World Pinhole Photography Day (on 4x5 film!)

Well, it looks like another World Pinhole Photography Day has come and gone. I certainly can’t be the only one when I say that it is hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that it is currently the year 2023. Where on earth did the last three or four years go? I suppose COVID happened. That accounts for some of the whiplash. But still… I guess I’m just quickly hitting that age when time speeds up and the world around you moves faster than you’d like it to.

Photographed with an Ilford Titan Pinhole camera and Ilford HP5 large format film.

Perhaps it is for that reason that pinhole photography feels more important than ever in my life, and why I made it a point to go out and make some pinhole photographs on World Pinhole Photography Day. I’m no different than most people in that I spend the vast majority of my day in front of a computer. I even use that term “computer” very loosely. In reality I spend my day in front of a laptop with three screens, two smart phones, and several televisions pumping out 24 hour cable news. It’s mind numbing to say the least. Would I prefer to have far less screen time? Absolutely yes! But alas, I need a paycheck just like everyone else.

The simplicity of pinhole photography feels like a natural reaction to that unfortunate fact. It is my opportunity to slow it all down. To turn off every single screen. To work with a basic tool that requires slow and methodical interactions. Measure the light. Make an exposure calculation with my notebook. Compose. Open the “shutter”. Wait. Sometimes wait for a long time. Breath the air. Take in the silence. Repeat. It’s a refreshing experience to say the least. There are times when it actually feels like magic.

This year I decided to take out my Ilford Titan Pinhole 4x5 camera loaded up with Ilford HP4 film. I’ve been really happy with that camera ever since I bought it. While it might not be the most elegant looking of cameras, in practice it operates perfectly. It’s nice and light weight which means more room in my pack for film backs. Anyone who has ever worked with sheet film out in the field can understand the value of keeping the weight you carry with you to a minimum. Plus I like the focal length quite a bit. Equivalent to about 20mm on a 35mm camera the angle is nice and wide which is great considering composition is a guessing game with pinhole cameras.

Exposure time on this image was about 25 seconds metered at ISO 400. Negative was developed in Rodinal with a ratio 1:50 at 20C for 11 minutes.

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Columbia River Gorge with the Mamiya RZ67

It’s been raining something fierce here in the Portland area for the last few days. I don’t mind so much. I rather like the rain. It gives me a great excuse to curl up on the couch with my laptop, put on some very warm socks, and get caught up on editing images and watching movies. Over the next couple of days I plan on diving into a John Cassavetes box set I bought some time ago and will develop at least three rolls of film.

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Photographed with a Mamiya RZ67 and Ilford HP5 film in 120 format.

I often don’t give my landscape photography the attention that it deserves. I’m keenly aware that it is less popular than the art nudes and figure studies and long ago I made my peace with that. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy doing it though. Heck, as I get older and more grumpy and have less of a desire to be around people I often enjoy doing it more. Landscape photography gives me the excuse to do something solitary without feeling lonely. There is something rather profound and good about that and I feel lucky to have a hobby that allows me to experience such a state of being.

I dragged my Mamiya RZ67 up a rather steep trail in order to make this particular image. I’m not the most physically active person on earth but I’m certainly not out of shape either. The trail up to this foggy hillside was a series of switchbacks that seemed to take forever, especially considering I had my Mamiya RZ67 with me (not a light camera…) a couple of lenses, a couple of film backs, a tripod, and a healthy amount of water and snacks. I don’t think it helped when you consider that it was a very foggy day and I couldn’t see the top of the hill where I was headed so I had no idea how close or far I was.

As always though, in the end it was worth it.

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Landscapes on Sauvie Island with the Hasselblad 500c/m

It is very much feeling like warmer weather is just around the corner. I won’t deny I’m excited and thrilled at the prospect of getting outdoors with a few rolls of film and just enjoying a little bit of nature. I haven’t made enough of a point to do that lately and some sunshine will really do me good.

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Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Rollei RPX 100 medium format film.

I don’t know if this is the result of being cooped up for too long with COVID, spending too much time at work, or just the fact that I’m changing with my old age, but I’ve been feeling more and more like working with landscapes over people. That is quite a shift for me. While I’ve always liked getting outdoors I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly successful landscape photographer. Getting older, I realize one of the huge reasons behind that is the fact that I’ve always been intimidated by other far more famous and well known landscape photographers.

Growing up in California, every photography and art student is bombarded with the ghost of Ansel Adams (among others…) and my technical skill, not to mention levels of patience, will always pale in comparison to him. However, it is really silly to let something like that stop me from trying and from gaining enjoyment working with outdoor spaces.

This image was made late in the afternoon on Sauvie Island just a few short weeks ago. All the trees are bare on the island right now which meant the environment felt incredibly flooded with light. The air was cold for sure, but you’d never know it looking at the images. It was fun to work with, especially as the sun dived lower and lower toward the horizon casting some long shadows across the ground from the largely naked trees.

For film I used a couple of rolls of Rollei RPX 100. I absolutely love the tonal range of RPX 100. There is a very cinematic look to it. It feels like I’m capturing single frames of some 1970’s German New Wave movie. Deep black and bright whites manage to creep into the negative in equal measure. This stock seems like it was born to be paired with Rodinal as well and even when exposing a negative directly toward the sun, as was the case here, I still get nicely exposed frames. It’s an expensive film stock unfortunately, so it will probably never fully replace my tried and true Ilford HP5, but when I’m in the mood to splurge a bit I like working with the Rollie stock.

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Mt. Shasta With The Hasselblad SWC

About six months ago I took a trip to Mt. Shasta to help out a friend with some content creation for her small business. While the main focus of my trip was not for my own work, I of course took some rolls of film and a film camera. After all, I haven’t been traveling much this past 18 months thanks to COVID and so any opportunity to get on the road I’m going to take it. I thought the Hasselblad SWC would be perfect for the occasion because it is relatively small and it more or less forced me to just be content with one lens. The vast majority of my traveling camera bag had to be dedicated to video gear.

This image was taken very early in the morning. We headed out onto a trail before the sun was even up or any coffee shops were open (seriously, I was craving coffee the entire hike). Despite the early morning hour it was also blistering hot already. I started out the hike wearing a heavy coat and was desperately wishing I had left it in the car by the end.

I made this exposure hand held at 1/250th of a second and f/11 focused at infinity. With the Hasselblad SWC that more or less means an infinite depth of field. It may be hard to believe, but I was also only about eight feet away from the figure in the center of the frame. I’m still often blown away by just how wide of an angle and how much information it is possible to put in the frame of that 38mm Biogon lens.

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2020 - The Year That Was...

Wow, what a wild ride 2020 has been. I don’t think I’m alone in saying it has been quite a year with a lot of lows and more than a few doses of confusion for just about everyone. Over the past twelve months I have personally been laid off from a job, went through a major breakup, navigated around a pandemic, existed in outside air so toxic it couldn’t be measured for weeks, watch a presidential election in horror, and ultimately spent way more hours at home than at any other point in my life.

With only two weeks or so left in 2020 I think the words “good riddance” come to mind.

All of that being said there were some bright spots throughout the year. I managed to take a long drive out to south eastern Oregon and spent several days isolated in the desert. That is something I’ve wanted to do for years and it took some life altering events to kick me in the rear and to make it happen. On top of that, though photo sessions felt few and far between, the ones that I did manage to pull off felt incredibly special. With all the chaos and uncertainty going on I couldn’t help but feel very grateful I had the opportunity to be creative and to make my photography an outlet of positivity in troubled times.

2020 also taught me not to take anything for granted. I’ve always known that things can change in an instant, and not always for the better. But knowing something and actually experiencing it are two different things. I now have a much greater appreciating of enjoying the good things. Like eating out, watching a movie, or getting out into the world to make photographs without fear or caution.

I feel optimistic about the coming year. I know there is still a long road before the world feels a little more normal again. Heck, maybe it’ll never again be the way that it was, but I do choose to believe there are good things on the horizon.

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