Also: people are still taking pictures with Linhof Teknikas. You can still buy them. They're a bit more expensive than Horsemans so you don't see them as often but... shit. I haven't seen a 4x5 in the wild since about 2002. Thing is, you can't get tubthumping images without having a tubthumping neg because nobody is making a sensor that's multiple inches by multiple inches. A contact print off an 8x10 negative? It's something to behold. The trick is...
I don't think we would experiment with film, that's a lot of effort for people who are really passionate. For passing fanciers lime us, it'd be impractical. I am thinking of gathering up a few things though and taking them to a pawnshop to surprise my wife with a gently used DSLR and then maybe find her a book on photography. I think she'd have fun with it.
This is the book. No lie. I owned a couple dozen backintheday and this one is far and away the most useful single book.
Sweet! I'm gonna hunt that down! I don't know if it's up your alley or not, but a few years ago we got some books on colors and layouts by Jim Krause and they're very good books for beginners. Very easy to use.