the wonderful world of large format

large format cameras are as their name describes - large. most use film that measures 4x5 inches however some go up to 20x24 inches or larger.

the main advantage with these cameras is the size of the film. a 4x5 negative is 13 1/3 times larger than a negative from a regular ol' 35 mm camera. sweet detail. another advantage is that the front (the lens) and the back (the film) can be moved independently of each other - this lets you adjust the focus in the picture and also control the perspective. imagine looking up at a building - how the sides appear to lean in. the movements on these cameras allow you to keep those lines parallel. check out wikipedia's page on view cameras for another explanation.

this beautiful piece of work is the graflex graphic view 2. this is what i currently have - ebay, $330. it was probably made some time in the 60's and it still works beautifully today.

here are a couple pictures that i took with my large format camera when i was in san francisco with my dad last spring.

on the golden gate bridge just after the bridge police tried to boot us out (because our tripods might interfere with the pedestrians).

a view of the bridge from china beach

here are some links to some of my favorite large format photographers: joel meyerowitz, george tice, tom till, and jack dykinga. if you're ever in moab, ut check out tom till's gallery (he's a large format nature photographer) so you can get a feeling of what large format photography can do. it's amazing.

fun with an old polaroid

this cumbersome piece of machinery is the polaroid 101 "automatic" land camera named after edwin land - polaroid's founder. it was made in the mid-sixties and originally cost about $135 - i got mine for $35 at an antique store in parowan, utah. sweet.

one of the things that makes this camera fun is the way the pictures are made. after taking the picture, you pull a small paper tab which comes out completely but also exposes another tab. as you pull this tab a small pocket of chemicals is broken open and is spread over the picture. you wait about a minute, peel the picture away and there is your picture! the black and white film worked well overall but i was thoroughly unimpressed by the color film.

these were all taken with my polaroid land camera...

the kids

the girl

sammy watching for trains in boston

stay tuned for a post about the champion of instant photography...fuji large format instant film! oh yeah!

the holga

"Did you think your eyes were open?"

"I'm afraid to say that until this very moment they have been closed. The unassuming Holga is here to save you from a future of digital pixels and images shared on small screens on cameras or phones. We have all become numbed with photography, there is no denying it, but a chunky camera made almost entirely of plastic has been put on this Earth to save us. It will reawaken your vision, fill you with joy, make you see beauty when you thought it had disappeared forever, and bring out sunshine on a cloudy day."

- www.lomography.com/holga/

the holga is a cheap, plastic medium format camera (it uses film that is about 2 1/4" wide) - and it only costs about 30 bones.

the beauty of this camera is that it really makes you rethink the way you take photographs. the process is as follows: after estimating the focus of the camera, choosing one of the two aperture options, pointing it in the direction of the subject (the squinty viewfinder is only somewhat effective in framing the shot), and tripping the single-speed shutter you hope that the picture turns out alright. in the end you will be amazed by what this camera can accomplish given it's extremely rudimentary design.

i took the following photographs with my holga when we lived in cambridge massachusetts last summer.

central square, cambridge massachusetts

harvard square t station

round 2

i'm giving the internet another chance. this blog will essentially be my photograph depository. i had another website/blog (round 1) that i worked on consistently from october of 2005 through february of 2007. if you haven't been there, check it out [not there anymore, sorry]. i've got family info and news, fun stories and pictures from our lives during that time, and even a couple songs for your enjoyment if you can find them. you'll also find a gallery there of some of my favorite photographs from that time. unfortunately maintaining the site was kind of labor intensive - i built it myself using dreamweaver. so this time i thought i'd give blogspot a chance and let it do all the work.

i don't intend for this site to be a comprehensive gallery of my photographs but rather a sampling of what i've done or am currently doing. over the years i've experimented with many types of photography - large format, holga, 35mm, instant (polaroid), digital, pinhole, etc. and i will try to present a variety here on this blog. thanks and enjoy!