How Much Have We Accomplished?

[Bernice Loui]

Month of October, over 40 sheets of 5x7 film including engagement pictures of daughter and hubby to be..
Some were done with a 12" Kodak Portrait outdoors (ND filter required). The Sinar Norma got used quite a lot last month including the Jobo.

If the cameras goes out, about 6 to 12 sheets of 5x7 film is used. Quite a few indoor architecture images made a few using the 72mm Super Angulon XL.

Then there are a LOT more images made with the Canon digital.


Bernice

[Drew Wiley]

I take a few shots every week with various formats. Just got done printing a couple of masked 8x10's negs from last week. Plenty to do. Should probably get back to the salt mines of drymounting before the weather turns damp, but needed a break.

[Michael R]

One of the reasons I normally work so slowly is that I need to find time windows when the odds of people getting into my shots are lower. In the spring when the population was most frightened I took the opportunity to photograph more often because there were generally far fewer people around. I was able to cross a few very difficult pictures off my list, which was nice.

[Two23]

There have been no restrictions in my region, but my routine has been hampered. Usually my wife & I take three or four long distance trips per year (often overseas), but not this year. We've only managed three "safe-cations" to the remote corners of the Northern Plains, all within a day or so drive of our home. I took the month of May off and used the time to explore a tiny sliver of South Dakota that's between I-29 and the Minnesota border, roughly 25x160 miles (4,000 square miles.) I took a number of photos with my Chamonix 4x5 on FP4+ as I worked my way north. Since then I've been working my usual 40 hours/week, but have been shooting wet plate every weekend. I've gotten decent at it now, not great. I've also bought a nice 9x12cm ICA Adoro Tropen folding camera and have been shooting dry plates with it. Really, if anything my photography has increased this year. I just wish my company would let me take another month off.


Kent in SD

[JMO]

Prior to this year I had gone on two month-long road trips with my LF and MF and digital cameras, to all corners of the US (and several NPs), over each of the previous 5 years since I retired from my work career, plus many other more local LF explorations. When the first lockdown happened in mid-March, it was about the time I had finally (after 2-3 years of procrastination) gotten my table-top or still life studio outfitted and going in my basement, so that serendipitous timing turned out pretty fortunate. Other than some photography in my home town area at different times since March, I've spent a lot of time learning and enjoying the use of my Linhof Kardan Master GTL 4x5 and some LED studio lighting in my basement, and (also finally) doing some B&W film speed testing with a couple of developers (to refine my technique). I can't say I have yet produced any personal all-time favorite still life images, but like anything I feel one needs to put in the time and effort on the learning curve, and be patient. However, in 2021 I look forward to getting back out on the road trips after my wife and I have gotten COVID vaccine jabs, as it is a personal priority for both of us to see more of the US and take time to enjoy such adventures. My landscape photography passion (more and more with LF) provides a strong motivation to get out to NPs and other scenic or historic areas of interest, and one never knows how long your health will hold out - so I look forward to better times.

Back to this COVID annus horribilis, I feel these two still life images taken in my basement are favorites.


Blue gum eucalyptus bowl made by Larry Zeidman in Hawi, Hawaii. (Linhof Kardan Master GTL 4x5, Delta, Doctor Wetzler APO-Germinar 300mm lens, f32.67 @ 125s)


Daum urn (Linhof KM GTL 4x5, TMX, 210mm Nikkor AM-ED macro, f22.5 @ 38s)

[Alan Klein]

I took up 4x5 photography in January right before covid started. I've made some headway (pictures in Flickr), but not a lot. I send film out for development so no issues with darkroom. I'm still working on a video slide show of a vacation I took a year ago (digital camera) in LA, San Diego and Las Vegas. Wasted a lot of time in the forums.

[Chuck Pere]

I haven't been out taking photos much but have been spending time editing my growing stacks, boxes and folders of loose prints. Most have been looked at in past edits. I divide them into new piles marked best, good, possible (better, medium and low), crop for those that have interesting small parts of the image and toss. I really have a hard time tossing out anything but now have a stack of interleaving paper 5in high. Hopefully I learn something every time I look at the old prints.

I also took digital photos of a bunch of old mounted prints with my SLR. These are nice to have for any juried show entries, contests and online use.

[Corran]

Back in March and April I made a ton of new prints. Got through a lot of my backlog of negatives from 2019. I also bought a slew of mats and standardized all of my print sizes to match, and matted a lot of new prints to replace my stock from selling at festivals in 2018-2019. Finally got a working website portfolio up, with many currently-available prints, and whilst I went through a dry period in the summer, have finally gotten out of my photography rut and made some good images in the last month and a half I think. And now I'm about to develop my first 12x20 images, so that's new and hopefully doesn't need any repair or whatever. Not a bad year really.

[Jim Noel]

I have spent most of my photography time around the house photographing plants and objects I have overlooked for years. Mostly 8x10 utilizing 2 brands of X-Ray film, with a few 5x7 Fuji HRU.
Lenses have been old ones I wanted to experiment with and a few I made up to see it they were worthwhile. I have come up with several which I will continue to use.

[Dugan]

I have spent most of my photography time since March acquiring gear, getting shutters CLA'd, and testing film and equipment...with a few photo-hikes along the way.
I've processed a lot of film, but now have a backlog of contact sheets and printing to do.
Over my holiday break, I plan on printing work from a series I started in the 1990's.