Shot abandonment

You've set-up your camera and composed your shot. :D

As you set the lens aperture, close and cock the shutter, insert your film holder, remove the dark slide, and hold the cable, you feel proud of having addressed all relevant technical issues with deep knowledge and great proficiency.

The light is perfect, the wind subsides, the stars have aligned…

But taking the shot isn't your next step. Abandoning the shot is. You take-down your camera, collapse your tripod, put-on your pack, and move on.

As you seek a different shot, LFers are curious about your behavior. Some call it strange, even bizarre. Others smile because they think they understand.

Please settle the mystery for us – can you tell us what was on your mind?

Well, whenever I’ve “abandon a shot” it was because despite all hope and prior belief, the light wasn’t perfect, the composition looked great in my mind but not on the GG, and the stars weren’t perfectly aligned.

Other times it’s because looking at things through the GG was sufficient to satisfy my artistic needs. Call it “performance art”, if you will.

I remember the lyrics of a 1999 Randy Newman song.

When will I end this bitter game?
When will I end this cruel charade?
Everything I write all sounds the same
Each record that I'm making
Is like a record that I've made
Just not as good

Of course he still put out albums after this one was produced (Bad Love) :cool:

Actually, I do not think I have ever purposefully have abandoned a 'perfect' shot once I have set up for one (and perfection is questionable). I have taken the camera down due to wishful thinking (wasn't so perfect) or changing conditions (or they did not change as anticipated) between the time I put the holder in and pull out the darkslide.
Once the darkslide is pulled, the image gets taken...unless I am very short on film.

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Originally Posted by Heroique

You've set-up your camera and composed your shot. :D

As you set the lens aperture, close and cock the shutter, insert your film holder, remove the dark slide, and hold the cable, you feel proud of having addressed all relevant technical issues with deep knowledge and great proficiency.

The light is perfect, the wind subsides, the stars have aligned…

But taking the shot isn't your next step. Abandoning the shot is.

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Interesting question. You do have an insightful streak ;-)

I've abandoned many setups. But I don't think I've abandoned even one where I've inserted a film holder in the camera. If I abandoned a shot, it was always before closing and cocking the shutter.

And it's always been because what I saw on the ground glass led me to believe that it wasn't worth burning a sheet of film.

As time went by and I got more experience, I did this less and less. And I evaluated more and more, each step of the process. In the end I got so the farthest I'd go before abandoning a shot was to setup the tripod and rest my chin on the QR plate. If I couldn't visualize my final image from there, I'd take down the tripod and move on. If I could, I'd pull the camera out and work it to completion. Just how it was for me.

Vaughn said “ Once the darkslide is pulled, the image gets taken...unless I am very short on film.”

I treat pulling a dark slide just like pulling the trigger of a gun... its an exceptionally intentional act, or it (pulling either) doesn’t happen at all. :)

Well I say

Can I get a Amen! It’s good to have Heroique back!! The soul of LFF has been restored!!

If it’s perfect it is only so because it resides in the limitless mind and thus I walked away to preserve it.

Monty

An important reason to shoot LF is to get away from the "spray and pray" of other formats, so the slower process of shooting (as well as difficulty and cost) gives us time to decide if all elements are in place...

We reserve the right to "abort" before carrying out the shot and post-process...

We can be selective...

Steve K

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Originally Posted by Vaughn

…Once the dark slide is pulled, the image gets taken...unless I am very short on film.

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Originally Posted by Bruce Watson

...I don't think I've abandoned even one where I've inserted a film holder in the camera.

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Originally Posted by BrianShaw

I treat pulling a dark slide just like pulling the trigger of a gun...

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The point of no return! (That is, if one has film to spare.)

This makes me curious if others reach a stage, like Vaughn, Bruce, and Brian, when the photo is going to be taken – hell or high water.

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Originally Posted by Monty McCutchen

Well I say Can I get a Amen! It’s good to have Heroique back!! The soul of LFF has been restored!!

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Aw, shucks. ;^)

I've been on the plains of Alberta, Canada, searching up-and-down for our fellow member Jim Kitchen.

I never got closer than fresh tripod holes and a smoldering campfire, but I still have hope.

Sometimes, the act of pulling the dark slide creates high winds.

With 8x10, I usually would take the shot. I used to think I did not have enough 8x10 negatives to print. Plus, film and chemicals go bad if you don't use them.

I abandon the shot because after pulling the dark slide out I realized I had missed its black band was pointing outwards, so what was supposedly my last sheet of film had actually been already exposed.

Hate when that happens.

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Originally Posted by Monty McCutchen

If it’s perfect it is only so because it resides in the limitless mind and thus I walked away to preserve it.

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I understand and appreciate this insight, though I can't say I've ever abandoned a landscape image for such a poetic reason.

I have, however, acted this way for a few 35mm wildlife shots. An American Pine Marten, for example. Just outside Mount Rainier Nat'l Park.

It was too magical to keep concentrating – and besides, a static image, I believe, no matter how perfect, would have limited the rich, remembered magic more and more over time.

I've done this many times. It's not so much abandoning an image, as it is pursuing the beautiful images that we know LF is capable of producing. If in the process of capturing an image, it becomes clear that a path towards the latter probably doesn't exist, then why continue? What would be the point?

It's like, if one's on a trail through the woods, and it comes to an end, do we pull out a machete? Good heavens no. For myself, I turn around and go back the other way. There's too much time and effort that goes into realizing a beautiful image, once it's been imprinted on a sheet of film. Better to spend it on an image that has a higher likelihood of success.

I've abandoned once in a while.. Mostly I don't get to the point of cocking the shutter or putting in a film holder...

Something in the scene I overlooked, while choosing to make a photograph in that location, can't be fixed.. A branch is distracting in the corner of the frame... The background won't separate from the subject as well as I thought.

I then relax and chill for a few minutes... Sometimes I've been lucky enough to move the tripod ten feet and change it's direction and have some other awesome opportunities. I was in the right place at the right time initially for the wrong photo in those situations.

I like JP above usually abandon a possible image sooner than when I close the shutter, cock the shutter put in the film holder, and pull the dark-slide. Sometimes the idea of the image found with my linhof finder and zone VI filter just doesn't work on the ground glass. Or I think it is another cliche image that has already been taken and does not need to be taken again. Some days none of the images seem to work very well and I have to force myself to "TAKE THE IMAGE." Sometimes you never know it might be a really good image. I have mined my negative file shot over the last 30 or 40 years - there are good ones maybe even great ones to be created in the darkroom! Sometimes the inspiration for creative thinking is in the darkroom and not in the pre-visualization process, sometimes it is.

After pulling the slide, only if the wind picks up or the light suddenly changes, someone walks into the shot, etc. But in the time up to that point, pretty often.

The light changed?

I realized that moving the camera a couple feet and re-composing made an even more remarkable image?

I just lost interest in the composition?

I decided not to use my last sheet of film at this point in the hike?

Lots of reasons for me to do this.

I actually do this even more with 6x6 because I take even more time with composition when I'm working with the square frame.

If I abandon the shot, it’s usually because I’ve lost the light.

What about something even more fun?! Take a photograph (or decide not to take it), then without moving the tripod find another image in the opposite direction.

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Originally Posted by Bruce Watson

...I don't think I've abandoned even one where I've inserted a film holder in the camera.

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Feh. I stand corrected.

My wife reminded me of a shot I abandoned after pulling the dark slide. I was in the middle of a river. Found a rock with room for me and my tripod and not much else, so my pack was still on the bank. Nice composition that was improving with the light changing (it was near dusk IIRC).

Anyway, I was... being a photographer. Absorbed in the work. And I heard wife screaming from the bank which took me out of my flow state. I finally looked over and she was pointing at the sky. At the wall of water (rain) that was about to drench me. I pointed to the pack and yelled run. She was already running for the car (she has always been the smart one...). I took enough time to shove the darkslide back into that filmholder (didn't want to loose it) and started hopping rocks with the camera/tripod slung over my back (I doubt I could do that now). I hit the bank running, made about 20 meters when I heard the rain hit the river. I did not look back.

Wife had back of car open and was already in the passenger seat. I shoved the camera/tripod toward the front of the car less gently than I would have liked and she grabbed it by the ball head and hauled it forward while I shut the hatch. I made it into the driver's seat just as the rain made it to the car. My left arm and left boot got drenched, along with the inside of the door. Everything else miraculously dry. Or at least as dry as you could expect from such a day as that.

So yes, I did abandon at least one shot while my finger was on the trigger. Oh well. One that got away close to 20 years ago maybe. And I never made it back to that spot again when conditions worked out for a shot. Which is as we all know just how it goes.

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Originally Posted by Vaughn

What about something even more fun?! Take a photograph (or decide not to take it), then without moving the tripod find another image in the opposite direction.

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One of my primary rules is "look at what everyone else is looking at, then turn around and look directly behind you." It's amazing what else is around -- interesting scenes seldom occur in isolation in my experience. And it sounds like you perhaps agree with that philosophy. Heheheh.

I learned this at a waterfall in New England somewhere (Vermont?). The "good" view of the waterfall was on a chunk of land that stuck out into the river somewhat. But the excellent view from that spot wasn't the waterfall, it was the view directly opposite -- a startlingly white builder, nearly spherical (maybe 2m diameter) sitting on the dark edge of the cliff that dropped straight into the river after the fall, maybe 10m (as the crow flies) from where I was standing. Dark soil, dark trees, deep shade, everything wet, and this large white boulder seemingly hanging in space about to fall into the river (though I'm sure it had been there hundreds of years looking just about like that).

That print is still in my dining room hanging where my wife can see it whenever we eat in there (at least once a day). She won't let me take it down. I made a print of the waterfall too, probably in a file somewhere...

Something a little similar, Bruce...I was photographing Bridalvail Falls from up close with the 8x10. Had the falls on the GG, made an adjustment, looked at the GG and no falls. Poked my head out from the darkcloth, looked up to see all the the falls heading straight down at me. Closed my pack, kept the darkcloth over the whole camera, and held on to the pod.

Not a lot of water in the falls in February...thankfully.

Still got the shot once the falls moved back to where it was suppose to be. Meh...hate it when the story is better than the image.

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Originally Posted by Vaughn

Not a lot of water in the falls in February...thankfully.

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Because... snowmelt! That had to be cold. I hope you were wearing a good jacket with a hood.

I was in the shade, too. It was cool enough that I already had my rainjacket on! My boys and I drove up the road a little past the tunnel. There is a rock wall along the road in the sun -- got the camera out and started drying everything while we had lunch.

I've walked away from shots that I set up because there are times when discretion is the better part of valor, or having stuff to do is the better part of patience. Sometimes you set up a shot, anticipating something happening, but then it just won't cooperate in the time that you have to make the shot, and if you don't move on, the next shot you want to take isn't going to happen either.

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Originally Posted by Scott Davis

…the better part of patience…

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There's a situation where I've abandoned a shot a few times, even after dark slide is pulled, and cable is in hand…

People in Washington, Oregon, and N. Calif. will perhaps understand my "pain." ;^)

A mature forest, under redwoods and red cedars, limited light under a thick canopy, a long shutter speed, patiently, patiently, waiting for forest-floor ferns to quit shivering ... just for a brief moment ... just for a single window of opportunity ... that never arrives.

I've waited too long, too many times this way – but enjoying the forest silence helps compensate for the shot abandonment (well, most of the time).

When practicing for a musical performance, I don't pantomime the fingerings, fake-blow into my instrument, and then do a couple of spot run-throughs with the accompanist before the concert.

No, I practice diligently every part, with plenty of full run-throughs both by myself, as well as with the accompanist, trying different things and making sure we're in sync. As well as letting other musicians and mentors listen in and give opinions.

If one tends to "abandon" a shot anytime they think it won't work out in the end, they're denying themselves the opportunity to learn why it didn't work, at least in my view. Sometimes I think we need to take the shot and go through the whole process to viewing a print before deciding, nope, wasn't worth it.

I also note a few times where I couldn't even see what I was shooting or had to setup so fast due to changing conditions that I didn't know if the shot was going to be any good, even sometimes being unable to look at the GG at all except to focus. Some of these photos would be considered among my personal "best." I tend to make sure I have enough film on-hand to not have to worry about running out, which is certainly a valid concern with LF.

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Originally Posted by Heroique

...I've waited too long, too many times this way – but enjoying the forest silence helps compensate for the shot abandonment (well, most of the time).

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Funny, I'll be in the woods photographing with someone (rare) and I'll mention that there is a light breeze -- and the other will not have noticed it. I'll point out a fern tip that is swaying or something like that. My arm and leg hair notice the slightest movement of air. Other times the air is still, but there will be big drops of water occassionally hitting a fern or some other major part of the image.

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Originally Posted by Vaughn

Other times the air is still, but there will be big drops of water occasionally hitting a fern.

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Ah yes, mist drops and dew drops falling in a virgin forest.

Release cable in hand, I've watched sword ferns taking direct hits – one here, one there, one everywhere – until finally abandoning the shot due to all the dancing ferns.

Don't get me wrong – this is a very pleasant, soothing sound. One of the most beautiful sounds, I think, in a forest of giant trees. Unless, that is, the drops are falling on your tent's taut rain fly, with those magnified "splats," and you're tying to sleep. I'd rather hear a huffing bear outside my tent. ;^)

Shot abandonment, numerous times.

Most often happens outdoors. From changes in lighting to not ok with the GG image and a long list of reasons.

IMO, part of what causes Shot abandonment is knowing what the print might or would be and knowing taking that image over the course
of that resource intensive process is not going to achieve the image goal intended. This intuition can come from burning LOTs of film and
making LOTs of images over many decades of image making.

Bernice

About the time the clothes come off (removing the dark slide), stopping is...very difficult.

But before that point, the desire switch is a fickle thing.

Too perfect to attempt to preserve only in memory? Huh?

Rick "ignoring the desire switch at his peril" Denney

\Abandoned shots:

When that happens, for me it is often a conflict between what I "see" is the shot and what I can get on the Ground Glass. Usually this is some DOF issue. IK also have a te4ndency to "like" a composition involving shooting directly into the light I have dione this over and over . . .have to trtain myself out of looking aty some of these compositions.

Many years ago now, I was a regular attendee at a monthly print critique meeting of a camera club. The "judges" were different each month and the standards of criticism varied wildly . . .which I found to be OK as it taught me to develop and then trust my judgement as I learned more about LF photography.

One month, I submitted a a color image of a doorway in an adobe building somewhere in the American South-West; bright sunlight, deep shadows and subdued pastels. I had spent some time scouting then setting up the short . . .and waited for the shadows to fall just right. The judge that month put the matted print up on the lighted easel, looked at it for maybe 10-15 seconds and said, " Well sometimes you just have to pass on a shot and move on. Next print please." I still like that image, but always recall the stastement when setting up.

The light flickers through fleeting clouds
Delicate flora ebb and flow with the breeze
ASA 50, dammit

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Originally Posted by rdenney

About the time the clothes come off (removing the dark slide), stopping is...very difficult.

But before that point, the desire switch is a fickle thing.

Too perfect to attempt to preserve only in memory? Huh?

Rick "ignoring the desire switch at his peril" Denney

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The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."

The man replied, "Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar."

And they said then, "But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are."

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Originally Posted by Heroique

Ah yes, mist drops and dew drops falling in a virgin forest.
...

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I am learning to appreciate such things even more...and if it all works together as an image, I allow some movement, some dancings of ferns, to denote the passing of time...or just let the whole thing go (see below, 8x10 carbon print)

My last backpack on Redwood Creek (July 4th) I was semi-surprised by heavy wet fog my last morning...so getting a little wet was not big deal. Some folks might have classified it as rain, but it is more like being in a cloud with water condensing out of the air around you. Made a few prints (5x7 pt/pd) a couple days ago, some from that trip...hope to do more tomorrow.

Beautiful Vaughn. Iagree the slight motion adds to the presence of the image.

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Originally Posted by Heroique

I've been on the plains of Alberta, Canada, searching up-and-down for our fellow member Jim Kitchen.

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Ah, Jim Kitchen! When you found the tripod holes were you also blessed with amazing clouds, or did they leave with him? I've often wondered what happened to that guy - a bit cantankerous at times, but a great photographer.

Recent "abandonment issues" were involving clouds moving in front of the sun before shutter time... Raced to get rig set-up, watched quality of light starting to change, then just as I grabbed cable release, sun hides behind cloud and nice shadows disappeared... One shot I waited 25 minutes for sun to break out, but noticed the movement of the cloud was spinning in front of sun like a merry-go-round, and I bust out laughing to myself!!! Finally a shaft of horizontal late day light came through, not as good as what I first saw, but took the shot anyway...

Steve K

I have plenty of shots that I've abandoned once I've seen the contact proof.
They sit in the box, reminding me of my failures, when I go through my proofs looking for pictures to print. There's no shortage of these, by the way.
I've forgotten the ones that I abandoned before exposing any film, as there's no evidence...

Looking at the GG, sure. Once the dark slide is pulled - not so much. I like poker and sometimes you just have to play it with your Tachihara! I lose more often than not but I don't mind that.

An analogy:

You're searching eBay for that photographic doohickey. After several hours of random browsing you find something at the right price, and from a highly rated seller. They Buy-it-Now button is just begging to be clicked, but there's a sudden feeling of remorse that holds you back. After all, you've got at least 15 of these things sitting a box, never to see the light of day.

The crunch comes when you ask yourself if this photographic cliché is really worth the $$ to depress the cable release plunger? There's nothing wrong with it, but it's still just a Toyota Corolla.

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Originally Posted by h2oman

Ah, Jim Kitchen! When you found the tripod holes were you also blessed with amazing clouds, or did they leave with him?

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Yes, big sky clouds of Alberta and distant snowy peaks. And in the far distance, the shimmering mirage of a photographer, always staying just ahead of me, but leaving behind tantalizing evidence of his ongoing LF work, and hope for his return…

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Originally Posted by Mark Sampson

I've forgotten the ones that I abandoned before exposing any film, as there's no evidence.

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Same here, most often I have no field notes of shot abandonment. No notes, no evidence. So I'll tend to forget these subjects, as they recede into the hazy distance of memory.

Occasionally, however, I will take field notes, esp. if I think the subject possesses great potential for another try on another day. For example: location, time of day, light conditions, Pentax light readings – and then, reason for abandonment.

My notes might be a summary of abandonment, but they're also a scouting report. ;^)