmoshperic conditions leading to icing on the wing and possible catastrophic results. He is also involved with thermography and thermal imaging and is becoming certified in this activity (or so we understand - but we may be wrong!)

Jeff Myers now with Vulcan Technolgies send in this little tidbit of news: "Andy, Thought I'd send along a photo from a fishing trip I took last week. I met Prof. Kushner up in British Colomubia for a week of fishing. Lots of Rainbows and of course the old Professor still taught me a few things about catching them." What this reporter would like to know ... where are the fish!

On a local note, Dr. Bruce Kahn and his wife Amy, recently adopted a son and a daughter. You can read all about the trials and tribulations of the adoption process that saw them travel to Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia at Adoption Saga

In brief here are the pertinent facts about the childern: Sally Ketevan, was born at the beginning of May at 3.2 Kg (7 lb., 1 oz.) 51 cm (20 1/16") while Max Irakli was born at the end of June and was born at 3.8 Kg (8 lb., 6 oz.) 50 cm. Parents and children are now happily united in Rochester, NY and doing fine! You can send them a note of greeting at bekpph@rit.edu

David Benkart dropped in to say hello. He just wanted to say hi and check out his old stomping grounds. He is back in the vicinity and looking forward to reestablishing a connection with the photo/imaging industry. Genelle (Quintana) Thurman stopped in with her husband and tiny new son Isaiah. Steve Marchiando, doing well at NASA's Johnson Space Center was in town just passing through. He came with his whole family and like others, they were here on their way to a friend's wedding. Liana Schuetz, established at the NASA Glenn Research Center as a Imaging Spoecialist, came by with her Mom to say hello on the way to the bookstore to buy some film. I believe they also were on their way to a friend's wedding!

There is now instituted another means by which current students and graduates of the program can stay in touch. It is through a "guestbook" that allows you to leave short or extensive messages about anything you would like others associated with the program to become aware of. Check this out at: Techy Online Updates

To add news to this Departmental News Bulletin Board send text and attached images to: Andrew Davidhazy who will gladly add the item to this bulletin board dedicated to the students and faculty of the Imaging and Photgraphic Technology program at RIT's School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.