Photography - from the Greek for "painting with light" - might be better defined as waiting for light. 85% of my photographic experience is patience. At least outside the studio, nature is in charge and she operates on her own schedule. In the last five years I've not made an image worth keeping without viewing the subject several times in different light at different times of day and year.

As I've gained experience, albeit limited, with large format film photography, I've become comfortable with the necessary encumbrances of equipment, the mental gymnastics of calculations for focus and exposure, so those have become "muscle memory" for me (some of that in the big gray muscle between my ears). This leaves much more time and attention for looking - and seeing.

In fact, my primary motivation for photography going back thirty years was that the act of seeing through a mental lens cemented those images in my brain. Looking for photographs has, in an interesting way, made it often superfluous to make photographs.

Like most photographers, I have experimented with numerous camera and systems including Rolei 35, Pentax K1000, Olympus OM-1, Nikonos III, Pentax LX, Canon submersible, Contax G1, and others in 35mm format. I shot the typical thousands of slides in Agfa, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and Fuji, and subsequently discarded all but a handful. By the late '90s my eyes ached from straining to see the world through a postage stamp sized viewfinder.

Idly toying with the medium format concept, I became attracted to the much greater viewing and image areas in 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, etc. However the thoughtful enthusiasm of a friend swept me instead into large format: 4"x5" traditional film photography. And I am delighted.

But I am hardly expert. These thoughts are the fruits of five years of learning, on a journey just begun, which will no doubt last the rest of my life. So take what you will from here but assume no authority in my comments.

By the way, I don't make exposure notes. Looking at an image, I can generally remember the light and lens I used. Aperture is at least f/11, sometimes smaller when depth of field dictates. Shutter speed is thus as required for the exposure I want - anywhere from 1/60 to 20 minutes or more. I found early on that making exposure notes competed with seeing images.