If you could turn time back what would you change about your photography?

[Trius]

I just dug out some Chrome from my freezer to shoot this weekend. I have a few assorted rolls but not much left. I have a roll of Provia 36exp, 5 rolls of provia 400, a roll of Ektachrome 100G and GX and that's about it. The problem now is finding a good lab. I ran my own for years and had a Colenta processor. I did enough in the studio to justify it. When I bought the Colenta my lab and E6 bill was right at $100,000 a year and most was 120 up to 8x10. I had a very active business at that time. I have to say I really miss the beauty of transparencies.

After I closed my big studio down in 2000 and moved from 6000sq ft to 1200sq ft I shut down E6 processing too and sent all my film to E6 of Atlanta. By far the had the best E6 I've ever seen. Every roll was the same from run to tun and was brilliant looking. They also knew how to evaluate clip tests for me and follow instructions. I'm sad to say they closed last year.

In th elist was Ektachrome Lumiere 100 and Ektachrome 200. The Lumiere was a transition film from EPP and EPR to the new technology films 100G, GX, VR. I shot a lot of Lumiere but had to rate it at 80 or 64 and never really like the color. It wasn't a great film IMO. The 200 was terrible IMO and hardly ever used it.

Remember the 200 Kodachrome? I did trade trial testing for Kodak and 200 Kodachrome was one of the fils I tested before it hit the market.

I got to see a lot of emulsions prior to production. I tested the original 100 and 400 TMax and shot hand coated rolls with unmarked black paper backing in 120. Actually the early test film was terrible. It was so thick it actually damaged Hasselblad and Rollei SL66 backs. I tested it in my SL66's and had constant problems. I wound up having 7 back rebuilt. The base was too thick to curve around the rollers. From my testing and a couple of others Kodak thinned the base by 50%. Even at that I felt it was way too thick. I think it's been thinned once since then.

I also did trade trial testing for Ilford and tested preproduction Delta 100 and 400. Fantastic films and was so good it pulled me away from Agfa 100 as my standard film.

I do miss the Efke / Adox KB14 and 17 (25 and 100). I have about 30 rolls of Efke 25 35mm in the freezer waiting for a special day.

It's not only been film from Kodak, Efke, Adox, Agfa, Dupont and Ansco are all gone. They made great film and paper.

Speaking of paper much of it has gone but there are some fabulous papers on th market now. They're some of the best fiber papers I've seen in decades. Though I do miss Dupont Varilour R and RW, Ektalure G, Kodabromide, Medalist, Velox, Azo, Ansco Indigo, Dupont Varigam and a few others. In the 50's and 60's Dupont was king IMO and they made so many papers and surfaces. The even made a triple weight fiber paper.

The SL66 backs were problematic to start with, I can't imagine using film that was too thick!

I can recommend Prauss in Rochester for E6 and C41 processing.

http://www.4photolab.com

 

[x-ray]

The SL66 backs were problematic to start with, I can't imagine using film that was too thick!

I can recommend Prauss in Rochester for E6 and C41 processing.

http://www.4photolab.com

Appreciate the referral. I'll give them a try. We have a lab here in town that has a Hostert dip and dunk but the only run every few weeks and don't run controll strips anymore. They used to be a good lab in the day but no longer.

I had three SL66's a load of glass and backs in the studio and rarely had any issues. I roughly figured 12,000 rolls had gone through each in the years I owned them. I'd have a back rebuilt once in a while but I had to do the same with my Hasselblads.

When I sold th a few years ago the only body issues was one body locked up for no reason and one had the curtain come off the drum. They we're more reliable than the Hasselblsds I've owned.

 

[Archiver]

In 2013, a thread was started about 'the camera you wish you had bought'. This was my answer:

My biggest regret is not getting an Olympus XA, XA2, or similarly small and silent camera to document my teenage and university years. I've only got two sets prints from when I was 13, and almost nothing from 14-26.

This is a scenario I have mentioned a few times. Had I the knowledge, I would have got an XA or XA2, loaded it with Fuji 400 and/or Tri-X, and shot at least one roll per month throughout my teenage years and university. Concerts, orchestra rehearsals, music trips, school camps, friends and family, my final years at school, my first date, my first girlfriend, music gigs and competitions, overseas travel, everything.

Now I carry at least two cameras everywhere I go, and I've made personal documentary a way of life. My current everyday camera, the Ricoh GR, is perfect for my purposes, and ought to last at least the four years the GRD III was by my side. But I so, so regret not having stepped up my photography when I was young and documented everything I could.

Update for October 2015: the Ricoh GR now shares equal duty with the Panasonic LX7 as an everyday camera. For the past twelve years, I have been documenting my life in ways that were not possible in the days of film. I've also been quite rigorous with daily journal entries, supplementing the photographs with the events, impressions and conversations of the day. I look back on the years of undocumented life with wistful disappointment, but I'm incredibly happy to be able to do it all, now.

 

[Canyongazer]

Macro or micro, either way, we photographers are slaves to and victims of Time.

I capitalize the "T" out of respect --- and fear.

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . My biggest regret is not getting an Olympus XA, XA2, or similarly small and silent camera to document my teenage and university years. . . . .

At university (and for a long time afterwards) I carried a Leica IIIa, but to tell the truth, there are very few photographs from that period that I care much about. Having actually done what you're talking about, instead of regretting not doing it, I can say from personal experience that you might have missed less than you think.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Trius]

Maybe I just had bad luck with SL66 backs, they seemed to jam more than they should. Or it could have been user error, which is more likely. I loved the Zeiss glass and reversible mount and focusing system.

 

[JP Owens]

Paul Simon nailed this years ago in "Kodachrome"

"If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match
my sweet imagination
everything looks WORSE in black and white"

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

i'd make myself take better pictures and not f*** around with second thoughts.

 

[Hsg]

I have lost all of my 2011 photos, except a few, so backing up my photos should have been high on my priority list.

 

[Talex]

I have lost all of my 2011 photos, except a few, so backing up my photos should have been high on my priority list.

That is great advice for the digital age. It just takes one hard drive failure to wipe out years of work if there is no redundancy.

 

[photomoof]

I have lost all of my 2011 photos, except a few, so backing up my photos should have been high on my priority list.

That is such a bummer, but if it is any consolation it has happened to almost everyone.

Worse with negatives, somehow during one of my studio moves I lost thousands of black and white negatives, now all I have are the proof sheets. They were stored in a negative box in glassine sleeves. Gone now.

Amazingly because I made such good proof sheets, I have actually been able to print some by photographing the proof sheets! There is another thread where I am a pushing the idea of high quality proof sheets, and not making many "sales."

Anyway three backups -- cloud (I use iCloud and Google), and two external hard drives. Even that you have to watch, I noticed my Time Machine backups were be corrupted by while I was connected on VPN!

Everyone just do it.

 

[Hsg]

That is great advice for the digital age. It just takes one hard drive failure to wipe out years of work if there is no redundancy.

That is such a bummer, but if it is any consolation it has happened to almost everyone.

Worse with negatives, somehow during one of my studio moves I lost thousands of black and white negatives, now all I have are the proof sheets. They were stored in a negative box in glassine sleeves. Gone now.

Amazingly because I made such good proof sheets, I have actually been able to print some by photographing the proof sheets! There is another thread where I am a pushing the idea of high quality proof sheets, and not making many "sales."

Anyway three backups -- cloud (I use iCloud and Google), and two external hard drives. Even that you have to watch, I noticed my Time Machine backups were be corrupted by while I was connected on VPN!

Everyone just do it.

I had managed to back up the 2011 'keepers'. In that sense losing 2011 photos did not bother me that much.

My backup strategy is to make sure that 'keepers' are backed up, the rest i don't worry about. In this digital age of photo glut, they're very likely to stay unseen forever.

 

[paulfish4570]

i'd have kept my first good camera, an M3, and the Elmar 50/2.8 that was on it. I'd have taken better care of thousands of negatives. all of my BW negatives from my young manhood are gone; no idea what happened to them.

 

[thawkins]

Purchased the M3 thirty years ago.

 

[OurManInTangier]

I'd give up all the cameras, all the lenses and all the thoughts of 'that camera will make things better/easier I've had over the years and happily, joyfully, stick with the old Praktica with its 50mm screw in lens that was my first 'serious' camera in exchange for the missing photographs of my life. I wish, like many, that I'd concentrated on photographing all the things that seemed mundane and humdrum whilst they were in front of me and within reach but show themselves as so important once they've gone. Playing with friends as a youngster, school, family, where I grew up or places associated with family, college and all the other things that pass you by when you're so young.

The fact I was at college studying photography and failed to photograph my life at that time seems astonishing to me now. Assignments, projects etc no problem...nights out...nights in even - nothing.