Picture Factory
Magda wrote to say that she's finally gotten a new computer, an updated copy of Lightroom, and a new lease on her photo life. I'm thrilled that she's thrilled, and can't wait to see the pictures. But what moves me to mention it is her reminder of some advice I gave last term: to take a class on the view camera. I try to help folks figure out what's next on their individual journey toward becoming more of the photographer they already are. In Magda's case it appeared that she was using her dSLR as if it wanted to be a slower, more ponderous machine. So I suggested she explore the view camera. With its bellows and tilt-swing focus plane, single sheet film loader, manual shutter, tripod, cable release, various other paraphernalia, I can imagine that the ground glass magic of a 4x5 would activate a useful cascade for her. For all of us, learning to operate the gears and knobs of a large format camera opens the factory doors to reveal the engine that makes photograph