[Leica] More comments: how do you use your images

[puff11 at comcast.net (Norm Aubin)]

Alastair, et. al.

I went through the progression of sizes and types of cameras over the last
30 years, going from 35mm to 2.25 to 4x5, and the progression of print sizes
as well, 8x10 to 11x14 to 16x20 to 30x40 as the negative permitted.

I have long been a student of the Ansel Adam's school of print quality,
likewise of the late Barry Thornton's techniques, so to me the negative was
the limiting factor in terms of picture size.  I won't settle for grain in
an image, it disturbs me, like noise on a stereo recording.  

I do print a size appropriate to the image though: if it calls for jewel box
size, i.e. 5x5, then so be it.  Likewise, if the image needs to be really
big to have the right impact, then 30x40 it is.  This means that many of my
favorite images are made using large format. Then again, I love my 3.5 x 4.5
daguerreotype images too!

It should be noted that I do recreational photography, landscapes and
architectural work, (ferns and rocks as Ted would say), so for me the
tonality and detail must survive the translation to a large print.  Most
35mm negs, even scanned at 4000 DPI, don't get you there.

I bought the Leica M6 for one simple reason: I want to have a camera with me
at all times, one capable of recording the technically highest quality
images in the most compact package possible.  It is capable of producing
images of very high quality, up to around 12x18 or so, and that is quite
satisfactory for a majority of my work, and it also leaves me with a record
of the scene to go back and work on with a large format camera later.

Why is another story altogether . . . I photograph to see and to speak.
Sometimes to share with others what I've seen.  I have a career, I create
for money in other venues, and in those venues I have some small effect on
the state of things in the world.  When it comes to photography I get to use
the other side of my brain, and also to make nice things.   To paraphrase
Ansel Adams: I'm not interested in recording ugly things, there's enough of
that already, I want to create pretty pictures.  If some day some pretty
picture makes someone happy, then I've done well.

I love the wet darkroom for making large B&W prints, but it has gotten more
tedious as I get older.  Digital has opened up many possibilities for
printing, and the quality of digital B&W is fast approaching that of silver
based printing, so it's time to get on the train . . . for color the train
is already moving at high speed!

Just some random thoughts while the salmon bakes . . . 

Norm





>Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005
>From: Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au>
>Subject: [Leica] More comments: how do you use your images

>I am hoping to stimulate a bit more discussion on this topic: why do 
>you take the images, what do you do with them, how big do you print, 
>how do you print, why do you print etc
>
>Cheers