[LargeFormat] Introduction

[stuart phillips]

Paul

Glad to hear the cancer is in remission!  Keep well.

Your work with the Linhof 5x7 sounds very interesting - since you scan, do
you have any examples online - at photo.net for example so that we could
have a look?

Best
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "paul" <paulhbutler99@earthlink.net>
To: <largeformat@f32.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 8:23 PM
Subject: [LargeFormat] Introduction


> Another introduction:
>
> I'm new to the large format mailing list, but not new to photography.
>
> I have worked a lot in MF and use 35mm for snapshots - I'm a great fan of
> Zeiss optics and Rolleiflex and classic Contax gear, in the MF and 35mm
> domains.  I'm still in the process of finding out how this translates into
> the MF world, as far as lens choices are concerned.
>
> Last summer, I got married and got diagnosed with cancer at about the same
> time.  What a surprise!  As a "get well" present, my new father-in-law (a
MF
> addict like myself) gave me a Linhof Technika II 5x7 and I've never looked
> back.  At this point, the cancer is in remission and the Linhof is working
> overtime.
>
> For two years I have worked - in all formats - with photoshop.  I shoot
> everything on transparency film and have it scanned, or in the case of 5x7
> scan it myself.  It has been the thrill of a lifetime to have a color
> darkroom on my desktop (nowadays, I'm a Fuji Velvia 100 kind of guy)!  I
feel
> that the quality of my work has increased 100% since making the change to
the
> digital darkroom.  With BW negatives the digital darkroom is equally
> impressive, and allows me to make an interesting print out of what would
> otherwise be a mediocre negative.  I rotate, I crop, I correct perspective
,
> and I correct contrast and exposure.  I have made so many silk purses out
of
> sow's ears, that I couldn't even count them!  I can do 8x10 on my own
> printer, and I outsource the printing for larger sizes.  The price is
> extremely reasonable and I control the "look" of the final product-I give
> them a .jpg on a CD rom and they print it just as I visualized it myself.
>
> I have become thrilled with 5x7 for any kind of subject that doesn't move.
I
> work mostly with the landscape of southeastern Vermont where I live, and
with
> southern Greece (where my wife is from) and southern India where I lived
for
> many years.  I say 5x7 because that's the size of my camera and also the
> largest size the transparency unit of my scanner will handle - although my
> big enabler is a fellow photographer in the same town who uses an 8x10
> Dierdorff and contact prints everything.  A young guy, like many of our LF
> colleagues.  LF is the format of the future.
>
> I cannot imagine that film will become obsolete any time soon, since
scanning
> and digitizing are such attractive options.  You have the dynamic range
and
> the beautiful look and balance of film, with the infinite advantages of
> digital image manipulation on the desktop.  Costs are cheap.  If I could
quit
> my day job and do photography in this manner full time, I would do so in a
> heartbeat!
>
> Paul Butler
> Marlboro, Vermont, USA
>
>
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