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Lenses for Shooting Trains!

Editor’s Note: To welcome a new train enthusiast and LF photographer, Larry Carter, I have collected some of the posts on trains as an introduction to the subject of “Choice of Lenses”! ADK




Hi, I would like some opinion on this photograph I took recently. Very tightly framed for a better sense of movement, together with eliminating a distractive background. The South African Railways was one of the most numerous users of these fantastic articulated steam locomotives - this is a branch-line GO-class, from the early 1950s.

The Garratt design allows the weight to be spread, and tight curves to be negotiated, in a locomotive which has at least twice the power of a comparable conventional steam locomotive.

Decaying_Garratt_by_philosomatographer.jpg


All info in EXIF.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
On a recent long weekend Carla and I took a wonderful driving trip to northern New Mexico. The excuse was to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary, and Father's Day as well.

Our first port of call was the charming town of Chama, N.M., almost on the border with Colorado. From there we rode the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TS), a steam-powered historic narrow-gauge (36 in/914 mm gauge) railroad that runs 64 miles from Chama to Antonito, Colorado. The line is part of what was once the San Juan Extension of the Denver & Rio Grand Western Railroad. The line passes through some of the most spectacular mountain and forest scenery you can imagine.

I'll start by talking about our locomotive, beginning with this:

G07289-01-S800.jpg


Photographer unknown (a kind volunteer): Doug and Carla in front of C&TS 489

The arrangement at the Chama terminal did not facilitate a good shot of the entire locomotive, so I'll skip ahead and show her at work along the way:

Q07489-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Around the curve

You can see here the "doghouse" atop the tender. "In the day" this was the "office" of the train brakeman (on a hand-fired locomotive such as this there was no place in the cab for the brakeman to "hang out" - the available space on the deck was occupied by the fireman shoveling coal from the tender into the locomotive firebox). From the doghouse the brakeman could overlook the entire train to be alert for any "inadvertences" (smoke coming from an overheated wheel bearing, etc.).

489 is one of the C&TS' "flagship fleet", a narrow-gauge version of the famous 2-8-2 "Mikado" type. The type got its nickname when the first serious order of the new design was made by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Japanese National Railways, "Mikado" being of course the then-title of the emperor of Japan and a name familiar to many Westerners by way of the well-loved Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, "The Mikado".

In 1925, Baldwin built ten of the narrow-gauge version of this type (known as the K-36) for the Denver & Rio Grande Western, for use on their narrow-gauge San Juan Extension. Amazingly, nine of these are in operation today, five of them on the C&TS (including our 489) and four on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, another historical railroad operating in southern Colorado not too far from the C&TS. The tenth of the batch "fell into" a turntable pit at the Salida, Colorado yard in 1953 and was deemed only suitable to be cannibalized for parts.

Some narrow-gauge steam locomotives are substantially smaller than their standard-gauge brethren, and often follow the same basic design, just scaled down. But the narrow-gauge Mikado was larger than proportionate to the gauge (although still smaller than the standard-gauge version). This led to an interesting design.

On the most familiar steam locomotive design, the driving wheels (drivers) are located outside the frame rails. The crank pins are set into the drivers themselves, which then became the cranks. Cast into the drivers are counterweights, needed to balance the mass of the main connecting rod and side rods. We see that in this photo of a standard-gauge Mikado:

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Standard-gauge 2-8-2 Mikado ("light" version)

In the narrow-gauge version of the Mikado, the driving wheels are set inside the frame rails. Of course, they cannot then serve as cranks. Instead, outside the frame rails, on the shafts that carry the drivers, are separate counterweights, which carry the crank pins and are therefore the cranks. We see that in this picture of C&TS 489:

Q07442-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Narrow-gauge Mikado counterweights

[To be continued]
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
[Part 3]

By the way, the route of the train (in the direction we rode it) is generally eastward along the New Mexico - Colorado border, but it actually crosses the border 11 times along the way.

About halfway along the route the train stopped at the "ghost town" of Osier, Colorado, where we had lunch. Osier had once been a thriving small village (a "railroad town") along the toll road that was the predecessor of the railroad line. Now all that is there is the old train depot, a water tank, and the new cafeteria and gift shop (very nice):

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Douglas A. Kerr: Left door if you want the turkey dinner, right door for meatloaf

The people who don't seem to want either are going into the gift shop. Me, I always have the turkey dinner.

This was my first chance to get a fairly full shot of our car - I did not have a good vantage point at the Chama depot. But it was still a 3/4 shot - ahead to the right was a sharp dropoff into a serious valley.

Q07568-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Car "B". car 510. the "Antonito"

Just in front of our car is an open gondola car in which one can stand to enjoy open air railroading.

Here Carla returns from checking out the old depot.

Q07576-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Four toots: flagman return from west or south

The second half of the trip was largely through high scrub desert (just like at home). Every so often the track was crossed by a pair of ruts that was evidently what passed out there for a road, always with the standard set of crossing signs ("crossbucks"):

Q07598-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Grade crossing, high desert style

We were able to see this one from the train as the track doubled back and forth in a "switchback" arrangement to gain altitude at a modest grade (4%).

Before there was radio communication, communication between trains and the dispatchers and such was by a chain of telephones in small wood cabins, strung out along an open-wire line. At "Lava", all there was was a water tower, a telephone box, and a loop by which rail snowplows could turn around.

Q07603-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Greater metropolitan Lava, New Mexico

Next: we go to Los Alamos.

[continued]
 
In March, I picked up an absolute rarity - a mint (literally un-used, although the shutter speeds seem perfect) Zeiss Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 for 4x5in cameras. A really large and heavy beast of a lens, said to be one of the best-performing large format lenses ever made.

Not that lens resolution matters on large-format, mind you! Still, being a sucker for LF oddities, I couldn't resist. What a lens like this was doing, basically in somebody's garage in the original box after all these years, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is beyond me.



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Taken with this lens, my commentary on what's happening with the beautiful old trains in South Africa:

36732887442_0da7a642d6_o.jpg

(Toyo D45M camera, Zeiss/Linhof 250mm f/5.6 wide open, Ilford FP4+)
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
[Part 3]

The Black Hills Central Railroad (BHCR) is a standard gauge, steam-powered (mostly) "heritage railroad" that operates over a ten-mile route between Hill City and Keystone, North Dakota, U.S.A. Its route is part of the former Keystone branch of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, originally built to support gold mining operations in the South Dakota Black Hills.

Carla and several of her fellow Red Hatters rode the line round trip. Their train was pulled by the line's flagship locomotive, BHCR no. 110, a 2-6-6-2T tank Mallet locomotive, originally built in 1928 for Weyerhauser Timber Company. We see it here just as it has pulled into the station at Keystone to load passengers:

G09595-01-S800.jpg


Carla C. Kerr: BHCR no. 110 pulls into the station

Canon PowerShot G16, ISO 80, f/2.8. 1/400 s​

Sadly, the circumstances were such that Carla couldn't get a good clear shot of the locomotive from the side, so I will resort to pictures snagged elsewhere for illustration later in this essay.

The Mallet type of locomotive is names after its designer, Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet. He was a French-speaking Swiss, and accordingly it is the custom to say the name of the locomotive type with the French pronunciation, approximately "mal-LAY".

The Mallet locomotive has two unique features:

• It is an articulated locomotive. It actually comprises two "sub-locomotives", each with its own stem engine driving six driver wheels, both under a common frame and fed by a common boiler. The frontmost of these sub-locomotives is able to pivot under the frame, thus giving the beast the ability to negotiate curves of relatively small radius (often encountered in the tricky right-of-way found in mining operations).

• It is a compound locomotive. That means that the steam from the boiler, initially at full boiler pressure, first works in one or more cylinders of relatively-smaller diameter. Then, exhausting from these "high pressure" (HP) cylinders, now at a lower pressure, it then works in one or more cylinders of relatively-larger diameter (the "low pressure"–LP–cylinders). For reasons that are beyond the scope of this note, this gives a greater efficiency to the overall system.

In the Mallet implementation of this concept, the HP cylinders are on the rearmost sub-locomotive, and the LP cylinders on the frontmost.

We get a bit better looks at some of the arrangements in this photo of that same locomotive (found someplace on the Internet):

2005_0706cu800x600.jpg


BHCR no. 110

Notwithstanding the perspective, we can see that the cylinder on the frontmost sub-locomotive has a substantially larger diameter than that on the rearmost.

Then rusty-looking pipe carries the steam exhausted from valve of the the rear cylinder to valve of the front cylinder. It has swivel joints in it to accommodate the movement of the frontmost sub-locomotive. This pipe is of substantially larger diameter than would be needed just for the conveyance of the steam. In that way, it large volume provides a reservoir to deal with the fact that the "puffs out" of the steam from the HP cylinder are not (necessarily) synchronized with the "puffs in" of the steam into the LP cylinder.

The "T" in the type designation means that this is a tank locomotive (yes, just like Thomas). That means that it carries its own supply of water (in this case in curved tanks around the boiler, blue in the picture just above), rather than depending on a separate tender for that. As for the coal (also carried in the tender for conventional locomotives), that is carried in a small "bunker" at the back of the locomotive, rather like a car's trunk. We see it in this shot of that same locomotive from the Internet:

Black_Hills-110-01-01-S800.jpg


BHCR no. 110 showing coal bunker

It might seem that there is a big disparity between the size of the coal bunker and the size of the water tanks, but in fact typically a steam locomotive of this type consumes (by volume) about five times as much water as coal.

But enough of locomotive machinery, and back to cute girls. Here we see a batch of 'em in car 112, "Oreville":

G09597-01-S800.jpg


Carla C. Kerr: Red Hatters aboard

Canon PowerShot G16, ISO 200, f/1.8. 1/30 s​

This car was originally built in 1913.

[to be continued]
 
Last edited:

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Corrigendum

In an earlier post in this thread, I discussed the locomotive that pulled the train Carla rode, using this figure:

2005_0706cu800x600.jpg


BHCR no. 110

I then said [some errors are corrected here]:

The rusty-looking pipe carries the steam exhausted from valve of the rear cylinder to the valve of the front cylinder. It has swivel joints in it to accommodate the movement of the frontmost sub-locomotive.​

In fact, the "rusty-looking" pipe carries the steam from the boiler to the valve of the rear cylinder.

The piping that leads the exhaust steam from the valves of the rear cylinders to the valves of the font cylinders (which must be articulated to accommodate the swiveling of the frontmost sub-locomotive) are behind the driving wheels and can't be seen in this figure.

************

But, while I am speaking of this locomotive-

The number this locomotive carries in the BHCR fleet, 110, is in fact the number it had when it was originally made for Weyerhauser Timber (1928). But somehow another essentially identical locomotive made for Weyerhauser (1938) was also numbered 110. So this was one called No. 110 No. 1, and the other one No. 110 No. 2. (No, I could not make this up!)

After both of those locomotives had been sold to Rayonier (also a paper and pulp company), No. 110 No. 2 was renumbered to No. 111 to avoid confusion (so you think?). No.111 was substantially revised during its later life, notably:

• Converting it from compound operation to "simple" operation (compound operation seemed like a good idea, but there were many complications to it that really spoiled its advantages).

• Removing the water tanks and small coal bunker and setting it up to operate from a conventional tender.

Later in its life, our No. 110 was also given a tender and set up so it could operated from it when required, but (thankfully) the water tanks and coal bunker were not removed.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I have copied Dawid Loubser’s Pictures of veteran trains in South Africa and Doug Kerr’s work:

Now we will discuss new ideas and approaches!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
In June, I posted on eBay as 760mm Nikki’s LF lens for sale.

This was for my wall sized Cibachrome camera I was building but then ran out of money for the $60,000 processor!

Larry Carter is a LF photographer and avidly fascinated by trains too!

He is looking into the possible match between shooting trains on an 8”x10” LF camera and this lens!

I asked him to join us so we can see some of his work and see what transpired!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So here is the lens:


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Asher Kelman: Nikon Apo-Nikkor 760mm F:11
View Camera Lens Vintage Wet Plate 16x20

Asher
 

Larry Carter

New member
Hello everyone at OPF. I am new here, my name is Larry Carter, and I'm from Altoona, Iowa. I enjoy watching and photographing trains in and around my area. I got my first LF camera back in the early 90's. A Burke and James 4x5 Press camera that came with a 127mm lens. I spent $200.00 for that camera so I could explore taking pictures in large format. I started out with 35mm, then got interested in Medium Format, and then I wondered if I could shoot trains with a LF view camera. Basically photographing trains is no more than landscape photography, with a moving train entering the frame. But there's a catch!! Isn't there always? LOL. With an 8x10 view camera the Lens focal length, train speed, and the distance the train is from the film when the shutter is released, and geological location are all important factors. Speed restricted areas, along with curved areas of track, and near the crest of grades have to be taken into account when deciding a location to photograph trains. With a 4x5, or 5x7 view camera, lenses that come with a number 1 shutter pose no real issue. It's when you choose to use an 8x10 format that the problems come to light. I have always enjoyed the look of an 85mm lens with a 35mm camera. I wondered what lens would give me that same perspective in 8x10. A 610mm lens would be like an 85mm lens on a 35mm camera. And a 760mm lens would be compairable to using a 105mm lens. But then you have to have enough bellows length to use these large lenses. On my B&J 8x10 tailboard I had a 15" extension bed made to accomadate over 30" of bellows with a little over 3" to spare. I had to purchase a used extension for a 4x5 B&J view camera to salvage the tracks for the new extension. I plan to use a Packard shutter, (air bulb & hose) which I had made for me. I would like to purchase a shutter speed tester, and see if I can achieve at least a 1/60 exposure. At this point I'm in the testing stage's for using an 8x10 format. But I'm getting closer to my goal.

Regards...Larry C. Carter
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Larry,

A huge welcome. While we discuss this challenge of yours. It would be a super treat if you have any train pictures to share.

I have to check. I may have two 760mm lenses. I also have a Packard Shutter.

I would like to hear from Dawid Loubser as to his ideas on your project. I have extra length on my Toyo 8x10 camera and could check that out with a stationary train to begin with. I have to find a lens board first!

I guess I could start right now with what I have immediately using a 50 mm lens on a Canon 7D which would simulate your 80 mm focal length! (I may also have here ready to use a 120 mm Bronica Sq lens adapted to my Fuji GFX which with a 0.85 multiplication factor becomes 102mm. Fortunately I have the adapter. So I will explore tomorrow!

As beautiful as my lenses are, I wouldn’t want you to get something that doesn’t do what you dream of and I like the challenge. I need to shoot some images to get on the same wavelength as you!

Asher
 

Jim Galli

Member
Hi Larry! I love a dreamer. For many of us, problem solving is the juice that begins the creative process. It's been well documented that some stress on the right brain (problem solving) also wakes up the left brain (artistic and creative areas). Ron Wisner wrote an excellent piece on this many years ago when he was building LF cameras. (Everybody loves to hate Ron, but never mind that) That's my concern with the whole digital phenomenon where the camera does 99.7% of the thinking and the other .3% is gasoline to get to some place interesting enough to try to frame a picture.

Years ago a good friend that lives in my little burg showed me an image he had made of an approaching train. His perspective was centered between the rails of the approaching train and he used a telescope of who knows what focal length to capture this diesel that had just rounded a curve now coming straight for him. What made the image remarkable was the compression of the telescope and the ridiculous jiggety jaggety of the mile (s) of track between him and the train. It looks so straight 120 feet at a time, but compressed it looked like a veritable roller coaster. Add to that the heat waves blurring things and I thought the image was magic. What I really love though was the thought that made it possible. Long straight section for the rails effect. Curve to see the other engines belching diesel smoke plus the cars behind, and heat waves to add "S" curve sensations to everything.

A couple ideas. You'll never get more than 1/30th out of a Packard. BTDT What you'll need to look into though is to 'sacrifice' an old speed graphic in order to get the roller blind shutter out of it, and if you placed said roller blind an inch or so back from your front standard somehow, you can achieve between 1/500th to 1/1000th (advertised) second exposure. Plus everything else down to 1/30th. Maybe it would go out in front of the front standard but things get heavy then with a big brass hunk of glass also in front.

I guess if you live in Altoona you must be a train photographer even if it is in Iowa ;~)) (inside joke for the rest of you opf folk)

I'm at work so don't have the bulk of my "train" things, but here's one I love that was handy today.
2083

Presented To Children of Los Angeles

Done a few years ago at travel town with a 16" Pinkham & Smith lens on 8X10 format and then cropped.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Delicious shading with that lens! I love it: so gentle drawing. Nothing vicious!

2084


But this is a 400 mm lens and stationary! The challenge is speed!

I like your idea of stealing the focal plant shutter of a Speed Graphic! That’s something our machinist friends could do for us!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So Larry,

What are the distances you conceive of?

I have used Cambridge Color Calculator to get the required lens focal length from subject to camera distance and the height of the train and sky above with land below to frame it.

Check my assumptions:

2085




2088



2086




2087


So, in simple terms, just for checking the composition of the train coming around a curve, sky above and belching steam, we can test this with a APS-C size sensor and a 50 mm lens.

The camera is in portrait orientation.

So does this fit in with your expectations.

Under these circumstances the 650 mm Nikkor would work on the 8x10 too!

Asher
 

Jim Galli

Member
Asher, the problem is confounded by depth of field. A 50mm lens @ 200 ft has almost infinite depth of field even at f2. A 610mm lens would be stopped down to at least f32 or so with resulting speed loss which is nearly insurmountable. The Lockheed engineers designing the SR71 blackbird aircraft came up with the term "fantasium" because the materials to build such a thing did not exist. The film with the necessary speed for doing this on 8X10 may well be fantasium. No little dial to flip to asa 12,800
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher, the problem is confounded by depth of field. A 50mm lens @ 200 ft has almost infinite depth of field even at f2. A 610mm lens would be stopped down to at least f32 or so with resulting speed loss which is nearly insurmountable. The Lockheed engineers designing the SR71 blackbird aircraft came up with the term "fantasium" because the materials to build such a thing did not exist. The film with the necessary speed for doing this on 8X10 may well be fantasium. No little dial to flip to asa 12,800
Jim,

My reaction is to simply try to work it out!


I can use the lens for a Still by stitching with a sliding back using a 35 mm digital camera

But for film we can’t go much above 1600 ASA.

What DOF do we need?

I think just 50 ft at 200 ft would be fine!

2091


Then on a sunny day, using ASA 800 or 160O film, with or without pushing, one can use f8 at a 1/500 sec and adjust accordingly!

Please check my calculations!

Assuming that and my assumptions are fine, then the LF camera can readily be used for the moving train once we add a shutter salvaged from a functional Speed-graphic!

Asher
 

Larry Carter

New member
Tuesday September 17, 2019

Thank you Asher and Jim for the welcome to OPF. This is all new to me. I've never been involved in forums, so this is truly a learning curve for me. I'm not even sure this is the correct area to be writing in.
As I said earlier, I'm in the 'Testing' stage to find out if it's possible to use an 8x10 view camera with a barrel lens to capture train action at speed. That's why I'm using my Bronica SQ-B with the 135mm, and 150mm lenses. They would be closest to a 74mm & 82mm. That's close enough to 75mm & 85mm in 35mm terms. I have already used my Burke & James 4x5 with a 150mm Schnieder lens in a N0.1 shutter. A matter of setting up a landscape shot, and waiting for the train to show up. So as of right now, I have three barrel lenses. A Nikon 480mm f/9, (67mm), a Kodak 540mm f/11, (75mm), and a Goerz 610mm f/11, (85mm). A 760mm f/11 lens would be similar to a 105mm lens in 35mm terms. My 8x10 B&J flatbed is worth over 30.4" with the newer, (15") extension bed attached. The problem child is this 8x10 and a barrel lens with a Packard shutter!! I do have several lenses to use in 8x10. A 300mm, and a 305mm both in a copal N0. 1 shutter. But their only worth about 42mm in 35mm terms. (If I wanted to use these with the 4x5 view camera, then they would be like 83mm, and 85mm in 35mm terms). What may seem to be an impossible venture, I believe it can be done!!..."Given distance and focal length". Testing was done at 200'. I had to check on the length of the largest road engines, and the normal length road engines that I would typically see in my area. The largest being 80', and the normal being around 72'. So I'm going to start out with my next test's at 275'. This is one reason I wanted a little more focal length. I bought a radar gun to monitor train speeds coming at me.
Asher, if you want to try my theory, you would have to use a short shutter speed 1/60, 1/30, or 1/15. I have used a 1/15 exposure on a 371' shot of a train framed by two signal mast's. I believe I used a 150mm lens on my Bronica SQ-B. I'm not sure how you'll measure the distance though. I bought a digital walking wheel at our local home improvement store. And the area I shot that train there was a large graveled area, so I could walk a straight line right to the signal mast's. Otherwise you'll have to be around 25' to 40' from the nearest track, and calculate how far to walk down the track to do a shot at 275'. That's why I bought a walking wheel. Most areas, you can't walk a straight line to your target. Then also I had to come up with some sort of target that I could see from the camera position, so I knew when to trip the shutter. In my area I found some colored hard plastic squares that were used under the spike plates. But I had to position the square plate so the sun reflected off of it, so I could more easily see it from the camera position. And these were laying about, so they wouldn't look out of place, so-to-speak. Also you could use a few pieces of wood, or tie as a target laid on the ballast along track side. So basically you need to start off with a shooting distance of 275' at a short shutter speed, and work toward 300'. That's where your lens focal length comes into play. You need SOME 'Telephoto' effect. And a little living room near the front of the lead engine. You want to capture as big an image as you can get away with, without showing any forward blur, or motion. And remember you have to be a safe distance from the cross bucks, or cross arms. That's why I mentioned at least 25', to 40' from the track. But then you have to take into account the train is crossing the film plane at an angle. It's easier to shoot more head-on, than a long way from the track. And foliage at trackside may be an obstacle to deal with. So it boils down to...location, location, location.
I will have to post a picture, or two as soon as I figure out how to do that, LOL.

Regards...Larry C. Carter
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Larry,

You can measure distance by simple Bosch Laser distance meter

2095


This one is good up to 825 feet but you can spend less by looking on amazon for one for say 300 ft max. Also for up to say 250 ft is less less!

I simply take a picture with any digital camera focused on a specific point of interest and look at the EXIF data. No need to leave your shooting position ever!

For the shutter, look at Jim Galli’s Patented shutter here! 🤣💦

Can we see some of your pictures to date? Simply make the picture less than 0.25 MB and then use the gold “Attach Files” button below the dialog box to upload your pics!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Once again posting a picture is so simple! Just reduce image size to less than 1/4 MB. Then use the button below!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Larry,

I believe you have a wonderful image in your head and the results are going to be extraordinary. Your energy and focus on your goal reminds me of a true story:

There’s a fellow who built a super-large format camera and I believe just 3 film holders. He drove a huge distance to the location and returned with 3 exposures. On processing the first sheet he was impressed with the result. So he simple destroyed the remaining two without even processing them!

That level of certainty and focus is, to me, admirable and leads to folk forging their own path and by their achievements helping us all.

Then there are other folk who prepare all the options. After success, we do learn much more but the price has increased!

So Larry, what is it about the image you imagine that will be achieved uniquely in your very impressive search? Is it the decreased DOF and the improved “transcendental” blur of the rest of the scene?

Can you possibly describe what effects you are hoping to achieve with your single minded research to get what you imagine in your head on film?

Asher
 

Jim Galli

Member
You can build furniture with a chain saw, but . . .

One has to analyze exactly what your pre-visualization is and if the 8X10 is the correct tool for the job. Me, I would love to try to get a train-at-speed shot with a 4X5 or even 5X7 graflex, very close to the action, and panning so the wheels are leaning forward like the early racing car shots of 1910-ish era.

What is it that you think the 8X10 might give you that a gigapixel thing-a-ma-bob latest greatest digi zoom can't accomplish?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jim,

That is my thought, exactly, but one might also question how does it arise that certain missionaries have a compulsory need to “convert” Armenian Orthodox Christians to be Catholic or Baptist. What part of the Holy Trinity or the “Sacrifice” for man requires replacement? But folk devote their lives and suffer privations to follow just such finely tuned goals of “differentiation”!


One can ask of the British Photographer, Richard Learoyd why he MUST make his 8 foot high Cibachrome “”Instant” positive one-at a time “ready to sell” pictures with his room-sized camera obscura! He might have $100,000 merely in his sun-bright numerous Broncolor blazing lights with precise my calibrated color-balanced Decamired filters and $65,000 in the Cibachrome processing system.

2099


Fraenkel Gallery
San Francisco, CA

But to a person locked into a “vision”, that compulsory “necessity” is both our weakness and glory as a spiritual and sensitive person!

....and to me, the “presence” of these massive originals is breathtaking. But I bet you could get really close at a fraction of the cost using Portra film and an 8”x10” old Deardorf!

Your cost $50 a picture against his cost of some $400-$1,000 per shot! But his sell for over $60,000 as of 5 years ago

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
@ Jim Galli: The other no small matter is that Learoyd’s poses are so spiritual, utterly personal and genuine!

@ Larry Carter: Can we do that with trains coming around a bend?

I believe you can, Larry!

Asher
 
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