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Baty.net

A blog about everything by Jack Baty đź‘‹

Category: Photography

Glass: a social app for photographers

For example, currently, we don’t have likes. If and when we launch a feature in that vein, it’ll be private. We’ve intentionally avoided any public counts. We don’t want Glass ever to become a popularity contest. We’re not home for influencers. We are a home for photographers.

Tom Watson – On my Om

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a reasonable alternative to Instagram? I wish it could be Flickr, but I doubt that’ll ever happen.

Large Format: Challenges

There are too many things that can go wrong when shooting large format (4Ă—5) film.

I made four exposures of my friends Steve and Bryan this afternoon. Two of the four were ruined right off the bat: The first, because I’d left the shutter open when pulling the dark slide. The second because I didn’t expose it at all and processed as though I had.

Large format is hard.

There are so many opportunities to fail that making a successful image is really quite rewarding. Today wasn’t a rewarding day. Both of the photos that weren’t completely ruined were spoiled in other ways.

The Linhof Master Technika

Anyone who’s dabbled in large format photography knows the name “Linhof”. It’s one of those companies with a long history and a reputation for building some of the best 4×5 field cameras available. I’ve always been curious about them. Are they really “the Leica of large format”?

My first 4Ă—5 camera was a beat up Burke & James press camera. Then a beat up Crown Graphic. Then a Speed Graphic, and finally a Wista Field Camera. The first three were super cheap. The Wista was bit more serious, but it was such a beautiful wooden camera.

A new Instagram account: JackBatyPhoto

First, I have to admit that I’m not a fan of Instagram. Viewing tiny little photos on tiny little phones fed to us between advertisements in an order defined by a giant anti-privacy, disinformation-spreading corporation is the worst way to enjoy photography.

But, Instagram is where photographers are and I kind of want to be there, too. I want to focus on only photography (rather than socializing with friends and family) so I’ve created a new account to do just that: JackBatyPhoto. So, go ahead and “smash that Follow button” or whatever it is we’re doing now.

Which Leica gear to keep?

After a year of buying really nice cameras and lenses, I’ve gotten to a point where I’m feeling the weight of having so much money tied up on photography gear. Some of it has to go. This post is me thinking it through.

I hate selling gear. Dealing with buyers and potential buyers isn’t fun. Shipping is a pain. There’s always a risk of damage, loss, or dissatisfaction. But mostly, the problem with selling is that I no longer have the things I’ve sold. Regret sucks.