Fred Picker #51, June 1987 Newsletter

[IanBarber]

I was wondering if anyone a PDF version of #51, June 1987 Fred Pickers Newsletter.

Would like to read this one.

[Naeroscatu]

If I remember correctly there are a series of PDF files of the Fred's newsletters available in an archive on the internet. I downloaded a bunch as it is free if you find it. Not sure if I have #51 but I will check tonight as soon as I get home. Will get back to you. Cheers

[K. Praslowicz]

https://archive.org/details/img_20170209_214736_1024

Or more specifically https://ia801606.us.archive.org/10/items/img_20170209_214736_1024/Zone%20VI%20Newsletters.pdf has it within.

[Doremus Scudder]

K. Praslowicz,

Thanks for the links!

Doremus

[DHodson]

Here's another link

http://zonevi.dk/junk/?page_id=1341 (you might need to load the Adobe Flash player)

Regards
Dave

[Old_Dick]

Hi Folks,

On a side note, I have Fred's video in a zipped tarball on google's cloud. I do have permission from the actual owners to parse it out, and it is free. You just can't decide one day to start selling it or put it out for anyone to download.

[IanBarber]

Hi Folks,

On a side note, I have Fred's video in a zipped tarball on google's cloud. I do have permission from the actual owners to parse it out, and it is free. You just can't decide one day to start selling it or put it out for anyone to download.

I would like to watch that

[Old_Dick]

I'll PM you.

[IanBarber]

I'll PM you.

Thank You

[Ulophot]

Fred Picker's newsletter was always a treat to read during the several years I subscribed to it. I am delighted to find the whole lot of them, which I have downloaded now and look forward eagerly to reading -- all 900-plus pages. I have never been especially not enamored of his photography, and have wondered how it was that in late years -- at least, according to his "Photographing with Fred Picker" video and a debate through articles with Howard Bond in Darkroom Techniques magazine, he appeared to have turned the Zone System into "place the highlight on VIII and expose." Nonetheless, the newsletter offered an engaging exploration of photography that surely has enduring value.

Thanks for the link!

[Old_Dick]

Yes, thanks for the links.

[Ken Lee]

I have ... wondered how ...he appeared to have turned the Zone System into "place the highlight on VIII and expose."

Me too.

It's just a hunch, but my guess is that eventually, after years of experience, some of us end up selecting only those subjects which match the capacity of our materials and process. Just as we learn to spot the lighting, texture, composition and other elements which will result in a nice print with little effort, we do the same with respect to dynamic range. In other words, it worked for him.

[peter schrager]

Me too.

It's just a hunch, but my guess is that eventually, after years of experience, some of us end up selecting only those subjects which match the capacity of our materials and process. Just as we learn to spot the lighting, texture, composition and other elements which will result in a nice print with little effort, we do the same with respect to dynamic range. In other words, it worked for him.
Actually that's exactly how I meter...placement on the highs
Works everytime

[peter schrager]

And thanks for the link..its a hoot reading the old newsletters...did the workshop with him in 1979
BEST WORKSHOP EVER

[Alan9940]

And thanks for the link..its a hoot reading the old newsletters...did the workshop with him in 1979
BEST WORKSHOP EVER

Small world...I was in Fred's '79 workshop, too. Made one of my favorite images at the quarry in Dummerston.

[BrianShaw]

I think Pickers summary of the zone system was a simplistic solution for simpletons like me who hasn’t seen the advantage of using a more complex zone system. :)

[Bruce Barlow]

I think Pickers summary of the zone system was a simplistic solution for simpletons like me who hasn’t seen the advantage of using a more complex zone system. :)

What advantages do you find?

[Ulophot]

I'd like to tack on a few thoughts, having downloaded the set of newsletters and read through perhaps twenty. I'll note first, that I a just finding my way back to serious work after many years and am "filling up" on great B&W photographers' work and thoughts. I had just finished reading the book of A. Adams's correspondence when this came along.
Though the newsletters speak most directly in many places to the large format B&W artist, I would recommend them without reserve to one and all. The newsletters began in 1973 and naturally contain a number of concerns, as well as specific references to materials and equipment no longer available. But what they offer as well
is a wealth of ideas, approaches, and wisdom on all facets of our art. Picker was unfailingly blunt about "what works and what doesn't work," what materials were up to snuff and which not (RC papers were new then), and so forth. His message, however, was that serious photography is hard work, and hard enough without introducing more variables than necessary; that learning to see is the hard part, not the technical. One need not agree with every particular to learn, or be reminded, that the goal is the final result -- in his case, as in that of many of forum members, the fine print.
Picker knew some of the most famous photographers of his time well, such as Adams, Strand, and Caponigro, and shares correspondence and other presentation of insights from them as well as his own and his experiences in the many workshops he gave.
The newsletters are a source of inspiration, a guide to technique and how to think about it, and a trove of gems of all kinds. For me, enough to also order copies of the Zone VI Workshop and The Fine Print (both very inexpensive used, at the big retailers now). Notably, Picker makes a point in one newsletter about being horrified that the first had helped to spawn a Zone System "cult." The Fine Print, he said, was a much better book, but the first far outsold it.

[peter schrager]

Small world...I was in Fred's '79 workshop, too. Made one of my favorite images at the quarry in Dummerston.

That's where I made my first real negative and print..it turned out to be so simple but plainly hidden from view!
All the instructors shared all they knew ..a first for me As most educators want to convince you in someway that it will take years of hard work to reach their level..which of course is total nonsense