Digital BW, The Print

Hello Jerry,

>>>
I know a lot of people are tired of these same old type of subjects,
but I still love them. I only have visited Weston Beach, Point Lobos,
and Big Sur 5 times in my life, and only stayed a few days.  I'd love
to spend months at each place. Believe me the pictures you can get
there are much more artistic (To Me) than the same old North Dakota
Landscapes I always shoot. I'm getting REALLY tired of them. I just
happen to love that type of subject, and so rarely get to shoot it.  
>>>

I understand, and I'm the same way (except I think I could resist the
wagon wheel <g>), and I'm pretty well filled up on Florida landscapes.
My thoughts about "cruzin fer snaps" take me out west...I love the
desert.  I've been to the Mojave twice.  Am hoping to visit my brother
in S. CA this spring...

The thing that bothers me about the subject matter is that I feel a
tug to do other things as well and find it's difficult to get my brain
out of that mode of thinking.  As for my comments about that web site,
it was not only the subject matter but the style.  It seemed like I
was looking at work by someone who had looked at nothing but AA pics,
and that was their concept of what a pic should look like.

It was set up by a husband-wife team, both photogs, with his/her
sections.  The pics were gorgeous, beautifully printed, sensibly
priced, nicely designed web site, all top notch and very professional
- absolutely nothing to criticize.  There were bio pages with shots of
them at work.  They each had their Zone VI view cameras, wooden
tripods, Schneider lenses...all the right stuff.  There was even a
self portrait that was his own shadow on rock of him and his setup,
with hand holding the shutter release cable.

What gave me a sense of dispair was that it was all so utterly
predictable.  I had such a strong reaction to it that I went to back
Mark Tucker's site just balance it out.  What refreshing work (Mark,
my favorite is the kid in the baseball cap holding up the wet cat). 
But I also know that it would be just as defeating for me to try to
imitate his work.  Only Mark could make a plunger-cam and pull it
off.  

Point is, I don't want to imitate anyone, and I realize the danger is
that it's easy to do it unconsciously.  And one cannot just decide
they are going to do something different.  That's just another form of
imitation.  It has to be real and spring up from within.  All I can do
is continue to photograph and try to be aware of my thought processes
and be attuned to the subtle intuitions that come along.  It's easy to
get into a brute force mental mode and miss them.


>Bogie got so many wagon wheel prints when he first started teaching,
>he just couldn't take it any more. 

I understand <g>.


>I haven't forgotten about sending you a raw D60 file. 

That's fine, thanks.  No hurry about it.


>Will you be able to open a raw D60 File, or should I open it 
>and save it untouched in a photoshop file?

I'm not sure, I've never worked with a RAW file.  I have PS7, will
that handle it or must it be converted with software that comes with
the camera?

Regards, - cj