Large Format and Contemplative Photography

[Alan Davenport]

I think I am a fumbly contemplative photograher.....

I guess I'm your opposite: I'm a contemplative fumbly photographer!

[roteague]

I guess I'm your opposite: I'm a contemplative fumbly photographer!

I thought I was the same way, then I realized that a better word for what I do is "screwed-up"

[Maris Rusis]

Setting up a 8x10 camera and exposing a sheet of film inside two minutes is not that hard. The key is to do all the time consuming stuff before the camera comes out of the bag.

Finding the subject and where to stand to see it best is easy if one uses a framing card first. My card has a 4x5 hole and it hangs around my neck on a string that pulls out to 150mm. This corresponds remarkably accurately to the field of view of my standard 300mm lens. String length is adjusted appropriately for other focal lengths.

I take light meter reading often even when just looking. If the light does not change I already know the shutter speed and aperture.

My focussing loupe is actually a pair of 3.5D reading glasses in the shirt pocket ready to hand and accurate enough.

The tripod does not have to be unpacked. I carry it in one hand and when that hand gets tired I swap hands.

The lens is in the bag with the shutter and aperture wide open for immediate viewing. The shutter speed set is the one I expect to be using until the light changes. To get to the lens I have to take out of the bag first the focussing cloth then the camera and only then the lens. The right component in the right sequence speeds work flow.

The camera, of course, is fitted with a quick change plate for the tripod head. Trying to lead a 3/8" screw into a socket on the under side of a heavy view camera where you can't see is no way to get a fast secure result.

Unless one is chasing sunsets, moonrises, or jumpy portrait subjects view camera shooting in under two minutes is unnecessary. And everyone who does shoot that stuff finds that sometimes two minutes is no way fast enough.

In practice most of my subject matter doesn't die, deteriorate, or run away inside ten minutes and I will always work slower, more contemplatively, and more painstakingly, given the option.

[Struan Gray]

I'm still thinking....

[squiress]

I started doing LF because it seemed a little more deliberate. It caused me to think a lot more about lighting, time of day, camera location compared to subject, lots of technique things that I just wasn't spending a lot of time with with my 20D. I think that deliberateness has helped my digital shooting a lot. At the same time I need a lot of practice with both 4x5 and 8x10 process. Hopefully I'll get good at the mechanicals one day.

Stew

[ljb0904]

I started LF because one day I want to make BIG prints like the ones I saw of Dykingas at mountain light gallery. That's why I use large format and not some pipsqueak digital camera. I'm not saying my images are good because I use large format, I'm just saying my bad images are going to be freaking BIG (someday).

I'm glad Butzi has his contemplativeness with a Canon 5D. More power to him. There's no reason he shouldn't be able to take some very nice images with it. Leave everybody else alone, dude. Someone wants to take 20 minutes under a cloth, who the hell is he to judge what they enjoy? Maybe they're just learning. I agree with him, LF != better. Nice of him to state the obvious.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

I am not sure why Butzi wrote what he did, nor do I care. He does not set the gold standard for me in any way. I was kind of surprised he added the Sexton section. Like many on this forum, I have taken workshops with John, even a two week one, and never recall John saying or teaching this. Not saying he didn't say it to Butzi, just that when he was teaching me LF he never said anyting close the the "60 second rule".

I agree with some things Paul said in that a small camera can be just as contemplative as a large one. I think a "contemplative" photographer has more to do with personality than it does with equipment anyway. I don't think he is correct on other things such as a person spending a long time under the cloth doesn't know what he/she is doing. I enjoy looking at the image and take as much, or as little, time as I like.

All in all, I think he came across as sort of trying to make himself feel better about his decision. All cameras, large and small, digital and analog are capable of making great images as long as the person using it has the vision, ability and love for the craft.

[Rory_5244]

I just like his (Paul Butzi's) LF pictures better than his 5D pictures somehow.