MorseBlog

I contribute occasionally on Reddit and offer my opinions and experience. There are occasionally times when someone asks about large format recommendations. (I should probably declare that I can be cheap and shop for value/bang for the buck.) I have my own experience and journey that has not been particularly long but as with any journey insights are gained. Reflecting on this I can now look back at how ones choice in equipment influences subsequent choices.  Now my viewpoint is specifically as a hobbyist photographer who enjoys landscape film photography. With respect to the Intrepid camera it meets certain needs such as cost and low weight that have meaning for me. If you work in a studio weight will have little meaning in your choice.  When Intrepid first launched they got a few YouTube reviews/endorsements from the likes of Ben Horne, Alex Burke, Steve Onion’s, and Justin Lowry. I have noticed a number of them stopped using the Intrepid in their more recent videos. Returni...

Last fall I made a concerted effort to get out ahead of the change in fall color to re-flex the old muscle memory of the 4x5 camera. Large format is much more meticulous than my other cameras and as such requires more attention to detail and a longer list of adjustments to make. It is thus more error prone.  I have done the same again this year and took along our new puppy Molly. She is great fun to have on walks though at time she does get bored and so I have to stop and play with her. Its all fine now as nothing is critical. I am not sure how it will go if I find the light changing rapidly and she needs attention at the same time! Molly at Holme Fen in August I got out to Holme Feb twice recently since my holiday in the USA. The first day was mid-morning and not special in any way. I went to an area I frequent and found some trees that have figured in other photos. The first one I liked the white simpler silver birch against the twisted dark forms of the oaks behind and to the le...

I have watched a few YoutTube videos recently from professional landscape photographers. That is to say those that make a living from activities related to landscape photography. These include Ben Horne, Thomas Heaton, and Mark Denney. In each case these guys have pulled back the curtain on how they make their money and in Mark's case how much they make. I have been curious about this for a few reasons, first I entertained the idea of joining the fray in some form, second I had thought perhaps this could allow me to retire early, and finally I was genuinely curious if one could make a living selling ones art.  If I generalize from these three photographers, the thing I learned is nobody makes all their money selling their art. They all rely on ad or user fees. My guess is that Ben may be the only one who makes more than half his income from selling prints and portfolios. The rest are essentially selling ads or subscriptions.  Let me say this right away, these guys and many oth...

I have been frustrated this past month as I gear up for the fall season. The weather has been very warm and windy here in the UK. These conditions mean not a lot of color and bad conditions for photographing foliage. This has lead to spending more time in other activities one of which is contributing to the Reddit analog/film community. I enjoy helping people where I can and learning what others have to share. I recently saw a post asking about platforms for discussions on these topics and asking for recommendations. The complaint about many sites involved the presence of ‘Angry Boomers’. Which I took to mean grumpy baby boomers. Most of them were forums like FADU (Film and Darkroom Users). I have often searched these forums for information as I explored different photographic topics. There is a wealth of old-timer information there. These comments about 'Angry Boomers'  gave me pause to think about this phenomenon.  Generally when I see a conflict I aim to understand first ra...

In my previous post I introduced a new area of exploration of the idea of using a panoramic camera for intimate landscapes . Here is the second set of images I took the next day resolving to fix some of my of errors and find more subjects again in Holme Fen. I had some success last time as I got an Explore on Flickr with last image of that previous post. Not something I chase but appreciated none-the-less.  Here are three images from the same area as the first post followed by another from some distance away. These were all done with Fuji Velvia 100 film. I think the second and fourth images are somewhat more effective as there is less sky.  The second image I think is effective because the eye is led to the trees in the background. Whereas the third image has the trees in the middle foreground which divide the eye to go left and right of them.  The fourth image does not covey what I felt I saw at the time where the trees in the background made a greater impact on me at t...

After a lull in my photo taking I have decided to explore the idea of intimate landscape using a panoramic camera. I have a few possibilities in my camera stable. The smallest is the Fuji GSW 690 which gives me a 65mm lens on a 6x9 negative. I also have 6x12 filmback for my Intrepid 4x5 camera which I can coupled with my 90, 150, and 240mmm lenses. Finally the widest is the Fuji G617 which gives a 6x17 negative couple with a 105mm lens.  I made this overlay to show the difference between the G617 and the GSW 690 that while the GSW has a much wider lens 65mm vs 105mm the G617 still wins in terms of wideness.  6x17 (Portra 400) vs 6x9 (Portra 160) formats. (same tripod location) Moon moved due to different times when photo was taken. The challenges with the G617 are many. First it has a center filter to reduce vignetting due to the wide angle. This removes about 1 stop (2x darker as marked on lens). This means ISO 100 film needs to be metered at ISO 50 for instance.  Next...

As I started to write my post on Chromogenic film I realized I was digging deeper into the whole subject of printing C41 negatives and the reason why Chromogenic black and white film exists. It just so happens I had finished a couple of rolls of film in my Mamiya 645 Pro.  These rolls violated one of my rules of mixing color and black and white shooting in the same session. The great thing was I had some photos of the same subject taken back-to-back on both black and white film (Ilford HP5+) and color negative (Kodak Portra 400).  Here is the color version.  When I first got into film photography (over 10 years ago!) I preferred reversal (slide film) over color negative film. I had struggled to get good colors with scanned negative film. Eventually I learned enough to know how to get good color correction on color negative scans. After I came back to color negative f...