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[OM] APUG conference report

Subject: [OM] APUG conference report
From: Andrew Dacey <frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 00:24:26 -0300
Well I got back from Toronto on Monday so this is a bit late. I had a  
great time at the conference, it was really good to see so many  
people dedicated to keeping analog photography around.

Any readers of the conference posts on the apug site will know that  
things went off pretty well. There were some problems but nothing  
major and I was really impressed with the quality of the conference,  
especially for being the first time.

I attended mainly for the workshops so that's the focus of my report.

Cross-processing with John Callow: John gave a great overview on the  
technical considerations but we also talked a lot about the creative  
concerns; why are you using the technique for the shot? What does it  
bring to the image? John has a wealth of knowledge about the process  
and while he stressed that it's more valuable to test things and  
learn for yourself, he was able to steer us in the right direction.  
My only complaint would be that there wasn't any hands-on component  
to the workshop itself; although we were encouraged to continue  
shooting our tests during the conference and to show the results to  
John. We all received at least 2 of John's prints as well which was a  
nice treat.

Intro to LF with Peter Shrager: This was almost entirely hands-on.  
There were about 6 of us in the class and we had 2 4x5's with  
polaroid backs to share between us. I had used a 4x5 before but my  
knowledge was only based on reading up in texts so it was great to  
have an experienced LF shooter. We had a lot of fun and I ended up  
spending a lot of time with Peter over the rest of the conference. He  
also had a nice package of LF information for each of us which  
included one of his prints. My only complaint would be that it was  
only 4 hours so we couldn't get into more technical topics. If you're  
an APUG member, check out the conference gallery for my LF polaroids.

AZO printing with Michael A. Smith: This was a bit of a mixed bag for  
me. I went in without any prior knowledge about what AZO was so I  
didn't really know what to expect but I was intrigued by the promise  
of better B&W prints. My main issue with the workshop was that it was  
more just a demonstration where Michael printed participants  
negatives in order to show the potential of using AZO paper so it  
felt a little more like an ad for AZO. On the positive side, getting  
to see Michael work in the darkroom was really interesting as his  
approach is different to how I was taught and it looks like his  
techniques are geared towards achieving very high quality with a  
minimum of time. Even if I never print on AZO I'll be able to use a  
lot of what I saw in my own printing to achieve better results.

Portfolio review with Les Mclean: I would say this was the most  
valuable workshop of the weekend for me. I had expected more of a  
general critique of the individual images I brought but Les instead  
looked at the portfolio as a collection of images and didn't dwell on  
technical details very long. In the end he spent over an hour on my  
photos and talking about my approach to photography and what I wanted  
to get out of it (which is something I've really been struggling with  
lately). Between that and then being able to hear the comments he  
gave to other participants I think he's really helped open my mind to  
new ways of making and presenting my images. I had breakfast with Les  
before the review and I said to him that I would be happier coming  
back thinking that everything I'd shot before was garbage having lots  
of ideas and enthusiasm of where I could go from here which is  
basically what happened (I'm not completely disenchanted with my  
prior images but I do see a lot of room for improvement and have  
ideas for some new approaches to work on).

All in all it was a great trip. Everyone I met was extremely friendly  
and it was a great atmosphere. I will definitely be attending the 2nd  
one barring scheduling or financial reasons.

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