In 1972, George moved to Bavaria to work for the German Aerospace Research Establishment. Participation in the ESA/NASA Spacelab program, as part of the ground operations team for the Zeiss Metric Camera, this was a high point in his career.
Living in a small village within sight of the Alps soon reawakened his artistic interests, especially in photography, He began to take close up pictures of flowers, and specialized in details, still life or human interest subjects using medium and large format cameras.
Since 1978, he has notched over 50 solo exhibitions in Europe and in the USA, showing impressionistic landscapes as well as still life and abstract images on Cibachrome (Ilfochrome) and classic baryt B&W prints.
George has also conducted workshops and seminars, including (in pre-digital days) two Fine Art Workshops for the Swedish camera maker Hasselblad.
George comments "I had multiple problems with my work. Firstly, the Linoscan 1400 is Scasi output model, and at the time of purchase I was still using a Microsoft Windows machine - not the ideal set up for book layout work.
Some of the images I scan for publishing are derived from transparencies, which in some part are already thirty years old, so I need very high quality scanning. I was using the scanning software Silverfast, but this was expensive to update for newer versions of Microsoft O/S."
So George bought an iMac, but soon found that the Linoscan 1400 was not supported and no drivers were available for older types of scanner. Likewise, Scasi is not featured in Mac OS.
George says "I also bought the full professional version of VueScan which supports the Linoscan and runs easily in the iMac, scanning any B&W negative or colour transparency. I soon found that VueScan has helped me in more than one way."
First, cost savings: These came from it being unnecessary to buy another scanner, which George thought would not have been as good as the Heidelberg. This scanner can scan 8 x 10 inch negatives which is very important for the work he does.
Secondly, George adds, "The VueScan program provides better control of the input parameters, which in my case using old and not necessarily well developed images and enables some degree of density and/or colour correction.
In summary, VueScan has enabled me to push on with new exhibitions or publications and continue to enjoy my work at a high level."