Hello all.
I have been an off again, on again member of this forum for several years. In that time I have dabbled around the edges of large format, mostly buying things without ever really getting serious about learning how to use it.
About a year ago I realized that I had really become a collector, and not really a very good one either.
I knew this was not what I had started out to accomplish when I started out with my first camera over 40 years ago. I also realized that I seemed happiest when I was out in the mountains with my large format camera. But I'm starting late in life and feel as if I'm running out of time.
To make a very involved story much, much shorter, I am getting rid of the great majority of my small format equipment and keeping very little. I have a small project that I'll be finishing off this winter and then I'll be focusing all my attention on learning large format photography. This winter I'll be reading a lot. Thanks to suggestions from some friends at Photrio.com, I have started with the three books in Ansel Adam's Photography Series, and there are a few other books waiting in the wings. They also suggested that I join this forum and start taking advantage of all the terrific resources on this site.
I am actually looking forward to this and am excited. I know I have a huge amount to learn. If nothing else my past brief forays into large format have certainly made that abundantly clear.
I guess that this is as much a warning as anything else. Be prepared for lots of dumb questions and requests for advice in the upcoming months, particularly in critiquing my efforts as I start to move forward. I am retired but I am certainly not rich so most of my learning will have to be from my books and my practice right here in my own backyard. From theory to negative to prints if you will.
I do have equipment, buying stuff is easy, but owning it is not the same as knowing how to use it. I certainly don't need anything else right now. I will be starting with 4x5, probably my Cambo because I have more supplies in that format. My long term goal is to work up to 8x10, but the learning has to come first.
Anyway, wish me luck...and sometimes you may want to duck. I have been known to get pissed and start throwing things once in a while when something doesn't work out the way I thought it should.
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