Craig Griffiths
31-Aug-2006, 23:11
Greetings and Salutations. I guess after spending the last few months lurking aroung here I should perhaps introduce myself. I live in Brisbane, Australia and have been involved in photography as an amateur for the past 10-11 years, mostly 35mm and medium format.
I had always looked at Large Format as something to aspire to if I one day got good enough. But I made a decision when I hit 40 earlier this year, that as long as I was happy with the results that I achieved there was no harm in trying it, after all worst case scenario was that I would just sell the equipment and recover some of the costs. Besides that I figured that I had to take the step sooner rather than later. So I purchased an Ebony RW45 and a couple of lenses and started out
None of the photo clubs around here seemed to be able to help me learn, and I wondered at times why I had chosen this path. So I immersed myself in books and just started practising. I have spent the last few months on a very steep learning curve. Every time I took some shots into the lab for processing there was something wrong. Over exposed because I forgot to stop down, underexposed because I had not allowed for bellows extension, out of focus because I couldn’t work out movements etc. I was happy to get 1 sort of ok image (exposed and focussed) for every 10 I took. I still haven’t made all of the mistakes posted in the forum, but I am sure that given time I will make all of them and more. Over time I believe that I have got better, the batch this week I actually managed to expose most of them correctly and all of them were focussed as I wanted. I am now reasonably confident that what I take will turn out ok, I have even had a few printed for the walls at home and work. Mind you they aren’t anything spectacular compared to the work I see here, but they make me happy.
I guess I have been fortunate in that I found this forum at a time when I finally took the plunge and invested in some large format gear. I have learnt lots from the people here and thank all of you. My wife has been very supportive, and my 7 year old son now wants to build a camera with me so that he has his own . I have arranged a couple of workshops as a result of postings on this site and am looking forward to them. And believe it or not I am starting to wonder if 4 x 5 is in fact too small and thinking that perhaps I should move up to a larger format in the future (not just yet though).
Most of all though I look forward to learning from all of you and perhaps getting good enough that some day I feel that I can actually post some images here. Maybe it might be when my son posts some of his. And to those who keep this site going, thank you.
I had always looked at Large Format as something to aspire to if I one day got good enough. But I made a decision when I hit 40 earlier this year, that as long as I was happy with the results that I achieved there was no harm in trying it, after all worst case scenario was that I would just sell the equipment and recover some of the costs. Besides that I figured that I had to take the step sooner rather than later. So I purchased an Ebony RW45 and a couple of lenses and started out
None of the photo clubs around here seemed to be able to help me learn, and I wondered at times why I had chosen this path. So I immersed myself in books and just started practising. I have spent the last few months on a very steep learning curve. Every time I took some shots into the lab for processing there was something wrong. Over exposed because I forgot to stop down, underexposed because I had not allowed for bellows extension, out of focus because I couldn’t work out movements etc. I was happy to get 1 sort of ok image (exposed and focussed) for every 10 I took. I still haven’t made all of the mistakes posted in the forum, but I am sure that given time I will make all of them and more. Over time I believe that I have got better, the batch this week I actually managed to expose most of them correctly and all of them were focussed as I wanted. I am now reasonably confident that what I take will turn out ok, I have even had a few printed for the walls at home and work. Mind you they aren’t anything spectacular compared to the work I see here, but they make me happy.
I guess I have been fortunate in that I found this forum at a time when I finally took the plunge and invested in some large format gear. I have learnt lots from the people here and thank all of you. My wife has been very supportive, and my 7 year old son now wants to build a camera with me so that he has his own . I have arranged a couple of workshops as a result of postings on this site and am looking forward to them. And believe it or not I am starting to wonder if 4 x 5 is in fact too small and thinking that perhaps I should move up to a larger format in the future (not just yet though).
Most of all though I look forward to learning from all of you and perhaps getting good enough that some day I feel that I can actually post some images here. Maybe it might be when my son posts some of his. And to those who keep this site going, thank you.