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Plans for using Medium Format for the next 12 months?

dave.gt

Well-known member
Things have changed.

Bob Dylan has a great song with that title.:thumbup:

But, have you noticed in recent times (ie-past couple of years) that we live in a time of extremes. Everything seems to be biased toward extremes. With so many people being so mobile, with little thought or care of our environment, it should come as no surprise that just when tourist attractions began shutting down, everything was shut down for a pandemic. Viruses do not spread without hosts. Extreme weather events do not occur frequently without causation. Global warming does not occur without bad behavior by humans. The list goes on, but it does seem that everything is coinciding at a point in time when we can act in our best interests, globally, or choose to continue our bad actions.

With that in mind, it appears that things have changed and for me, photography will change as well. Medium Format is my preference, but not to the exclusion of other formats and mediums. In other words, I have a lot of tools to use for my future endeavors. Long-distance travel is not likely to be part of our future. But there are so many other opportunities, from the "micro" to the "macro" (more on that at a later date), and creative applications of each.:)

What is YOUR plan for the next 12 months?
 

MartinN

Well-known member
For me - no travel abroad, staying in Finland, limiting car travel < 100km. Staying healty will be important.
 

pegelli

Well-known member
Staying healthy and enjoying myself in the neighbourhood with bicycle rides and photography.

Also ploughing through my hard drive for photo's I took in the past that deserve some processing and maybe posting.

And last but not least start to trim the hedges in our garden.

I actually like the simple confinement life we're leading at the moment.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I dunno really. I do my walks, ride my bicycle, and carry a camera when whim pushes me. Sometimes I get a notion for a particular shoot, which I then plan and complete.

The bigger questions are: "What do I want to photograph? What story do I want to tell? Who do I want to see it?" The same questions I posed myself for the last 12 months, in other words, will be the big questions of the next 12 months.

G
 

AlanS

Well-known member
Well apart from my "postcards" from my holidays, very little. Most of my work is done within 30miles of my home and that will not change much. I like to visit Scotland every year, both in the car to do "serious photography" and on the bike (motorcycle), just for fun! All the bike trips are off for this year (hotels shut) but we hire a house when in the car and I think that should be allowed towards the year end.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
I may have a counter-view to most people.

When things settle down and air travel becomes a better option I’m hoping to revisit a few locations internationally that have, over the last few years, been literally ruined for me by mass over-tourism.

Iceland comes to mind, as do parts of the desert SW in the USA. I used to enjoy photographing these locations until the hoardes of people made them basically not worth the bother.

Btw, the hypocrisy isn’t lost on me - heck, I just want to take advantage of the short windows of opportunity that we might only have.
 

Steve Hendrix

Well-known member
1. Stay alive; my wife and I are in the target demographic for the virus
2. Find projects around our home that keep my brain and body active
3. Stay alive

My latest photo project, not using medium format: https://www.joecolsonphotography.com/2020/05/09/bird-photography-during-the-pandemic/
I'll try to add more images to the gallery each week. It gets redundant, but it's a lot like fishing.

Joe

Love it Joe - I have the same assortment, plus some. A favorite pastime of mine. That branch certainly looks like a popular spot!

For my part, I will say that the past 2-3 years have been a dry patch for me with regard to photography. I'm not sure what happened, other than I got really busy with work and also with family, and I sort of hit a lull in my photography - where I felt like I had accomplished something to a certain point, and couldn't decide if I had more to say. And so I waited, and didn't push. Working remotely the past 2 months has given me some more time and motivation to pick up the camera again, and I have found perhaps a spark toward the next chapter.

My Canon 6D with certain lenses and in certain situations is always at hand, but I have been shooting more than I normally do with the medium format cameras at my disposal from the closet at work, lately with a mix of XF and Alpa bodies and good ole IQ3 100 Trichro.


Steve Hendrix/CI
 

Shashin

Well-known member
I may have a counter-view to most people.

When things settle down and air travel becomes a better option I’m hoping to revisit a few locations internationally that have, over the last few years, been literally ruined for me by mass over-tourism.

Iceland comes to mind, as do parts of the desert SW in the USA. I used to enjoy photographing these locations until the hoardes of people made them basically not worth the bother.

Btw, the hypocrisy isn’t lost on me - heck, I just want to take advantage of the short windows of opportunity that we might only have.
But you are still going to have to clone the tripod holes out of the foreground, so not a complete victory...

:facesmack:

:grin:
 
I run a lab here in Maine called Northeast Photographic (www.northeastphotographic.com).

We are in our 3rd year of operation. Growth has been steady month after month excepting the slower winter periods. Who knows what the global recession is going to bring, but April was our 2nd biggest month ever (after last August), and May is on track to BE our biggest month ever. The response from the New England film shooting community has been wonderful. My plan for the next 12 months is to SURVIVE AND THRIVE.

Covid being a known unknown, I am doing everything I can to enable a 2nd expansion in 2021 or 2022. We want to move into a larger commercial/industrial space. We are looking at acquiring a new Colenta film processor. They are designing a new from the ground up dip and dunk processing system and are going to update me when they have more info laid down. It will supposedly be multi-process and slightly more practical than the current room size Refrema/Hostert offerings.

Scanning is our core business and I recently introduced our new large format services. We use a repro camera system to provide 100mp and 50mp sizes respectively (depending on price). We can do 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10. Within their pixel resolution limits I believe they give drum scans a run for their money. (https://www.northeastphotographic.com/largeformat). They are INCREDIBLY affordable vs drum scans. A sheet of C41 4x5 processed and scanned to 50mp is $10.00. 8x10 is $16. We're able to offer these prices because the repro scanning system is so fast vs every other type of scanner that I can rip through 20-30 sheets in a half hour. You may have heard me comment before but using the pixel shift system you can yield incredible quality. Sandy King (who formulated Pyrocat HD) is also using a pixel shifting Sony camera and he believes he is equaling the scans from his Howtek drum scanner. Since he owns both and is quite knowledgeable I am inclined to believe he knows what he's talking about. Our bread and butter day to day roll scans are done with Fuji Frontier SP3000s. I will probably acquire another one or two of those. However I am perpetually looking for a Durst Sigma Plus...get at me if you have one to sell.

I am also looking to acquire a brand new Keinzle C252 8x10 enlarger with a Heiland LED source. I already use the Splitgrade system in my LPL 4x5 enlarger. With the Keinzle I can begin offering silver gelatin prints on a custom basis. When we have the commercial space I'll look into an RA4 processor but it's unlikely I would want to do those larger than 16x20. Frankly I think the Epsons do a better job for color, but there is a certain quality to a custom darkroom RA4 print that I enjoy.

I was sort of skeptical of the 'film resurgence' until lately. But the interest in my lab has been undeniable. Pre Covid if you look around when in a touristy area, even a park, count the young people with film SLRs or medium format cameras. I almost always see at least one person with something like an AE1. This makes a lot of sense to me. Frankly if you're not a professional the digital post workflow can be a drag. The 'need' for most people to even have a laptop is shrinking. Who wants to xfer their images from their DSLR to their iPad? Then cycle through presets just to put them on Instagram...not many. Whereas I send them a dropbox link full of nice looking film scans, and they get to use a cool conversation piece of a camera. It's exactly the same as the continued interest in vinyl. Which is the same is the perpetual interest in riding horses, sailing, baking bread from scratch and on and on.

For me, it's exciting times. :cool:
 

dave.gt

Well-known member
Food for thought:

Less than a year ago, the NYT published an article that, of course, did not even contemplate the Coronavirus Pandemic. Upon reflecting on this year, as a photographer, a couple of things stand out about the negative impacts of travel in general, but especially international travel.

The first is the subject of this article, the natural environment. We have not even begun to address the many concerns like global warming.

The second is the connection between human mobility and the spread of disease, like Covid-19.

Somehow I think in the very near future, we, collectively, will be forced to deal with these aspects of our human endeavors. As far as myself as an individual, given the current state of technology and personal limitations, I will continue to be mobile only to the extent of traveling by car only a day's drive away from home. There are few reasons to drive these distances more than a handful of times each year.

Our usual daily commutes into Atlanta have been cut drastically due to telehealth and in home testing for medical needs. It is now rare for us to make 100-300 mile commutes, and not only is it much cheaper, but much less stress overall.

My original plans for working with the hospital to provide portraits of healing will now be superseded with projects having different purposes... Abstractions from life as we know it.

Why not? We are all different. We all have our own stories to tell and who best to tell them than us?:)

I am so ready for this, bring it!:thumbup:
 

MartinN

Well-known member
I am a member of a local Hiking/Sports club that usually makes a trip to northern Finland (Lapland) bi-annually and Sweden/Norway the other year. This year everything is canceled and many of the members and participants are in the age-risk group.

Usually I try to participate but I am the only one carrying a MF Mamiya 645AF with film. Other are really dependent on Phone cameras.
 

Abstraction

Well-known member
I have learned long ago not to make any plans. Making plans is mostly pointless because things change and unexpected things come up and the plans come to naught. Besides, making plans amounts to living in the future, whereas life exists only in the present. I try to live the moment, every moment and I adjust to the circumstances. In photographic terms, I photograph whatever I feel like photographing whenever I feel like doing so. I don't have to make a living with my photography, I don't have any photographic commitments, so that's a luxury that I can afford to indulge in. So, no plans. Just gonna go with the flow and enjoy every moment of it.
 

buggz

New member
My niece graduates this year, not certain how that is going to actually work out.
We will also probably try various photo shoots.

And along with the flora, I will be trying to capture hummingbirds and bees at my house.
 

Pemihan

Well-known member
Now that all depends on how wide a lens one like for landscape photography, eh? :ROTFL:

G
Haven't you seen Graham's behind the scenes shots? He always shoots the same scene with three cameras on three tripods. One with a ultra wide lens, one with a normal wide and one with a medium tele. :ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:
 

darr

Well-known member
Well like many others, our travel plans for 2020 have vaporized. I am hoping in a few weeks I can take the camper van out for a couple of overnighters to state parks within a few hours of driving time. North Florida has many beautiful places to see.

Photographically speaking, I would like to do more medium format digital and film panoramic shooting. I enjoy both worlds, film and digital, but need to spend more time with my ALPAs!

Best,
Darr
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
We have plans in the works for Death Valley and Moab before the end of the year. We had plans for Jordan early next year but shelved that and in the early stages of an Alaska trip. Then there's the snow monkeys in Japan next winter. We'll keep planning and see where things fall in line.
 

msstudio

Member
We have plans in the works for Death Valley and Moab before the end of the year. We had plans for Jordan early next year but shelved that and in the early stages of an Alaska trip. Then there's the snow monkeys in Japan next winter. We'll keep planning and see where things fall in line.
All I have to say, stay at the Inn and not at the Ranch if you have to rent a room. If you’re at the Ranch, bring a sleeping bag/liner, which makes it bare able. A swim suit and maybe a tennis racket, and get up before sunset to shoot, but scout during the day. Also, watch Ride with Norman Reedus, season 1 Ep. 2 for some fun insights. That’s the last time I was there, shooting Canon and Sony btw, as we were running around all week....Jordan is brilliant btw, it’s been quite a while, but my wife was there Recently to cover the last Star Wars shoot in Wadi Rum, shooting all iPhone I’m afraid...
 
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