Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Brian Ellis
<bellis60@...> wrote:
> "Consequently it tempts the photographer to be similarly
> indiscriminate, and just shoot away, hoping for a good result."
> 
> Not when you're using an 8x10 camera and not when film costs $4 a
sheet. 
> : - )

That's a very valid point. I find that I always get the best results
when I am forced to slow down the most. This goes for technical
quality, obviously, because if I take my time I don't tend to mess up
with the basics, but it also applies to composition. If I shoot with
my little point-and-shoot Panasonic, I only rarely get good results,
not because of the camera or lens, but because I tend to take 5 to 10
seconds over a shot. I tend to use it for record shots only for that
reason -- things like, yesterday, wanting a list of the sizes of
cardboard boxes I could get from a local shop, not finding anything,
then just basically taking a couple of quick photos of the shelves so
I could refer back to it later.

This is why, about a year ago, when I decided to put some serious
investment into my hobby, I *didn't* go the DSLR route. This would
have been sensible and a lot cheaper, but I doubted I'd have really
liked the results. Not so much because the cameras or lenses were
inferior, but because I know I'd be tempted to work too quickly.
Instead, I went for medium- and large-format, but digital in both
cases. I wanted the image quality of high-end digital, and didn't want
the hassle (or ongoing cost) of film. The lack of automation, the
physical difficulty of moving heavy cameras and tripods, all of that
slows me down. With medium format, if I go out landscape shooting, I
might take 50 to 100 frames in a day, with many of them simply being
repeats or bracketing. With large format, 20 frames would be a *good*
day. But out of that, the number of usable 'keepers' is actually
pretty high -- I generally get at least 3 or 4 shots that I'm really
happy with. This is way more than I ever had previously, but it's come
from taking fewer photos. I think it's partly because, if I've half
killed myself hauling large format gear to a location, if I know that
it's going to take me half an hour to set up for a shot, I might as
well take 10 minutes to find the best place for the camera, and think
about what I really want to get out of the image. This really *does*
make a huge difference.

I don't think my previous problems were so much inadequate seeing as
not really having had the habit of doing enough *looking*!

As for why I take photographs, this is either simple or complicated.
The simple view is that I get a huge amount out of it -- if I make
some photos that I like, I get a big boost from it emotionally. This
happens for me from pretty much any art -- in the past I was more into
music, and got much the same kind of return from playing keyboards and
bass guitar. The more complicated view is harder to pin down. I think
if we do something artistic, it gives us an opportunity to redefine
ourselves as in some sense artists -- for some, this isn't much of a
hurdle, but for others (myself included), coming from a culture that
didn't tend to value art, and having gone through a school that
repeatedly told me that I was useless at it, created more of a
mountain than a hurdle. The sad thing is, I actually am more an artist
than an engineer at heart, and always have been, though my career
hasn't taken me in that direction. It's tempting to theorise that the
art side makes me a better engineer/scientist, but I'm only one person
and I can't repeat my life a different way to see if this was really
the case. I think that scaling that mountain and getting to a position
 where I can (and do) make art that I'm happy with has been a hugely
empowering thing for me.

Another part of the story (I said it was complicated!) is that I moved
from the UK to the west coast of the USA a year ago, entirely on my
own. Having the opportunity to photograph here has certainly made a
significant difference -- I think it's no coincidence that so many of
the historic 'greats' in photography came from this area, because, to
be quite frank, there are so many amazing things to photograph here
that it's hard not to be inspired by that. Coping with living alone
here with few friends and nothing really to speak of in terms of a
social life has been far easier because of the photography -- it gives
me something to do on weekends, it gives me a purpose that's entirely
 distinct from my day job, and the direct emotional return on making
the photos has been (and remains) a really big thing for me.

Yes, this has run on a while. Sorry!

Sarah

PS: Next project is basically getting the process of making prints
from my images working as well as I'd like -- I've had some good
results from my R2400, but it's basically too small to do justice to
some of my photos, particularly from the 150 megapixel images from the
Better Light, so expect me to be bugging you all over the next few
months about this! (Apologies in advance...)