A few comments on experimentation in photography.

[vonstauren]

snip
And I have criticism of this as well, while we're on the subject of learning.

People learn in different ways. This would apply if there was one true way to learn, but history and my experience working with kids has taught me otherwise. I learn plenty efficiently for me. I tend to learn fast from mistakes, but sometimes my "mistakes" lead me to other interesting experiments and my learning starts all over again.

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Just don't take this forum too seriously. It's a mixed society here, and yes, plenty of BS to find too.
Personally, if someone were talking down to me, because I'm "like a young woman he was dating" and giving me advice about how she was and how it ended I would just laugh at the old F... speaking to me. For me it is the BS I mentioned above.
You have your style, your joy, your happiness - come with it to share it, if you like and if somebody else doesn't like it, it's his problem.
I experiment in a way far beyond the usual ways in photography and in camera making and I learned, among other things, this one - the more original you're, the more you will be attacked by those lacking your originality. If you have more important things to do than speaking to them, then do them and enjoy yourself.

[Jim Galli]

I wondered who got that crapastigmat! Well at least you didn't find the crapetzval. What worries me slightly after 10+ years of experimenting and having fun is that there are lenses in the cupboard that made excellent images when I played with them, never to be picked up again. I'm going to venture that perhaps 95% of the images posted at my web pages were made because I bought some old clunker, cobbled it to the front of a camera, and found subject matter so I could see what it would produce. I think you're spot on the right track. You may as well not fight the urge to get a big old Century Studio camera. Best test platform ever devised.

[Stephanie Brim]

Well, the crapastigmat is going to barely cover the head of a pin...so I should try it with 6x6, eh Jim?

Oh, and I did see a Kodak 2D that someone wanted a pittance for, but it didn't have a 4x5 back and I have no 8x10 holders.

[Jim Galli]

....but it didn't have a 4x5 back and I have no 8x10 holders.

Both remedial.

[Benno Jones]

Stephanie I think you have a great attitude and (while it's obvious you don't need the advice) don't let anyone tell you you're doing things "wrong". I too learn by doing and making mistakes and figuring out how to either "fix" the mistakes to get what I want or finding how to make the "mistake" work for me to get something else.

Film photography is an art based in two sciences - optics and chemistry. Therefore you will find many photographers drawn to it from the scientific side. Many other of us are drawn from the artistic side. Neither is wrong, and both find their own way to the results they want.

I may have 11 years to go before I'm ripe, but I do know that there is no one true path to anything.

[domenico Foschi]

Well, the crapastigmat is going to barely cover the head of a pin...so I should try it with 6x6, eh Jim?

Oh, and I did see a Kodak 2D that someone wanted a pittance for, but it didn't have a 4x5 back and I have no 8x10 holders.

Stephanie, if the camera is till available, get it, I have a 4x5 reducing back for you.
Also for a pittance.
DOmenico

[domenico Foschi]

Oohps, my mistake!
It is a 5x7 back.
Still for a pittance if you need it.

[Stephanie Brim]

I'm sticking with my Graphic View for now, but keep that back. I may need it sooner than you think.

[steve simmons]

At this point in your career I might encourage you to leave this forum, get a Polaroid back and some film and just play, experiment, and try things. You be the only judge. It seems that you may be beginning to get caught in defending yourself and, if so, this won't help your learning curve and creativity.

Leave the Polaroids out to look at and live with for days or weeks and see what resonates with you. I am not sure you should even look at the work of others for a few weeks. Just play.

steve simmons

[domenico Foschi]

At this point in your career I might encourage you to leave this forum, get a Polaroid back and some film and just play, experiment, and try things. You be the only judge. It seems that you may be beginning to get caught in defending yourself and, if so, this won't help your learning curve and creativity.

Leave the Polaroids out to look at and live with for days or weeks and see what resonates with you. I am not sure you should even look at the work of others for a few weeks. Just play.

steve simmons

correct