Chris Woodhouse was born in England and during his teenage years was a keen amateur artist. Around this time, he was given his first camera, a Zenith B, which sparked his interest in monochrome. After graduating with a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering and after a period of designing communication and optical gauging equipment, he switched to automotive development. As a member of the Royal Photographic Society, he gained an Associate distinction in 2002.

All this time, he has pursued his passion for all forms of photography, including landscape, infrared, as well as portraiture, still life and architectural photography, mostly in monochrome. This passion, coupled with his design experience, led him to invent and patent several unique darkroom timers and meters, which are sold throughout the world. His first book was born from early successes writing informative magazine articles. Digital imaging soured the experience of darkroom printing and the false promise of several successive inkjet printers discouraged a move to digital monochrome imaging.

Digital imaging is, however, spectacularly good at imaging exceedingly faint objects and, since 2010, Chris has immersed himself into all aspects of amateur digital astrophotography. His early and ongoing experiences triggered the publication of several editions of The Astrophotography Manual, designed for advanced amateurs, and Capturing the Universe for those starting out. The technology continues to evolve and the third edition covers most, of those that are reliable enough for unattended imaging.

Ralph Lambrecht was born and educated in Germany. His interest in photography started when he was about seven years old and saw a B&W image emerging in the developer of his father's darkroom. His first camera was a Box Brownie handed down from his grandmother, followed by a post-war 6x6 rangefinder from his father.

As a young adult, Ralph emigrated with his wife and two children to the United States, where he worked and received a Masters Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan. While living in the US his interest in photography grew slowly into a passion, when he met accomplished photographers such as Howard Bond and Phil Davis, who taught him the basics of fine printing and the Zone System. Further photographic education followed, including a workshop with John Sexton in California, which ended with an unforgettable visit to Ansel Adams' darkroom.

His choice of equipment has become more sophisticated since the days of the Brownie, but he still uses mechanical cameras in medium and large format for all his fine-art photography. Traditional silver-gelatin film and fiber-base paper are his media of choice, and he enjoys performing all darkroom tasks himself. To him, an attractive presentation of the image is just as important as the photography itself. Consequently, he performs all mounting, matting and framing to archival gallery and museum standards. Since 1999, he is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Graduate Image Scientist since 2007. His work has been exhibited internationally from private galleries to the London Salon of Photography.

Ralph has been involved in adult education for over 20 years. As a photographic author, he has written for major photographic magazines, including Camera & Darkroom, Black & White Photography, Photo Techniques, Fine Art Printer and View Camera magazine. He is a regular on FotoTV and has contributed to several book projects, including Schwarzweiß Fotografie Digital and the fourth edition of The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography.

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