Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Dennis. Yes, I agree, a bit flat. But, like many an Oregon morning, the fog was pervasive...but, still, I liked that soft-box quality that allowed me to capture this much detail on the rock and beach from so great a distance, in the digital environment. What I really needed was my old 8X10 camera and a couple big pieces of Panatomic X!

eggplant...you're the first W.S. contributor (other than myself), who has professed to using a view camera (although you didn't use the word "view"). Do you still own and use a view camera? Is any of your view camera work available online?...for viewing? :>)
Did you use the view camera as a professional? or amateur tool? or both?

Hi King, this is Haystack Rock, at Canon Beach Oregon (where the shoreline is almost identical to that of Northern California).
For about eight years in my twenties, right out of college, I was a commercial photographer. I did some fashion work, product stuff, and some editorial work for the wires, but my favorite was the work I did for architects and environmental designers.
I had a Linhof 8x10 view camera and a newer Calumet 4x5, but the guy I worked with had the sweetest 8x10 Tachihara, cherry wood field camera
you've ever seen.
Some of the big mansions exteriors I would shoot with 8x10 infrared film. I ache to have those plates back. But alas, no. None of my old work is available for viewing. It's a long story, but I am no longer in possession of any of that old stuff.
How about you...do you still work in that format, and is any of it available to see online?

Oh, and, as you would probably agree, there is nothing finer in the photographic universe than a contact print made from an 8x10 negative.

eggplant,

I sold *all* of my photography equipment to pay divorce lawyers. I had already changed careers and the digital revolution was upon us, so it was probably a good move.
I had a 5x7 Deardorff field view camera and several Sinar view cameras, from 4x5 to 8x10. My first view camera, in my pre-professional days, was an Orbit Monorail.
I've shot lots of infrared film and have a great respect for architectural photography--and I've done a bit myself.

I have very little of my view camera work on my website because I haven't devoted the time and money to get adequate scans--it's on my list of things to do. In addition to food, I used to do complex special effects in-camera with no post processing. For instance, the following three images, all on the theme of magic and following the same compositional shape, were shot in-camera on a single piece of 4x5 transparency film (each) with no retouching, before Photoshop was invented:

http://www.kingdouglas.com/Journal/Images/Page07/Butterflies.jpg

http://www.kingdouglas.com/Journal/Images/Page07/MagicWand.jpg

http://www.kingdouglas.com/Journal/Images/Page07/DoveCards.jpg
(I trained that dove myself)

Thanks for telling me about your view camera experiences. Nothing like it. I'm sure we could share some stories.

That's beautiful work (especially the dove shot). Yeah, that's no Photoshop, 30 minute job (not that there's anything wrong with that ; ) ). That's some old-fashioned hours-on-end creative accomplishment.
Beautiful work.