MorseBlog

If I am to ever get good at this craft I need to practice. The surprisingly difficult part of this landscape stuff is I have to get up early, before sunrise. This time of year is easier the sun rises about 8:00am compared to 4:30am at the height of summer. So I managed this morning and a short drive to the neighboring town put me on the Ouse. There is not a lot that is spectacular around here, it is flat English countryside. Certainly not the landscapes I knew growing up in Arizona. A chance to learn to adapt. I need to learn to photograph and to see what others (or I) cannot. I loaded up a film holder with Velvia 50 color transparency and one of Ilford FP4+ black and white film the night before. So an exercise in the morning. Weather forecast said clear skies so I could count on some light. So I drive the short distance to town, put on my pack and carry my tripod. I meet a couple of dog walkers with subdued 'good morning's as we probably wish we were really alone at this hou...

Having acquired my Intrepid Mk3 4x5 camera I was keen to try it out. I assembled it and took it out to the local RSPB Reserve at Fen Drayton. My objective was to give the camera a decent workout, try out the 6x9 roll film holder, test out a 90mm Mamiya Press camera lens as well. The results were a mixed bag of good and bad, some joy and frustration. It didn't help I was recovering from a trip to Asia and a cold as well. I started out tired and frustrated but ended up immersed in the joy of photography with large format. For film I only loaded on film holder with Ilford FP4+. I had recently done some calibration of my development and exposure along the lines of the zone system and wanted to see a real result. So I had two 4x5 images to experiment with. I also brought along my MPP 6x9 roll film holder back to try on the Intrepid. The Mk3 supports a universal back which is different from the prior version of the camera. This would give me 8 exposures again of Ilford FP4+. All fi...

Introduction About 12 weeks ago I purchased an Intrepid Mk3 4x5 camera and it arrived yesterday. I did so based on the idea of a much lighter camera and endorsements from the likes Justin Lowery and Alex Burke and Ben Horne . I became interested also as the Mk3 was announced which enabled the use of film backs which my MPP MKIII does not allow. Intrepid has done a wonderful job it seems of resurrecting large format film photography by producing inexpensive and lightweight 4x5 and 8x10 large format cameras. This can only be good even if some people only pursue this for a short period of time to explore the topic. I see some appearing on eBay already so inevitably there will be those who decide it isn't for them. The 4x5 model I purchased is £250 including 20% VAT. Those outside the UK can get it without paying VAT though of course shipping comes into effect as well as any import duties. Still this is cheaper than many second hand models. The cameras are made from CNC mi...