Just some thoughts, and a thank you.

I find in large format photography a search for perfection. To me, that’s the true beauty of a contact print. To be able to show that you pre-visualized, executed, and completed/produced, what was in your mind’s eye at the time of conception with the added bit of unexpected nuance that the materials themselves provide. I want to continue exploring this experience. One of preconceived visualization, properly composed and framed, with no cropping other than whatever parts of the film rebate one wishes to exclude. Photography in its purest form. Visualization in its purest form. Art and seeing in its purest form.

We struggle to see that which is right in front of us. We strive to see it anew, to see how the combination of glass, film, paper, etc sees. We are not in this journey alone. The tools we use are our partners in allowing us to see what is there and yet is unable to be seen with our own eyes. More people should unplug, slow down, and see. Only then may one behold the beauty that is all around us; the beauty of the old and the new, that of the sky and of the earth, the outside of a person and perhaps the inside as well.

Mostly, I think, we want to see inside ourselves. To see and feel as our souls do. Our souls know beauty, we are not taught it. We have an innate reaction emotionally when we experience true beauty. Often times that experience remains with us our entire life. If we’re lucky we get to experience this many times in our life. As photographers we get to experience this perhaps daily, and have the added bonus of helping others to experience this too.

So thank you to all of you who inspire and teach, all who endure, all who push themselves toward perfection, and all who strive to see what we know is out there but just seems, for the most part, out of our reach. This life is short, see while you can.

So well said! Thank you!

This is wonderfully put, thank you!

I appreciate the sentiment -- what my soul wants to create in a photograph is what I saw -- a marvelous panoramic sunset. But getting it to be a 3x8-foot print on my wall means cropping and projecting.

Two different paths to the same destination.

My time is coming

I have finally put my 4X5' masterpiece on my wall

It gives me joy

Took me a decade to see

and many exposures'

5x7 contact prints are wonderful too. Cropped to 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 postcard sized is sublime. Many of our historical photos came from photo postcard contact prints.:o

Nice work on your web page! I'll have to get back to it when I have a bit more time. Great example of embracing where you live!

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Originally Posted by h2oman

Nice work on your web page! I'll have to get back to it when I have a bit more time. Great example of embracing where you live!

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Many thanks! I enjoyed your work as well.

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Originally Posted by Duolab123

5x7 contact prints are wonderful too. Cropped to 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 postcard sized is sublime. Many of our historical photos came from photo postcard contact prints.:o

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And what I always find interesting is you can never tell what size the print is by looking at it on the web. Could be 5”x7” or 5’x7’. Seeing the print in person, whatever the size determined by the artist, is when you see the “photograph” in its preconceived form, and experience whatever impact they wanted it to have.