Working the Scene

[ShaneS]

It's advice that we are often given but the slideshow in this article features the contact sheet of photographers show us how it's really done. It is presented to promote an exhibit in New York titled The Making of Iconic American Photographs.

I just wish that I could see the exhibit in person...

[Donald]

Good one.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Shane. Great link.

Unfortunately, there are too many folks out there that seem to thing that the "great" photographers can simply pick up a camera, take a single shot and nail that iconic image.

I remember being out shooting a couple of summers ago in a National Park, where I was working a scene, when I bystander asked me what I was doing. When I explained, the retort was something along the lines of "with all that fancy equipment you have, you'd think you'd be able to get it in one shot".

I quietly chuckled to myself and kept on working the shot...

[chauncey]

with all that fancy equipment you have, you'd think you'd be able to get it in one shot

A fair number of us have had to suffer through the "boy that camera show must take good pitchers" scenarios.

[DanK]

Shane,

A great link. Thanks for posting. In those days, there was a real cost to working the scene: you had to reload the camera often, and you had to develop all the negatives, not just 'import' them.

Dan

[rpcrowe]

Dan... and don't forget, you had to buy the film in the first place unless you worked for a company that supplied the film...

[DanK]

Richard,

Oh, I remember. I used to buy film in bulk--much cheaper that way--and load it into cartridges using a changing bag. I would would use the same bag to load the film into a small, two-roll stainless steel tank for developing. Then it was usually another evening before I had time to print contact sheets. Slow, expensive, cumbersome, smelly, environmentally unfriendly (the chemicals), and far less flexible than digital, but I still get nostalgic about it--although not nostalgic enough to go back to film.

[Shadowman]

Nice link.

[ShaneS]

So glad you all enjoyed the slide show. It is very inspiring and informative for sure and I know I will spend some more time looking through it myself.

[John 2]

Interesting link Shane. Thanks for posting it.

Richard,

Oh, I remember. I used to buy film in bulk--much cheaper that way--and load it into cartridges using a changing bag. I would would use the same bag to load the film into a small, two-roll stainless steel tank for developing. Then it was usually another evening before I had time to print contact sheets. Slow, expensive, cumbersome, smelly, environmentally unfriendly (the chemicals), and far less flexible than digital, but I still get nostalgic about it--although not nostalgic enough to go back to film.

Not to mention the drying (unwelcome over the bath) and the subsequent spotting of the prints. I still have my 35mm bulk loader - not out of sentiment but because I can't give it away.