Just how long does one hang onto cognitive dissonance? A lifetime?

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Vickko

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Just how long does one hang onto cognitive dissonance? A lifetime?

Am I or am I not a Large format shooter? Or am I just an owner of a large format camera?
 
I can too easily make an excuse that it is lifestyle. Two busy kids. LF requires isolation time, which I lack.

But is it just an excuse?

So much easier to use another format.
 
I own a LF camera and have taken a few pictures but I am not a LF shooter yet. I'm waiting until my lifestyle allows me the time for it. That will come, or not, whatever. No worries.
 
If it's a hobby, you don't need excuses, you either want to make time for a hobby or you don't. If you're rather shoot something else, go for it. I don't have time/inclination or even subject matter for large format right now. I hope to change that soon though.
 
Sounds like an identity issue, more so than cognitive dissonance. Am I, or am I not a large format shooter? (If not a large format shooter, then who am I? What am I?)
 
Cognitive dissonance for life! I took out my Crown Graphic for the first time, I was shocked to learn, in 2 years. I tried to sell my kit (at a very attractive price) last year but no luck. I'm glad it didn't sell. Doesn't take up a lot of room and the whole process is a lot of fun.
 
FrankS said:
I own a LF camera and have taken a few pictures but I am not a LF shooter yet. I'm waiting until my lifestyle allows me the time for it. That will come, or not, whatever. No worries.
Click to expand...

Pretty much me too. I have taken a few with LF, 4x5 and 9x12, but not nearly as many as I hope to. I have an 8x10 that I really want to coat the bellows and make some contact sheets with. But time ...
 
I have a professional photographer friend who at some point moved from 6x6 to 4x5. He had every day, day-in-and-day-out, to go out shooting with his new camera, and then learning how to develope and contact print sheet film (his medium format was color work sent out and scanned).

He said that he made lots of mistakes early on, both technical and bad photos (due to fussing too much over the camera and therefore not concentrating on the photos). It took him, I believe, 2 months of pretty much everyday practice before he took what he considred decent photos and started to feel comfortable with the camera, movments, etc.

So I think a lot of switching tools/mediums is a matter of time and practice. Preferrably CONCENTRATED time, which I know with my busy work and family life, I couldn't devote to large format work. So I WOULD blame part of your feelings on lack of time!
 
Vickko said:
I can too easily make an excuse that it is lifestyle. Two busy kids. LF requires isolation time, which I lack.

But is it just an excuse?

So much easier to use another format.
Click to expand...

Does it require isolation time? I wonder then how amateur and professional photographers made photographs in years gone by when the only option was large format? They will have had busy kids, a busy life. As for speed of use, grabbing the camera and shooting, well, Weegee and a vast number of other Press and commercial photographers show how that was done in the mid 20th Century using large format. Sally Mann uses large format in an even more complicated way using wet collodian plates to photograph her busy life and family, and that seems to work out for her. So perhaps you perception of large format is skewed?

Naturally you may not have a technical camera like a Linhof to shoot like Weegee, or a 16x20 to shoot like Sally Mann. You may not even want to photograph gruesome murders, or your family, but often the problem is that photographers haven't looked at other photographers to gain encouragement and get some perspective on the 'problem'. Have a look at the work of large format British photographer Simon Roberts, using large format both for landscape and people pictures, even documenting the last General Election as an official photographer, not with a stealth Leica, but a 4x5. So large format can be used when the world is moving fast around you 🙂
 
The definition of cognitive dissonance that I was given, when forced to do a two year psychology course at school, is the "white shirt experiment".

Take two groups and give them identical new white shirts. Tell the first group that the shirt is cheap. Tell the second group that the shirt is very expensive and exclusively made. Let the members of each group discuss their shirts with a third group (generally researchers).

The first group will say, in effect, "it's a shirt, collar's a bit tight, sleeves too short, otherwise it's OK". The second group will enthuse about the cut, the quality of the material and any number of "advantages".

I don't think hanging onto your LF gear despite not using it has much to do with cognitive dissonance. Owning a Leica and telling everyone that it's so much better than any other camera, on the other hand...

😀
 
The fatal flaw in that camera/leica analogy is that they are not all the same as the identical white shirts were. There actually are quality differences. These differences may or may not be significant to the user.
 
I have used a LF camera recently. Some thoughts:

1. I do not think that it must be very time consuming. My mindset at the moment is to concentrate on just one picture at a time and work through that until satisfied with the result, i.e. the finished print. That may take a while indeed, but in the end I may have a meaningful, well thought out photograph. And maybe I have learned something along the way.

2. Doing it requires quite some determination, at least for me. I find it is a good mental exercise.

3. Using LF does not exclude using other formats, so I only use the LF camera, if I already know what I would like to get.

I would not worry so much and would concentrate on just one photograph. No need to hurry, it is indeed a very slow, contemplative process. If it does not work for you, simply sell the camera and use what suits your needs.
 
I don't know how many LF cameras I have: I think 3x Gandolfi, 2x Linhof, 3x Toho, 1x De Vere, 1x Harman pinhole -- and besides, not all are complete or in working order, but several have reducing backs. I don't use any of them very often. But I use them when I want to. And they are fun when I do, though increasingly, I prefer either 5x7/13x18cm or 12x15 inch to 8x10 or (which I use quite rarely, and mostly with 6x12/6x9cm RF backs) 4x5 inch. There's no cognitive dissonance in any of this. I don't define myself as 'a large format photographer', but as 'someone who likes taking pictures'.

Cheers,

R
 
Thanks for the reference to Simon Roberts. I've been "getting a lot closer" to my LF camera, focusing it, showing it to my son, calibrating the rangefinder. It feels a lot more friendly.

Next is to buy a box of film and load it up.

I developed a roll of 6x6 yesterday, and the thought of 20 minutes in the dark, doing sheet film, doesn't feel appealing. Maybe start with a daylight tank.
 
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