Per Volquartz Zion Large Format Workshop

galyons · Nov 18, 2004

I just returned from Per Volquartz' Zion workshop. Had to leave early because of a business commitment . Well what can I say? Perfect weather. Uncapturable grandeur! Great, great folks! My thanks to Per for his continued efforts in support of large format photography.

APUG was well represented. Aggie, the "locale expert" provided valuable guidance to the less traveled locations and gave up the sanctity of her motel room for our Jobo processor & pyro development demonstration.

jmoore travelled all the way from Des Moines to join the group. It was great to meet him in person.

On the "Prodigal Son's Scene"
I met a new-to-LF commercial photographer from Southern California. He uses digital at work. He bought Korona's, a 4x5 and an 8x10, to restore. He brought the 4x5, along with a restored Reis Model C tripod to shoot "film again" !!The camera and tripod were gorgeous. Great guy!! I am excited to see his shots!

A very experienced commercial pro, who also went digital, brought a newly acquired Wisner 8x10 Technical to "get back to film". He travelled all the way from Toronto.

Our farthest distance travelled
A returning workshop veteran from Sweden, now working in Australia, brought his newly acquired pocket view... a Toyo G 8x10...all 19 pounds. An evil aussie wind lifted him and his Gandolfi 8x10 field camera ungracefully on their collective butts. The Gandolfi needs repairs, but his backside is reputed to have fully mended, but not the wallet area!

Again, thank you to John, J&C, for supporting the workshop with film purchase discounts. Hope more Apugger's can join next time!!

Cheers,
Geary

Jeremy · Nov 18, 2004

I'm not sure when the next one is, but if it's over a summer break (I'm still in University) then I plan on driving out!

Jim Moore · Nov 19, 2004

Geary,

It was a pleasure to meet you and all of the others who attended the workshop. It was so much fun and I will be back next year.

Jeremy,

I believe that the next "Week Long" workshop is planed for May in Oregon. I am going to try to attend that one too and make it a family vacation. If there is any way that you can make it you will not regret it.

When I arrived last Saturday I was ready to give up on large format. But after spending nearly a week shooting with the 8x10 and getting help from all the great people in attendance I have went from pure frustration to being completely comfortable with it. My first shot with the 8x10 last Saturday took me nearly 15 minutes to set up and make an exposure. The last shot that I took today was at sunset in rapidly changing light and I setup, exposed, and had the camera put away in around 5 minutes. I call that great progress and I owe it all the the workshop.

Per is a wonderful man. Very knowledgable and very willing to share that knowledge with anyone wishing to learn.

The highlight of the week for me was today when Per sat down with me for over an hour to look at my prints. When I left for the workshop last week I was in such a hurry I forgot to bring my portfolio. I had my wife ship some of my prints to me and they arrived today. Per took the time to look at them and explained what he liked about each of them and offered advice on how I can print them even stronger. How often do we have an opportunity to receive such feedback on our work from a master photographer/printer? This alone made the trip worth it.

As Geary said Aggie was of great help. She gave me the "Ten Cent Tour" (her words) of the park to show me some of the better spots. She also was a taxi driver throughout the week for myself and several others when needed. She had the door to her room open for anyone wanting to develop film, change out film holders, etc. But the best thing she done for us was to arrange unlimited access to the ghost town in Grafton.

I would like to give a big public thank you to Per, Aggie, and everyone else (including JandC for their generous discount they gave to people who attended) for their efforts.

I look forward to next May and seeing everyone again.

Jim

Jeremy · Nov 19, 2004

JMoore said:
Jeremy,
I believe that the next "Week Long" workshop is planed for May in Oregon. I am going to try to attend that one too and make it a family vacation. If there is any way that you can make it you will not regret it.

Oregon, can't he have one closer to Texas? Didn't you read the word "drive"

I've got a while from now until next May so I will just start setting some aside some extra cash so that I can save up the airfare.

lee · Nov 19, 2004

Jim,
I talked to 2 guys yesterday (Frank and Mark) as they drove home from the workshop. They mentioned you and how much fun they had. Glad you kept the 8x10.

lee\c

photomc · Nov 19, 2004

lee said:
Jim,
.... Glad you kept the 8x10.

lee\c

Ditto Jim..and Thanks for the update from you and Geary.

Doesn't anyone want to go to White Sands or somewhere closer to Texas

Jeremy · Nov 19, 2004

photomc said:
Doesn't anyone want to go to White Sands or somewhere closer to Texas

I concur, Mike, I was planning on driving to California, but now they're going even further north to Oregon!

mark · Nov 19, 2004

I got the same problem. Too far away. I went to Zion on saturday but did not do the workshop thingy, I was only able to be there for part of the day Saturday. Here is an idea: How about we folks who can't afford to get to these free workshops and live in the dersert SW plan to meet somewhere around this region and maybe learn from each other.

By the way. If the week was as beautiful, in Zion, as Saturday was, I am so jealous and curse GW doubly for his cuts in education spending.

Aggie · Nov 19, 2004

BTW, Zion will now be an annual event. I guess per fell in love with Grafton. Wait until he sees Alton and another Ghost town up in the hills behind Orderville. Then we have the first breaks of Cedar Breaks, Navajo Lake and its lava tube waterfall, Bristlecone pine forest, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Shakespearan costume models........ I could keep you all shooting for a month and not hit all the spots.

I will be working with some of the places in Springdale to get the best rates for those who would like to attend. I understand that Geary wants to handle the educational end of it. I can handle the locations and facility arrangements, and Per well he is the pro. He is such a wonderful person who is very genrous with his time and expertise.

Geary you forgot Jason and Sharon. They are also apuggers.

roteague · Nov 19, 2004

Did anyone shoot color, or was all the work in B&W?

lee · Nov 19, 2004

a friend of mine shot about 35 sheets of 5x7 color so he said. he also shot about 50 sheets of b/w so he said.

lee\c

MenacingTourist · Nov 19, 2004

Great Experience

I think I was the newest to LF on that trip. I don't even have a camera yet. Everyone was wonderful and I was able to tag along with several people (Sean, Matt, Per, Aggie, Sharon, Rob) and see how everyone makes their images. Aggie even loaned me her Wista for the day at the ghost town! I think the highlight was shooting 6 sheets of 8x10 with Rob on my last day. How cool was that?!

It was a pleasure hauling people's gear and I learned more than I could process. Thanks to everyone for being so nice

I'll be back next year with a camera.

roteague · Nov 19, 2004

lee said:
a friend of mine shot about 35 sheets of 5x7 color so he said. he also shot about 50 sheets of b/w so he said.

lee\c

Thanks Lee. I was curious if someone shooting color would feel out of place, in case, I decide to attend a workshop in the future.

roteague · Nov 19, 2004

MenacingTourist said:
I think the highlight was shooting 6 sheets of 8x10 with Rob on my last day. How cool was that?!

There is just something relaxing and soothing about shooting LF. After shooting 35mm for 30 years, I recently switched almost exclusively to 4X5 and have no desire to shoot anything else.

Aggie · Nov 19, 2004

MenacingTourist said:
I think I was the newest to LF on that trip. I don't even have a camera yet. Everyone was wonderful and I was able to tag along with several people (Sean, Matt, Per, Aggie, Sharon, Rob) and see how everyone makes their images. Aggie even loaned me her Wista for the day at the ghost town! I think the highlight was shooting 6 sheets of 8x10 with Rob on my last day. How cool was that?!

It was a pleasure hauling people's gear and I learned more than I could process. Thanks to everyone for being so nice

I'll be back next year with a camera.

Welcome to apug Allan. BTW it was a wisner not wista. I figured out what happened to those negatives with the spot. I have to send them to you. I appreciated all the help you gave me. I nailed all the reciprocity shots without the spot meter. If it hadn't been for you, I would have relied to heavily on the spot meter, and not trusted my instincts.

Robert, I shot two rolls of color. One had a yellow filter on, which I forgot to take off. Since it is negative film not slide, I hope it can be fixed. Sharon did a bunch of time zero color shots that she manipulated. We ran the gamut of mediums and film types.

mark · Nov 19, 2004

so who is the menacing tourist? How about an introduction.

Shmoo · Nov 19, 2004

"Menacing Tourist"=Alan="Sven, the Sherpa"...he was the LF newbie in the group and it was really great how everyone worked with him on their cameras...it only shows how photographers can be great in many ways!!!

S

Aggie · Nov 19, 2004

mark said:
so who is the menacing tourist? How about an introduction.

I refered to him as Sven the Sherpa. A great guy!

Frank F · Nov 27, 2004

Thanks Aggie and Per for the wonderful weekend. I know I enjoyed being out there. Aggie.... Grafton is a remarkable place. I had seen it about 12 years ago when the restoration had just begun. It was a real mess then. Glad to see the restoration so well done.

I shot some color after a long time in B+W only. It is hard not to shoot something in color when the leaves have turned so beautiful in the fall. Those red rocks are pretty also.....

I just started processing my B+W work today.

Hope to see you all in J-Tree.

Jeremy · Nov 27, 2004

As long as my school schedule doesn't interfere I will definitley be at the next week long workshop as I have enough points for a free flight and a hotel room! So if someone wants to pick me up from the airport and share the room we could probably work something out...

Jim Moore · Nov 27, 2004

Jeremy Moore said:
As long as my school schedule doesn't interfere I will definitley be at the next week long workshop as I have enough points for a free flight and a hotel room! So if someone wants to pick me up from the airport and share the room we could probably work something out...

Jeremy,

Lots of people around here get us mixed up. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when we both show up to the workshop

Jim

Aggie · Nov 27, 2004

You have two choices, Oregon in May, or Zion again in November.

Jeremy · Nov 28, 2004

Aggie said:
You have two choices, Oregon in May, or Zion again in November.

Hopefully May, it's sooner

Jeremy · Nov 28, 2004

JMoore said:
Jeremy,

Lots of people around here get us mixed up. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when we both show up to the workshop

Jim

No doubt about that, I've gotten around 5 emails/PMs that were supposed to be for you since you signed up. Don't worry, I pretended to be you and thoroughly cursed them for asking time of the godlike J Moore
Just kidding, I politely let them know of their mistake and assured them that they weren't the first to do so. We need to share a hotel room, that would REALLY get them going!

glbeas · Nov 28, 2004

Hah! The Moore the merrier, eh?

Per Volquartz Zion Large Format Workshop

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