how old are we?

I'm hoping to be response #100. I never would have guessed there were

100 LF shooters that frequent this board (and I can think offhand of

at least a handful that have not responded).

<p>

Anyway, I'm 32 -- trying to bring the average back down. I started LF

about a year and a half ago when I read a newspaper article about a

local photographer who does Pt/Pd printing and thought those prints

were amazing. I quickly figured out what contact printing was and that

contact printing 35mm really doesn't work. It's been a steep learning

curve since and I still have yet to make a Pt/Pd print but I've found

the rest of LF so rewarding not sure when I'll get there (if at all).

<p>

-Jen

going for the 100

<p>

I;m 42 but also lie a lot

I gotta stop that, durnit

<p>

I'm only 38

Oh, how _old_! I'm sorry, misunderstood. yeah I'm uh 39. again

<p>

been shooting LF seriously, off and on, but not necessarily well,

since 85. Finally starting to figure some things out, I'm a slow

learner. Father was a photographer so I've been around all those

chemicals since I was tiny. That woulda been the early 60's or so. I

became interested in it in 80, 12 months after he sold or threw out

most of his old stuff-view cameras, an old 8x10 enlarger,

damn!damn!damn! ouch ouch. But I did get the 4x5 Busch Pressman that

got me started, and still have it, and gazillions of wooden holders

55 and climbing, working on career number 8, sadly, its not

photography. Been shooting and processing film since the late fifties,

127, 120, 35, MF about three years ago, and LF only abt 2 years ago.

Finally found enough money to buy some gear (actually, figured out

that saving for the golden years is out, These ARE the golden years:)

Did an interesting stint for a couple a years processing and printing

glass plates on an awfully big Durst for book publication, back in my

univesity years, oh, at the beginning of the first millenium). I think

I waited too long to build a great career shooting the beautiful

people. Most now just think I'm weird.(Yikes!, could they right?).

Greetings, it has been a pleasure to meet you all.

I'm 44. That's young. Really, really young! Honest! :)

<p>

Mike

40, been shooting LF exclusively since the first time I picked up a

camera, five years ago. Now mostly 12X20 portraiture...

<p>

Nathan

I'm 45, which seems to be somewhere near average for this group. I've

just started using an 8x10 within the past year, after using a 4x5

off and on for about three.

<p>

I got my first camera, a Kodak instamatic 126 with a pack of four-

sided flash cubes, when I was about 13. My first 35mm came a few

years later, then MF about seven years ago. Someone gave me an old

Speed Graphic a few years ago that had been sitting unused for 25

years and stored in a box for the last 15 years in a hot and humid

garage in South Louisiana. It was dirty and stiff and mouldy, and

the 135mm Optar lens was full of fungus, but the bellows were in

surprisingly good condition. I picked up another old lens and a box

of Tri-x, cleaned the ground glass as best I could, and exposed a few

sheets. My first results weren't all that impressive, but I knew I

was hooked when I examined that first negative on a light table with

a 4x loupe.

Wow, I can't believe the number of responses! I just turned 36 and in

the two years I've been shooting 4x5 I've never, ever seen any one

else with a LF camera, even in national parks throughout the U.S.

Where's everyone hiding?

I'm 46 but feel like I'm still 18 (until I get vertical in the

morning, then it's downhill for the rest of the day). Started with a

127 camera ~39 years ago, went through 620, Polaroid, 35mm, 6x7, 4x5,

digital, and 5x7 in that order - still using everything except the

127 and 620. Andy had a good question... where IS everyone hiding?

I've never seen another LF shooter in the field either. I'm in

Pennsylvania.

47 yrs old, but I started with this format at @ 23 yrs old. I know a

few my age or older (excluding commercial still life photogs) using LF

but the majority are fine arts students less than half my age.

I'm 52, and the first photos I shot were of Spiro Agnew. Who's that

you say? I have been shooting 4x5 for about 10 years, MF & 35 for 30

years. I wonder where all the LF photographers are as well. In all

my years I haven't seen another in the field. I think at times I

will see a Unicorn before I see another LF photographer. Pat.

42, have been shooting 4x5 for 15 years, 8x10 for about 4yrs and

gathering components for a home brew 11x14. Have been shooting 35mm

since 20yrs starting with a good old reliable college issue Pentax.

I'm 46...Man does the time fly. Instamatic and polaroid as a kid in

the sixties. Around 10 years old stopped in the Nikon shop and

gallery in NYC and the interest took hold. Dad gave me his Graphic

at 13. Music took over at 14. At 15, NYC photographer Victor Laredo

showed me briefly how to work in a B+W darkroom. Bought a Nikon FM

at 22. Leica M at 33...then it really began. At 35 sold first B+W

prints taken with a Yashica twin. Sold in local gallery Leica shots

as well as medium format stuff and 4x5. At 44 bought a 12x20.At 45 a

Anba 5x7......What next? Hmmmmm Platinum??

39, started about 18 month ago with 6x6 and a few month later with

4x5, before that I bought a 35mm slr ten years ago for some snapping,

but the SLR just catch dust the last 9 years.

<p>

Scanning this thread it looks like that the modus operandi for LF is:

old enough for having the bucks to buy LF gear and young enough to

lug everything around.

<p>

Huib

<p>

home.plex.nl/~hsmeets

When I started in photography (1972), Zone VI didn't exist yet, Ansel

Adams was a young man of 70, there were no SLR commercials on TV,

Kodak 35mm film came in a screw top aluminum can inside a box with a

separate instruction sheet, some of their developers came in metal

cans; I think the only large format field camera was a Deardorff, and

the only automatic 35mm SLR was a Konica Autoreflex!

<p>

Anyway, 46. Ouch!

What an amazing post! I am 46 and two years into large format (4x5).

Just took a John Sexton workshop and am INSPIRED and revamping my

darkroom for some serious photo phun! Always wanted to be a fine art

B&W photographer, but got talked out of it as a teenager. Have studied

photography ever since, but realized two years ago with a reduced work

schedule, that I could still try out my dream!!!!

<p>

I am having a ball. . .

<p>

Scott

I am 38, started LF a 29. Jennifer, you thought that there

were less than 100 participants in this forum ? Are you

serious ? Between January and now, 1500 different people

posted a message.

51. My dad set me up with his 2x3 Busch Pressman at age nine. I got

serious about LF in 1973.

Fifty right now. A day older tomorrow. LF for twenty years, Pt/pd

for ten. The reason that most of the LF crowd is older is that we

can no longer squint through the viewfinder of a 35mm SLR any more!

Just turned the big five-oh(no). I returned today from a shoot out

on the Olympic Peninsula of my home state, Washington, and after

lugging around a pack of camera gear for a couple of days I'm

beginning to realize that 50 has its drawbacks. Started too many

years ago to remember with an OM-1, then a Pentax 67, followed by a

Wista SP, added a Pentax 645 and have sold all of the above and now

shoot exclusively with an Arca-Swiss 69. I shoot professionally

(nature) for stock and am hoping the economy turns around real soon.

At 66, I'll bring up the average age a bit for this forum. After a

lifetime of shooting 35mm, I started with LF six years back. Now

retired in the Bay Area, I get spend real time with my Canham DLC and

then lurk here on the forum between shoots.