igufi
2-Dec-2011, 05:18
Hello all,
I've been reading the forum for a while and, having now registered, it seemed prudent to introduce myself.
I'm in my 30s, I live in Finland and I got into photography partly due to my friends that are semi-professional photogs and partly due to my work that allows me to travel a lot. Photography became a counter force to the long meeting days, giving me a reason to head out to town early in the morning and night-time - just to see at least a bit of the city I was in. I started in the digital domain and then, about 2 years ago, I got my first film range finder and utterly fell in love with vintage cameras and film photography. Since then, I've participated some workshops on film development and darkroom techniques to further understand the analog medium.
So far, I have no experience with large format photography but I still got bit by the LF-bug recently. My long-term dream is to do portraits in 8x10 contact prints (eliminating the need for enlargers) but I'm afraid to dive to the deep end of LF before gaining some experience with view cameras techniques. The main attraction of LF for me is the slow, contemplative way of working as you compose and focus your shots - almost the complete opposite for today's digital world. Also, the unique tools for manipulating the focus plane seem really interesting, and I cannot hide my admiration to the visual appeal of the cameras themselves and their analog perfection that hasn't changed in the last hundred years.
Having read many of the "Getting started in LF"-posts here and other forums, it would seem that a Super Speed Graphics would be a good choice to get my feet wet (I also considered Meridian 45 but the lack of graflok back became a show stopper, as I want to use Polaroid 550 film holders too). At the moment I'm going through eBay listings daily but I want to wait still to gain access to this forum's classifieds to see if I can buy my first LF-gear from a fellow forum dweller instead.
I still have plenty of newbie questions related LF but I will take them to the appropriate sub-forum(s) :)
So, it's nice to meet you all - I'm looking forward to discus and share my experiences in the Large Format world.
Jan
I've been reading the forum for a while and, having now registered, it seemed prudent to introduce myself.
I'm in my 30s, I live in Finland and I got into photography partly due to my friends that are semi-professional photogs and partly due to my work that allows me to travel a lot. Photography became a counter force to the long meeting days, giving me a reason to head out to town early in the morning and night-time - just to see at least a bit of the city I was in. I started in the digital domain and then, about 2 years ago, I got my first film range finder and utterly fell in love with vintage cameras and film photography. Since then, I've participated some workshops on film development and darkroom techniques to further understand the analog medium.
So far, I have no experience with large format photography but I still got bit by the LF-bug recently. My long-term dream is to do portraits in 8x10 contact prints (eliminating the need for enlargers) but I'm afraid to dive to the deep end of LF before gaining some experience with view cameras techniques. The main attraction of LF for me is the slow, contemplative way of working as you compose and focus your shots - almost the complete opposite for today's digital world. Also, the unique tools for manipulating the focus plane seem really interesting, and I cannot hide my admiration to the visual appeal of the cameras themselves and their analog perfection that hasn't changed in the last hundred years.
Having read many of the "Getting started in LF"-posts here and other forums, it would seem that a Super Speed Graphics would be a good choice to get my feet wet (I also considered Meridian 45 but the lack of graflok back became a show stopper, as I want to use Polaroid 550 film holders too). At the moment I'm going through eBay listings daily but I want to wait still to gain access to this forum's classifieds to see if I can buy my first LF-gear from a fellow forum dweller instead.
I still have plenty of newbie questions related LF but I will take them to the appropriate sub-forum(s) :)
So, it's nice to meet you all - I'm looking forward to discus and share my experiences in the Large Format world.
Jan