I hate to think how much I spent on paper (and a RIP) when I got started doing digital printing. The printers were not quite ready for prime time, so you had to both learn and work on tuning the print. I think this is a great idea, and tracks what you had to do to be a good darkroom printer - make a lot of prints, and study each one to figure out what you could do better.

I use the other techniques, but deconvolution sharpening is new to me. (But I mostly work from LF negative scans, and I usually have plenty of detail.) Would you do deconvolution sharpening after local contrast enhancement, then final print sharpening last? Would you still do the initial capture sharpening, or do these on the unsharpened raw files?

If you have thousands of negatives, and they are 120 or smaller, go to BH and buy a film scanner. It will do a better job, you will help keep the manufacturers making them, and you will not go crazy. Mike can put up some links.

The best cover of Who Do You Love is Ronnie Hawkins, backed up by the Band, in the Last Waltz concert.:-) As a LF shooter, my favorite small camera is a Technika IV. An M9 would probably be my favorite if I had one, but for real small right now, the Canon S90.

If you go to Lightroom, you can use it on either platform. More importantly - Get a Mozy or Carbonite account if you do not have one. A second harddrive for backup is better than nothing, but it does not deal with the need to have an up to date offsite back up so a fire or flood does not wipe everything out. (A lesson from Katrina what way too many photographers down here learned the hard way.)

You have encapsulated the problem of a fan, who is not a True Fan. I love your work, and I have one. The world is full of good work and my wall space is limited, so I buy very little, and never more than one piece from anyone. I got my print from Mike's print sale of your work, it might have been the first print sale he did. So, perhaps you and Mike should also hold a print sale every few years for new not exactly true fans.