I have many favourites, but this one is special. The idea was to produce a melancholy, pre-Rapahelite type of image with this model in medieval dress. The trouble was that this spot was infested by mosquitoes. The model could hardly stay quiet for more than a second or two, and I had to focus the 4x5 as quickly as I could, still using some front swing to keep the thing in focus and suffering quite a few bites myelf. I actually shot this picture twice (each side of the holder). One picture came out totally blank (in my haste, I probably forgot to cock the shutter or to remove the dark slide!) and the second one... well, see by yourselves.
Exposure was about 1/2 s @ f/16, on Ilford HP5+. The camera was my old, beaten 4x5 (probably some kind of Korona clone from the 1920's) and the lens, a 7.5 inch, f/4.5 Ilex Anastigmat Paragon - rather ancient stuff, but it works well.
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