I….had to step away from my camera after getting home from Kentucky.

I lugged that giant thing and all of it’s necessary parts through the airport because it made my luggage too heavy and I didn’t feel like paying the overweight charge.  I carried it like an awkwardly shaped baby. I took it with me everywhere while in Kentucky just in case it was the right time to use one of my 6 sheets of film. 

I haven’t shot film since college. I have never flown with film. I just assumed the signs at security where correct when they said anything under iso 800 was safe for the scanners. I should have listened to the voice of my college photo prof in the back of my head that kept saying “Don’t assume, it makes and ass out of u and me”….get it? 

I was excited to get home and ,instead of developing them myself,  hand over my film to the guys that have never mucked up my negatives. I was excited to see the shots of my Dad and the ones I took of Xander. I was excited to see the lens I borrowed from Vu in all it’s glory. 

The above is what I got back. The strange lines and all the other f’ed up-ness you see is from the xray machines at the airport. I don’t think I’ve ever been so upset at loosing an image. 

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ericahampton:

Yesterday was my first full day home from our road trip to San Francisco. Mike and I are working on Square Book, a photo book project we hope to have launched sooner rather than later. The trip was quick but I had managed to take 11 exposures on my 4x5. 

I spent the afternoon developing and scanning. To my dismay several of the negatives stuck together and were ruined. Almost all of them had scratches and weird artifacts. At the moment I do all of my film transfers in a black bag, I have no dark room.  I think this adds to the scratching and rough handling. 

The other weird damage and artifacts I’m fairly certain are caused by uneven chemical exposure. I’ve only developed one other set in the developing tank that I have and I had similar problems. Of course the negatives sticking together is simply caused by user mishandling :P

I’m headed out for MI/KY today and will be gone for a week. I’m taking the 4x5 and will have some exposures to develop, but the plan is to have those done at my local camera shop. I want to take some test photos around the house to see if I can solve what I think is a lack of chemical exposure problem.

I’m frustrated and embarrassed, but I’m learning.

Good news is I think I’ve got the exposure thing down. All the negatives seemed properly exposed. Thanks to Vu for letting me borrow his lens!

Above is what would have been a pretty cool photo of some cattle on our way to Big Sur. You can see the original is pretty darn messed up. I cropped it as little as possible and cleaned it up a bit. I loved seeing cattle by the ocean. I have a thing for the ocean and for cattle so this just made me happy :) I think Mike Instagrammed a photo and said ” These cows live and hang-out on a cliff overlooking the pacific. Mid-West cows, you’re doing it wrong”. It’s true ;)

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Mike and I took a trip to San Francisco this past weekend. I’m developing and scanning like a mad woman but I won’t have anything to post for a while as I leave for Michigan/Kentucky tomorrow.  I thought I would post this pic of Maeby I shot with my 4x5. I’m having issues with my developing tank so I’m having to crop my negatives quite a bit. At any rate, I thought this was cute.

Mike and I took a trip to San Francisco this past weekend. I’m developing and scanning like a mad woman but I won’t have anything to post for a while as I leave for Michigan/Kentucky tomorrow. 

I thought I would post this pic of Maeby I shot with my 4x5. I’m having issues with my developing tank so I’m having to crop my negatives quite a bit. At any rate, I thought this was cute.

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Several week ago I was talking to my Dad on the phone and he was telling me about a photograph that my uncle Jeff had of their biological dad when he was 7-8 years old. He couldn’t believe how similar they looked and said it even made him do a double take when he first saw the photo. I of course, being skeptical by nature, didn’t believe him. I wrote my uncle Jeff a nice message on facebook and a short time later I had a copy of said photograph.

The photo to the right is the portrait of Xander I took, over the christmas holiday 2011, on my 4x5. He was 7.5 at the time. Such a handsome kid, if I do say so myself.

The photo on the left is my paternal grandfather, whom I never met. I’m assuming it was taken on a camera similar to the 4x5 I’ve been using, but who knows. He was also around 7- 8 in this photo. Probably late 40’s. Notice the trendy bottle cap buttons? 

At any rate, when I saw the photo I just about fell out of my chair. I know they don’t look exactly alike, but wow!! So many striking similarities! What do you think? 

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This is an overexposed image of Xander shot on tri-x 320 using my 4x5. I sent this out to be processed and scanned the negative with my Epson V700.  One of the draw backs to my 4x5 is that the lens has no shutter, so all exposures are manual. Actually, I think I should rephrase that and say the draw back is that I’m not experienced enough with the lens/camera combo to know what I’m doing…yet :) This was taken in the middle of the afternoon under the shade of many trees. At the moment I have a box of tri-x 320 and so I set the aperture to f/11 and metered for those setting. Of course the suggestion was about 1/36 which is not possible without a shutter. At the time I had completely forgotten about pushing/pulling film so I just used my hand and covered/uncovered the lens as quickly as I could and sent it out to be processed fully expecting total failure. Results?  You guessed it, way over exposed.  I still think it’s lovely. It has that antique glow to it doesn’t it? Most importantly I knew what I was doing wrong and I know how to fix it. I think a slower speed film is in order as well as testing out some filters. While I’m waiting for my order of t-max 100 to come in I’m going to try pulling the 320. *fingers crossed* 

This is an overexposed image of Xander shot on tri-x 320 using my 4x5. I sent this out to be processed and scanned the negative with my Epson V700. 

One of the draw backs to my 4x5 is that the lens has no shutter, so all exposures are manual. Actually, I think I should rephrase that and say the draw back is that I’m not experienced enough with the lens/camera combo to know what I’m doing…yet :)

This was taken in the middle of the afternoon under the shade of many trees. At the moment I have a box of tri-x 320 and so I set the aperture to f/11 and metered for those setting. Of course the suggestion was about 1/36 which is not possible without a shutter. At the time I had completely forgotten about pushing/pulling film so I just used my hand and covered/uncovered the lens as quickly as I could and sent it out to be processed fully expecting total failure. Results?  You guessed it, way over exposed. 

I still think it’s lovely. It has that antique glow to it doesn’t it? Most importantly I knew what I was doing wrong and I know how to fix it. I think a slower speed film is in order as well as testing out some filters. While I’m waiting for my order of t-max 100 to come in I’m going to try pulling the 320. *fingers crossed* 

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I’ve posted a few images and talked about my 4x5 camera and how much I love it, but I’ve never talked specifically about the camera itself. I wanted to share some images and my experience with the camera for a few reasons; one, I have no idea what kind of camera it is, where it was made or who made it; two, I’ve only used a large format camera a few times in college and I’m super excited to learn all I can about this contraption and share my mistakes and successes as I go.

As you can see it’s quite a clunky looking thing. Some knobs are missing and others have been replaced with hardware store finds. The rails look new but everything else has signs of much love. There was a hole drilled into the bottom left of the front plate. I stuffed it and wrapped it in black electrical tape. I’m handy like that.

It has a metal frame, not wooden. Looking through antique turn of the century cameras showed all wooden frames. The bellows seem to be made of the same material that the bellows in my Pocket Kodak Jr, which was made in the late 20’s. Even with that information I have no idea what to even guess the manufacture date is on this thing. If you have any ideas, please share :)

There are no serial numbers or manufacturers names on any part of the camera. And the lens, seems to me to be quite old. The only thing printed on the lens is the aperture settings of 4, 5.6, 8 and 11 and REF. No14A/1101. There is no shutter.

I’m super in love with the lens and the unique quality it gives to the images. I love the antique portrait glow that they have. I’ve always wanted to recreate it somehow and now I have that ability. I may not know much about where the lens came from or who made it but I love it just the same.

So far the camera and lens have worked great. Any issues where determined to be user error - in other words I need to work on my metering. I am planning on purchasing a modern lens with a shutter, just to have something around with more control. But, I’m not in a hurry….

I just  received my order of darkroom supplies today. I have everything I need to process my own film which will save me tons of money. Also, Mike bought me a scanner for christmas so I can scan my own negatives. This feels good, it feels like the right place to start again :)

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Mike and I went on a road trip (to celebrate his 30th birthday) from LA to the Salton Sea stopping at Disneyland, San Diego and Julian along the way. We took along my 4x5 view camera. This shot was taken the morning of Mike’s 30th birthday in our hotel room in San Diego.  I love this camera! I’ve been wanting one since college but never invested in one. Since testing it I think I’m going to invest in a scanner and a lens with a shutter.  This was taken on Tri X 320 f/4 for 3 seconds. I had forgotten my meter and just guessed on the exposure. My exposure guesses worked for this shot but I *way* over estimated exposure times on some other shots of the desert and they aren’t usable. Oh well, lesson learned!

Mike and I went on a road trip (to celebrate his 30th birthday) from LA to the Salton Sea stopping at Disneyland, San Diego and Julian along the way. We took along my 4x5 view camera. This shot was taken the morning of Mike’s 30th birthday in our hotel room in San Diego. 

I love this camera! I’ve been wanting one since college but never invested in one. Since testing it I think I’m going to invest in a scanner and a lens with a shutter. 

This was taken on Tri X 320 f/4 for 3 seconds. I had forgotten my meter and just guessed on the exposure. My exposure guesses worked for this shot but I *way* over estimated exposure times on some other shots of the desert and they aren’t usable. Oh well, lesson learned!

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Several months ago a friend from college gave me an old 4x5 view camera. There is no name or serial number on the camera or the lens. The lens seems quite old and has no shutter, so all exposures are made by me setting the aperture and taking the lens cap off and on.  It’s fabulous! It took me a while to purchase the film and holders, and I was nervous spending money on film to use in a camera that I wasn’t entirely sure was going to work. Long story short I love it! I realize this particular shot isn’t mind blowing, but I wanted to test the camera out on a subject with lots of different elements and textures.  At the same time I didn’t want to photograph something that would break my heart to lose if the film didn’t turn out. The little row of bobble tipped weeds is my favorite in this photo. I just love the texture that film and this particular camera and lens creates. 

Several months ago a friend from college gave me an old 4x5 view camera. There is no name or serial number on the camera or the lens. The lens seems quite old and has no shutter, so all exposures are made by me setting the aperture and taking the lens cap off and on. 

It’s fabulous!

It took me a while to purchase the film and holders, and I was nervous spending money on film to use in a camera that I wasn’t entirely sure was going to work. Long story short I love it! I realize this particular shot isn’t mind blowing, but I wanted to test the camera out on a subject with lots of different elements and textures.  At the same time I didn’t want to photograph something that would break my heart to lose if the film didn’t turn out. The little row of bobble tipped weeds is my favorite in this photo. I just love the texture that film and this particular camera and lens creates. 

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