Forgetting my craft!

[arca andy]

From 1986 to 2000 I was a studio photographer using LF most days to shot products, food, room sets and the like. I took pride at being good at my craft, I was organised, methodical, had the correct equipment, a clean studio, all the things that helped produced great images on budget for happy clients. Since 2000 most of my photography has been location based using my ever increasing array of digital Canon EOS gear.
Today I revisited studio photography using my old MPP 5x4 (British Linhof copy) and my goodness I had forgotten how to do it! I was all over the place....forgetting to use movements, not checking the ASA on the light meter, not having my film loaded once I was ready to shot, forgetting to check focus, a litany of errors and mistakes. All those things I used to do making me good at my craft.
I guess digital and photoshop has changed my skill set but I don't think it's made me better at my craft!

[Vaughn]

Don't worry, it will all come back. It is like riding a bike -- one never forgets how to fall off.

[Bill_1856]

I don't know how old you are, but they say that Memory is the second thing to go...!

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

Digital not only killed the craft, it killed the business too !

[Doremus Scudder]

Would you expect a pianist who hadn't played since 2000 to be able to walk on stage and give a concert? If you don't use it, you lose it. I notice a decline after a few weeks of not shooting. Sometimes I'll take the camera out just to practice.

At any rate, a bit of time back at it and things will come back quickly, no worries.

Best,

Doremus

[David R Munson]

"Use it or lose it" always seemed off to me. More like, "Use it or it'll go dormant and then it'll take some work to get it back." Digital is a different skill set, related but separate enough. Work on the LF skills again, though, and they'll come back.

[Doremus Scudder]

... "Use it or it'll go dormant and then it'll take some work to get it back." ...

But David, it doesn't rhyme! (and "lost" doesn't mean you can't "find" it again...)

[Bruce Barlow]

Richard Ritter and I advocate an exercise called "camera cuddle," where you just sit and play with the camera, learning all the movements, which knobs are which, and so forth, until you're completely familiar. We similarly have a "shutter ritual," that practices all the things we do with a shutter getting ready to expose film - set aperture, set shutter speed, close the shutter (my favorite one to forget), cock,test fire, cock again.

If I've been away from LF, and will be going out to work with a big camera, I'll take 10 minutes the night before and cuddle said camera and a lens. It helps.

A nice thing to do listening to Bill Evans and sipping some single malt.

[ImSoNegative]

Digital not only killed the craft, it killed the business too !

Yep!!

[SergeiR]

Richard Ritter and I advocate an exercise called "camera cuddle," where you just sit and play with the camera, learning all the movements, which knobs are which, and so forth, until you're completely familiar. We similarly have a "shutter ritual," that practices all the things we do with a shutter getting ready to expose film - set aperture, set shutter speed, close the shutter (my favorite one to forget), cock,test fire, cock again.

If I've been away from LF, and will be going out to work with a big camera, I'll take 10 minutes the night before and cuddle said camera and a lens. It helps.

A nice thing to do listening to Bill Evans and sipping some single malt.

Yup. Sometime i just take camera out to play with ideas on movements. Without even as much as taking picture