I'm in a ponderous mood and was thinking back on my journey from that first Rico h SRT201 35mm camera to the Arca and Canham cameras I use today.
I'd love to hear how others have ended up in large format. Surely most of us st arted with something much smaller and easier and found ourselves driven be somet hing...larger negatives, creative control, a desire to lug around the heaviest k it with the most pieces...etc.
For me its a number of things. The speed of the camera, the size of the ground glass, the joy of seeing the negatives hanging up to dry after processing, and contact printing. I hate to enlarge negatives anymore......
For me it was negative quality, I always noticed when I did proof sheets how nice the contact sheets looked, but then when enlarging it look like crap....once I took the plunge and saw the difference I was hooked. I can fairly state my photography improved 100% just by using a larger negative.
I got the LF bug at the School of the Dayton Art Institute, in the beginning of the fall semester of 1969. When Emmett Gowin demonstrated the wonderful quality of contact prints from large negatives, I knew I had to get involved...
I took a job with a San Jose company in September of 2000. Living in Calgary Alberta, this involved a lot of travel, so I thought I'd purchase a 35mm and document where I was going, mostly for my kids.
During one stretch, I commuted between Calgary and Missouri for four months straight - every week. It was brutal. I was travelling for around 20 hours a week, and working 50-60. Did I mention it was brutal?
I'd been a point-and-shooter for along time with a simple 35mm viewfinder, and didn't really know squat about photography, so I purchased The Camera, The Negative, and the Print.
After spending countless hours on the plane, reading each book cover to cover more than once, I started to realize that 35mm, while very convenient, just didn't offer the flexibility you need to shoot some scenes. I therfore decided to dive into large format.
I purchased a Calumet 45N off eBay, and a single 150mm lens. I now own a 45A-II, and three lenses, and make regular trips into the Rockies, which are an hour from my door.
Did I also mention I built a (small) darkroom, purchased a 4500-II 4x5 enlarger (practically new), and have already taken a workshop in Yosemite? All since March, when I bought the 4x5?
I don't just dabble, I dive in. :-)
Haven't sunk yet. And I'm lovin' every minute of it!
I was actually just coming to the board to ask that exact same question.
For me it started about a year ago when I saw an article in the local paper about platinum/palladium printing. At that point I was only shooting 35mm and just getting serious about my photography. With research I realized that P/P required a contact print and that my 35mm negs wouldn't cut it. Only then did I realize that people still used those "old-fashion" cameras. I researched some more, discovered this board through photo.net, and bought the Steve Simmons book. After enless hours of reading I learned in addition to having the large negative for P/P and finally understood that the shifts and tilts would correct my architecture photos -- one of my favorite things to shoot is the outside of old buildings. Plus, I was attracted to the need to slow down and really compose.
At that time I had just gone to a new job with a nice pay increase and treated myself to an Arca Swiss Discovery. I had no idea at the time that that was just the beginning. Next was a better tripod, endless amounts of film, an additional lens, you know the routine.
But, I'm absolutely hooked although none of my friends understand why.
I used a 35mm Nikon for 10 years before I bought a Hassy and a 4x5 Arca-Swiss a year later and then a 8x10 Wista a few months later and a 8x10 Deardorff another few months later. I only shoot 8x10 now. It's an addiction. It's so hard to get a fine print, but you really start to learn. You drive a few hundred miles over the weekend just for that tree or rock or that special light. It's an experience. It's a life.
St. Wensceslaus church in New Prague, Minnesota. A number of years ago I arrived in this small Minnesota town about an hour early for a business meeting. The town is not far from where I grew up and I remembered that the catholic church there was an interesting building and very large for a small town. with my Nikons in hand I went to take some pictures. I was frustrated by the inability to get the spires and the full facade into the shot without the the converging lines. Switching to a 20mm lens seemed the help but then I had a 35mm frame with about 1/3 church and 2/3 sidewalk and street leading up to it. So the search began for a perspective control lens. After finding out how expensive they were, how scarce in the used market, and how limited their usefulness was, a shop owner suggested I try one of the old Crown Graphics he had. And the rest, as they say, is history. The large negative, control of plane of focus, individual frame processing and all the other benefits soon became apparent.
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