Any 60+ Using Formats 11x14 + ?

[Richard K.]

Don't be shy! Here's your chance to be an actual living inspiration! :) I know that the canonical drift is from 11x14 to 8x10 to Medium Format, but which of you tough, golden-aged Hepta or Sexagenarians are still fondling and hoisting the beasts? 11x14 or larger... :cool:

[venchka]

Would that I could. However, I can't bring myself to sell all of my photo inventory to fund an ultra large format. 4x5 will have to do for me for now.

[AF-ULF]

Sorry, I'm only 51. Ask again in 9 years.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

I am going on 64. If I were not still busy doing my commercial photography I would sell my digital Canon and Phase one back and go for a very nice Phillips Compact 11x14" and do platinum/palladium prints. The camera weighs 15 pounds and the tripod, lens and holder another 15 so this is probably something to keep you fit in your old age. In my job as a commercial photographer I sometimes carry a camera bag, a strobe bag and a tripod all at once and it only helps me staying fit.

[John Bowen]

I'm still 8+ years from qualifying, but I expect to be carting my Ritter 7x17 around unitl the knees stop working. After the knees give out, I expect to push the gear around in my jogging stroller aka John Powers.

I would guess Michael A. Smith is 60 years old and he still gets around just fine with his 8x20....oh yeah, Michael has an assistant do the heavy lifting ;)

[Gene McCluney]

I'm a month shy of 59, and I shoot 11x14 and 7x17..not every day, but some.

[Pete Watkins]

I still use my monster a few times a year but mainly with the 8x10 reducing back. That is down to cost of film and convenience in handling the sheet film (it's no lighter). If somebody wants to send a big box of 11x14 would use it. I'm the wrong side of 60 (but keep it quiet).
Pet

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Okay, I'm close. Turned 59 in October. I backpack with my hand built 11x14 that comes in at 16 lbs. With lenses and my Walnut tripod my system weights about 40+ pounds. My 8x20 is about the same weight wise. I have backpacks for both and don't do great distances, maybe a mile or two and my knees are starting to act up for the first time in my life but I will never give the big ones up. Nothing like an 11x14 or 8x20 carbon transfer print.

Jim

[imagedowser]

69 this past Sept., 8x20 Korona added to the "family" over the summer from Neil Folberg... Gave in and ordered new bellows from Western Bellows, 6 weeks ago. Due any day.... Could use an extra holder or two if anyone is going in the "other direction". One is just not enough(holder, that is..) It's big but lightish, 24lb. The case is another story.

[Richard K.]

I am going on 64. If I were not still busy doing my commercial photography I would sell my digital Canon and Phase one back and go for a very nice *Phillips Compact 11x14" and do platinum/palladium prints.

I've had that *fantastic camera and you have a great plan! I agree about the staying fit part. I may as well come clean and add to my own thread and admit that I'm 62 and am currently hoisting Chamonix 8x20 and 14x17 and hope to do so for a little while yet. :)

OT ........I'm reading the latest (English) Arnaldur Indriðason, "Arctic Chill" and I have all of his previous ones. One of my favorite writers, although his portrayal of Iceland is not the idyllic one I had imagined! Still would love to visit one day and photograph...

[Richard K.]

Sorry, I'm only 51. Ask again in 9 years.

Could you please remind me? My memory isn't what it used to be...:D

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

OT ........I'm reading the latest (English) Arnaldur Indriðason, "Arctic Chill" and I have all of his previous ones. One of my favorite writers, although his portrayal of Iceland is not the idyllic one I had imagined! Still would love to visit one day and photograph...
__________________
Arnaldur Indriðason writes great murder mysteries in the Nordic tradition, started by a couple Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall (they were accused of copying Ed McBain) and later carried on by Henning Mankell , Jo Nesbo and others.- There is as much a chance of finding the Reykjavik of Arnaldur as there is a way of discovering Chandler's or Marlow's San Francisco- The most interesting Nordic mystery writer at the moment is Stieg Larsson with his three books called the Millenium trilogy. Be sure to have them all before you start reading the first

[Richard M. Coda]

I'm only going to be 50 next year so I will keep coming back to this thread for the next 10 years. I just started using 11x14. My camera's fairly light - half Canham/half Arca 8x10, but it requires two cases (I usually bring three, another for the 4x5 and peripherals/lenses). I also tend to photograph in an urban or semi-urban environment. Used to do landscapes a long time ago, not much anymore, so no need for hiking, but I would like to return to the landscape someday. I tend to follow Brett Weston's advice about photographing near the roadway...

[John Powers]

Lord willin and the creeks don’t rise, I’ll be 70 March 30, 2010.
http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=33839&id=100000479112834

Dick Phillips’ 7x17, the big Ries Head and the old big Ries Tripod come to 46 pounds. They ride assembled in the jogger bungied to a cooler bag of lenses and stuff on top of seven film holders. I’m not sure what the 250mm wide field Ektar weighs, but it goes on after the camera is up. The jogger http://babyjogger.com/perf_jogger_lp.aspx. Instead of 50 feet from the car this lets me go two miles out on trails or across fields, no steps, no cliffs. For one of the Jobo threads I estimated that I shoot 250 sheets of 7x17 and 100 sheets of 8x10 a year.

A few things keep me going. The doc would like me to walk a mile five times a week. Two Labrador Retrievers demand we average 8-12 miles a week including a Sunday morning off leash 3-5 mile stroll with a group called Hiking Hounds. We live two miles from Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I retired and have taken sixteen college photography courses since 2004. The courses motivate by requiring ten 11x14 or larger prints for critique every two weeks. After a 20 minute equipment demo I have finally convinced the class that it is a little harder with a 7x17 than a 35mm. Thirty 7x17 contact prints of the OH & Erie canal hanging fourteen months in Cleveland’s history museum and a few other shows. A loving wife who thinks it is wonderful that I am going after my dream and happy that it isn’t a 20 year old college student. I would really like a 12x20 Chamonix based on Dick Phillips’ design. He is my idol. He just stopped making cameras at 76 and has walked circles around me up hill carrying LF gear.

John

[Turner Reich]

How about 58 and using a Calumet C1 for five mile trail walks? OK, how about a 5x7 for less than a mile, does that count?

[Richard K.]

How about 58 and using a Calumet C1 for five mile trail walks? OK, how about a 5x7 for less than a mile, does that count?

Absolutely! :)

[Richard K.]

Lord willin and the creeks don’t rise, I’ll be 70 March 30, 2010.
http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=33839&id=100000479112834

Dick Phillips’ 7x17, the big Ries Head and the old big Ries Tripod come to 46 pounds. They ride assembled in the jogger bungied to a cooler bag of lenses and stuff on top of seven film holders. I’m not sure what the 250mm wide field Ektar weighs, but it goes on after the camera is up. The jogger http://babyjogger.com/perf_jogger_lp.aspx. Instead of 50 feet from the car this lets me go two miles out on trails or across fields, no steps, no cliffs. For one of the Jobo threads I estimated that I shoot 250 sheets of 7x17 and 100 sheets of 8x10 a year.

A few things keep me going. The doc would like me to walk a mile five times a week. Two Labrador Retrievers demand we average 8-12 miles a week including a Sunday morning off leash 3-5 mile stroll with a group called Hiking Hounds. We live two miles from Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I retired and have taken sixteen college photography courses since 2004. The courses motivate by requiring ten 11x14 or larger prints for critique every two weeks. After a 20 minute equipment demo I have finally convinced the class that it is a little harder with a 7x17 than a 35mm. Thirty 7x17 contact prints of the OH & Erie canal hanging fourteen months in Cleveland’s history museum and a few other shows. A loving wife who thinks it is wonderful that I am going after my dream and happy that it isn’t a 20 year old college student. I would really like a 12x20 Chamonix based on Dick Phillips’ design. He is my idol. He just stopped making cameras at 76 and has walked circles around me up hill carrying LF gear.

John

John, thanks for this inspiring, thoughtful post. I also use, on occasion, a retrofitted stroller and it's a real back saver for those long treks to where the subject, instead of obligingly being near the car trunk, obstinately has positioned itself a km down the trail! And yes, Dick's an amazing fellow! Keep on keeping on John; all the best to you! :) :)

[Bruce A Cahn]

I sold my last ULF, an 11x14 Ebony, when I was about 65 or 66. I have also had Wisners up to 16x20 as a sexagenarian. I have a bad back and always worried about throwing it out putting the camera on a tripod. The reason I got rid of everything over 8x10 was the film problem. I am willing to shoot Tri-X or Bergger only right now.

[Richard K.]

Arnaldur Indriðason writes great murder mysteries in the Nordic tradition, started by a couple Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall (they were accused of copying Ed McBain) and later carried on by Henning Mankell , Jo Nesbo and others.- There is as much a chance of finding the Reykjavik of Arnaldur as there is a way of discovering Chandler's or Marlow's San Francisco- The most interesting Nordic mystery writer at the moment is Stieg Larsson with his three books called the Millenium trilogy. Be sure to have them all before you start reading the first

This should probably now be in the Lounge but here's one last post here! I've read many Nordic writers (probably started with Smilla's Sense of Snow), including several by Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall and several by Mankell. I have Larsson's 3 books in British First editions and am about to start reading the third one. Great stuff and I'm also happy that UK Firsts have significantly appreciated in value! I had similar good luck with a few other British Firsts, including Dissolution by C J Sansom and Under the Eagle by Scarrow. It's a real shame that Larsson died so young; a terrific talent. Now...back to photography...:)

[Peter Spangenberg]

[QUOTE=John Powers;532193]Lord willin and the creeks don’t rise, I’ll be 70 March 30, 2010.
http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=33839&id=100000479112834

I'm here to tell you all that John is only pretending to be approaching 70. I went with him a couple of years ago to photograph some stone gorges and waterfalls and have the following to relay: John and I were standing on a wooden observation deck built onto the top of an 80 foot cliff overlooking the Chagrin River and a horseshoe shaped waterfall. John set up the 7x17 to try to take it all in. After repeatedly trying to move the camera forward to get an optimal view, he left the camera and started to walk back to his truck. I was there with my 8x10 inch "training wheels" camera (John's words) thinking that he had given up and was leaving in disgust. He returned with a long piece of heavy gauge nautical rope, tied it around his waist and then tied himself and the camera to the observation deck piling so he could lean out over the cliff to get the shot. All of this was done without hesitation while I watched in amazement having visions of him dangling at the end of the rope while I would be left to try to pull him up. He calmly finished composing, asked me to hand him a film holder, and captured a beautiful overhead panorama of these unusual falls.

I guess you are only as old (and sane) as you allow yourself to be.

[John Jarosz]

I turned 60 last April, so I guess I qualify.

I haven't weighed my 8x20 2D conversion that I finished last year. My real killer is the 300mm Metrogon that I bought in February, it is a beast. I also upgraded to a big gitzo tripod that I made a geared head for. All told, I don't take many shots that far from my truck.

Why? I refuse to start making digital negatives for carbon. Just this once, I'm gonna be a luddite.

Hopefully I'll keep making negs til my knees give out. Then I'll have lotsa time to print the negs sometime after retirement. Of course I do print now, but I figure I'll stockpile some for the future.

John

[John Powers]

[QUOTE=Peter Spangenberg;533316 I guess you are only as old (and sane) as you allow yourself to be.[/QUOTE]

Wow. Thank you Peter.

"Sane"? What sane?

If I had known there was a sanity requirement I never would have signed up for this forum.

John