Edward Weston Philosophy -- Newbies please read

Sirius Glass said:

Since I have over five decades in photography I think that their is nothing wrong in taking the last decade to go back into the darkroom for both color and black & white, expand from 35mm to MF and now to LF. Because of the digital revolution I can now afford to buy equipment that I could only dream about.

Steve

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Here,Here,that is very True and happened to me Sirius.Having the most fun in forty years.
Mike

wblynch said:

I'm still excited simply to get visible images!!

I'm amazed everytime I pull a strip of film from the tank.

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Hi WB,

I hope you don't mind if I use your statement as my signature.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York
And The Macro Management, And Long Island @ Large Format APUG Groups
.

Ron LarFor4X5 said:

Hi WB,

I hope you don't mind if I use your statement as my signature.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York
And The Macro Management, And Long Island @ Large Format APUG Groups
.

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I am glad that you gave WBLynch credit.

Steve

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Sirius Glass said:

I am glad that you gave WBLynch credit.

Steve

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WBLynch deserves the credit.
It's such a simple, and sincere expression.
After all these years, it's alway an incredible feeling.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York,
And The Macro Management, And Long Island @ Large Format APUG Groups
.

The " K I S S " rule applies. Keep it super simple. To start off, one camers, one lens, one film speed, and one set of DR chems. Onnce you get that right, you can start playing around.

Gerald C Koch said:

The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it.

- Edward Weston

I have found that people new to photography often make this mistake and over complicate the whole process. Work in the darkrooom becomes a tedium which they then abandon.

Weston says it so well that I can only add for newbies that they frst do a lot of reading and then post specific questions. The worst thing they can do is write "New to photography, need recommendations for ...". If 100 people respond they will get 100 different choices all very subjective and personal and not very useful because it is too much information.

(None of the forums seemed to be ideal but the quote fits well with common posts to the darkroom.)

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It's a good point you make but Edward Weston did that, his squirrel cage was just smaller.

Ron LarFor4X5 said:

Hi WB,

I hope you don't mind if I use your statement as my signature.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York
And The Macro Management, And Long Island @ Large Format APUG Groups
.

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Hi Ron, I don't mind at all. I am actually quite honored.

wblynch said:

Hi Ron, I don't mind at all. I am actually quite honored.

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.
Hi Bill,

It's the perfect signature.
It explains exactly how I feel after 33 years of photography.
I never had that feeling when I was using the DigiSnapper to
load up a 2GigaByte memory card ... I was never amazed by the Digital Process.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York
And The Macro Management, And Long Island @ Large Format APUG Groups
.

It appears to me that many who read the OP's quote from Weston misunderstood what it says. Weston never said not to experiment, but to find what you like and to then spend time mastering that. There were more "magic bullets" (gadgets) being manufactured in his day than we will ever come to know. The only way to find a combination of basic gear is to sit down and creat a list of criteria you think your "ideal" kit should have. Then pick a paper, any paper, and shoot enough film, and keep enough notes to come to the realization of this works, or doesnt work, to project the image you want to portray to others(does it show the image I've seen in my head?). Weston did experiment, he did change film, paper and developer. He also changed his equiptment, and he took the time to figure out how to best utilize it. I'm fairly positive he had a variety of papers and developers at hand, and had spent enough time experimenting with them, to know what to expect from each, and how to wring out the utmost of each. What he didn't do was jump around hoping to get lucky and "hit" on a winning combo. He probably never said "if only I had a...", more than likely he said "what if I did this with it".

.
I'm really getting my moneys worth from WBLynchs' quote
that I Bogarted, as my signature :
" I'm still excited simply to get visible images!!
I'm amazed every time I pull a strip of film from the tank.
WBLynch, APUG Subscriber "

While APUG was down for the upgrade,
I joined the Large Format Fanatics at ELFPA.Org.
( The ) Europe Large Format Photographers Association, started in January 2010.
And fortunately most LF photographers cannot afford digital backs for their cameras. So there is none of that Dopey Digital Discussion going on.
Although I have been slightly off topic, and discussed the health benefits of a moderate intake of Beer, Vodka, and Martinis.
I recognize a lot of screen names on ELFPA.Org, as APUG members that joined earlier this year, but have never posted any items, or just haven't returned.
During the Upgrade, I realized how addicted I am to APUG. At one point I was in the temporary chatroom @ 3:00 A.M. with Akii14, Hexavalent, StevenFrizza, AndrewKirby, and too many others to mention. We were all trying to get our Fix,
I guess that I'm not the only APUG Addict !!!
When I turn on the computer I'm on APUG, or ELFPA !
I don't even bother checking out other websites anymore.
Join ELFPA, show some support for a new group.
Remember : No Photographers, No Film.
I would hate to see Kodak Ektar 100 4X5, on the discontinued list.
Together with ELFPA, we can be Analog Associates.
I'm Just Saying ...

United We Stand, Divided We Fall.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York,
Macro Management, and Long Island @ Large Format Groups, and ELFPA.Org
.

Ron,United We Stand,Divided We Fall would make a good signature also.Can't remember were I head it before....

Mike

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Mike,

I thought about it for a few seconds.
But the WBLynch quote reminds me of
how I feel about photography !


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mike c said:

Ron,United We Stand,Divided We Fall would make a good signature also.Can't remember were I head it before....

Mike

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For the people of New Hampshire: "Live, Freeze and Die!" is especially heart warming.

Steve

After reading Weston's quote (and I am not a newbie!), there is pause for reflection on how acerbic he would doubtless wax over current trends in photography e.g. the decline of film and visualisation so important in grassroots photography, how rare now is the revel of working in a darkroom, and how traditional celluloid photography built upon solid foundations of knowledge and experience has been usurped by the automation of computers, seemingly to the pleasure and agreement of the instiable masses. Even light meters are considered a novelty to the modern day metrosexual photographer who hangs a digi on his shoulder like one casually totes a Prada bag for a wholesome sense of me-too-ism inclusiveness. Ugh.

I understand,feel the same myself,a kind of magic.
Mike