The 52 Project, Week 20: The Longest 20 seconds of My Life

It’s a giant stack of straw bails, how hard of a picture could that be to take? With an 8x10 camera, it was quite the daunting task. Let’s go to the play-by-play.

I blame the focus weirdness on the V700
Searching around for something to shoot that definitely cannot move, I find myself driving over to one of my dad’s many straw barns. Lugging the 50+ lbs. of gear into the barn, it’s fifteen minutes before I even have the lens cap off and am ready to begin focusing.

“Oh man, it’s really dark even on the ground glass wide open,” I say to myself.

I pull open the barn door at the far end of the barn, letting a weak, but soft light source fill the front of the image. By thirty minutes, an image is really coming together, sitting upside down and backwards on the ground glass. Now it’s time to meter.

“Shadows are 1 min. at f/32” as I jot down notes from my light meter.
“Underexpose three stops pushing them into Zone II while adding 1/2 stop bellows factor. Now I’m at about 20 sec.’’

I hook up the 2’ cable release to the lens, close the lens, cover the ground glass with dark cloth, and now it’s time for the film. Taking the film holder out of the bag, I’m quick to attaching it to the back of the camera, placing the holder between the ground glass and the bellows. I hear a heart-wrenching “snap” as the holder slips into place. I carefully withdraw the dark slide, and “click”; of course this click lasted 17 nerve-racking seconds.

And so ends just another “simple” 8x10 exposure. Maybe someday later I’ll come back with some “Tales of Tray Processing” and “Film Loading Follies” to accompany this story. But for now, this week’s wrap-up.

Something Good: It looks like a stack of straw bails, and my word is it SHARP!

Something Bad: Light leaked in during the course of loading/unloading/exposure. Still not sure which, but I’ve since exercised proper precautions and have had little troubles.

Something Learned: I need to get much faster at setting up and tearing down this camera. This one exposure clocked in at just over an hour when all was said and done. The last time I took a similar shot (link), that “process” was about five seconds worth of composition. Is the larger negative worth all the trouble? I guess that’s for each of us to decide.

Next Week: Taking the 8x10 to the streets. Good times, good times. ^__^

The 52 Project: Rules Revisited...Again

If you know this reference, I <3 you!So, now that the cat is out of the bag (and by cat I mean mountain lion), let’s examine how adding an even older, large format camera to mix effects The 52 Project as a whole. First, let’s go over the founding purposes of this project:

1. Getting out and shooting film - I’m still doing this, just slower and with larger film
2. Trying out new films - Ditto
3. Posting my findings and progress - completely unchanged by format change

On the whole, nothing Earth-shattering will come of posting one or two 8x10 shots per week instead of posting a few more shots from a roll of film; besides, it’s not like the Hasselbald is dead, I still use it a whole helluva lot. Now let’s think about what adding large format to The 52 Project can provide:

1. More discussions on cameras - there’s much to learn with view cameras
2. New work-flow - there’s also more that needs to be done to ensure an image shows up
3. The Zone System - we’ll talk when you’re older :p

So let’s review, adding the 8x10 not only preserves the integrity of The 52 Project, but it also broadens the spectrum of material that can be incorporated into this year-long study. Sweet for the readers, most-assuredly death for me. X___x

Something Good: The readers will be getting more content while I play around with new toys.

Something Bad: I can’t afford a bit of this 8x10 business. Oh, and film is nearly $6/sheet.

Something Learned: Routines must not be my thing. I’m always redrawing the rules and letting them evolve with my new photography exploits. For those of you who embrace this change, thank you, you won’t be disappointed. 

The 52 Project, Week 19: "What is This? I Don’t Even..."

Today’s blog post is going to start with a short story.

Over a century ago, in a world far less digital than our own, this new documentary phenomenon known as photography was moving at an uncontrollable pace. Art critics were calling for all artists to drop their brushes and pencils, for what they could conjure up in hours/days/weeks/years could be reproduced in a fraction of the time. In another part of the country, middle class and lower income families were taking advantage of the convenience of photography to create a relatively inexpensive family portrait. Heck, people were even taking photos of non-studio subjects just for their aesthetic appeal. Madness, I know.

Now that you can visualize such an exciting time, take a look at the image below. This 1905 Century No.2 view camera embodies the industrious spirit of its era. That’s right, I said view camera. This thing is nothing more than wood/metal, glass, leather, and ingenuity!

Kodak Century No. 2, courtesy of Pierce Vaubel.

If you’d like to learn more about view cameras, here are some great sites to check out:

LargeFormatPhotography.info - if they don't have it, nobody else does either.

ViewCamera.com - the Journal of Large Format Photography

KenRockwell.com - great place to see 4x5 and large format landscapes

Photo.net - choosing a large format camera

Still scratching your head on how this thing works? Here's an entertaining look at the whole process:

Reasons that I’m using a view camera:

1. Resolution - at bare bones scanning levels, I’m getting 80Mp files. Cranking up the DPI can yield upwards of 3 Gigapixels!
2. Dynamic Range - ever wonder how images managed to look stunning prior to the Photoshop CS line? Look no further than sheet film.
3. Speed - or lack there-of. This beast with tripod and film holders clocks in just above 50lbs. Setting up and focusing at my fastest is somewhere around 10 minutes. And at about $5/sheet of film, I’m not going to be shooting more than a handful in a given day/week.
4. Complete Control - Perfect control of perspective, Zone System metering, custom image processing, and of course with said control, several hundred ways to equally screw up an image. x__x
5. Young Chicks Dig Retro - If by young and chicks you mean old and balding men, of course. Either way, it’s fun to have a small crowd gather round every now and then.

Now for the anti-climactic finish to all this awesome 8x10 buildup.

The sharpness Duke, the sharpness!Scan 1: Out on the reservoir

Perspective? Check. Sharpness? Check. Handful of mistakes? Double check. By no means is this a good or usable shot. This is, however, an exercise in the power, depth, and range of the 8x10 format. And as I’d later find out, part of a continuing series of photos teaching me how to properly load a film holder and tray agitate my negatives. >__<

Something Good: Light actually managed to hit the film in a manner that produced something resembling an image. This means I haven’t wasted $5.

Something Bad: Knowing from this image that there’s little turning back to traditional photographic formats.

Something Learned: I’ve just started a greater learning process that I might not complete in a satisfactory manner in my lifetime. 0_____0

Next Week: A more detailed explanation of how things are going to be run around here, in lieu of this new piece of photographic equipment.