MorseBlog

My odyssey in film photography these past short 8 years has taught me a few things about my preferences for cameras. Affordability has always been a factor. I also have a distinct prejudice in favor of medium format. This stems from first my brother’s involvement where he left a distinctly favorable impression on medium format despite having shot 35mm and large format competently as well. He passed away well before the digital era. I also decided that I wanted to avoid 35mm despite the obvious advantages in terms of cost, size and weight. I reasoned the advantages of film over digital was being quickly overtaken and medium format would remain relevant for a while longer. As I write this however it seems the technical advantages of film have been mostly if not completely over-run by advances in digital technology and cost. Never-the-less there are some attendant benefits to shooting film; among are not economy, simplicity, nor instant gratification. So my first film camera tha...

Marloes Sands I have read some very good advice when making a print by David Kachel . Make a range of exposures and contrasts beyond what you would expect to create an acceptable print. The idea is a corollary of learning from mistakes and serendipity. Sometimes you discover something you didn't understand about the negative or the image and this can take you down an entirely different path in the image. This is difficult though to follow through on as it sounds like a waste of time and material. The answer is somewhat determined by the purpose of the work on the spectrum from documentary to art. (If you are new to the darkroom like me I recommend David Kachel's monographs as they are instructive and insightful.) David insists this be used to get the local contrast right on the point or points of interest in the print. Towards this end I made some explorations on a couple of images from a short break on the Pembrokeshire coast late last year. The first is a rock on Mar...