From the Middle East

[Shane Pait]

I'm an Army reservist deployed to Iraq. I was involved in photography several years ago, and got back into photojournalism with a friend of mine in the unit.

I went large format because some guys bet me that I wouldn't carry one around, and I have a 4 by 5 Speed Graphic coming in the mail.

In the meantime I'm trying to learn how best to use one of those, given the kinds of shots I'll probably end up taking with it. Aside from occasional portrait work, I do a lot of Antonin Kratochvil-esque stuff while we're on missions. I focus on catching the fast moments as well as the interesting details, although I rarely get both at the same time.

I'm trying to break my DSLR habits of shooting a bunch of junk and fiddling with settings while the real shot walks by. I'm satisfied that with large format photography I picked the most flamboyant way to focus on this, and I'm looking forward to my first sheets coming back from the lab.

[cyrus]

For fast work, hyperfocal distance is your friend, along with the "sportsfinder". That's how the old-time news reporters did it. Also get some grafmatics so you can quickly load up film. It takes some time to get all the steps in taking photos -- one can easily forget to pull out the darkslide or cock the shutter if you're in a rush. After some trials it becomes second nature.

But for really fast work, nothing beats a small, point-and-shoot auto-everything film camera with zoom capability (even if it is just 35mm).

PS watch out for dust

[bernal]

Welcome to the forum Shane. And be careful out there.

[Vick Vickery]

Welcome to group therepy! Cyrus is quite right..."back in the old days" press photographers preset the focus of 90mm, 127mm, or 135mm lenses for the best overall coverage and shot away, accepting a little softness where it occurred. I saw a little of the last of this type of shooting from some of the older guys when I went to work for a local paper years ago, but by them we were shooting almost all 35mm; I feel that the lessons learned from the old press photographers were well worth learning, though.

Keep yer head down out there!

[Rautry]

Welcome to the forum and Thank You for Your service.

[Matt Ellison]

Welcome and thank you for your service. Also, have fun lugging that thing around. I would be interested to see any shots that you get. Good luck.

[jnantz]

hi shane

thanks for your service!

a link to a hyperfocal chart : http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html
if you are using the focal plane shutter, don't forget to wind it!
it is a big PITA when you realize you forgot to wind it for the next shot.

good luck!
john