Bruce Barnbaum Website

[clay]

You don't really think we're going to take that bait, do you? I think this forum has grown out of that sort of thing.

Sorry, i should have put a smilie emoticon on that post. My intent was completely in the ironic smart-a** 13 year old boy mode.

My point, as some others have recognized and pointed out, is that a proclamation like this is basically a statement of taste, rather than an assertion of fact. Of course, my taste is superior to everyone else's, and I suspect you would say the same about your preferences. Taste is different for all of us, which is good, since otherwise all of us men would want to marry the same woman.

[lee]

I posted the same link on a list that I read and there is a lot of digi heads there that were really pissed at his poor attitude. That was the reaction I was looking for. They took the bait, hook line and sinker.

lee\c

[photomc]

Psssttt!! Hey Clay...I think we all Are after the same woman, her name is photography.

Jim, wet plate huh! Remember reading about the process in the old Time-Life photography and thinking then - What a cool process. Seems like those guys used some rather large (read ULF) cameras, do you have any idea what size you plan to use?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Didn't he publish that in print a while back? Maybe in _View Camera_ or _LensWork_, or possibly _PhotoVision_?

[eclarke]

Chi Chi Rodriguez was asked " What is your approach to golf?" He replied " I try to get the ball in the hole the best way I can." Make the best picture you can..Evan

[Jim Chinn]

photomc,


I plan on working in 11x14 and something more square such as 14x14. I have been interested for quite awhile. The process has seen quite a revival with many photogs using period cameras and lenses or period replicas. There are quite a few who work with Civil War re-enactment groups and there are those such as Luther Gerlach who explore the process from a more artisitc approach. I am planning on taking a workshop late winter or spring to learn how to coat and process the plates and to learn the finer points of working with the chemistry.

[photomc]

photomc,


I plan on working in 11x14 and something more square such as 14x14. I have been interested for quite awhile. The process has seen quite a revival with many photogs using period cameras and lenses or period replicas. There are quite a few who work with Civil War re-enactment groups and there are those such as Luther Gerlach who explore the process from a more artisitc approach. I am planning on taking a workshop late winter or spring to learn how to coat and process the plates and to learn the finer points of working with the chemistry.

Jim,
Please us updated on your progress...I find this to be a really interesting process. Have always been fascinated with the fact that many of the early prints from the west were done with wet plate, how the heck did those guys do that? Did O'Sullivan use a wet plate for the more or less famous shot of White House Ruin in Canyon de Chelly? Knowing what it took to just get the equipment down there and having held one of the prints from the negative...Wow!

Thanks for the information.

[Eric Rose]

wow it's amazing to watch how a thread can mutate.

[michael9793]

I have gone complete circle, from silver to digital to palatum to silver. And you know, all have there place. And anyone of them done to the upmost will look fantastic. We just have to understand that the image that we see still has to be stimulating. Taking a average image and making it silver, palatum, digital,or Gum is still a average image. That doesn't change. And we are seeing way too many average images these days and not being critical enough before showing our work! And of course that include me.

Mike Andersen

[Bill Mitchell]

I've never know a photographer who doesn't consider darkroom work pure drudgery. Sometimes supremely exhilarating, yes. But always necessary, and always drudgery. Especially when you have to clean up after a session is over and you're tired, and it's late, and you've got to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in a few hours when you're back in the real world. Perhaps Mr. Barnbaum doesn't have to clean up his own darkroom. Replacing the traditional wet darkroom with a computer can make it all a pleasure again, and THAT, not dogged dedication to a grueling archaic process, is what makes for great photography.