"Shawn Grant" wrote in message ...
Photo Tip #1: For the kind of photos you take, Shawn, you should
seriously consider buying a portable 4x5. Speed Graphics and Busch
Pressmans can be had on E-bay for a few hundred dollars, with lens.
You are already using a tripod, so the additional weight and
"slowness" should not bother you at all.

4 x 5 is fine for some pros. However I am not a pro nor do I ever wish to be
a pro. Fuji Velvia 4x5 including developing is around $3 a photo. I can't
afford that. Second I teach people how to work with photos with PhotoShop
and I earn quite a bit of money for it. I need lots of photos in its digital
form. Purchasing a scanner that scans 4x5 is very expensive and way out of
my budget. My next camera purchase will be a digital SLR. Only advantage a
4x5 will give me are larger prints and possibly better depth of field with
its tilt lenses.

PS in my local area I only know of a few pros that use 4x5 for nature
photography. One is George Humphries
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Who I have had the pleasure of photographing with.

The rest use 35mm and some are starting to go to digital. Ken Jenkins
http://www.kenjenkins.com/ , Tom and Pat Cory
http://hometown.aol.com/tompatcory/ who are judging a photo contest I am
chairman of, Harold Stinnette http://www.naturalimpressionsphotography.com/
Chuck Summers http://www.agpix.com/search_catalog.php?agid=summers402 who
gave a great presentation at my photo club last week and I will see him
again Saturday for the photo judging and Bill Fortney who started and is the
chairman of http://www.gapweb.com/ and is also with nikon all use 35mm and
many are switching to digital. There are very few nature photographers who
use large format.

Seeing the light and creativity will improve photography more then a 4x5.

My wife uses an old wooden Kodak 8x10. Contact prints are incredible,
but there's no room for image manipulation except in film choice,
development times, chemistry, and burn&dodge. She knows a LOT about
this stuff. No amount of Photoshop work can ever achieve the results
of an experienced person and contact printing with large negatives.

She's tried to teach me, but with a 40 year head start, I'll never
catch up.