A Little About The Photographer •••

Marshall E. Ilstrup was born and raised in a small town in rural Minnesota, 40 miles west of Minneapolis. Marshall graduated from Buffalo High School in 1953, and attended the University of Minnesota (1953-1956 & 1957-1960) where he received a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering in 1960. Upon graduation from the U of M he returned to San Diego, where he had spent a year in 1956/1957 working for General Dynamics (GD) Convair, to begin his career in engineering. Marshall married Jean Lundheim in 1961 and brought his bride, a U of M coed he had been dating prior to graduation, back to San Diego where they raised two fine sons, David and Gregory, in the community of Pacific Beach.

Over the next 32 years Marshall worked for GD Astronautics, Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, and GD Space Systems in San Diego, where he was engaged in electical engineering and systems engineering activities. Some of the aerospace programs in which he contributed included the Atlas ICBM, Landing Radar System for the Lunar Excursion Module (Project Apollo), remotely piloted vehicles (RPV's) for military aerospace applications, Centaur high-energy upper stage for Atlas and Titan/Centaur space boosters, and the Super Conducting Super Collider high-energy atom smashing program. Marshall's engineering career became another statistic in December of 1992 when he was caught up in a massive downsizing at GD Space Systems. Shortly thereafter in July of 1993 Marshall and Jean leased their home in San Diego and relocated to Graeagle in scenic Plumas County.

Marshall started taking a few snapshots back in 1956 using a box camera, and continued intermittently over the years. Marshall's interest in scenic/landscape photography was reinforced in 1985 when Jean presented him with his first 35 mm (point & shoot) camera, on the occasion of his 50th birthday. Marshall's aerospace co-workers enjoyed reviewing his photography and encouraged him to do something with it. Following his dislocation from GD Space Systems (and the aerospace community in general) Jean declared "now is the time to do something with your photography." It was then that Marshall finally decided it was time for a real change --- thus was born Reflections Unlimited, an excursion into the field of scenic/landscape photography.

Marshall's current photographic products include a line of scenic photo notecards, and framed photographic enlargements of selected scenic/landscape images. Marshall's photo notecards, depicting scenery throughout Plumas and Sierra counties, are currently on display at various drug stores and gift shops in the area and at several lodges in the Lakes Basin Recreational Area [seasonal]. His notecards (including international scenes) are also on display in the Reno Hilton Gift Shop, and at Borders Books & Music in Reno, NV. Marshall has received awards for his photography at the Plumas County Fair [amateur and professional divisions], and at the 44th International Photographic Exposition in San Diego prior to moving to northern Califorina.

Marshall with his 88 Toyota Supra at Cathedral Gorge S.P. (Nevada)