david_g_hall

Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee. Covers vision, exposing, developing, printing, and little goodies like how to really work a tripod, etc. They bill theirs as "the last workshop you will ever need" and it just might be...

dgh

Let me clarify...

I have taken Gitzo and other tripods with rubber feet onto planes and through airports many times. They don't care at all about tripods, other than size. It's the spikes.

After looking at the TSA site, I will check it and avoid the hassles.

Thanks all for the input. Jen...did you walk Old Pas with the camera on Monday?

dgh

I know the TSA people are better trained when it comes to film,

speed, and handchecks. But I have not gone through with a spiked

tripod yet. And I am to travel next week.

Any experiences to share?

dgh

William,

I just bought a 5x7 Burke and James in good shape, complete with extender rail and 4x5 back, for $300. And I wasn't getting a huge bargain on it, just a fair price.

One thing about the B&J...I am having a hard time finding lensboards. People will tell you it takes standard 4 inch square boards, but it doesn't. So make sure boards come with it, and that they fit, or try to find some somewhere before you actually buy the camera.

If price is the biggest issue for you, you might consider a NEW Calumet Cadet for $300 or a NEW Tachihara for $600. I have used neither but they seem like a good value for a new camera at the same price at which you are looking.

dgh\

Nathan,

Great photographs! First, I love that you did portraits with a 12x20. I would LOVE to see them in person. Second, I love that they are non-traditional poses. The Gulliver photograph especially.

You mention on the site that you have traveled to all seven continents with a big camera. Was it always the 12x20? I always travel with a VERY light Ebony kit and I spend two thirds of the travel time cussing the thing. I can't imagine traveling with a 12x20. How do you do it?

dgh

I tilt in virtually every landscape photograph, and swing in about 25%. The person who taught me view camera movements taught me to have whatever I want in focus in focus at the widest aperture (or least to make that the goal) so I am pretty careful about tilt and swings first, THEN stop down to f22 or whatever. I used to stop all the way down and actually noticed a pretty significant difference in sharpness, even in not-huge enlargements. My images are much sharper at f22 than at f64.

Jorge wondered why he uses movements less in 4x5 than in larger formats. I think it's because larger formats have considerably less DOF, so movements are much more critical. To make an 8x10 portrait at a reasonable aperture like f11, I have to tilt slightly to get the tip of the nose and the catchlights of the eyes in focus.

dgh

One other thing. You're in very good company. I have an old Ansel Adams documentary in which he is giving a workshop on pre exposure and pulls a polaroid and there's nothing there. It happens to the best of us!

dgh

I don't know how many times I have had blank readyloads and polaroids becuase the packet went out with the sheath pull. And it seems to happen to me in batches, like a batch of readyloads or polaroids all have the little metal clip bent a certain way or something. I don't know.

Anyway, it used to happen to me all the time until I started checking the packet after the pull and before I trip the shutter. And even now the packet isn't where it's supposed to be maybe one out of ten or fifteen times.

dgh

I just got a 5x7 B&J, in pretty good shape. It is of the battleship

gray genre, and I have heard here and elsewhere that the wood

underneath the ugly paint is actually quite nice.

The thing is, I'm a photographer, not a woodworker. While all the

other kids were at home making birdhouses and detailing toy models, I

was out with a camera trying to take picutres of bugs.

Does you know someone who could help me restore it?

Thanks!

dgh

Great question. My first LF camera was an Omega, based on a Toyo, that I got at a photo show for $75. It was rickety and the rear standard didn't lock down well, so I saved up for 4 years for an Arca Swiss.

Then, in 1993 I travelled to all 50 states, lugging the Arca FC in a backpack wrapped in the darkcloth. The rail bent, one of the standards doesn't zero out, and the ground glass broke a couple of times.

SO I saved up again and last year got a Linhof Master Tecknika. Now I use that for travel and the Arca for portrait work at home.

I also was given a Wisner 8x10 last year as a gift, which I am just now really beginning to love and appreciate. Especially those three dimensional contact prints!

dgh

X=1

Y=2 (F3, F100)

Z=3 (8x10 Wisner, 4x5 Linhof, 6x7 Mamiya)

It's easy to measure film in the dark. Develop a roll WITH leader and 36 frames exposed. Cut a piece of cardboard to the length of however many frames you want, measuring from the beginning of the leader. Now you have a rule to measure that number of frames accurately every time, assuming you load the film in the camera the same way every time.

dgh

I am bored sitting here at work.

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61 people so far. Assuming Joe Kras is 49, the average age is 39.66.

<p>

So far.

<p>

dgh

I am 37. Started serious photography with a 35mm Ricoh as an

exchange student in Spain at 14. Then a Nikon, then a Pentax

67, then a toyo starter 4x5 in 1989. Then a Canham 5x7 in 1997,

pyro in 1999 and an 8x10 this year. My day job is in radio so

spending free moments focusing and "moving" a big camera is

a welcome balance.

Emile,

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I have the 8x10 expedition. I love it. It is light, relatively rigid, and

the geared tilt is great. Every once in a while I have to be extra

careful about seating the holder in the back. It can sound and

feel seated and be not quite to the bottom of the back. But other

than that, no problems whatsoever.

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dgh

Sorry to bug a global forum for this question, but...

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Does anyone know where in Southern California one can find a

rental darkroom? I had a great darjkroom for years, moved and

now cannot have a wet darkroom where I live so I have a digital

one, and I do film in the sink in Pattersons and Jobos. But

sometimes I want to be able to make real prints without dots.

And sometimes I want to develop my 8x10 film, which I currently

have to send out.

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Help!

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There was a place called LA Darkroom that all the camera

stores refer me to but it went out of business in February and in

fact is still selling off all of it's equipment, if anyone is interested.

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Thanks for whatever help you can offer...

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dgh