z_z1

Be prepared to loose a friend. Weddings are extremely emotionally charged events with not only looking after the bride and grooms requests, but the immediate family will try and get you to do some "extra" shots just since your there and they are all there. If something goes wrong you can not reshoot. Leave it to the pros who do this for a living. I did commercial/industrial and editorial for years professionally and I wouldn't touch a wedding with a 10 foot pole! I would rather work with the snottyest (sp) model any day rather than do a wedding. They may love your landscapes, but really all they are doing is trying to save some money at your emotional expense.

Be smart and respectfully decline.

Eric

I'm impressed!! Checked out the photos you have done with this little baby and they are amazing. What roll film back are you using? Did you make the bellows yourself?

Just goes to show, talent makes all the difference, not how much money you throw at it.

I want to do some nudes at night on a golf course using IR B&W film.

Has anyone had any first hand experience with night IR photography?

Should I bother with the red filter since there will be very little

ambient natural light? I have search the archives but couldn't find

any good info.

Your experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric

I'm going to be touring all over the place. Want to use two backs,

one for B&W and one for color. Would this type of camera attract to

much attention, and especially the wrong kind of attention?

How safe is it? I've done a fair amount of travelling so know the

usual steps to take.

Any people who live in Malaysia or have travelled their recently if

you could offer some tips I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Eric

I had an F2 for years and it is a beautiful camera. Functioned perfectly. Alas I sold it however as I needed a camera that could take some major abuse. Since I also had a Nikon Nikkormat FTN I kept that one. Fully mechanical, accurate shutter, great meter and still works with a dead battery.

You can pick them up used for a reasonable price.

I have a buddy who went out and bought all the new Nikon lens he could get his hands on. Obviously to much money on his hands!! Anyway we though it would be interesting to compare them to my oldie moldie Nikkors from the late 70's. We compared everything from 28mm up to 200mm, both prime and zooms.

Guess what? The old lens beat the pants off the new ones! Boy was he pissed!! He took the entire system back and demanded a refund. Bought a Contax G2 and all their lens. Now he won't do an A/B comparison with me!!

That's my experience, your mileage may vary.

Eric

<b>Calgary Alberta, Canada</b>

<p>

As with most cities in Canada people are reserved and courteous. When taking photos in town I always allow an extra bit of time to explain for the 100th time what I'm doing and why I use such an "<i>old</i>" camera. I've never been accosted by property owners or by anyone else for that matter. Except maybe the odd down on their luck type looking for change.

</p><p>

In the country or mountains on the odd occassion that I do run into people they usually try very hard to keep out of the picture and give suggestions for other pictures further up the trail.

</p><p>

I have left equipment all over the place, van windows wide open etc and have never had a problem with anything walking off.

</p><p>

I was out taking pictures of an old abandoned brewery (a sad event!)and the security guard wandered up to me. He took a long look at my camera, gazed towards the direction of my interest, and his only comment was "nice clouds".

</p><p>

The long and the short of it is, you will feel safe here.

</p><p>

Eric

I have 3 lens, a 150, 210 and 90mm. For the 150 and 210 I have used step up rings to enable me to use the 52mm filters and lens shades I already have. For the 90mm I bought an extra set of filters and lens hood.

I have come to the conclusion over the years that the frustration factor normally associated with trying to save a few bucks just isn't worth it in the long run. After all we do this for fun, right!

Eric

I have just done a series of pictures of garden flowers using my 4x5 field camera. I used a 150mm lens and had no problem

getting 1:1. Image quality was outstanding and exposure consideration are not such a big deal. I have also done a considerable

number of 35mm flower shots and found the view camera much more pleasant to use. In both cases you need to use a sturdy tripod,

and in the case of the 35mm I would always lock-up the mirror prior to exposure to minimize camera shake. When I did flowers

with my Blad I also locked up the mirror and let the shutter close down prior to tripping it. Again to mimimize shake. The

35mm would be better for weird angles, but as I see it that's it's only advantage.

Thanks, I checked out Ilford site and thank goodness they have just the info I need.

ciao,

Eric

Any suggestions on processing times??? What a dumby! Oh well I'm

sure it won't be the last time. But I hope not for a while anyway!

Eric

I checked out Fatali's website. Nice stuff. He sounds like a lot of new age business people. It's just part of the marketing. Beyond that though he has stunning work. Thursty, chill man. You don't have to slag others to boost your boy. He can rise above them himself, at least as far as his admirers are concerned.

I would love to see some of your photographs. Why don't you post some? I'm not much better my self, I've had little time to do a bunch of scanning. But I promise you show me yours and I'll show you mine.

Eric

I would suggest not using 4x5 and use a MF camera instead. 4x5 has it's place but your stretching it abit here I think. Not to say it can't be done, but if your doing aerial work, which I have done, poking a 4x5 with bellows out the window is looking for trouble.

Have fun!!

It was mentioned in another post about using a LF lens on a Blad. I

have searched the archives but can't find out how this is done. Can

anyone point me in the right direction? I would suppose my 80mm Blad

lens wouldn't have the coverage for 4x5, but has anyone tried it?

Thanks,

Eric

You asked the same question on the 18th. and received some good input. Just get yourself some and give it a try.

Eric

Is there a fee associated with receiving the newsletter? Checked out your website. The exposure notepad is interesting but would be more useful is if they were on post-it notepads. That way we could just attach them to the dark slide once we finished taking the picture. I suppose you could number your holders and do it that way, just put the number of the holder ie: 1A or 1B depending on which side is referenced on the existing pads.

By using the stickies you could actually put it on the contact sheet as well so the exposure info always stays with the contact / negative.

Just an idea.

Eric

I just ordered my copy of Bruce's new book titles "Tone Poems -- Book

1". It's a cool concept, with the book comes a CD of classical piano

music performed by Judith Cohen. When I was visiting him this spring

he mentioned it and explained to me how music and photography seem to

go hand in hand. It's amazing how many of the top photographers are

very envolved in music as well. If you order before Sept 16th you

can get a signed copy and if your really flush you can order a copy

that comes with an original signed print done by Bruce. That's way

out of my league, but the family is buying me the signed edition for

Xmas.

Eric

I've always found the utilization of a lens hood to be crucial to getting maximal tonal range. With or without a polarizer. Just cuts down on the stray light coming into the lens. While modern lens are well coated they are not perfect.

Eric

OK - I'm crying uncle!! I'll give it a try. A lot of stuff I do is in pretty contrasty conditions so maybe it will help. My major stumbling block is where do you get all the ingrediants? Is there a pre-mixed packaged version you can buy?

Eric

I thought my query would generate some discussion. I had a very close friend (sadly departed) who was a major advocate of pyro. His prints were fantastic. But then again so where his prints from non-pyro negs he did for other photographers. He was a master printsman and seemed able to tease everything there was to squeeze out of a neg. Both technically and artistically.

It seems to me that pyro could be much more labor intensive than regular store bought chemistry. I could be very wrong about that as I haven't tried it yet.

The comment about Sexton being in the back pocket of Kodak could be valid, but that aside, he produces fantastic prints using whatever it is he uses. Would the end product be better if he had used pyro? I wonder.

I'm not looking for a magic bullet or pixie dust, just a reasonably strong case for going to all the bother to try something that seems to be more work.

Maybe I should be looking at pyro as just another tool in the cabinet. While traditional developers can satisfy 90% of the usual requirements, pyro is really great for the other 10%. If that is the case then which 10% is best suited to pyro?

Eric

It seems that quite a few members of this forum use Pyro. I

understand the pluses and minuses of the developer, but my question

is does anyone know of any of the top landscape LF photographers out

there such as Sexton, Barnbaum et al that actually use Pyro these

days. Of these two in particular I understand they don't. Maybe I'm

wrong however.

I'm not trying to open a debate on whether Pyro is better or worse

than the other developers, so lets not go down that path. Just who

of the bigger commercially successful photographers are using Pyro.

Eric

It's all about money. Period. Maybe the editor thought his chest thumping about traditional methods would garner a larger and more dedicated (read more paid up subscriptions)audience. Evidently they didn't realize the rushing to the ramparts on the part of the traditionalists and have therefore decided to embrace a wider audience. Probably a good business move.

Eric

I realize it is a C41 film, thus no N-1 stuff, but I was wondering if

anyone has given it a good going over to see how it performs. I am

finding it hard to get consistant B&W development in my town and

don't have the time to do it myself. As much as I love silver, I

have gotten really excited about CN400 in 6x6. Absolutely amazing

tonal range. Unfortunately they don't make it in 4x5 sheets.

Eric