Fifty right now. A day older tomorrow. LF for twenty years, Pt/pd for ten. The reason that most of the LF crowd is older is that we can no longer squint through the viewfinder of a 35mm SLR any more!
Just turned the big five-oh(no). I returned today from a shoot out on the Olympic Peninsula of my home state, Washington, and after lugging around a pack of camera gear for a couple of days I'm beginning to realize that 50 has its drawbacks. Started too many years ago to remember with an OM-1, then a Pentax 67, followed by a Wista SP, added a Pentax 645 and have sold all of the above and now shoot exclusively with an Arca-Swiss 69. I shoot professionally (nature) for stock and am hoping the economy turns around real soon.
At 66, I'll bring up the average age a bit for this forum. After a lifetime of shooting 35mm, I started with LF six years back. Now retired in the Bay Area, I get spend real time with my Canham DLC and then lurk here on the forum between shoots.
35, started photography at 14. moved up to lf for close to 15 years ago? has it been that long? gulp. shoot all kinds up to 8x10, but don't use it too much anymore... too heavy.
35 as well...bought a speed graphic when I was 17, was forced to use a view camera in photo school and spent my following years after graduation in sveral small dark closets loading film holders for hours on end & earning minimum wage....never dreamed I'd be using a view camera to make a living, but after almost 10 years now, I'm starting to almost enjoy it...in a moment of temporary insanity earlier this week I bought an old kodak 8x10, so we'll see where that goes right now it's hogging up what little empty space I had in my darkroom, so I guess I better get shooting.....
Sixty Six big ones. Am trying to switch to LF from 35 so I'll slow down and make "great photographs" in my dotage. (Good 35mm requires too much energy from an old man.)
20, shooting 4x5 large format for about 6 months now. Like Tony, I'm a medical student (however nothing as hardcore as MD/PhD). I suppose lugging a 4x5 monorail around the streets of Melbourne beats the old stereotype of medical people having Hasselblads and not knowing what to do with em...
living here in the west I HAVE seen other large format photogs in places like Death Valley, or Bodie ghost town. So far they've always been too good to talk for 30 seconds to the likes of me! So consider yourselves lucky if you never stumbled into one!
Well, I am 47. Started doing astrophotography with an Exacta body at age 14. First LF in 1975, but have been doing significant LF since 1980. Mostly 4x5 and digital now.
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