Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Bernhard Ess" 
<albatros-@g...> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> sceptre12345 wrote:
> > I'm simply amazed at the number of shots taken by digital
> > photographers these days. (This is not a digital vs film thing).
> > I guess technology allows it and why not use it, since it doesnt 
cost
> > more to take 50 or 300 shots if you have the memory cards.
> 
> Why be amazed? 

Yes I'm amazed. Shooting 645 format, I usually don't come home with 
300-500 shots in a day and I can't go thru my film with a delete key!

> > I remember reading about french photographer Edouard Boubat, who 
in
> > the 1950's, when film wasn't cheap in comparaison to the pay, 
would
> > go out on a commercial shoot with a Rolleiflex and one roll of 
film.
> 
> Those are the "legend stories" for the photo teaching classes and 
the
> handbooks of b&w photography. 

That was the norm in those days. Boubat wasn't the only one to 
practice that kind of frugal photography. It was probably acquired 
after working with large format and the "try to make every shot count 
philosophy" which can still be applied to any photographic camera. 


>  H. Cartier- Bresson
> once said: "Your first ten thousand shots will be your worst". So he
> probably was shooting quite a lot. Does this make him a less 
excellent
> photographer?

HCB never spent one minute in the darkroom. He hated lab work, and 
didn't think he was good enough. One day he got fed up with 
photography and went back to painting. Probably after shooting one 
roll too many!…just joking.

Did shooting less made Boubat and his contemporaries less excellent 
photographers ?

Cheers,
Andre