A poll about your field notes

[JohnGC]

Really lousy my memory is,
So detailed notes I write and write.
F-stop, factors and all the biz,
I put it down and keep it tight,
Three pages worth, so fast, it's a wiz.

Sometimes, when the shot is right,
I'm having so much fun, that is,
I get so lost within the sight.
kinda like when we were kids,
it's then you know, I forget to write!


Not very good, I know, but poetry isn't I want to be famous for...

[seabird]

leave spreadsheets for accountants.

Please refer my earlier post: I AM an accountant - but I also enjoy making images with my LF gear.

Cheers

[Andrew O'Neill]

date, film holder no., film & format, subject/location, low reading, high reading, N, EI, Filter & factor, Reciprocity, Bellows Ext, Adjusted N (if any due to filters), Exposure,
Developer.

If the subject permits, these are filled in before exposure. When I'm rushed, the bolded headings absolutely must be filled in, otherwise I will forget.
Sometimes a sketch the subject and write notes about lighting, weather, how windy, etc. Funny thing though, when I look at the negatives years later, I can remember the situation quite clearly, and events leading up to it.

[pablo batt]

I prefer to bracket since, for example, shutter speed can vary with temperature – but despite making this and other occasional technical considerations, I’m certainly not going to allow them to interrupt my pleasure by accounting for and recording them. That’s neither helpful nor pleasurable to me.

Indeed, doing so is plain distracting – and besides, I just don’t like the difficulty of it all.

Let’s put it this way: when I consider the technical part of my image, I begin losing the enjoyment and immediacy of just “being there.”

Heck, I can be more direct still: The whole photographic process is secondary to me. It interferes with why I’m out there in the first place – to soak it up, to take a deep breath, to sit back and enjoy the un-mediated scene through the best “camera” I will ever possess, my own eyes.

Yes, I recognize this approach runs counter to what many others have shared in this thread. And I’m pleased to acknowledge that approach – even if I don’t accept it, even if it’s all quite alien to me – since, after all, you are generous enough to acknowledge mine.

now why would i want to waffle on like that, Europeans get to the point ,we dont need to overplay politeness , we are thicker skinned than us citizens lol

[William McEwen]

Safelights are red
Bad stop bath is blue
Damn neg is overdeveloped
Should have been N minus two

[sun of sand]

I prefer to bracket since, for example, shutter speed can vary with temperature – but despite making this and other occasional technical considerations, I’m certainly not going to allow them to interrupt my pleasure by accounting for and recording them. That’s neither helpful nor pleasurable to me.

Indeed, doing so is plain distracting – and besides, I just don’t like the difficulty of it all.

Let’s put it this way: when I consider the technical part of my image, I begin losing the enjoyment and immediacy of just “being there.”

Heck, I can be more direct still: The whole photographic process is secondary to me. It interferes with why I’m out there in the first place – to soak it up, to take a deep breath, to sit back and enjoy the un-mediated scene through the best “camera” I will ever possess, my own eyes.

Yes, I recognize this approach runs counter to what many others have shared in this thread. And I’m pleased to acknowledge that approach – even if I don’t accept it, even if it’s all quite alien to me – since, after all, you are generous enough to acknowledge mine.


Dude ..wtf?

Are you going to sit here and tell me you couldn't quite understand him and yet can reword his sentiment for him

Your revison sounds like an acedemic intellectual ass

[sun of sand]

I like the poetry

I made a good contribution to this thread

[Steve M Hostetter]

a guy named ansel came up with the zone
back when cars wound up and Percy Killbride (Pa Kettle) was half grown
i asked this chic darlene why she's so set in her ways
she said shut the fu.. up grasshopper can't you see i'm the master these days

I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee
i'll smoke you like a bad habbit if you mess with me
I know you think I'm slow cause I go by the book
but I'll run circles around you till you lose that look

I know she won't answer my questions cause she's above all that
so i'll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs like some snot nosed brat
anymore when I hear she's in town
i'll put my tail between my legs and run with a drooling frown

I know you think i'm a pud for letting a girl pick on me
but what you don't know is she's that bad roller derby queen from Tallahassee

[Mark Sawyer]

I just list the basics on a stick-on post-it note. Lens, f/stop, shutter speed if it's worth noting, and the development time, which is calculated along with the exposure as its counterpart. I keep the notes coordinated with the negative through processing, then transfer the info to the negative sleeve, along with the date. On a few sleeves, if I think I'll be printing the negative again, I add printing info, like burn/dodge contour maps or contrast notes. Not a formula for replication, but a starting point for next time.

I'm starting to think, though, that when making notes in the field, I should also list an excuse for why I won't like the negative. It would save time coming up with excuses later...

[Struan Gray]

lovely cherry trees
oh nooo oh no jesus please
don't on ground glass sneeze

Give it a title and you could win

"A breathtaking view"

or

"A viewtaking breath"


<ontopic>
I used to take lots of notes, and still do when I'm trying anything new like dabbling in strobe lighting. But for my normal landscapes I work in areas I know, I use one film, which is colour so it only offers very restricted development manipulations, and I simply know how I like to expose it. Taking notes just drowns the muse in paperwork. I do bracket depth of field to cover my bases on the bokeh front.

It helps that I never have any difficulty remembering where I took a particular shot. *When* causes me endless problems, but I can recall where I was standing, and find it on a large scale map, for several years after exposure. That reduces the need to note down subject details.
</ontopic>