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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Hello From The Luminous-Vista.com

Scott Buttrick

New member
Hello, my name is Scott Buttrick and I am excited that I found OPF. I am glad to see a photography website that is dedicated to an intelligent, thoughtful discussion of photography. A site where there is a free exchange of thought and ideas intended to advance our understanding and knowledge of photography.

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I come from the old school of photography where lugging around a 4x5 view camera was the norm. As was stated in a famous movie "ahhh....I love the smell of fixer in the morning", or something like that. I majored in photography in college where my passion for black and white photography was born. I was fortunate to have an outstanding instructor that taught me how to see in black and white. The ability to see the world in shades of gray is something that takes time to develop, but after 25 years I can still do it. My early work was done with a Kowa Super 66 medium format camera and a 4x5 Speed Graphic. I also owned (past tense) a mint Graflex red bellows monorail view camera. Unfortunately in a weak moment I sold it ....... damn, what a bone headed thing to do.

My B&W films of choice were Kodak Verichrome and Tri-X. I created my own blend of developer and was able to get incredible negatives. I printed on Agfa Protriga Rapid which was a beautiful warm silver rich paper. In college all of my work was fine art and it was where my true passion resided.

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After college I open a commercial studio where I specialized in product, catalog, and architectural photography. I also shot all the images for a local business magazine for a couple of years. I enjoyed the commercial side of the business for awhile, but after 10 years of the long hours I got burned out. I walked away from photography completely until 2004. What brought me back? Digital.

I was totally intrigued by digital photography and its potential. This time around I made a promise to myself, photography was going to be for me and not for a client. This time I am only doing fine art photography only and letting my passion take me where it wants to go. I still love to make B&W photographs and always will, but a new world opened up for me, color.

My color work work today always start as black and white. There must be a reason for color to exist in the image before it becomes a color image to me. This philosophy is a throw back to my college days, and is as valid today as it was back then.

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Today my quest is to create black and white digital images as rich as the negative and chemical way. I am getting beautiful results from my scanned negatives, but the digitally created images aren't quite there yet. The first two images above were scanned B&W negatives. The image below is from a digital color conversion.

I have rambled on too long here so I'll wrap this up. I look forward to learning and helping others as I can. I only hope that I can give as much as I know I will receive.

Regards,

Scott

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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Welcome Scot!

You'd get a warm welcome from me anyway as one who likes great images.

However, your accomplishments in B&W film are a welcome addition here. At least now we have another person who can see things a rich tonalities of B&W.

I wonder, BTW, how you find TMax BTW, compared to the films you used to use with lots of reciprocity failure?

One nice thing about Digital is that we do not have, TTBOMK, issues with either reciprocity failure or hues shift that older film and colr Polaroid™ have plagued us with in the analog world.

Still, I know that great B&W of the standard you have previously achieved, following the traditions of the masters, is hard to obtain with digital means from a color chip.

However, once the tricks are learned, you might find that you are able to do much more as items reflecting the same flux of light but at different wavelengths (ie hues) can be assigned i.e. remapped to different tones so as to define and distinguish features hardly possible previously with any analog film.

This remapping of both tonalities to different regions of Adams' Zones or of hues to different tonalities is where digital will ultimately trounce analog.

Anyway, that is my own feeling. I welcome you, bringing such a lot to OPF and look forward to seeing more of you pictures to share, critique and who know, perhaps, if we are lucky, even edit!

Asher
 
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Deleted member 55

Guest
Greetings Scott, and Welcome!

Not bad for an upside down image, In-fact absolutely stunning use of image inversion!

I love it!

I have always been a fan of "doing it ass backwards for effect". (No offense intended.)
 

Scott Buttrick

New member
Thanks Asher, you saw the Adams influnence in my work quickly. It was his zone system that helped me learn to see in b&w.

Thanks Will for your welcome. Glad you like the image. It was almost rejected from a show because one of the jurors thought that I had accidently mounted it upsidedown.
 
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Deleted member 55

Guest
It was almost rejected from a show because one of the jurors thought that I had accidently mounted it upsidedown.

Seems similar to one of the things I like to do to see if anyone is paying attention.

Is not that what creativity is all about?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Scott,

We are going to rejoice everytime you post you B&W images. Can you incude a brief context for the image and then the lens, light, place etc and if you remember film and developer.

I do hope that your pictures will thrill enough people to take out their own film and scan them and show them too.

Asher
 
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