the f 64 club

[Steyr]

I haven't read all replys, but... Lenses went to f90 commonly for 8x10 format, so f64 would not necessarily cause major degradation of quality.

Also Adams was a protege of Westons - a junior member of the club

[Ben Maddox]

From what I know of the story When Ansel suggested the name f/64 he was slightly drunk. In fact they did not choose the name for practical reasons but simply because it sounded cool to them. Sorry, but it's really not much deeper then that. Ansel as we all know keep excellent records of his exposure settings. But one aperture setting that is rarely seen in his work is f/64. It was just a name...

[Kirk Gittings]

Believe it or not one of the original members of this group participates on this forum and is still an active photographer. Maybe he will chime in.

Merg Ross, one of the greats.

[Ernest Purdum]

Interstingly, amongst the various lnses that Edward Weston is known to have used is at least one selectable soft focus type, the Graf Variable.

[Kirk Gittings]

A few weeks ago I said:

"Believe it or not one of the original members of this group participates on this forum and is still an active photographer. Maybe he will chime in. Merg Ross, one of the greats."

Just to set the record straight. Merg Ross is one of the greats and has genuine ties to many of the great West Coast photographers who's whose work defines LF and inspire us all. Those ties include Edward and Brett Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel and Henry Swift. I personally have followed Merg's work for literally decades and if you are not familiar with it you are really missing something. However, living legend that he is, Merg was NOT a memeber of F64. Merg recently emailed me to point out my error. I have no idea where I got that idea. I guess in my mind his accomplishments put him in that league even if it is not historically true.

[Ralph Barker]

Thanks for setting the archives straight, Kirk. When you made the remark originally, I thought, "Gee, Merg doesn't look old enough."

[Merg Ross]

Well, Kirk got me to thinking, could I possibly have been a member of the illustrious group given my age. Sure enough, Brett Weston was 21 years old at the time and would presently be the age of Julius Shulman. As recently as a few weeks ago I heard that the latter was doing well. So, although born later, I could have been a member and still be around. Consider me a vicariuos member.

Ralph, I remember our day at Mare Island, how did it go with the 8x10?

[Ralph Barker]

Merg - the day at Mare Island was very nice. Thanks to Will Whitaker, again, for setting it up. That was the Tachi's first real outing, and things went well, I thought. I got several images with which I was pleased, some with the little Toyo.

[John Z.]

I like Edward Stieglitz reply when asked to join the group; "I am already a member of club f 256" I guess he figured he was part of a sharper 'club' than the others could ever be.

[Merg Ross]

Hi John,

I believe Stieglitz may have been referring to the U.S. (Universal System) where 256 was the equivalent of f.64. Reportedly, Willard Van Dyke wanted to use U.S. 256 but Ansel thought the system obsolete and opted for f.64.