Saturday. Back on track.

 

It was an interesting morning. I was back in the pool for swim practice today and was practicing a new technique for imagining freestyle stroke mechanics. Most swimmers think of their arm stroke as a way to push water behind them in order to move forward. Advanced swimmers and coaches (the .01%) don't think that way. Instead they see the point of furthest extension of your hand and arm (one side at a time) as a whole different thing. They understand the process to actually be an anchoring of your hand at that forward spot in the water and then using that anchor and your stroke to pull your body past the anchor point. Placing your hand in front isn't just the start of your usual pull back for thrust; instead it's establishing an anchor point. And with that the idea of pulling your body forward instead of forcing water backwards. It's a surprisingly effective visualization. Or a reframing of expectations for a process. 

Sometimes re-thinking, or even better, reframing a thought can be a powerful tool for changing habits. I noticed that when I let myself think of the furthest extension as the establishment of an anchor point I slowed down the turnover of my stroke but then engaged with more efficient power. Two results: a more fluid exchange of power in the water and an increase in sustainable speed. 

What does this have to do with photography?

B. and I have a family tradition of always (or nearly always) having lunch together on Saturdays. I spent some time cleaning up the mess I'd left in the studio after returning from a shoot while she finished up her daily yoga practice. I lost interest in cleaning up so I walked down the hall to my home office and looked through one of the bookshelves. I came across a journal from the early 1980s and sat down in a comfortable chair to see what had been on my mind back then. 

I came across handwritten pages which were my draft notes for the syllabus I made for my fine art photography students, for a Summer semester at the University of Texas at Austin, College of Fine Arts. Several pages in my words reminded me that I made it a requisite that all advanced students and my two grad students learn how to use a 4x5 or an 8x10 view camera. I noted that no one was required to use one for their personal use or in order to make portfolios for the class but all would need to know how and why to use a camera with movements. How to tilt and shift. How to control fields of focus. How to load and shoot sheet film and, finally, how to process and print black and white sheet film. There were many complaints at the start of the semester. "View cameras are too hard!!!"  I had anticipated that there would be. I had written this into the syllabus:

"Using a view camera requires some logic and persistence. But mostly it requires an open mind for new experiences. If you fight the camera it will take all semester to master it. If you embrace it you can learn the essentials in a couple of days. Which will make you happier?"

I had to learn view camera technique on an 8x10 view camera. When I started as a teaching assistant to Tomas Pantin a few years earlier I was conversant with 35mm SLRs, 35mm rangefinders and 120mm Rollei twin lens cameras. Tomas's course was all about studio photography and his courses included the use of 4x5 cameras, and 8x10 cameras with 4x5 inch reducing backs. He insisted that I get up to speed by the start of the semester. I'm pretty sure it was because he didn't want to field student questions about large format all day long. 

I got a well illustrated book about using view cameras from the UT Fine Arts Library and plowed into the black arts of large format. It taught me a lot about the principles of photography and how cameras, at their very basics, work. Here is the currently revised edition of the book that helped me learn: https://www.amazon.com/Using-View-Camera-Creative-Photography/dp/1626540772

My students mostly chose to embrace the learning experience with large format and to make it fun for themselves. I gave them ample printed handouts and we spent a four hour session in the first week of the semester going over and over the view camera basics. It stuck with almost everyone and I was gratified years later when several of my students dropped by my studio to let me know how they were getting along in their photo careers. 

A shift from: view cameras are hard to master and mysterious to: embrace the process and relax, you'll get it in a couple of days was just the re-framing they needed to understand that it wasn't at all difficult. 

Same with swimming. It just took me a lot longer to figure it all out. 

B. and I went out for a nice lunch and she reminded me that everything can be approached from nearly an infinite number of angles. Some of them work and some don't. Just relax and flow through the process. 

The bulk of my commercial work during the first ten years of my career was done with one 4x5 view camera and three inexpensive view camera lenses. Worked well.