Why won't it stop?!?!

My name is Justin, and I have GAS. How's that for an opening line? I am also developing a severe case of CAS (chemical acquisition syndrome). In the last year I have sold my trusty Nikon FM3a kit for a fancy new DSLR, then sold the DSLR (getting nearly as much as I paid for it, thank you!) to buy a 4x5 kit. I now have a second 4x5 camera and no longer use the first as this one suits me much better. My one lens is awaiting the arrival of a sister lens, which I don't even have a retaining ring or lens board for! I bought an RB67 kit a while back, but found myself yearning for more bellows and a bigger viewfinder, so now I am trying to sell that and focus on my 4x5. I may have someone grabbing it this weekend and I keep telling myself the money will go toward paying the visa and savings, but I am haunted by the omnipresent possibility of more gear.

It's not just gear that's the problem, but darkroom supplies! I am using up my film pretty fast so will be purchasing more, as well as a big order for paper and chemistry. But so many papers! So many developers, for film AND paper! I want to try WD2D+ but then I'd need alkaline fixer too! Then there is the Van Dyke Brown kit I have coming coupled with a desire to learn emulsion making and purchase the requisite supplies. Finally today I somehow got it into my head that colour paper is cheaper than B&W so now I am wanting to get a full colour printing kit! At least they have filters for my normal enlarger so I don't need a dichro head.

I am just a young man, 22 years old. Is there any hope for me? Is it possible to learn to do one thing well before adding another process, camera, or lens? I can thank God that I have not yet gazed upon a ULF ground glass, as I can still afford to eat if I keep my dual syndromes in check.

Please, let's share our stories with each other so that we may gain the strength to keep GAS and CAS within fiscally and temporally responsible limits!

- Justin

cafeharrar said:

My name is Justin, and I have GAS. How's that for an opening line? I am also developing a severe case of CAS (chemical acquisition syndrome).

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Hi Justin

cafeharrar said:

In the last year I have sold my trusty Nikon FM3a kit for a fancy new DSLR, then sold the DSLR (getting nearly as much as I paid for it, thank you!) to buy a 4x5 kit. I now have a second 4x5 camera and no longer use the first as this one suits me much better. My one lens is awaiting the arrival of a sister lens, which I don't even have a retaining ring or lens board for! I bought an RB67 kit a while back, but found myself yearning for more bellows and a bigger viewfinder, so now I am trying to sell that and focus on my 4x5. I may have someone grabbing it this weekend and I keep telling myself the money will go toward paying the visa and savings, but I am haunted by the omnipresent possibility of more gear.

Click to expand...

Sounds like me

cafeharrar said:

It's not just gear that's the problem, but darkroom supplies! I am using up my film pretty fast so will be purchasing more, as well as a big order for paper and chemistry. But so many papers! So many developers, for film AND paper! I want to try WD2D+ but then I'd need alkaline fixer too! Then there is the Van Dyke Brown kit I have coming coupled with a desire to learn emulsion making and purchase the requisite supplies. Finally today I somehow got it into my head that colour paper is cheaper than B&W so now I am wanting to get a full colour printing kit! At least they have filters for my normal enlarger so I don't need a dichro head.

Click to expand...

Hmm know the drill

cafeharrar said:

I am just a young man, 22 years old. Is there any hope for me? Is it possible to learn to do one thing well before adding another process, camera, or lens? I can thank God that I have not yet gazed upon a ULF ground glass, as I can still afford to eat if I keep my dual syndromes in check.

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No, resistance is futile

cafeharrar said:

Please, let's share our stories with each other so that we may gain the strength to keep GAS and CAS within fiscally and temporally responsible limits!

- Justin

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Just don't get a girlfriend.
Find a wellpayed job then you should manage.
Kind regards
Søren

"Is there any hope for me?"

Nope

Grin.

"Is it possible to learn to do one thing well before adding another process, camera, or lens?"

Nope.

Double grin.

"I have not yet gazed upon a ULF ground glass . . .."

Don't go there.

Triple grin.

Sounds like all fun to me!

/matti

I have a well-paying job, and I'm still in over my head with GAS. I'm forcing myself to back off it since I'm getting ready to go to grad school and get an MFA. I will become quite poor for quite possibly an extended period of time. You'll find as you keep working in the medium that you'll come up with a new "project" that will be best executed with some piece or pieces of gear you don't currently have, and then you'll be off on another spender bender. It is theoretically possible to stop the chems syndrome, but don't put too much stock in it. I've basically settled myself in to printing platinum/palladium, so I'm not off trying new silver papers and new paper developers every other month, but next weekend I'm off to Philadelphia for a wet-plate seminar... what am I thinking???

Soeren said:

Just don't get a girlfriend.

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I don't know, my girlfriend uses my DSLR so I don't have to feel guilty about leaving such an expensive piece of equipment in the cupboard.

On the other hand, she does have a habit of using the phrases "playing in the darkroom all evening" and "half an hour to take a photo" as if they are bad things

Ian

Nope, can't help ya. I have the same camera, two lenses, six film holders, light meter, tripod, and camera bag I bought over twenty five years ago and haven't bought any camera gear since.

However...there is the new darkroom to equip, so I recently got a dichroic light source, enlarging meter, print washer, easel, and need some other odds and ends, but then I'll be set for another twenty five years, really, for sure, I think...

Murray

cafeharrar said:

My name is Justin, and I have GAS.
- Justin

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Hello Justin.

I find the 12 step program to be very helpful for GAS.

1. Admit you have GAS/CAS. (You're already there)
2. Believe that a higher power (The yellow father in Rochester?) could restore you to sanity (with just a few more film orders).
3. Turn your will over to this higher power
4. Make a searching inventory (What's the point of having all these lenses if you don't know where they are?)
5. Admit to the higher power the nature of your wrongs (For me, the nature of my wrongs is missing something in the short-telephoto range)
6. Are ready to have the higher power remove these shortcomings (Maybe Santa will bring me that lens?)
7. Humbly ask him to remove those shortcomings (It's OK to sell some of the bad lenses)
8. Make of list of persons we have harmed(The folks you've bought from on e-bay)
9. Make direct amends to those people(Maybe they've got more stuff to sell!)
10. Continue to take personal inventory(See #4 above)
11. Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our contact with the higher power(Please Kodak, don't kill off more analog products)
12. Have a spiritual awakening, and share these steps with others

Stan160 said:

I don't know, my girlfriend uses my DSLR so I don't have to feel guilty about leaving such an expensive piece of equipment in the cupboard.

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Referring to your girlfriend as "an expensive piece of equipment" and leaving her in cupboards are not the actions of an enlightened 21st century man.

However, they are clearly the actions of a typical APUG member (and are not necessarily gender-specific)!



Best regards,

Frank (who is single!)

cafeharrar said:

I am just a young man, 22 years old. Is there any hope for me? Is it possible to learn to do one thing well before adding another process, camera, or lens? I can thank God that I have not yet gazed upon a ULF ground glass, as I can still afford to eat if I keep my dual syndromes in check.

Please, let's share our stories with each other so that we may gain the strength to keep GAS and CAS within fiscally and temporally responsible limits!

- Justin

Click to expand...

Creative people are sometimes called "scatter brains". We experience what you describe and eventually grow older and realize that time, or lack of it, limits us and we choose a vision and stick with it. Life is too short to have many unfinished projects over long periods of time.

I became a minimalist and was cured by setting limits on my ambitions and materials. I also learned that acquiring more things does not lead to happiness, it actually leads to depression in some people (I've read this in some self help literature - not so much from personal experience).

We eventually specialize in our favorite activities and become experts to some degree.

I hope this helps.

Paul

cafeharrar said:

I am just a young man, 22 years old. Is there any hope for me? Is it possible to learn to do one thing well before adding another process, camera, or lens? I can thank God that I have not yet gazed upon a ULF ground glass, as I can still afford to eat if I keep my dual syndromes in check.

Please, let's share our stories with each other so that we may gain the strength to keep GAS and CAS within fiscally and temporally responsible limits!

- Justin

Click to expand...

Creative people are sometimes called "scatter brains". We experience what you describe and eventually grow older and realize that time, or lack of it, limits us and we choose a vision and stick with it. Life is too short to have many unfinished projects over long periods of time.

I became a minimalist and was cured by setting limits on my ambitions and materials. I also learned that acquiring more things does not lead to happiness, it actually leads to depression in some people (I've read this in some self help literature - not so much from personal experience).

We eventually specialize in our favorite activities and become experts to some degree.

I hope this helps.

Paul

FrankB said:

Referring to your girlfriend as "an expensive piece of equipment" and leaving her in cupboards are not the actions of an enlightened 21st century man.

However, they are clearly the actions of a typical APUG member (and are not necessarily gender-specific)!



Best regards,

Frank (who is single!)

Click to expand...

Single sounds so needy and incomplete.

I prefer "unmarried", thus stating that I have made a positive decision not to be stupid or wrong when I come home. That way I do not get complaints about the cost of GAS.

Steve

Justin, as you already know that ULF will be a problem, the best thing would be to just sell everything and go whole hog!!!! wink wink

I have at least 20 vintage cameras, 8 of those I haven't even seen, my mom got them for me from relatives and shopping for me (!! help, the reach of GAS is far and wide and goes across oceans!!)
And I've still got 5 other cameras on my ebay watch list... i must only watch them though The only CAS problem I have is that I take forever to use up most everything except for diafine and rodinal (oh wait I've nearly gone through a 500ml bottle of that in less than 6months).

Hehe -- sometime back I wrote a little paragraph about being swept into the maelstrom. And it's gotten worse!

I started out with what I described as a "minimalist" approach to medium format intending to get a body, waist level finder, 80mm lens and a back, with the intent to later on get a second back. That was in summer 2006. When I finally got enough components in hand to have a Bronica SQ-A, the back wasn't indexing the film. So "since I was going to get a 2nd back anyway," I ordered one to try while haggling out resolution of the first.

This past July, something internal in the body hung up shutter activation, especially the cable release. So I bought body #2, sure that it would be "cheaper than a repair."

As of last count I have three bodies. #3 is a spare and #1 I may actually try to take apart. There's a WLF and a non-metered prism finder, four backs, extra dark slides and focus screens and a speed grip. A look at my e-prey watch list will find 110mm macro lenses (and also some MF folders as I contemplate backup for traveling light).

I also now have the supplemental condenser lenses, Nikkor 50, 80 and 105 mm
lenses and an assortment of negative carriers for the Omega B-8 acquired for the "minimalist" darkroom.

Contrary to an earlier comment about tapering off with age, for me it's like being a kid again -- a whole new direction! I'm just thankful I can do it for twenty cents on the dollar or it wouldn't be happening.

Oh yeah, I also bought a "one-touch" 70 - 210 FD zoom lens for my A-1 "because they're so cheap these days."

Alas, methinks it only stops when we expire ...

DaveT

DWThomas said:

Contrary to an earlier comment about tapering off with age, for me it's like being a kid again -- a whole new direction! I'm just thankful I can do it for twenty cents on the dollar or it wouldn't be happening.


Alas, methinks it only stops when we expire ...

DaveT

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Good point! The child in us will always desire new toys and the bargains are hard to resist.

Paul

The only way you are going to help yourself is to define what type of images you want and use the equipment necessary to make those images. Don't become equipment-centric, become image-centric. Many people who have GAS never take any pictures because they think about what they could do with something they don't have. Remember that it is you that takes the image, not the equipment. Buying more equipment will have very little impact on the content of the images you produce.

As far as film and chemistry goes, you seem inexperienced so I would advise you to stick with one film and one developer until you can consistently produce images that you like from them, which will probably take a good while. It doesn't even matter what film/developer you use. You can make great images with anything. There is no magic bullet except experience.

Patrick

Justin, give this routine a try, if you can force yourself to:

one camera

one lens -- a normal lens usually works best for me, although years ago I had a lot of fun and learned a bit too using only a 105/2.5 on my little Nikkormat.

one film

one developer for the film

one paper

one enlarging lens

one developer for the paper

If nothing else, you'll accumulate cash reserves and learn discipline.

Every once in a while I set nearly all of my gear aside and do the one camera/one lens thing. It resharpens me somewhat, even though I'm naturally dull.

Just now I'm doing the one camera/one lens thing with a Perkeo II and its 80/3.5 Color Skopar. Maybe a normal lens isn't right, or perhaps the camera's viewfinder is very conservative. The damned thing sees more, um, narrowly than seems right but I do have the option, in many but not all situations, of moving away from the subject.

That's part of the discipline. Get the composition right or don't shoot.