Two Trees and a Large Format Disadvantage

The picture above originally received "the axe" on the editing table. The trees are obviously obscured by the landscape in the background, and the picture is boring anyway. Nevertheless, here it is. Our photographer moaned and groaned about all the effort he went through to take this picture, all the hiking with 30lbs. of large format camera, developing the film, blah blah blah.

Although the picture "success-rate" with an 8x10 View Camera is very much higher than say with a digital camera, botched framing and botched pictures do happen. It is a lot harder to edit pictures like a cyborg when so much effort went into making the pictures in the first place. 8x10 inch negatives are not exactly disposable digital files! We suggested to our photographer that he carry a smaller camera, or perhaps (here it comes) a digital camera. After we revived him with a bucket of water he pointedly asked whether we thought him some kind of "sissy". He then proceeded to giggle hysterically at which point we became rather worried, and we posted the picture.

- January 2007