My heartfelt thanks to all of you who responded to my two questions about the lo st art of hand held shooting of LF and the second question of 'have we lost some thing', in lacking the discipline of anticipating the action and having only one shot, in a Linhof of Graphic to make the shot for our editors, thereby assuring our continuted employment.
My purpose in these two post,....although hidden....were to get some posters to 'THINK!' Lets examine the way we use LF. How many of you make a shot at tripod h eight level, just because it is convenient, and easy to see the ground glass. In the fifties and sixties, it was an insider joke to say...."Yeah, another Rollei shot"! This was meant to say that it was a 'belly-button' shot made when a shoo ter looked down into the twin lens reflex image and made the picture, where the camera was held, and the taking lens was at about belly-button height.
I am much more inpressed about the seriousness of a photographic artist when I s ee him/her, take the viewfinder off the Linhof,...walk around to compose the sho t, and THEN bring the camera to that position to execute the exposure.
To simply extend the tripod to a convenient level, mount the view camera and con veniently make the exposure is a common occurance in LF photography. To me, it i s only a KODAK PHOTO OP, but done with large format. "Put your camera here...poi nt it in this direction, and make your picture." Sorry guys, but that dosen't cu t it for me. Just ask yourself,...'when was the last time you had to invert your tripod center post, hang the camera upside down and make your shot....a foot of f of the ground?'
The next time I come upon a shooter in the Colorado high country, and see him/he r with his camera inverted, and him/her bent over checking the ground glass, ups ide down,....I'll know I have met someone worth knowing....and I'll buy the firs t round of drinks. It will help me get over the incessant questions on this list , of lens coverage, and filter size. I realize that newbies to LF need to have a nswers and I can appeciate that. Does anybody have any ideas on a chat group tha t would like to deal with PICTURES...and what makes them work...or not?
Thanks again to all who responded. Be well, Richard Boulware -Denver. P.S. The job I have been shooting with my Canon EOS-1vHS's is technical, and NOT art. But the BUCKS are very nice...and we all have bills to pay and obligations to meet. (:-)
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