Oren,
Can I hire you to write an artist statement for me..
Oren,
Can I hire you to write an artist statement for me..
Kerry: He is a fellow LFer. In fact, this is the guy my wife blames for this facet of my photomania, since he had that 4x5 camera (unused) but got me energized to the point that I decided to give it a try. I had a small amount of experience using a couple of Speed Graphics some 30+ years ago, but rejected large format as too expensive at that time. In retrospect, that was the biggest photographic mistake I ever made. I find that 4x5 photography, once the initial outlay for equipment is made, has been much cheaper than 35mm ever was, since a day of 35mm usually had 4 or 5 rolls going into the soup, while a busy day with the 4x5 usually runs 8 or 10 sheets, which costs about the same to process as maybe 2 rolls of 35mm. Despite having had his LF camera much longer than I've had one, he's never been bitten quite as hard by the photo bug as I was.
Wilbur & Glenn: He's using a Speed Graphic. His camera has an interesting history, having been used for evidenciary photography by a member of the Chicago police, back in the day. He's got the complete outfit, camera, case, flashgun and a couple of lenses. Pretty sure the one he used here was 90mm, an Optar I think; similar to an Angulon.
Oren: LMAO.
I made a few shots of my own that day, but I haven't gotten around to printing them yet.
"How NOT to Do Large Format, Illustrated --)"
Upon further consideration (ok, not that much, but I have had a beer), I think this is proper large format technique. Or at least it's proper "popular" technique given the (re)onslaught of pictoralism in photographs these days. Any more stringent of a circle-of-confusion in the process and I think your friend might have lost that nifty, fuzzy, etheral and Oren-defined emphemeral thing going on. My wife thinks it's also a mistake (accidentally opening the shutter with the dark slide pulled and your face in frame). Sheez, she's a quilter, what does she know about photography?!
The only trouble with doin' nothing is you can't tell when you get caught up
LOL! Hmmm, looks like an exposure and color balance test. Since he was expecting the engineer to show up for a portrait on the next day, he combined a test of exposure and skin tone plus verified his depth of field all in one go. And to top it off, he realized that he needed a longer cable release for sharp self portraits, as well as some lubrication so that he could drop the bed on the old camera next time. And how much more interesting even the test is with a person in it instead of just dull static machinery! Proof of concept!
He's doing pretty good. Accidentally pulling on the rear dark slide instead of the front one just a tad and then saying "@#$)X" doesn't produce anywhere near as nice an image!
After thinking about this, maybe I should also take a similar photograph. As part of capturing a typical pose, I can relate to being seen with my head tilted way back so I can see the tiny numbers through the granny glasses while stuffing my fat fingers into those small spaces. . . . Perhaps we should spawn a new genre of photography.
I think there is a ghost in the machine.
"I think there is a ghost in the machine"
that would the ghost of Casey Jones then...
This is ART!
I see a museum show.
Keep up the good work! I want to see more.
Do this on all your photos and you can save a fortune on ink or pencil and having to sign each print you sell.
Nice "bokeh self-portrait". What's all that junk in the background?
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