Hello World from Edinburgh

Hello All:

I am Lucas Kao, a Taiwanese student studying in Edinburgh, Scotland!

My interest in photography started long ago, but later become a obsession, I upgraded to film completely from Jan 2009 to Oct 2009, shooting mainly 35mm RF and MF SLR/TLR, very satisfying results, but waiting time is longer from exposure to digital print, then sold most of the film gear and downgrade to digital with M8 , a medicore digital camera.

Now I had a project in mind that involve shooting still, set up shot like Gregory Crewdson/Paolo Ventura (at a smaller scale of course), so shooting it on film was the only natural choice. After a bit of researching, the conclusion is it is almost equal or even cheaper to assemble a LF system then buying in the high end MFs (Contaxs, Hasselblad, Mamiya 67, Rollei...), the freedom to use roll film backs (6x9, 6x12) make a LF very versatile if less portable. I had not yet been lucky enough to find a good system, and still researching the forum, but will keep looking!

I also wanted to shoot Edinburgh like Eugene Atget did as ;)

Regards,
Lucas Kao

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Originally Posted by cplkao

I am Lucas Kao, a Taiwanese student studying in Edinburgh, Scotland!

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You might also like to join us in the UKLFPG forums

Good luck. Keep a look out for a muse, someone like Bernice Abbott, to help! People are not as passive towards the street photographer as they used to be - so be careful out there. Will you be looking for an 8x10, as used by Atget? I would have thought that a TLR ( yes MF) with interchangeable lenses would have been ideal - Mamiya 220? It was the perfect solution for wedding photographers who could judge the right moment through the WLF and it would have a similar function for city photographs with people dominating. And cheap!

To: Joanna Carter
I will have a look, but its good to know there is a place for UK LF users.

To: Steven Tribe
I recently read a book combing words of marcel proust and photos of eugene atget, I regard him as one of the earliest practioner/founder of Street photography, his documentary photos of paris street was very beautiful made, Bernice Abbot and Walker Evans had all been under his influence, then the later Robert Frank.

I am looking for some large negative size, MF or beyond MF, but not too big that I can't process/scan myself, so a camera that can take from 6x9, 4x5 will do, 8x10 will be just too big, there is a second hand Silvestri T30 listing for around 2000USD with the tilt VF, 100mm lens and back, the kit looks small and versatile, the tilt maybe useful to shoot buildings, a good deal? The photos will all be done with tripod, but I am also looking for portability, so the camera must not be too large.

if youre still around cplkao i have a mamiya rb67 with a 90mm lense thats up for sale for 170.

im in edinburgh too. if you get this and want a look let me know

Welcome to group therepy. Like many, I find 4x5 very good for my purposes, mainly architectural photography, though I do still use MF and 35mm (and, even digital...sometimes I loose my way) often for detail shots. You are going to find that LF is a whole new dicipline, requiring more patience and study for each negative/slide produced.

After a few years plunging into digital I am now back to the wonderful world of large format!

My interested in traditional street photography had waned and now I am a lot more interested in portraits. I recently bought an 8x10 Gundlach Korona and a barrel lens (330mm/3.5) from fellow forum user and had been shooting on paper negative and contact printing them for the last few months and love the process and the image.

I love the fact I don't need an enlarger to get a big size print, and the fact that I use the same chemistry for both developing paper negative and print, save the hassle and time.

With help of powerful LED light panel I can bring the exposure to just under 1 sec, but I still find focusing of the eye difficult even if the subject stay still.

I am still experimenting with Haman Direct Positive Paper and is going to learn Wet Plate Collodion with John Brewer in Manchester soon!

Onwards and upwards.