TIM HALL WITH ROBERT CAMERON SIGNING LOUIE ARMSTRONG C-PRINT

Photographer Profile by Sam Whiting, Chronicle Staff Writer - November 12, 2009

Three months ago, Robert Cameron was hanging out of a helicopter taking pictures of Lombard Street. That was the last flight for the indefatigable "Above San Francisco" photographer who died Tuesday at his home in Pacific Heights. 

• He was 98 and in the midst of his last show - "Environmental Journey: Robert Cameron's Aerial Photography of our Pacific Rim," which is on display at the Metreon in downtown San Francisco.
• "He just wore out," said his son, Tony Cameron.
• Over four decades, Mr. Cameron produced 15 coffee table books in the "Above" series, with 3 million copies in print. These include overhead views of New York, London, Washington, D.C., Paris, Mexico City, Chicago. There are four volumes of "Above San Francisco."
• Lifelong interest
• Robert William Cameron was born April 21, 1911, in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was raised. After his first year at the University of Iowa, he dropped out and spread his tuition money across six months in Paris.
• He'd been taking pictures since his father, a dentist, gave him a Brownie at age 8, so upon his return he landed a job as a news photographer at the Des Moines Register. He got his start shooting aerials when he contracted with the U.S. Army to take night pictures of exploding ordnance and tracers during World War II.
• After the war, Mr. Cameron, who was by then married to his high school sweetheart, Janet Elliott, moved their four children to New York, where he became partner in a perfume company, Marcel Rochas, which is still going. He was a regular in a gin game on a commuter train to Darien, Conn., until Thanksgiving Day 1959, when he convened a family meeting. 
• "He said, 'I'm tired of the frozen winters and the steaming summers,' " recalled Tony Cameron. " 'I'm in love with the city of San Francisco, and I want to move there. Who's in?' "
• They arrived in January 1960, and he started Cameron and Co., selling champagne-formula shampoo and a product that purported to cool cigarette smoke so it would be less harmful.
• His big break came in 1964, when he created and published "The Drinking Man's Diet," a concept that Chronicle columnist Herb Caen could embrace.
• "Herb Caen launched it, and it caused a lot of excitement and sold 2,400,000 copies at a dollar apiece," Mr. Cameron said in a Chronicle interview in 2005.
•  'Above' series
• The success of the diet book allowed him to follow a hunch that a coffee table picture book, using the skills he had learned doing aerial photography during the war, would sell. 
• He self-published his first aerial book, "Above San Francisco," in 1969.
• "The book sold like crazy," Mr. Cameron said. "I sold out 10,000 copies."
• Later editions added text by Alistair Cooke, Herb Caen and Chronicle columnist Art Hoppe.
• In the early 1970s, he produced a 45-minute film version of "Above San Francisco," which had a long run at a theater in the Cannery. 
• In 2003, Mr. Cameron mounted a career retrospective, with prints 9 feet long, at the Presidio Officers' Club.
• Asked at the time about slowing down, he said: "Retirement is when they bring the wicker basket in." He was blind in his left eye from macular degeneration and carried a business card that said "Robert Cameron, World's Oldest One-Eyed Aerial Photographer."
• On his last flight, he had minimal vision in his right eye, and he was completely blind by the time he died.
• "One thing he attributed to his long life was the 5,000 rounds of golf he played at the San Francisco Golf Club," said Tony Cameron. He also was a proponent of a daily drink, a martini or gin gimlet or single-malt scotch. "We were putting a little scotch in his ice cubes last week," his son said.

WIKIPEDIA   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cameron_(photographer) 

THE DRINKING MAN'S DIET  http://www.forbes.com/2004/04/21/cz_af_0421feat.html

NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/arts/22cameron.html?_r=0​

SF CHRONICLE OBITUARY   http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Aerial-photographer-Robert-Cameron-dies-3210110.php​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suxisUhNJ6c&list=PLyvag7u6t4TQpSj7UCc_Vp8HqEeQyDjL9&index=1&t=12s

• Who: Founder/Artist/Curator/President of Color3LAB and Mr. Robert Cameron's photographic estate. C3Lab was San Francisco's final professional photo film color lab. Professional services: drum scanning, C-Printing, framing, mounting, laminating, custom finishing service, master composite negatives, film/photo paper developing chemistry software.
• Source of start-up capital: Personal funds put up by my-self and two brothers. The three in Color3Lab has a dual meaning: three brothers and also the three primary additive colors (RGB) used in photographic print process
• Education background: S.F.S.U. graduate with BA in Music. Artistically I'm very fortunate to have both good ears and good eyes. In my career the eyes won as I moved toward photographic printing. I registered for and was put on the waiting list to study under Ansel Adams. In the meantime, I self-studied his program and took a print production position at an established S.F. Photo Lab. The spot did open in Ansel's class and I received the invitation to attend. Since I was already working full time as the Lab Production Manager and guaranteed that there would be a space for me in the next class, I passed on that opportunity. Very unfortunately for him (and for me too) Ansel passed away that next year
• Big picture reason for starting business:  Wanting to do things my way
• Most difficult part of decision: Borrowing money
• Biggest plus of ownership: Doing things my own way, we built the lab with many production efficiencies. For instance the enlarging rooms were constructed purposefully to limit the amount of walking distance between printing, processing and finishing. The process has changed so much over the years that these efficiencies no longer matter, however back in the 80's and 90's it gave us a distinct advantage
• Biggest drawback: There are just so many hours in every day, and often to get projects completed to my satisfaction, I have to do them myself
• Biggest misconception: Assuming there were enough people (similar to myself) that would be available to work for the lab
• Biggest business strength: I am very good at seeing what does and doesn't work in a photograph
• Biggest business weakness: Handling money
• Biggest risk: Borrowing $750,000 to go digital
• Biggest mistake: Putting trust in some individuals that proved to be untrustworthy
• Smartest move: Downsizing when necessary and not giving up. A lot of our old business has been lost due to: the current economy, changing technology and the desire by many customers that cheaper price is more important then quality of product.  These changes have pretty much eliminated all of our former worthy competitors
• Most challenging task: Running Color3LAB business differently then every other business that I worked at
• Favorite task: Making wonderful photographs 
• Least favorite task: Managing salespeople
• Favorite film: The Matrix
• Biggest frustration: Dealing honestly with dishonest people
• Source of support in a business crisis: Focus and perseverance
• Key goal yet to achieve: Peace of mind 
• First move with capital windfall: TBD 
• Stress Reducers: Good Music
• Five year plan: Making photographs that matter 
• Most admired entrepreneur: Paul Newman
• Most interested in meeting: Franz Schubert
• Favorite pastimes: Anything with my kids
• Automobile: Datsun 510 (1st car)
• Favorite book: "Tao Te Ching", Lau Tzu
• Favorite restaurant: Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant at the City of 10,000 Buddhas (Talmage/Ukiah, CA)
• What is on your iPod: I don’t listen to iPods 

https://GreatKolor.com/   https://BusTails.com/    https://PublicServiceAdvertising.org

• Business Focus: Assist City/State agencies and Nonprofits with sensible choices in outdoor advertising
• What it does:  Evolved from local print shop roots, Great Kolor secures low cost (high profile) outdoor ad space and then prints/installs the finished graphics
• Source of start-up capital:  Self financed
• Education background: C.U.N.Y. Brooklyn College graduate with BA in Social Science
• Reason for starting business: The company Gene worked at was purchased and closed in 2005. Great Kolor was born two weeks later. The moral of this story? When one door closes (very often) another will open for you
• Most difficult part of decision: Not difficult--in a sink or swim moment, it's good for you to know that swimming is your sensible option
• Biggest plus of ownership: The empowerment of being in charge of your own destiny
• Biggest drawback: Negative is the flip side of positive. Being in charge puts responsibility squarely on your shoulders. Business is dependent on your state of mind and business successes and failures are owned by you
• Biggest mistake: Summer of 2007 an incorrectly spec'd restaurant window graphic was printed, delivered and couldn't install. Although (at the time) a serious failure it caused a major improvement. Going forward every job begins with a one page agreement. This includes the exact specification, production, turnaround time and price commitment. Next there's a sign-off for final art approval. So before any printing moves forward--we (and client) review and sign-off on art and job specification twice. The results? It's been ten+ years and counting of perfect printing
• Biggest business strength: Very fortunate that many clients compliment us with glowing endorsements for reliability, quality and dedication to excellent customer service
• Biggest business weakness:  None. Well okay, maybe outreach for new business can be improved. Fortunately solid referrals continue to deliver new clients and business
• Biggest risk: None, Great Kolor is a tight little business
• Smartest move: Decision to put resources into organizing a Nonprofit education program. We call it the Not-For-Profit Publicity Workshop. The venues: California Historical Society,  ODC Dance,  SS Jeremiah O'Brien,  Mission Cultural Center, Robert Cameron’s Environmental Journey in the Metreon were all excellent and feedback from attendees has been terrific
• Favorite task: Aligning clients wants and needs with Great Kolor's capabilities
• Least favorite task: Having to say no
• Source of support in a business crisis: My much better half, St. Michelle
• Biggest frustration: Commuter traffic
• Most challenging task: Same as favorite task--aligning capabilities with our clients wants and needs
• Key goal yet to achieve: Financial stability, for short period of time we had it, then the 2009 housing bust cleaned our clock. Years later, lesson learned and once again we're doing fine
• Favorite music: ​Miley Cyrus The Climb , Freddie Mercury  Somebody To Love , ​IZ  Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Louie Armstrong  What A Wonderful World
• Inducement to sell: I really enjoy doing this so it would be a substantial buyout to induce selling--although an eight figure offer would definitely cause me to stop, sit and listen
• First move with capital windfall: Once around the world trip on boat and train (just me & the Mrs.) 
• Most admired entrepreneur: Benjamin Franklin
• Most interested in meeting: Napoleon Hill and my parents again
• Favorite film:  The Lion King 
• Favorite pastimes: Hiking the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with family and friends
• Favorite destination:  Mt Evans, Colorado
• Favorite book: “The Magic of Thinking Big”, written by Dr. David J Schwartz
• Stress reducers: Listening to motivational CD’s in the car
• Favorite restaurant:  Nordstrom’s Café
• Five year plan:  Take that world vacation
• What is on your iPod: Don’t have one (remarkable, huh ?  :  )

What is Silver Halide Printing?

Silver Halide photographic prints are printed using light-sensitive paper and silver-based chemistry. Photo paper is exposed to light & the image is infused into the paper through a chemical process.