Re: Is there anybody out there photographing?

[Simon Nathan <simonwide@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

a lot of those pictures you admire and treasure,
tony, were made on glass plates and contact printed on long scale azo paper.
even during my 4x5 speed graphic days early forties the outfit with twelve
holders (24 exposures) was mighty weighty. rarely do i expose by motor
drive except fo work with my hulchers. oh. sure i tried the bell and howell
foton for a couple years. squinty viewfinder killed it for me. simon nathan

Tony wrote:

I thought Steve made a significant point which no-one seemed to pick up.
Photography is so cheap nowadays that even when a proposed picture is not
quite what you want, there is a tendancy to say "what the heck, I'll shoot
it anyway".  A cost of $15 a shot makes you pause and think "is this really
the best I can do?" with a particular scene. Perhaps this is why some of
the shots which have come down to us from early photographers are so good.
The 'machine-gun' approach of shooting a hundred frames and hoping to
chance on a good one afterwards isn't really the right way to go.

Tony Andrews

At 07:32 AM 5/21/1999 -0700, Steve wrote:
>I was beginning to feel silly, setting it up, looking at the scene and
>deciding not to make an exposure.
>
>Well, at $15 per shot for color film and processing, I'm not really tempted
>to 'go ahead and take the picture.'  But, my seemingly perverse satisfaction
>at setting up the camera, leveling the tripod, tilt, swing, rise, drop and
>.... naaaaa, I dooon't think so but it was fun.  It's matched by others!
>
>That 18 Lb camera, two pound lens, Brett Weston's tripod over my shoulder
>and I just like setting it up.  Oh, I have a few exposed negatives that
>printed fantastically, too.
>
>Today, I go back under the Monterey Bay, Warf I, again. Ho hum.
>
>S. Shapiro
>
>