Digital BW, The Print

I remember when I took my first photography course at MD Institute of 
Art. The first thing they did was take our cameras away from us and give 
us a 6x6 twin lens reflex camera to use. A very simple camera. The 
camera as focussed by looking on a ground glass at the image upside down 
and backwards.  This took your mind off the gadgets and put it on the 
subject.

I have a very old tlr and from time to time I go back to using it. It 
does rekindle the sprits and it does allow you to see the subject not 
just look at it and tweak the settings.

Truman


>
> >I hope this personal missive is not OT for everyone -- bear with me 
> if it is
> >an obvious thing.  It has certainly helped me create much more satisfying
> >images by subduing my dominant rational, analytical (and often 
> frustrated)
> >left brain.
> >
> >For some time I had thought I had reached the limit of my equipment's
> >ability to produce the best images I could.  I struggled with minute 
> details
> >and received increasingly small benefits.  The prints were getting
> >technically better and better but _meant_ no more to me.
> >
> >This led me to ask in a previous post what other people felt contributed
> >most to the 'quality' of their images.  Among the good advice there 
> was some
> >great advice: that I may be focusing too much on equipment.  Instead of
> >buying a LF camera I bought a Holga and relaxed.
> >
> >There was something about holding that simple plastic camera with one
> >shutter speed and one aperture that let me relax and focus on _seeing_
> >things.  It is a much more holistic process than the formulae I used 
> before
> >and the images have much more meaning for me.  Some days I now go out 
> to try
> >and capture a feeling instead of a preconceived arrangement of 
> things. It is
> >almost like a state of mind - a kind of relaxed attentiveness, if 
> that makes
> >any sense.
> >
> >Perhaps these are natural steps in an evolving skill.  Perhaps craft
> >improves incrementally until a quantum change in seeing/interpreting is
> >needed, then incremental changes is craft can resume.  Perhaps my 
> head has
> >softened irreparably <g>
> >
> >Kevin Gulstene
> >
> >
>