Since I'm new to large format I'd like to hear about your favorite, least favori te, or most embarrassing experience involving large-format photography.
Did you publish a book? Did you forget to calculate the bellows-extension facto r for an important client (a nightmare of mine)? Did you trip over your tripod and fall in the lake?
If it's an unusual experience in large-format photography, then I want to hear i t. Thanks!
Myself and a friend went out shooting in the mountains (my first trip out with my Calumet 45N). I didn't have a proper pack for the camera, nor did I have proper prorection for the camera back. I ended up breaking the ground glass. But this wasn't the embarassing moment.
I went to the local camera store and picked up a new ground glass (which was fairly pricey). Took it home, ground down the edges to get it to fit properly, and screwed it into the back. I inserted the back into the camera, and locked it in. I then took the bellows, and moved the switch on the back standard to insert the bellows. But, stupid me, I moved the switch the wrong way.
Damn back with the new glass fell out of the back of the camera, and smashed into the monorail, breaking the glass. I didn't even get a chance to take ONE shot with the glass.
The worst moment? Going back to the camera store and getting another glass. And yes, it was from the same person. I also bought a glass protector the same time.
An expensive lesson. But relatively funny. Now.
Cheers!
-klm.
Maybe that occasion when I decided to make some portraits in large format. I set the camera in someone I know's garden, install some flashes for the fill in, set everything, make the person lo ok right, find an unaesthetical pleat in the jacket and walk to the person, stumble in the flash sync cable, hold the fla sh just in time while the camera joyfully crashes to the ground! I found later that the person had a Monalisa kin d of smile on the pictures that were made... Wonder why?
Surely someone else has loaded up the backpack with the film holders, light meter, loupe, darkcloth, cable releases, lenses, filters, lens cleaner, spanner wrench, rain cover, and . . . . . . . . left the camera at home.
Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
A year ago I was hired to photograph an important collection of contemporary art that was being donated to a university. I needed practically every piece of gear I owned: all my lighting equipment, a Sinar system to shoot the 4x5 transparencies for publication in a catalogue, a Hasselblad system to shoot specific details to illustrate the catalogue essays, a Nikon system to shoot 35 mm slides for the press packs, and a Nikon digital camera to shoot images for the web "exhibition." The university gallery was forty miles from my studio, and I spent an entire morning just UNpacking cases of gear, laying out everything so that I could switch formats rapidly and work efficiently and systematically for the upcoming week. All the lenses were cleaned, the film holders were vacuumed and loaded, the boxes of Polaroid were opened and ready to fly when I looked around and noticed that one thing was missing: the Sinar f2 itself. Racing back to my studio, I had to laugh that the camera occupied the only position in which a last look around the studio (at eye level!) didn't betray its omission: I had missed it because it was sitting comfortably eight feet off the ground, at the top of the big vertical copy stand I use for photographing flat art! Since at least ONE thing usually goes wrong on any given job, it was kind of nice to get it out of the way at the start, so that the rest of the job could go smoothly!
Last year I went to a little town near the Amazonic Jungle, to take photos with my brand new Linhof Tech. After 12 hours driving, I realized i had left my tripod at home....
Anyway, I ended up taking the photos, using a tall chair to rest the camera on, an couple of small boxes to change the orientation of the camera.
Embarrasing, but fun...
i went to a lawyer's office to take his portrait for a magazine. broke out the camera and got the light source on him the way i wanted it. i thought i had set my light meter to the right asa ... but realized when i began to process 1 sheet of film at a time that i had underexposed everything by 4 whole fstops. not good
I suppose this is more darkroom than large format, but it's no less embarrassing.
I was testing expanded development of sheet film, and very carefully developed it.....in fixer. I suppose it could have been a better story if it was irreplaceable wedding photos!
Just so you'll know, TMY in Rapid Fix loses both the shadows and the highlights.
I was in Hokkaido (north Japan) with my family, where there are a number of bear attacks each year, and I had warned my family to be careful. It was one of the first times that I had gone on an extended trip with my 4x5, and my family was getting more and more annoyed with the amount of time each shot was taking. Anyway, I had been composing a shot for about 20 minutes under the darkcloth when there was this enormous roar behind me and I was grabbed from behind - I was absolutely terrified, thinking that I had disturbed a bear, when in fact it was my daughter venting her frustration at another long wait. I think that she is still laughing at the look on my face.
I live in the desert where everyone has a tendency to get dried out if you don't drink enough water and use some kind of moisterizing hand cream. I met a photo companion for some field shooting at a ghost town and the temperature was about 105f. We shot about 30 shots combined. About a week later we got together to compare negatives and everyone of his had a large juicy thumbrint on the negative. Seems when loaded up the film he had just lube his hands with Jurgens. Needless to say Jurgens is not light transparent.
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