Sometimes, the act of pulling the dark slide creates high winds.
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.
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.
The Viewfinder is the Soul of the Camera
If you don't believe it, look into an 8x10 viewfinder!
Dan
If I abandon the shot, it’s usually because I’ve lost the light.
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