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Thread: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

  1. #11

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    I was feeling that way for a while. I think the winter is particularly hard for LF. My job kills (overnight nurse) and I end up waking up pretty late and not having light/weather to do what I want. But then...I took a couple of shots recently that ended up being pretty awesome. So...I'm back in the game. I need to work on my skills.

    One thing to keep in mind: shooting and processing are two different things. Like...if I'm doing one or the other, everythings cool. Shoot a bunch of film, that's cool. Want to see it, so process it. That's cool too. As long as I'm doing something.

    Must say that looking through ground glass is pretty therapeutic. I hear everything you are saying though...

  2. #12

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me


    Cairngorms by Riverman___, on Flickr

    That's a keeper, dude.

  3. #13
    Steve Smith's Avatar
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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    Quote Originally Posted by Riverman View Post
    Constant 10 to 12 hour days leave me so tired and with so little time for photography.
    There's your problem. If you are employed, only work the hours you are paid for. If you are self employed then you need to have a word with your boss!


    Steve.

  4. #14

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    Cheers paul. when i made that shot i knew it would have been great in LF. But the shot was taken first thing. The morning after walking 8 miles the previous day to get to the little hut bottom centre. Getting to that location with an LF camera would have been tough. I get real joy capturing unanticipated scenes. I find the deliberate nature of LF hard to handle. Anyway. Keep an eye on the classifieds for some film sales! The proceeds will probably buy me some last ektachrome. I can hike easy with that stuff and my nikon.

  5. #15

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Smith View Post
    There's your problem. If you are employed, only work the hours you are paid for. If you are self employed then you need to have a word with your boss!


    Steve.
    As an employee I wish I could justwork my contracthours but (groan) thenature of my work won't let me get away with that. If I tried itI'd be out of a job quickly.

  6. #16

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    Your life will be less stressful when you remove all aspects which get in the way of your photography. If there is not enough time to do the odd bit of LF work then it perhaps speaks of a deeper problem.

    Be ruthless

  7. #17
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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    Your situation is certainly not unusual. Life is complicated these days more than in the past, and people are often engaged more broadly than they once were. Those of us in that sort of situation need a manifesto: It's about quality, not quantity.

    I gave up large format in the late 70's--actually gave up photography altogether--I was just burned out on it from too much wedding work and other extra-curricular photography-for-money-and-not-for-me. I started playing music again, finished a grad-school degree, built a career--responsibilities of another sort that I did not ignore. I picked it up again in the middle 80's, and sort-of poked along at a modest pace. I moved, found a muse in my new city, built a darkroom, and started working at it more consistently. But "consistent" is the word, not "prolific". A good day for me was two exposures--that's always been about my limit with large-format. But I had such days every week for a period of years, much of it with big cameras as had been the case in the 70's. (Very little of my serious work has made it online--most of what I have online is fun stuff from the last 15 years with weird and cheap cameras as discussion fodder for other photography forums.)

    But then life changed again--I moved to a new city, entered the private sector, started traveling constantly, and set it aside once more. I built another darkroom, but never really had the time to do much work in it. I switched to medium-format as an alternative, despite that the equipment I could afford was always second-rate (I like short lenses and they didn't mix well with the usual budget options in medium format in those days). I worked at medium format for a decade, trying hard to get real quality with low-priced stuff.

    Then, I happened to wander into a little country gallery owned by a photographer/artist. He had one print on display that struck a resonant chord with me. It had image qualities in a decent-size print that I had just not been able to attain with my budget-conscious medium-format stuff or with my digital stuff. I came face to face--again--with my own mediocrity and quality compromise, and realized that if I was ever going to be satisfied even with doing a little work, I would just have to step it up. The digital stuff I'd been doing was fine for small prints, but it no longer did it for me in terms of feeding my desire.

    So, I've pulled the big camera back out. And, wonder of wonders, the stuff I could not afford before now sells for pennies on the dollar, and I have the stuff I only dreamed about 20 years ago, both in medium format and in large format.

    But my problem is like yours--I'm back in the public sector, and I take my work very seriously and derive immense satisfaction from doing it. My commute time is monstrous, but that's made tolerable by the fact that over half the time I'm on travel anyway (75K air miles last year--all domestic). Given other responsibilities that I will not ignore, I just have to be content with doing a little at a time.

    I've learned stuff over the years, though. One thing I learned is that I can derive enjoyment from doing large-format photography even without doing it. It sounds silly, of course. But I learned it during a period in the very early 80's when I was racing cars on weekends. Track time was precious, so I had to learn how to drive without driving. I would think through what I did and rehearse it in my mind at times when I needed a break from something else. It's like a reading a book--it provides a way to go somewhere without going there. Same with music: I catch myself drumming scale patterns with my fingers on the steering wheel of the car. So, I spend a lot more time thinking about serious photography than doing it, and when I do get out there with the camera, I find that my technique is still as good as it ever was (no further comment). Plus, I get a lot of mental relaxation from even just pretending I'm out there with the camera. Some would call this a fantasy world, but I think most artistic expression derives from fantasy of one sort or another.

    I still play music, and I still work hard and travel all the time. I have very little time for play, and I play at a lot of different things, so I may only end up with a handful of serious photographs each year.

    That leads back to my manifesto: Expression for me is not about quantity, but rather about quality. (My quality model is rather modest compared to many here, but that's one reason I hang out here--it sharpens my standards.) All my photographs are going to end up in a dumpster someday anyway, so I don't mind if I only make three or four prints a year. Or every two years. That's enough to keep me in the game. It also keeps me from wasting my rare time making images I'm not committed to from a quality perspective.

    So, I own a small chest freezer and keep my film there. I no longer really worry about expiration dates and I just use it when I can and don't worry about it. When I have odd moments, often at night when making photographs isn't possible, I pull out the camera and practice with it. I learned that from music, too: Practice is as satisfying as performance. If it's not, no musician would ever spend the hours required playing scales and exercises just for the minutes in performance.

    One caveat, though: I can perhaps get away with "mental rehearsal", because there was a time in my life when I devoted hours every day to building a basic technique. That's true for me for both photography and music.

    Rick "thinking it's easy to justify giving up" Denney

  8. #18
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    There's no right answer here. For some people, sticking it out might lead to the best outcome, but for others it won't. You might think a bit about the following, though: If you enjoy using your smaller cameras so much, why do you feel that need to use LF? Another way of saying that is what do you feel is lacking with your use of smaller cameras that makes you, at least a little bit, want to use a larger camera?
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

  9. #19

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    I find the little time I have in the field for photography is more enjoyable with the 8x10. Any outing with the 8x10 takes considerably more planning and i find even the anticipation enjoyable. The restrictions of wieght, bulk, and not having every doodad at the touch of a button (like a digi) or along in the bag (like a 35slr or mf camera) is liberating---which I know sounds wierd. Louping 6 or 12 big negatives to find gold is for me more enjoyable than going through 36 or 72 "shots' on an itty bitty screen or contact sheets. There is also a physical, very personal element I find difficult to define---under a dark cloth is akin to getting inside the camera and looking out and composing is a very unique experience. Physically touching the paper and agitating as it journeys through the chemicals transmits a certain human energy to the finished product and pulling a print out of the fix must be the same feeling a painter gets stepping back from a finished painting. Kind of like giving birth.
    Of course YMMV
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  10. #20

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    Re: Why LF doesn't seem to be working for me

    I really don't have the opportunity to shoot very often..so when I do..it might as well be a circus

    8x10 and 5x7 and maybe some 4x5 thrown in for kicks...lights..props..models..travel..

    the whole 9 yards

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