[LargeFormat] mail order reccomendations?
Joseph O'Neil
largeformat@f32.net
Sun Mar 30 13:44:04 2003
-snip-
> I currently live in a
>condo which makes darkroom work difficult but am moving to a much larger
>townhouse this summer so I hope to get things setup again. I am particularly
>interested in marrying large format, digital and alternate process work.
I am hesitant to reccomend digital. This has NOTHING to do with
what is better. It has everythign to do with money. I do desktop
publishing as part of my "day job", and I can tell you, all equipment for
digital - cameras, scanners, software, printers, computers, etc, etc, all
ahs a realistic life span of two years in the commerical marketplace before
it is obsolete, three years before it is completely and utterly
obsolete. There may be exceptions, but the point is, my three enlargers
are in some cases 25 to 50 years old,a nd all are useable. I do nto ahve
to replace them every three years.
The second point,and one not often discussed on other photo
mailing lists, is the creative process of LF itself. For whatever reaosn,
I find when either sitting in a darkroom or sitting outside behind a 4x5
camera, my mind - for lack of better words - goes into a "different
palce". It's almost Zen liek maybe. How I see things, the inspiration I
feel, the ideas that come into my head in those places is totally
non-existant when I sit in front of a computer monitor and work in photoshop.
Why my mind works like this, I do not know, but i have been into
computers for over 20 years now, and even after all that time, i cannot get
my mind into "that palce" on any computer - even with a laptop outside
ona warm summer day - the same way I can with a LF camera.
For that reason alone, even if a LF digital back with 100 times
the resolution fo tech pan was developed and sold for $10, I wouldn't go
near it, just for the reason above.
So my advice is to be carefull, because part of LF, IMO is not the
film itself, but the creative process associate dwith using a LF camera and
sitting in the darkroom. Something about the "sensory depravation" of a
darkroom frees up one's mind, while the noice of a humming hard drive, does
not.
>Anyone who would like to get together for coffee and a chat?
See if anyone else is around, I'd drive down for an eveing to meet
at a Second Cup somewhere.
:)
joe
http://www.oneilphoto.on.ca
http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem