some will appreciate this little story i heard yesturday

[ImSoNegative]

A fellow i met the other day named mark and i were talking photography at a local gallery, he was a 35mm shooter from back in the day and now digital, i told him what format i shot and he said that he had never shot anything like that but his father in law who passed away back in the 70s, he was a large format shooter, he then told me this story... his father in law who had cancer had been a large format photographer for many years but was unable to get out and hike with his gear anymore because of the weight but there was a shot he always wanted to get but was never able to, he was alone his wife had passed away several years earlier. one weekend mark and his wife came to visit, the old fellow was feeling a bit weak but in good spirits mark said. it was on Saturday and marks wife had went shopping for the day leaving him and her dad alone, the old fellow started telling him about this beautiful waterfall back in the woods that he had found on a hike one day but didn't have his camera with him and it seemed he could never get back there again things just never worked out, i would have loved to have gotten that shot he told mark. mark began to feel sorry for him and told him that if he felt like it and wanted to go, he would carry his camera for him, he said the old guy's face lit up and he said ok lets go. mark said that it felt like at least a hundred pounds of gear and they hiked about a mile back in the woods stopping often so the man could rest, finally they reached the waterfall, mark set up the tripod and locked the old 8x10 on to it, mark had never seen one of these cameras in action before and watched the old guy work, this is how he explained it.. first he eyeballed everything, then he got a little level out of his pack and leveled the camera, he got under the darkcloth then came out then back under, then came out, he did something to the front of the camera, then the back, then he came out from under the dark cloth metered the scene with this old light meter he had, walked around to the front of the camera fiddled with the lens then went back under the cloth again. this seemed like it took forever, he said he then took the darkcloth off the camera and put in the film thing pulled the slide, walked around to the lens , looked at the scene again and pressed the shutter release, then he put the slide back in, looked at mark and said ok lets go. mark responded, lets go? you mean that's it? the old guy smiled and said yep that's it, mark asked aren't you going to bracket your shots? the old guy responded no, no need to bracket i know what i got, mark asked how do you know? he said with a big grin, I just know. about a month later the old man passed away and mark and his wife was clearing out his things, mark found the back pack and camera gear in the closet he looked inside and there was a single film holder in the pack one of the dark slides was missing but the other was still there and mark thought to himself about the hiking trip a month earlier and how his father in law took only one holder with one sheet of film, mark took the holder out and had the single sheet processed at a lab and printed and he told me that it was probably one of the most beautiful photographs he ever saw, I said well mark it sounds like he knew what he had :)

[billie williams]

Wow. What a lovely story to read this morning. Thank you for posting. It's not just about the shot, is it. Not everybody would have taken the time to help like that.

Reading this was a good way to start the day.

[ross]

That is a good story. Thanks for sharing it.

[Heroique]

I really enjoy "It's the journey" stories like this!

[diversey]

Nice story, indeed!

[analoguey]

Wow. Wonderful story to read!

[W K Longcor]

Thanks -- it put a smile on my face!

[Tim Meisburger]

Great story!

Strikes a cord with me. Five or six years ago I was trekking with my family in Nepal when I came across a perfect waterfall in perfect light. I had been thinking about LF for several years, but had not done anything about it. I shot that waterfall with my Olympus XA, but I knew it deserved LF, and when I got home I bought my first camera because of that waterfall. Hopefully someday I will go back and get the shot...

[angusparker]

Beautiful.

[Alan Gales]

Thank you for sharing such a wonderful story.

[csxcnj]

It seems fitting to me that I read this first on a beautiful Sunday morning .

[Kimberly Anderson]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Agreed.

[Heroique]

I just came back to read the story again.

I can't get the old man out of my head, only days before his death, walking back and forth by the camera, judging the scene, going in and out of the dark cloth, making adjustments, taking the shot he waited so long for, then saying, "okay, let's go."

Maybe I'll come back tomorrow...

[Jmarmck]

Wonderful story. Thanks for sharing.

[ImSoNegative]

I really enjoyed mark sharing it with me, He told me that waterfall image hangs right above there fireplace, I would love to see it.

[John Kasaian]

Very cool!

[Michael Clark]

Wonderful story, did your friend Mark ever try using LF after that ?

[ImSoNegative]

No he never did he told me he didnt think he had the patience for it

[ImSoNegative]

I told him if he ever wanted to try it to let me know I could hook him up :)

[Bruce Watson]

...he said he then took the darkcloth off the camera and put in the film thing pulled the slide, walked around to the lens , looked at the scene again and pressed the shutter release, then he put the slide back in, looked at mark and said ok lets go. mark responded, lets go? you mean that's it? the old guy smiled and said yep that's it, mark asked aren't you going to bracket your shots? the old guy responded no, no need to bracket i know what i got, mark asked how do you know? he said with a big grin, I just know.

I had nearly exactly this same thing, almost exactly this same conversation, happen the first time my wife came with me when I went out photographing with my 5x4. Over time she got used to it. ;) She almost immediately started carrying a book with her whenever she came with me. Then it became a small point-'n-shoot and she would scurry all about making photographs of wildflowers. Now she's up to a full DSLR and doing food photography. And I'm the one moving lights and holding gobos while she works. She's become quite a good photographer. But she doesn't show any signs of wanting to learn LF. Oh well. :rolleyes: