I have been a photographer most of my adult life. I have owned/lost/sold 35mm and 120 gear. I had the darkroom gear to go with the camera gear as well.
So I have a basic understanding about the mechanics of exposure, composition and development. Never was much good at printing though at least not to my liking.

Last winter I purchased my first LF camera. Over the last year I have acquired numerous lenses and associated gear. I am still learning.....and making mistakes.

I have heard people talk about workflow, the process from taking the photograph to a final product. I had a pretty good grip on my simple work flow back in the early 1980s.
After life got in the way the darkroom went away. I now have replacement gear but need a darkroom proper. Why it has taken this long is a mystery to me but I finally figure that it is because I have not reached that point in my learning.

I recently made a trip out west. A solo road trip hitting all those damn big holes (DBH) and big #$@*ing rocks (BFR) that draws so many people. I thought I had a grip on my workflow. I was dead wrong. Here are some of the issues I have had.

The whole process begins with loading film in the holders. Yes, I managed to screw this up. It seems that when sheet film is loaded into the holder one must check that the sheet is all the way against the stop next to the hinge. I did manage to figure out which side was the emulsion side without loosing any film. On one occasion I did miss the bottom slot so the sheet was not secured to the back of the holder. When I used that sheet I could not get the dark slide back into the holder. Sacrifice one sheet of film. On a couple occasions I did not flip the dark slide when loading indicating a fresh sheet, blank image. Despite these issues I consider myself lucky to have so few problems in this area, though I have too many blank images to my liking.

Never turn your back on your camera. I have the splinters to prove why. I have managed to be fairly consistent with the scene setup though most shots are landscape and require little if any movement. Even focusing has not been an issue. Where I have had problems is remembering to close the shutter before pulling the dark slide. This happened more than once. But the most idiotic is not even pulling the dark slide, though this does not necessarily waste film, just miss the shot. These are things I am working on. I know that eventually it will become rote. Toward the end of the trip, setup time was less and less. I was getting comfortable with the process.

Unloading film is not hard. While on the trip I tried to develop in the motel room though it was not always possible. I still have several dozen sheets to develop once I got home. My handling of the holders on loading again had the same issues with the sheet not being positioned properly. I didn't realize this till I processed the film at home. Now I know. I had not considered how to handle exposed vs fresh film on the trip. I disliked the idea of putting exposed sheets in the same box with fresh film. But I had a shortage of boxes. I did loose track of this but it took only one sheet to tell me that those 7 other sheets had not been exposed. I still do not have a system I am comfortable with.

Developing was not difficult though I think my negs are a on the dense side. What really chapped my butt was the developing tank. It is a Nikor multi format sheet film tank. It has a spirial reel that is adjustable to various sheet sizes. I did not consider the issues that would arise with that adjustable reel being out of wack. The edge of one sheet would touch the middle of another leaving a mark. The film kept binding or jumping the guide leaving areas were the film was not developed. I have been using this for 6 months now. Finally, today, I got the setup right. I did find that I prefer a wash instead of stop bath. One less chemical. I also prefer mix on demand.

BTW anyone who uses a sized system like that should be aware that Fuji Neopan Acros 100 is slightly larger than Kodak TMX or Fomapan 100. Once I had the reel adjusted to accept the Neopan Acros all was perfect. One more notch in the workflow corrected.

I know there are probably large gaping holes in my workflow. I am sure I will find more. I feel that the demands on all this other necessary stuff has kept me from becoming comfortable with movements. This will come with time. Right now I am just happy with an image that is properly exposed and in focus.