Bruce Brown - successful LF Sinar mistake??

[Patrik Roseen]

Hello,
I stumbled on an article in a swedish photomagazine from early 1985. I have no personal experience of using a Sinar.

The article talks about an advertizing photographer by the name of Bruce Brown who tells the story of the first time he ever used a Large Format camera shooting a car. He claims the following (my translation from Swedish):

Bruce Brown:-
"I had never used a Large Format camera before and I had no idea of how it worked. Funny enough, it was my low knowledge that led me to success. I studied the Sinar manual carefully but I still managed to get it wrong. I pushed the Sinar into something it was not designed for.
With the mistake, which is my most sacred secret today, I was able to use an extreme wideangle lens, get the depth of focus I required, yet still not having problems with disturbing lines."

The article continues to say that this is the type of pictures the customers demand etc....

QUESTION: Does anyone know what mistake he did or is this only BS?

[Vaughn]

"sacred secret"

Maybe he discovered rise/fall? Maybe he installed the lens backwards and has to take off the camera back to fire the shutter?

What ever it is, I am glad he is keeping it a secret...who knows what would happen if the secret fell into the wrong hands...LOL!

Vaughn

[Jack Flesher]

I suspect it's something silly, like he used a combination of rise and base-tilt along with counter axial tilt to get the standards close enough together yet remain parallel, and thus was able to focus his "extreme wideangle lens" on the car...

[Mike Davis]

ancient chinese secret

[BradS]

my BS meter is pegged.

[vann webb]

"I had never used a Large Format camera before and I had no idea of how it worked."

You can stop right there.

[Patrik Roseen]

Well, as I said myself I was wondering what this guy was talking about, and which we all did not know already.

The interesting bit is that he is presented as being one of the best payed add-photographers in the world at that time, working for Dunhill, Benson&Hedges, Range Rover, Mercedes, Guiness etc...and that he still 10 years after the so called LF mistake, use it frequently. He was born in the US and moved to work in the UK, London.

Maybe Jack Flesher is on to what it was... THANKS!