Does anyone else find that shooting large format colour brings with it a particular challenge? I've been musing on this lately. I recently arrived back from my 2 years in the US with a bunch of 5x7 colour film (E6 and C41) that I knew I wouldn't be able to find here in the UK.
Yet now that I'm home and stuffed to the gills with colour film, I can't for the life of me find any inspiration to shoot colour under grey London winter skies. Often I encounter a scene which would make for a strong composition but which would just look weak and washed out in colour.
I think that black and white materials are inherently more flexible. I can shoot b&w in just about any light and the film and paper are not as rare or expensive as colour materials. I also find that in the urban environment (my prime habitat) there are often many more blobs of distracting colour in a given scene (whether it' a street sign, a car, whatever).
So anyway, I now have about 80 sheets or so of colour 5x7 and I can't for the life of me imagine where I'm going to conjure 80 great colour pictures from - particularly in an urban environment in winter.
Does anyone else out there feel this self imposed 'pressure' to do the film justice?
The irony is that if colour 5x7 materials weren't as rare as hens' teeth then I'd probably be shooting it with reckless abandon and picking up the odd hit now and then. Maybe I should forget the cost and scarcity and just go burn through my colour 5x7 and see what I get.
Happy shooting in 2012 everyone.
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