How about a camera thread? Pelicanheads show me your cameras!

[911pcars]

"Post Office dropped the package so bad that the lens would not even mount on the body"

JoeA,
Reminds me once upon a time; my F2 camera took an endo on a photo shoot some years ago. The drop pushed the camera lens mount askew and dented the filter ring on the lens. This resulted in pics that, 15 years later, would have been the rigeur - partially out of focus compositions, sorta like rotating the front lens board on a 4x5 studio camera to shorten/distort the depth of field. Alas, I wasn't astute enough to start the styling precedent and sold the camera for parts.

Bob,
Thanks for the comments. As you know, many times it's a matter of luck or awareness to be in the right place at the right time. How many times have we asked ourselves, "Gee, I could have taken that" (e.g. Moonrise, Hernandez NM). But I wasn't and neither was anyone else except Ansel, the ultimate planner.



Sherwood

[vash]

i remember reading that ansel had the exact fstop and aperature figured out for a moon shot. that month i set it, and the image of the moon came out perfectly. too bad all the crap surrounding the moon made the image look like crap.

sherwood, the image is awesome. you should get yourself a large format camera and go to town. i seriously need to get back into this. i need to get a new computer. i like and did documentary stuff. and i just managed to squeeze myself in on a huge tunneling project. i plan to have a camera with me 100% of the time.


on a side note: have you guys ever noticed how much coin a wedding photographer pulls down? and all they do is shoot miles of images and edit. amazing. me? i couldnt handle the pressure.

[911pcars]

With the exception of the "coin", I did a few weddings when I started. Shooting film, it was always a guessing game whether the "right" expression and/or composition would work; whether the film lab processed it correctly, etc. With digital feedback, wedding photogs have more assurance they have or don't have the image. Wedding photographers still operate under pressure, but it should be reassuring to be able to review each shot instead of waiting a few days after the event to see the bride's Mother's eyes closed in all the group shots.

Sherwood

[djmcmath]

Vash, that image was originally shot by Ansel Adams, and is considered one of the famous classics. I'm sure you knew that.

Sherwood, you're absolutely right. Having digital available for shooting people has saved me a lot of trouble already, and I don't even shoot pro. If you screw up the shot but find out about it the same day, you can still repair it. If you don't get to process the film till that night, it's too late. Additionally, if it's already digital, you can fix a lot of small problems -- facial lines, closed eyes, the wine that the bride spilled on her dress....

That said, I still prefer film for artistic work. While it isn't terribly practical, there's nothing like B&W large format. Knowing that I get 6 frames today (because that's all the film I can carry), and knowing that it'll take me 15 minutes to set up the shot really makes me think about it.

Dan

[911pcars]

"...and knowing that it'll take me 15 minutes to set up the shot really makes me think about it...."

Dan,
Adams shot many of his great pics in the boon docks with 8x10 film. Talk about thinking about it? How many times can you bracket w/o hiking back home for more film?

Sherwood

[Steve Carlton]

Originally posted by djmcmath
A gigapixel is hardly necessary. 4x5 negs can be printed as large as you please with no discernible grain. Recording more information than that is really overkill.

My post was tongue-in-cheek and intended to share an interesting camera and the images it can generate. Recording more information is very useful for documentation purposes.

[vash]

Originally posted by djmcmath
Vash, that image was originally shot by Ansel Adams, and is considered one of the famous classics. I'm sure you knew that.

Sherwood, you're absolutely right. Having digital available for shooting people has saved me a lot of trouble already, and I don't even shoot pro. If you screw up the shot but find out about it the same day, you can still repair it. If you don't get to process the film till that night, it's too late. Additionally, if it's already digital, you can fix a lot of small problems -- facial lines, closed eyes, the wine that the bride spilled on her dress....

That said, I still prefer film for artistic work. While it isn't terribly practical, there's nothing like B&W large format. Knowing that I get 6 frames today (because that's all the film I can carry), and knowing that it'll take me 15 minutes to set up the shot really makes me think about it.

Dan

funny, i never really like adams stuff. too "scenic". so i really dont know his work that well.

[vash]

i think he also was there when reagan was shot. his image of that is amazing. hehe, i thought that adam's photo looked familiar. i thought he only took tree photos.

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by 911pcars
"...and knowing that it'll take me 15 minutes to set up the shot really makes me think about it...."


Adams shot many of his great pics in the boon docks with 8x10 film.

I am astounded by the amount of gear that man would carry -- 8x10 glass plates, a tripod big enough to hold the 8x10 camera ... He was once asked by a reporter what size camera he carried into the field. The documented response was, "As big as I can carry." Weston was rumored to have said (repeatedly), "There is nothing photogenic more than 50 feet from my car."


Steve -- that gigapixel camera is certainly an awesome thing, I'll grant. I thought you were serious about it's application in personal use, though. (blush) Crikey, what a camera!

Vash, that is some awesome B&W. Wow.

[911pcars]

I admire Adams for his excrutiating attention to detail in forming his images from film exposure to darkroom techniques.

However, for emotional impact, I prefer the social commentary by gentlemen such as W. Eugene Smith and Eddie Adams.


W. Eugene Smith - Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, Minamata
(As relevant now as it was in 1972)

Sherwood

[vash]

sherwood, that is the single photo that made me think documentary stuff was cool, and went that way.

tragic topics shot in a great light...unreal! if i was in texas, i would scan my first fashion photo. haha, my prof loved it, but it didnt do it for me.

[djmcmath]

Too true, Sherwood -- Ansel's photos are landscapes, for sure. He never managed to get people to work out for him. Despite his technical mastery of the subject, a lot of people don't like his work because of that. It's a lot easier to relate emotionally to art that includes people, perhaps?