The Ultimate App: A Photographer’s Notebook
View cameras are simple, do not require batteries, and working with this medium allows the photographer to step outside the obsolescence cycle of digital imaging. That's one of the things I love about large format. This isn’t to say that I’m opposed to technology —...
Metering Color Negative Film
Over the last few years color negative film has become a major part of my portfolio, being used to capture both delicate subtleties as well as landscape scenes with nearly endless dynamic range. The film can be incredibly flexible and adaptive to many situations...
Developing Film at Home
Developing Film at Home Developing your own film at home isn't as difficult as some people seem to think. I was hesitant to start but after dipping my toe in Black and White I quickly moved to C-41 and even E6. The motivation to start the process of developing film...
What Ansel Didn’t Teach Us
As large format landscape photographers, it is of course a requirement to have shrines in our homes to the late Ansel Adams. Stories of his images are the stuff of literal legend. What would you do if you forgot your light meter and were so rushed that you only...
Using calculators in large format photography
Part I: Depth of field Correct focusing, as trivial as it may seem to users of small cameras like an SLR or even an autofocus camera, can become - and more often than not actually does become - a challenge when working with a large-format camera, in particular when...
Platinum Palladium Contact Prints
Platinum Palladium Contact Prints When it comes to capturing an image, there is something almost spiritual when you do it utilizing a Large Format Camera. The entire process of capturing an image is so much more than just clicking the shutter. Viewing the image and...
Lightweight Large Format Photography on a Budget
When you think of large format photography, several things probably come to mind: heavy, expensive, bulky, complicated, difficult. While these may be the stereotypes commonly associated with large format photography, they are by no means traits that must be...
Long Exposure Photography
What is long exposure photography and why I do long exposure photography? By definition, any photograph made with a shutter speed of 1 second or longer could be considered long exposure photography. This varies from one photographer to the next. Some consider 0.25...
A Simple and Effective Ground Tether
As Alex Burke mentioned in last month’s blog post, setting up a view camera in the dark is an enormous challenge. The image on the ground glass is incredibly dim, and it is nearly impossible to see the composition. Back in 2010, I developed an incredibly simple...
Using a Large Format Camera in the Dark
If you’ve browsed through my images, chances are you’ve noticed that I’m a big fan of twilight and early morning light; the soft warm glow on the landscape is just sublime. Shooting in twilight comes with its own set of challenges, but those are greatly increased...
