He's been repairing cameras, flashes from Hendricks County shop for 35 years

Tucked behind the front row of trees in a quiet, modest wooded area of Avon, Ind., behind Kingsway Christian Church, just a mile north of the heavily traveled U.S. 36 and less than a quarter-mile west of Dan Jones Road, is a place photographers -- in the Indianapolis area and beyond -- should get to know when they need repairs to their gear.

It's the home of CameraRepairs.com, where Bob Kilbourn fixes most models of cameras and flash units. It's an affordable and reliable alternative to the expense and/or long wait involved when packing and shipping malfunctioning gear to the manufacturer for repairs -- especially after a warranty on the equipment has expired. Bob's been doing this kind of work for more than 40 years, 35 of them from his current shop.

I found this out recently when I consulted Angie's List for ideas on where to take a malfunctioning Canon 580EX II electronic flash and decided I didn't want to wait forever by shipping it to Canon, not to mention bearing the typically expensive repair bill and the hassle of shipping. The first place to turn up on the list that Angie's gave me was the shop in Avon, which I had never heard of.

I perused the shop's reviews on Angie's List, all supportive and complimentary, then checked out its website. It offered an online form for customers to explain the gear's problem and obtain a repair cost estimate. I filled out and submitted the form, explaining that I had already obtained a replacement part (a built-in, flip-out plastic diffuser panel, which had snapped off when accidentally brushed against an immovable object).

Bob responded the next day by email and offered me an estimate. Because I already possessed the replacement diffuser panel (which cost me $14 online from USCamera.com), he said, the repair labor would cost about $58.50. He mentioned that I could mail him the flash or drop it off at the shop, if that were more convenient.

I've driven through the heart of Hendricks County via U.S. 36 on several occasions and wasn't excited about "revisiting" traffic logjams and endless traffic signals the highway was known for. So I studied possible alternate routes and came upon a way to limit driving on U.S. 36 to about two miles or so near the end of my trip. The shop was not easy to find (more about this later), but I got there on Monday, Sept. 14, and dropped off the flash unit. Bob notified me the following afternoon that it was fixed and ready to pick up. I was awed and amazed.

Huh? Just one day?

When I got there to pick up the flash, he told me that a second issue I had alerted him to -- a nonstop flashing of the data on the 580EX's LCD screen -- was unrelated to the broken diffuser panel. (In the form I had submitted, I reported that the incessant flashing on the LCD screen began about the same time as the panel broke off.) Bob said he fixed the flashing LCD screen problem, too (there was a jam of some kind in the main flash unit compartment, he said) -- and would not charge me extra.

Huh? He wasn't going to try and squeeze more money out of me?

This guy immediately got my favor. My newspaper reporter instincts kicked in, and I began to ask him about his business.

Bob has been fixing camera gear since the early 1970s, as the "about us" page at his website explains. He has been at his current location, 7701 E. Hendricks County Road 100 North, since 1980 or thereabouts. It's a place he selected, he said, to be near Kingsway Christian, which he attends. In fact, the church is next door to him ... and owns the land on which Bob's driveway sits. Bob said he built much of his home and shop himself, tackling the work bit by bit whenever he could.

About that driveway ... Bob's house and shop are set back from 100 North a good distance, and access is by a gravel road (left) dissecting some of the church's 70 acres. The church's main campus and a portion of open recreational grounds is to the east (left, in this picture, which looks south) of the gravel drive, and the remaining recreational land (currently, there's a softball/diamond, scoreboard and soccer field on it) is to the west. Bob says Kingsway granted him a permanent easement for the strip of land he uses for the driveway in exchange for land that Bob had owned -- when he first bought the real estate to build his home and shop -- between the church and Country Meadows senior community, which is south of the church on Dan Jones Road.

I mention all of this to help explain why, because of setback distance and the aforementioned trees in the wooded area, you can't see Bob's home or shop (which is in a building separate from the house) from 100 North. And that's important if you are looking for the shop for the first time. I missed the shop on my first drive by, and I also missed the words "Camera Repairs" affixed to a mailbox on the north side of 100 North (across from the gravel road entryway) to help visitors find the place to turn. Bob said he used to have a bigger sign on the mailbox, a sign with an arrow pointing in the direction of the gravel drive, but the mower used by the school across the street kept brushing against the sign and knocking it down.

First-time visitors also should know that once you turn onto the gravel road, it goes a decent distance before taking a pretty sharp bend east (pictured at right) in front of the trees, and that you have to travel a little ways more to find the home and shop, which will be on your right.

A final oddity in the story of Bob's home and shop is that his property is located in the tax jurisdiction of Hendricks County government, even though he is surrounded -- the adjacent church and senior home included -- by properties within the boundaries of the incorporated town of Avon. "They (Avon) didn't want me because I'm too small, I guess," Bob said, "but that's OK with me. The taxes are not as bad this way."

When we chatted on the day I picked up my 580EX, Bob mentioned a couple times that he stays very busy with his business. He does not need to advertise (Angie's List tried to get him to do so when it called him after receiving several positive reviews about the business), and he doesn't need publicity to drum up new customers.

But Bob had no objection to me doing the blog post ... and agreed to pose for the picture I took of him at the desk of his shop (above), and he had no problem with me photographing the building exteriors (all of the photos were taken with an iPhone, which explains the lack of sharpness on the available-light image of Bob above). I asked him if he's had any local stories written about him or his business, and he said the weekly Hendricks County Flyer community newspaper did separate pieces on him -- one published around 2000, and another about seven years after that. That's all he's aware of, he said.

He's been doing repairs for so long, that not only does he have a loyal core of local customers, but people throughout the United States and other countries trust him enough to ship him their gear for repair, he said. He showed me a list where he's checked off states from which he has received customer equipment to fix, and there are only a handful of states with no checks next to them. Among the missing are Hawaii, Alaska, North and South Dakota, Rhode Island and West Virginia ... and possibly Nebraska (I had only a quick glance at the list, so I'm not positive about Nebraska).

I asked him if there is one state outside of Indiana where he gets a particularly heavy volume of repair work. He said yes.

"Arkansas," he said.

He saw my face transform into a look of puzzlement, so he explained. Much of that is attributable to a repair business in that state that also is so busy that it cannot handle the demand, so it refers people to Bob for the kinds of repair work Bob likes to do, which, as best as I could determine, is just about everything. He says, simply, "It's fun; I enjoy it."

Bob also showed me a printout of a current work "to do" list (it's the piece of paper on the counter in the picture of Bob above) and said the bottom two-thirds of the customers on the list -- a good two dozen or so, it appeared -- were from Arkansas. "I stay pretty busy," he repeated, smiling.

You might think that with such intricate knowledge of how camera gear is put together Bob would be an accomplished photographer himself, but he says that's not so. "I can appreciate a good photo when I see it, but I can't really (compose) a shot. My wife is the photographer here." He also says he's so busy fixing gear, he doesn't have time to develop picture-taking skills.

Bob also says that he if were to recommend a model line of gear to someone first starting out in photography -- strictly on the basis of how easy the gear would be to repair, he noted -- he would pick Canon, although he is very high on Sony's line of digital lens reflex and mirrorless cameras. He picked Canon, however, because Canon has no qualms about selling replacement parts to shops like his. That is not the case with Canon's biggest rival, Nikon, which requires customers to deal directly with the manufacturer or a Nikon-authorized dealer or repair business, he said.

In the realm of lenses, Tamron is another manufacturer that won't sell parts to shops like his, Bob says. I found that out when I mentioned to Bob that the zoom barrel sticks on a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens I own. I no longer use the lens, but I'd like to get it fixed so I could either sell it or pass it on to my children. Bob said it's possible that the problem in my lens could be from a loose piece of hardware (a tiny screw, for example) that is blocking the barrel from turning. If that's the case -- i.e., no replacement parts would be needed -- he said he could fix it. He said there is never a cost to diagnose the issue if it's a simple problem, so I'd have nothing to lose if I brought it in ... well, other than the time it'd take to drive out there again.

One thing I did not get into discussing with Bob were the other services his business provides, at least those listed on the website -- i.e., copying or transferring film and recordings from VCR and mini-DVD to regular DVD. I have quite a few family recordings, mostly on VCR, that I've wanted to preserve on a more secure medium. Maybe some day  ...

Note: After dropping off my flash for repair Monday, I revisited nearby Avon Town Park. Pictures from that shoot will be in the next post.    

Above: The words "Camera Repairs" and the shop's house address are affixed on both sides of this mailbox on the north side of Hendricks County Road 100 North, opposite the gravel road that accesses Bob's shop, which is on the south side of the road. 

Above: If you're westbound on Hendricks County Road 100 North headed to Camera Repairs and come upon the entry to the Forest Common addition, you've gone too far. Turn around and go east and look for the gravel road on your right.

Above and below: These pictures of Kingsway Christian Church's recreational grounds are west of the gravel road.

Above and below: Kingsway Christian Church, 7981 E. Hendricks County Road 100 North, plays an important role in the story of Bob Kilbourn's Camera Repairs business since it opened at its current site in 1980. Bob selected the site to build his home and shop so he could be close to the church, of which he is a member, and the church granted him a permanent easement on its property to put a gravel driveway to access his property. The church owns 70 acres at the southwest corner of 100 North and Dan Jones Road. The campus includes a school attended by 600 students in grades preschool through eight.

Above: Country Meadow senior community, another neighbor of Bob Kilbourn, as seen from a church parking lot.

Above: Bob once owned a portion of this property (which looks west from one of the the church parking lots) that extended from his house and shop to Dan Jones Road, land that he once envisioned using for a driveway to access his buildings. He eventually traded the land to the church in exchange for the church granting him a permanent easement on a different piece of church property, around the corner off 100 North, where he put in a gravel driveway.

Another Wrightsville Beach (NC) sunrise

Photography outings and opportunities have been few and far between in recent months, and for the time being, that's OK by me. I'm enjoying the hiatus, although so much is happening around me outside of photography that I'm not sure I'd have been able to squeeze picture-taking into the agenda even if I had wanted to.

I did indulge in quite a bit of camera work in early July when I returned to North Carolina for 12 days or so. Those of you who follow this blog will recall I made my first trip there in July 2014.

This year's trip included a couple days back at Wrightsville Beach, my first stop last year; a couple sessions (some candid, some portraiture) with Lee Ann's 8-month-old granddaughter, Elizabeth; a Cary, N.C. (where I spent the majority of my time); a visit to downtown Wilmington, N.C.; and a side trip to the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

The trip to Wrightsville Beach included another sunrise photo shoot, and this post features pictures from that. Pictures taken along the intracoastal waterway in Wrightsville Beach as well as samples of the shoots in Cary, Wilmington and at UNC will appear here in the days ahead.

Gearwise, I traveled light for this trip. For all of my North Carolina shots except the portraitures of Elizabeth, I used my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f.3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens and bracketed my images for varying exposures of each composition so I could treat the images in high-dynamic range (HDR) software during post-processing.

The Tamron is such a handy, versatile tool for when I know I'm going to be on my feet for long periods of time and I don't want to carry around a lot of gear ... and/or when I want to bracket my exposures without lugging around a tripod. Tamron's PZD (piezoelectric drive) and its VC technology in the lens (both of which also are found in the 18-270mm that I use on my Canon 7D crop-sensor camera) does a very good job keeping things still when I do two or three exposures for a shot. And even on those occasions when there is too much shake or too slow of a shutter speed (the former will occur when the lens is zoomed to the 250+ range), the lastest version of Photomatix HDR software that I use now provides a deghosting tool that corrects motion blur almost perfectly. The great thing about that tool is that it allows you to select which frame of the multiple exposures you took for the software to pick when blending the exposures.

For the portraiture shots of Elizabeth, I used the same camera but turned to a Sigma 85mm f/2.8 lens, which I've had for a couple years but never really explored to the degree I did with the pictures of Elizabeth in July. I was very impressed with how the Sigma performed; I had some great bokeh, and the images were crisp and professional looking.

OK, back to this post ...

The sunrise and intracoastal waterway photos at Wrightsville Beach were taken July 7. Those of you who follow PP might remember that I also shot a sunrise, my first ever, at the same location almost a year ago. In that instance, I mistimed it; I didn't arrive to shoot until the sun had already crept above the horizon. Because of that, I was in a rush and started tripping the shutter quickly and instinctively -- before getting away from the hotel's seagull sonar wires.

This time, I was better prepared. I arrived early and managed to get an elevated position on the other side of the wires, closer to the shoreline atop a wooden deck which was above the natural berm. I got several shots of the colored sky before the sphere became visible.

The photo leading off the post was well into the shoot, but it probably best represents the sunrise collection. I decided to use the lifeguard station as my frame complement and viewer perspective, so you'll see it included in the first several pictures. The changing colors of the sky and clouds as the sphere made its slow ascent (see five photos immediately below) gave me a varied representation of the moment.

You can see images from the full sunrise shoot at my SmugMug travel gallery.

Above: In the moments before the sun inched above the water, the sky colors immediately above the horizon were drenched in rich oranges and purples.

Above: Several of the full-zoom shots of the sun just as it cleared the horizon reflected an overlay of what I have to presume is a low-lying cloud cluster (click on the image to enlarge and get a better view). At first, I thought the objects in the center resembled the silhouettes of a ship or two, but that wouldn't have explained the much larger object on the extreme right. And besides, I don't remember seeing any craft or vessel in the vicinity of this area in the moments before or after the sun slipped above the horizon.

Above and next two below: Two more images taken moments before the sunrise but using something other than the lifeguard station as the subject. The metal hunter in the two images above got into a lot of my shots, sometimes by choice, other times because I was momentarily boxed in for the composition and had to include him. The presunrise image immediately above also gives a sense of the haze hovering low to the ground/water on this morning. The haze will become more evident in pictures further down in the post. The athlete in the first image below was running away from the sunrise. The pier in the photo below that also was in the direction opposite the sunrise from my vantage point. This frame, too, gives a little sense of the haze.

Above and next six images: The sun had risen, so I started to compose to integrate the low-to-the-ground haze into my photos. Using a 28-300mm lens enabled me to exploit the zoom compression that explains the varying degree of sharpness and separation that you see in the photos, i.e., people up close are mostly clear and out of the haze, whereas those farther back are cloaked in various degrees of it.   

Above and below: I used this walker to compose several frames, and in the images above and below, I also demonstrate the subtleties between an image processed in HDR software (above) vs. one reflecting a single frame (below). The primary difference is that the HDR-treated image carries a slight full-body halo that gives it separation and better line distinction from the sand. I'm not saying this is necessarily better, because it certainly is less realistic. But artistically, you are more inclined at first to view the walker differently than you might in the image below. The walker in these images is headed in the general direction of the sunrise, but not directly so.

Above: Here is the same walker coming toward me. Because I'm not shooting into a direction where the sun is located, there is less silhouetting, and while there is haze, it's not as pronounced as it was above.  

Above: This image was taken shortly after the one of the walker above it. It is simply a bit to the right of it. With the subjects closer to the camera, the separation really illustrates the amount of haze.

Above and below: Two post-sunrise shots taken toward the ocean, but away from the sun.

Above and below: Two post-sunrise images, one pointed directly at the sun, the other a few minutes later when the sun slipped behind some clouds. 

Shooting HDR with the PowerShot G12

More than a year ago, I set on a direction, or objective, for Photo Potpourri: to be a photographer's log, presenting visual peeks at almost all of the shoots I spend time on, and to present those peeks as expediently as possible. A lot times the shoots are exciting for me; heck, most of them have been exciting to me. But sometimes they are not.

Today's post represents a few shots of shoots that probably fall into that latter category, but I present them nevertheless in the spirit of heeding this blog's direction. The photos were taken on separate dates and at different places, but because I used the same camera -- the Canon PowerShot G12 -- and the same memory card for both of them, I'm putting them together in the same post. It's a sort of a potpourri within Photo Potpourri.

The first batch is actually from the more current shoot. It was late Friday afternoon, at the north end of the Indianapolis Canal in downtown Indy. Earlier in the day, I'd come across an article online discussing the quality of the G12's in-camera high-dynamic range (HDR) feature. I had used the feature only a few times, and almost exclusively for indoor pictures, and never had I used a tripod. I'd simply rested the camera on the nearest or most convenient inert object and hoped for the best. Occasionally, I tried to hand-hold it, thinking the G12's built-in image stabilization (IS) would keep things steady, much like how my Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6/3 Di II piezoelectric drive vibration compensation (VC) lens does for my DSLR camera bodies. That didn't happen, however.

The article reported how the G12's HDR feature worked splendidly outdoors, delivering some dynamic images. Its performance indoors, however, left a lot to be desired, the article continued, largely because it did not have the technical capability to deal with resolving different lighting types (e.g., tungsten vs. fluorescent) in the same composition. My experience with the G12's HDR feature indoors was largely with single lighting (mostly tungsten), and the results had been OK, I thought. My complaint about the camera's HDR feature was that the IS apparently shuts down in the HDR mode, which is when you'd ideally want it to work the most. Most of my hand-held shots, consequently, were no good. Well, I had another complaint, too -- the in-camera merging of images writes the final picture into JPG mode. Even though you normally have the option to shoot in RAW format with the G12, you have no such option with the built-in HDR feature. (Note: Yes, you can bracket exposures with the G12 the usual way in RAW mode and do the HDR image melding in post-processing; you don't have to use the built-in HDR feature).

Because I'd never used the G12's HDR feature outside, I decided to take it with with me to a meeting I was to have at Creation Cafe that afternoon. The eatery is at the north end of the Canal. I arrived early and fired a dozen or so HDR compositions, resting the camera on level walls and bars wherever I could find one to compose the shot. I thought they turned out OK, but nothing spectacular. However, there were very few shots that actually had contrasting light in the same composition -- the optimum situation for using HDR. That's the story behind those shots.

The four other shots, at the bottom of this post, were taken about three weeks earlier during a walk through Garfield Park and along Pleasant Run Parkway. I did a leisurely stroll just because it was a beautiful day, and I brought along the G12 in case I spotted something picture-worthy. There wasn't much picture-worthy that day, except the interesting lines and patterns of the fencing along railroad tracks at the Pleasant Run Parkway overpass just south of Beecher Street.

Tamron delivers the goods in new 18-270mm PZD VC lens

A lens with a relatively slow variable maximum aperture has to be loaded with advantages and features to get me to even consider purchasing it. I've been looking for the ideal do-all, light-tote lens for spur-of-the-moment and/or one-day travel outings for some time, and Tamron recently put the answer to my quest on the market in the 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD lens ($650). I was fortunate to make the decision to buy on the final day of a $50 mail-in rebate, softening the wallet lightening a tad.

The lens is an upgrade of Tamron's previous 18-270mm that is equipped with a traditional auto-focus motor. The new model -- designed for APS-C sensor cameras -- has the novel PZD (short for piezoelectric drive) technology as well as upgraded vibration compensation (VC) technology that effectively makes this a more compact -- and lighter (15.9 oz.) -- lens that covers an expansive 15x focal range.

To top it off -- and this was the clincher for me -- Joe Farace, who reviewed the lens in the June 2011 edition of Shutterbug magazine, says the improved VC technology was so astute, he was able to not only fire the camera hand-held at 1/8 of a second and get sharp shots, but also to fire off three hand-held auto-exposure bracketed shots as slow as 1/8 second -- and still get sharp images. Wow ... being able to shoot HDR without having to worry about packing my tripod each and every time? It got my attention, and I took the plunge. I've been very open to Tamron products; Tamron's 28-75mm f/2.8 lens has been my primary walk-around since summer of 2007. And even though the 28-75mm was made primarily for full-frame camera users in mind, it has served me and my two Canon APS-C sensor cameras well; I just get more effective focal range (because of the 1.6x multiplier) for my millimeters.

The photos you see in today's post were all HDR treated shots -- three auto-exposure bracketed frames melded into one in Photomatix -- taken using the Tamron 18-270mm PZD lens Monday evening in the two hours or so before dark, my first test drive of the new lens. And yes, all of these bracketed shots were hand-held. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic.

The lead photo (at the top) of the dense cloud formation through which a bit of the lowering sun found an opening to splay these unusual ray patterns, was taken on the western fringe of Garfield Park, looking over over the Manual High School campus (right).

Several variations of the scene appear in subsequent photos below, including a monochrome conversion of a scene similar to the one above. In two instances (near the bottom), I provide two versions of the same scene of the main entrance to the Garfield Park Arts Center -- one treated through the exposure fusion option of Photomatix (the more realistic "look"), the other treated with the tone-mapping option (the more artsy, painting-like veneer).