Story time. I took this photo on 4x5 out of pure frustration. The composition was absolute garbage so I cropped it heavily, to about 50x100 millimeters. I was very mad at myself because I had just broken my camera.
Our last day of vacation, we woke up at 4:30am to get out to the beach for sunrise. We had some unfortunate traffic on the one-lane road for some reason and the horizon was lighting up with all kinds of gorgeous colors. I was really excited, but I had planned to take my 12x20 out on the beach...it was too late for that, at least for sunrise. So I quickly grabbed my Intrepid 4x5, which is the newest black version with 3D-printed parts...
I slapped it on the tripod, using the Arca-style clamp I have been using. About 3/4 of the way to the beach (we had to walk in because the park is technically closed, but you can pay and walk in from the gate), the camera inexplicably just fell off the tripod. I have no idea if my rushing somehow knocked it off or I just haphazardly didn't tighten things down like I normally do, but it crashed into the sandy path. No big deal, I've done worse I thought...but nope, it hit right on the front standard and ripped out the bushing for attaching it to the focus track. Great!
So I went down to the beach and we saw a spectacular sunrise. I grabbed my Instax camera and snapped a few square images (which were gorgeous) but then I looked at my 4x5. What a mess. Now I have to see if I can get spare parts. Really mad, I just aimed the camera in the general direction of the sun because it was honestly astoundingly nice and this is what I got.
Afterwards we went back to the car, I grabbed the 12x20 and made 2 more images. Really, the right way to do this is to get to the beach about an hour and a half before sunrise (5am), at least if I want to not be rushed, but this was our 7th day on the road so we were tired. Well so it goes.
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