I had been wanting to shoot with Sommer for awhile, and when I reached out to her it turned out that she'd been wanting to shoot with me as well. Because we admired each others work, I felt we knew what to expect from one another. It made the collaboration easy...except for the weather.
Difficulty With On-Location Shooting
We arrived at Mt. Lemmon, AZ at around 7:30am. It was very cold. I had anticipated the cold, so I brought extra jackets as well as a blanket that Sommer could use between shots...but I felt it wasn't enough. The temperature was around 35°F degrees. But we carried on.
As a photographer, I tend to make shoots very difficult for myself. I rarely use assistants, and I bring heavy equipment. For this shoot my setup included a 4x5 press camera, a Mamiya RZ67 (people that have shot with these know how heavy they are), an AD400 Godox light with modifiers, a C-stand, and two 15lb sandbags. My Pelican Case weighed about 80lbs. The location was also about a 1/4 mile from where we parked. So I dragged an 80lb Pelican Case while also wearing a backpack through 1/4 mile of rough terrain. Luckily Sommer was there to carry the C-Stand for me, as well as the dress I'd made for the shoot.
Other than dealing with the wind (this is why I bring sandbags) and the freezing temperature, the shoot went very well. We shot for about an hour before we had enough of the cold and decided to pack up.
The Technical Stuff
As I mentioned above, my equipment consisted two different cameras, and one flash with a 48" Strip Softbox.
Large Format
I hadn't shot large format in some time, so I thought this shoot was a good opportunity to dust my Busch Pressman Model D.
I loaded four sheets of 4x5 Ilford HP5. My plan was to take four "primary photos" and supplement each with a set of medium format photos. But due to the wind and cold weather, I felt I didn't have the time to setup some of the more complicated shots that I wanted to capture on large format. So I went with "plan b" and decided to keep the shoot simple. I did a handful of basic setups and primarily focused on shooting medium format, and if I liked a composition enough I'd quickly setup the large format camera.
The photo at the top was the very first photo I took, and honestly turned out to be my favorite. I've been experimenting with tilting the bellows of my camera which gives the portrait the tilt-shift effect. I feel it gives the photo more depth than with traditional focus, almost a 3D effect. I plan to continue experimenting; I want to find more subtle ways to use this method.
Medium Format
I brought my Mamiya RZ67 and two backs loaded with Ilford HP5. I shot with a 110mm f/2.8 fitted with a VND and a 1/4 Tiffen Black Pro-Mist filter. I like the 1/4 Pro-Mist filter because it adds just the smallest amount of softness to the photos without looking like an 80's music video.
It was very bright out, so the VND was set to it's darkest (2.1 which is a 7 stop reduction). The RZ67's shutter speed was set at 1/250 and an aperture of f/2.8. The 4x5's settings were set at 1/60 and a f/4.5 aperture. I got consistent exposure between both cameras.
Lighting
I did standard Rembrandt lighting (pretty much the primary way I light most of my photos) using a Godox AD400 fitted with a gridded 48" strip softbox. I don't recall the power level, but it wasn't at full power. I typically try to make my lighting look natural, so I kept the power low enough so the photos didn't look like they were obviously lit by a flash. I used a gridded strip softbox to keep light spill onto the environment to a minimum. The photo below looks the most un-natural of the bunch.
As you can see, the flash casted an un-natural looking shadow. If I'd been able to lower the flash down to her level, and moved the light closer, it might have given a more dramatic look as well as softer shadows. But when it's 35°F I couldn't spend too much time thinking about it.
Developing & Scanning
I developed two rolls of 120 and four sheets of 4x5 in Kodak D76 developer at 1+1 dilution. Nothing exciting.
I scanned everything on my Epson V850 at 3200dpi, converted the negatives using NLP (Negative Lab Pro), cleaned up dust and made basic exposure/contrast adjustments in Photoshop.
In Closing...
I don't have anything else to add. It was a good shoot and I'm very happen with how the photos turned out.
This was my first full blog post in years, and I apologize if my thoughts are all over the place. I do enjoy writing about my work and I hope to keep up with at least a weekly schedule and hopefully over time I can improve my writing.
I doubt anyone will read this. But I’ve decided to restart my blog.
As I’m sure everyone knows, Twitter is going to shit. I’ve been seeing many talk about moving to Tumblr, I’m not sure why...Twitter and Tumblr are two completely different things. However, the talk of Tumblr has gotten me thinking about how I used to enjoy writing about my photography process. Whether anyone read them or not, it used to be an outlet for me to talk about what I enjoy doing.
I’ve been looking at options for awhile now for what I can use as a blogging platform, and my mind keeps coming back to Tumblr; the place where my thoughts on art and photography began.
Places like Instagram or Twitter don’t allow for an artist to talk about their process...they’re simply places to share pretty photos and cheesy quotes. I’ve looked into other blogging platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress...but I don’t want to learn a new platform. I want simplicity and a place I’m familiar with.
My photography has changed over the years. For one, I’ve switched to 100% film photography. I’ve always shot film, but I’d also mix it with digital. Now I might use my digital camera to test lighting (specifically flash). So, other than some BTS photos, my work is 100% film which I develop and scan myself.
Because I shoot exclusively film, my conceptual work isn’t as prominent as it once was because I try to capture my work in-camera. So my concepts have to take more into consideration if I can successfully do something in-camera rather than relying on Photoshop. The price to do this is higher, therefore conceptual work is uncommon from me. I still sketch concepts, and have many that I’d like to do...I just need the budget to do so. People have suggested a Patreon...but I don’t think I’d get much support.
I know concept work can be done cheaply...but I’m just too particular when it comes to outfits and props. Concept work for me just takes a lot of time.
Speaking of outfits, I’ve taken up sewing. Over the years I’d struggle to find the right outfits with the right materials...so I decided to learn how to make what I want instead of scouring vintage stores. This is another condition as to why my conceptual work isn’t as frequent...I’m just now at a place where I feel comfortable showing my sewing abilities. But, now that I am comfortable with my sewing abilities, maybe I can bring more of my concepts to life.
Anyways, that’s where I’m at right now.
So what should you expect from this blog?
This will be a place where I talk about my photographic process, such as lighting, camera settings, why I chose a specific film, bts photos, etc...
I’ll try to post at least once a week. I have 5 years of photography to talk about!
This was a great end to our chapter in the PNW. We'll be moving to Arizona in two weeks to start a new chapter. I look forward to what the future holds.
Shot some 8mm footage on a Russian Quarz 1x8s2 camera during a camping trip. I'm excited to see how the footage turned out! It might not be 35mm or even 16mm, but it's nice to shoot motion picture film again :).
“Isn’t it time to acknowledge the ugly side? I’ve grown quite weary of the spunky heroines, brave rape victims, soul-searching fashionistas that stock so many books. I particularly mourn the lack of female villains — good, potent female villains. Not ill-tempered women who scheme about landing good men and better shoes (as if we had nothing more interesting to war over), not chilly WASP mothers (emotionally distant isn’t necessarily evil), not soapy vixens (merely bitchy doesn’t qualify either). I’m talking violent, wicked women. Scary women. Don’t tell me you don’t know some. The point is, women have spent so many years girl-powering ourselves — to the point of almost parodic encouragement — we’ve left no room to acknowledge our dark side. Dark sides are important. They should be nurtured like nasty black orchids.”
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