I was talking to my wife the other day about a photographer named Clyde Butcher. He’s been making images for a long, long time now…and most of his work was with an 8X10 box film camera. It was heavy and cumbersome because it took a robust tripod just to keep the thing steady. But the more amazing thing about him is he used the darned thing to photograph in the everglade swamps of Florida. And I use the word “in” literally. Anyway, if you are into photography, look the guy up…his images are great, but how he gets them, how he develops and prints them…is a jaw-dropping story in itself.
One other point about Clyde…like a lot of old pros, he shoots mostly in black and white. I generally don’t, but sometimes it’s fun to finish off an image that way. Mostly it’s just to try something different but secondarily, I will always pay homage to the masters of photography…the men and women who worked in the craft when it was actually a challenge to do so. They came away with true art for their time.
And so…I will always honor the masters.
Today I have it pretty easy…digital files, fast, high resolution cameras, autofocus that is very quick and pretty accurate most of the time…and I’m not going to complain about any of that one bit.