Field time vs. LF forum — what’s your choice?

[Heroique]

Every forum participant here might, occasionally, feel a “tension” between working in the field (or studio) & participating in this helpful LF forum.

One activity must take time away from the other, right? Or wait – perhaps giving time to one increases the time you give to the other. Or maybe one has no effect on the other, ever.

In any case, if you’d like to vote – then quick! – vote what your “gut” says, and let’s have some fun with this. You can vote for more than one answer. (BTW, the answer to the poll’s final option is, “Yes, almost every time.”)

Then if you’d like, please share any deeper reflections & useful clarifications – we’d enjoy hearing your thoughts. For example, if someone asked, “Why are you online, not out there?” or “I haven’t seen you online for days, why not?” – what would your initial reply be?

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(Note: I should add that the poll’s term “field” also means “studio,” or any other set-up location where you put your LF gear to work. That might be your den!)

;)

[Jay DeFehr]

If anyone was paying attention, and there's no reason anyone should be, they might notice I post frequently for a few weeks, and then not at all for a few weeks. I post from work, here in Alaska, when I can't be out making photos (until after work, that is). When I'm home I don't spend much time online. So, no tension for me.

[Ben Syverson]

Well, a 30 minute portrait session at my studio 10 minutes away doesn't exactly take up a ton of time! I definitely shoot more because of LFF. You guys are to blame for my move to 8x10, my giant studio camera, and my studio rent! Without LFF, I wouldn't be as poor, but I'd definitely be shooting a lot less.

It's true that sometimes I'm embarrassed by how much I'm on LFF (cue my fiancé: "are you on the large format forum AGAIN? What more is there to talk about about??"). But I'm eternally grateful for this forum and the incredibly helpful good-natured people here. So for me, there is no tension between LFF and the studio!

[Preston]

I find that the time I spend here is very valuable because I learn something new every day from a group of very knowledgeable and dedicated individuals.

This place is an inspiration!

--P

[John NYC]

Love this forum. I've learned a ton here. It is great because when I can't go out and shoot (because of other commitments or the constraints of where I live that make things less accessible, etc.) I can still be learning and thinking about it.

[David Karp]

There is no relationship between the two for me. If I can go out and make some photos, or work in the darkroom I do that, and would not think of visiting here. I visit here when I have a moment or two, during times when photography or darkroom work are not possible.

[Frank Petronio]

They're clearly delineated activities. One I do with my clothes on, the other without.

[Heroique]

[...] I visit here when I have a moment or two, during times when photography or darkroom work are not possible.

This is close to how I work. It’s easy for me to hit the field for several days in a row, but when it’s time for the darkroom, it’s best for me to work under the safelights for no more than two days out of any three. Otherwise, I begin making mistakes.

My “rest day” is often spent online, right here.

It’s during specific moments in the darkroom – or in the field – that “online questions” will occur to me. Sometimes, I’ll write them down. Later, the LFF is often my first way to address them. If I’m unable to find answers, the forum leads me to alternative sources of information. It inspires me to try to give back…

[Brian C. Miller]

I am just so glad that these forums have no webcams attached to them. Sooo glad, indeed.

[Mike Anderson]

I really like reading about cameras (all kinds of cameras) and getting them and playing with them, and discussing cameras on internet forums. Spending time taking pictures seems a little pointless since there are so many good pictures on the internet already.

I do take pictures though, and digital is clearly a superior way to take pictures because you don't have to waste time printing the pictures because you can just look at them on the back of your camera. Even better is to take video and look at it on your TV.

:)

...Mike

[rdenney]

Forum participation does not compete with field time for me. The time I spend on the forum is not time I would have spent in the field--field time requires bigger chunks, or it requires being able to go different places. When I'm traveling and stuck in a hotel without a camera, forum time is a way to stay connected with field work even when field work is impossible.

Back in my ill-spent youth, I spent a few years building and racing cars. Track time is precious, especially for those who have no money (and what money I had in those days was bolted to the car). So, how does one work on his skills when track time is unavailable? For me, it required thinking about driving the race car. I would practice the moves in my mind, planning where on certain turns on my usual tracks I would drop into the apex, where I would have to drive the car rather than letting it carry me, where I would lift the throttle, where I would mash the brakes, and so on. It was not as good as real track time, but skills do after all require rehearsal.

And in music, I perform about one hour for every 100+ hours of practice time. For me, the practice is rewarding in and of itself, and if it wasn't, I would not be able to be a musician. That ratio is part of the gig. A pro with a daily gig might have a lower ratio, but then we've all sat through performances that sounded to us like a practice session.

These rehearsals give us an opportunity to build pathways in our minds, so that when we do get precious time in the field, on stage, or on the track, the path is already clear before us. We may still fumble a bit--rehearsal doesn't encompass everything we might experience during the performance--but we have used our time as usefully as possible.

I lament the lack of time I have for field work, and I always wish I had more. But a time will come when I do have that opportunity, and I don't want to spend that time having to think through stuff I could have been thinking about all along. And the practice spent thinking about it just makes me long for the field work all the more.

Now, the forum competing with the scanning/Photoshop/printing tasks--that's another matter altogether. But I have always preferred field work and even in my darkroom days, indoor work always lagged behind.

Rick "trying to maintain competency on several fronts, by whatever means, in the face of stiff constraints" Denney

[Heroique]

[…] These rehearsals give us an opportunity to build pathways in our minds, so that when we do get precious time in the field, on stage, or on the track, the path is already clear before us. We may still fumble a bit--rehearsal doesn't encompass everything we might experience during the performance--but we have used our time as usefully as possible. […]

I like this psychological insight about “rehearsals” clearing mental pathways for “performances” – the point being, of course, that online forums, like this one, can help keep the photographer’s mind sharp until the time arrives for real work in the field.

And while I agree with the next point – that these rehearsals can never “encompass everything” we might experience in the field – I would take it one step further:

I suspect I’m not the only one who, while working in the field, has sensed that the online “rehearsals” we thought were preparing us for field work actually had little – and perhaps no – influence on our attempt to do the field work. (Others might even sense an inhibiting influence.) A mysterious disconnect – the path we thought would be “clear before us” is overgrown with brush – much like the intellectual (online) exercise was in one part of the mind, the practical exercise in quite another. Perhaps only the most talented among us can count on always bridging and coordinating the two with ease.

[rdenney]

I suspect I’m not the only one who, while working in the field, has sensed that the online “rehearsals” we thought were preparing us for field work actually had little – and perhaps no – influence on our attempt to do the field work. (Others might even sense an inhibiting influence.) A mysterious disconnect – the path we thought would be “clear before us” is overgrown with brush – much like the intellectual (online) exercise was in one part of the mind, the practical exercise in quite another. Perhaps only the most talented among us can count on always bridging and coordinating the two with ease.

What you describe sounds to me like someone who has played video games of driving race cars finally getting a chance of driving a real one, and discovering that physics as applied through a racing seat and a five-point harness affects the body differently than a Barcalounger. And that maybe the rules that are applied in the video game are a model at best, and as I have said before, all models are false, even if some are useful.

Mental rehearsal is no way to learn stuff. But it is a way to rehearse what we have already learned, to contribute to the process of turning intellectual knowledge into sub-conscious skills.

But the simple fact is that it's the best option we have. So, we either think of a way to make it work or we do nothing.

I'm sitting at my desk right now, enjoying a bit of morning coffee between tasks. Is making photos in the field with a large-format camera and alternative use of my time at the moment? No. What about when I'm writing a post at 10 PM? No, not then, either.

So, would I do more good to my photographic pursuits by watching Modern Family on television instead of playing on the forum? I don't think so.

The only inhibition in the field I feel as a result of the time I spend here is that my standards are not good enough and I need to edit my own impulses more rigorously. I have sufficient experience to know when the scene before will make a picture that I am proud of, but my standard of what makes me proud is getting tougher. That is not inhibiting my best work, however. It is only inhibiting my worst work. The last thing I want to do is waste my precious field time making banal pictures. If that means I sometimes wait for clearer inspiration, then so be it. I have made tens of thousands of photographs, only the merest hint of which have seen the light of day outside my own home. My intentions are more strict these days, and in no small measure because of what I see and read here.

Again, my musical training, such as it is, tells me another important point related to practice. The usual cliche is that practice makes perfect. Musicians know that this is simply untrue. Practice does not make perfect unless that practice is ordered and directed in pursuit of perfection. Merely going through the motions for the sake of moving is better described as practice makes permanent. That is a truer cliche among musicians. Ordering and directing practice to achieve perfection requires planning and thought.

Rick "for whom the physical skills are not the problem" Denney

[Heroique]

I really enjoyed these ideas, even if they need one significant footnote:

A musician practicing on an instrument is unlike a photographer practicing online. Useful comparisons are possible – you’ve made them! – but the differences are, of course, profound.

I thought I’d add one additional comment related to the poll’s option #4 (“Reduce participation”? My time in the field means I log-in here more often.) While some may feel that online experience has, at times, a tentative influence on actual field work, I’ve noticed that the reverse has never been my experience – that is, field work seems always to make my forum participation easier. And I’m not even practicing to be on the computer when I’m setting up a shot! ;) So I voted for #4, plus the final option, of course.

[rdenney]

A musician practicing on an instrument is unlike a photographer practicing online. Useful comparisons are possible – you’ve made them! – but the differences are, of course, profound.

Well, I spend time on a tuba forum, too. And I'm a better tuba player because of it--practice is more effective when supported by good conceptual understanding. My time on the tuba forum was also in times and places where playing the instrument was not an available alternative.

Rick "but--all models are false..." Denney

[Brian C. Miller]

Mental rehearsal is no way to learn stuff. But it is a way to rehearse what we have already learned, to contribute to the process of turning intellectual knowledge into sub-conscious skills.

The way I look at it is meditation (mental rehersal), kata (physical practice), and finally real action. The meditation is where I spend time thinking about what I am going to do, and rehearsing that in my head. That part has nothing to do with the forum. I regard the forum as research. My kata time is setting up the camera and going through the steps I'm going to do in the field. And then finally I meander out the door with camera and film.

Actual practice of photography means practicing (action time here) making photographs. Bill Jay wrote about a photographer who visited his cabin for a while. Bill found the photographer outside, photographing things like pine boughs, and whatever else. Bill wanted to know what project the photographer was doing, and was told that he was "just practicing photography." No absolute intent, but just making photographs, developing the film and looking at the contact sheet. Just let yourself go, and just practice photography.