Why do you shoot LF?

[DREW WILEY]

I dunno about that barroom comment. Seem like a big Dorf and maple tripod would be a lot more
useful in a brawl than bonking heads with a little Nikon ...

[Sirius Glass]

Fun
Interesting
More degrees of freedom
Negative size
Greater selection of lenses
Because I can

[markbarendt]

and that's proof right there that there is no such thing as "previsualization".

most of the best photographs have been "happy accidents" as a matter of fact.

anybody says they can predict the future is LYING.

PERIOD.

I work on industrial machinery in the oil field every work day.

When I repair or adjust the machinery properly and the machines are "fed" the appropriate stuff, it works reliably, very reliably.

In industrial processes, there are no happy accidents.

Photography, the craft, is an industrial process. A given input, using a given process, and given materials, produces a given result. If we pre visualize and execute the tasks involved properly we get a given result.

Surely, in photography, we have all had happy mistakes, but in my experience they are normally the exception, not the rule.

[jnanian]

I work on industrial machinery in the oil field every work day.

When I repair or adjust the machinery properly and the machines are "fed" the appropriate stuff, it works reliably, very reliably.

In industrial processes, there are no happy accidents.

Photography, the craft, is an industrial process. A given input, using a given process, and given materials, produces a given result. If we pre visualize and execute the tasks involved properly we get a given result.

Surely, in photography, we have all had happy mistakes, but in my experience they are normally the exception, not the rule.

hi mark
i couldn't agree with you more !!
it s just a process, like baking bread ...

me i would rather through as many unknowns in the process as i can
just to see what happens ( most of the time )
i can totally understand why someone else would do something other than that ...
... without chance, serendipity, human interaction, and "trubble" things get kind of boring

your milage may vary from factory specs ..
john

[BradS]

I'm not so sure.
The last time I tried existing light photos in a barroom with my Deardorff V8 it was a dismal failure...

Are you blaming the camera?

[johnielvis]

I work on industrial machinery in the oil field every work day.

When I repair or adjust the machinery properly and the machines are "fed" the appropriate stuff, it works reliably, very reliably.

In industrial processes, there are no happy accidents.

Photography, the craft, is an industrial process. A given input, using a given process, and given materials, produces a given result. If we pre visualize and execute the tasks involved properly we get a given result.

Surely, in photography, we have all had happy mistakes, but in my experience they are normally the exception, not the rule.

you can't extrapolate that to every process--particularly an assembly line type process that 's been honed over many many years is in no way comparable.

for example, if you shoot the SAME picutre...same subject, same camera, same angle same film, etc...every day...all day, same processing chemicals, times, etc....hone that process, then you can get pretty good consistent results that vary very little...and you can determine very easily where the process deviates. This is why industrial processes seem to be "contollable"...they are just very very limited is all...

apples and oranges, dude--wishful thinking...all of the posts on this and all the other photographic websites are a testament to the unpredictability of the "process".

honestly...no happy accidents in industry...every great innovation in history has pretty much been through some accidental discovery...microwave, light bulb...

taking a honed process and extrapolating it to all other processes if foolishness. if you've ever had any experience in an industry which is weather dependent, you'll see just how unpredictable and uncontrollable things really are.

for example--the fire department....how about working in a hospital emergency room...how about electrical power utilities during a superstorm....

some industries are notoriously accident prone because the nature cannot be contolled--MINING for example--an ancient industrial process and it's still extremely dangerous due to all the things that cannot be controlled.

very very controllable? nothing left to chance?.....keep dreaming the dream

how many product recalls do we hear about in the news because they are public health threats--food poisioning...dangerous chemicals---design flaws that cause fires or sudden accelleration...battery explosions. All produced by industry which strives to have zero percent defects. How many more you DON'T hear about....only the public health hazards are the ones you hear about===there are many many more that aren't publicized.

these things are all around us --- OPEN YOUR EYES AND EARS to the world around you and SEE what's REALLY going on here.

Just buy a russian camera....you'll see

[johnielvis]

hi mark
i couldn't agree with you more !!
it s just a process, like baking bread ...

me i would rather through as many unknowns in the process as i can
just to see what happens ( most of the time )
i can totally understand why someone else would do something other than that ...
... without chance, serendipity, human interaction, and "trubble" things get kind of boring

your milage may vary from factory specs ..
john

this is why people seem to shoot LF....to throw as many unknowns and make it as difficult as possible--so that there is some "challenge'

it's the same as golf...bunch of middle aged people bored with life trying to get that childhood feeling of discovering the unknown back after a lifetime of predictable processing the same stuff day in day out...no chance for happy mistakes on the assembly line honed process that your regular job/life complex has become.

so it's all golf...tiny ball hit a huge distance to go in a tiny hole....even a machine built specifically to do such a task would not have a 100% successful failure rate due to all of the artificially introduced uncertanties to "the process". If golf were an industrial process there would be a trench going downhill guiding the ball to the hole--see..money at stake. Which is why digital wins out for the professionals..film just can't compete due to all of the accidents that happen due to the uncontrollability/instability of the fim photographic process.

even with all the helps and fixes and varialbes that digital takes care of, photohgraphy is STILL very difficult.

[PKM-25]

and that's proof right there that there is no such thing as "previsualization".

most of the best photographs have been "happy accidents" as a matter of fact.

anybody says they can predict the future is LYING.

PERIOD.

Don't agree entirely, Chance Favors the Prepared Mind. My best case for "Happy Accidents" have been when I put chance in my favor....period.

[LJH]

nope [sic]...a fact was stated (the future cannot be predicted), that is all. a [sic] fact is not a prediction.

people [sic] fool themselves into believing that they can have control, but they have none. nature [sic] and chance have to cooperate with the "controller". Most of the time, if the "controller" goes with the law of average outcomes, then his outcome will be pleasing--thus reinforcing the belief that there was some "control" being exercised.

When was your opinion ordained as fact? "...fact is not a prediction" is a contradictory statement. How can you have "fact" before an event? It only becomes fact after it occurs. Until then, it is wholly speculation/prediction. Perhaps you need to put your OPINION to the test based on mutual exclusivity.

Of course you can predict the future. I predict that the sun will set tonight. I predict that it will rise tomorrow. I predict that the Aspens in Grand Teton will turn yellow this year.

Most convincingly, I predict that you will argue this post.

PERIOD.

[LJH]

...photohgraphy [sic] is STILL very difficult.

Not as difficult as trying to understand your simile to golf…

PERIOD.