I'm in New Mexico, USA, in the mountains just outside of Albuquerque. Like many of you I found this forum through searches related to my growing interest in large format photography. I've been lurking and reading for about a month now and decided it was time to step in. I got into film in the 1980s and kept shooting 35mm into the '90s, but then kids and digital happened and I left film and the darkroom behind for a couple decades. Now I am shooting film again, and am having a blast picking up where I left off all those years ago.
A friend of mine recently asked why I was interested in shooting so many different formats (I also use tiny and medium formats). Well, I didn't go looking for this stuff, it found me! I've had a pretty good pile of gear land in my lap from a variety of sources during the last year, most of it gifted, including a 1953 Crown Graphic with lenses and other goodies. That got me started tinkering and thinking, and I was already shooting and developing 35mm and a little 120. Why not 4x5?
Then I responded to a local Craigslist ad and picked up a neat little kit including a 1940 Speed Graphic, 10 film holders, and a few other useful things. The film holders had film in them (400TMY) and were dated back to 2003 and 2005. I developed 10 sheets and found only two sheets had been exposed. I thought what might have been unexposed film in the remaining 5 holders turned out to have been shot after all, every sheet! Thus my first 4x5 shots turned out a little different than I thought they might (double exposures). I also bought some fresh sheets and have made two exposures so far. I will develop those when my new SP-445 tank system arrives. The old Yankee tank requires a lot of chemicals and isn't the greatest for small batch work.
I'll note here that I'm starting out using my two vintage Graflex 4x5s. There's the '53 Pacemaker Crown which I modified to give more front lens board movements than the original design allows (more on that later). I'm also using the '40 Anniversary Speedie because I find the focal plane shutter fascinating, and I have a neat Kodak Anastigmat barrel-mounted lens to use on it. Another note is that I am using a hybrid analog/digital workflow. I'm focused on making good negatives for now, studying and practicing the Zone System, but I'm sure the printing will come around at some point too. And, I have a few years experience working in a full time product studio for a large online retailer. I used tilt/shift lenses for quite a bit of the more detailed work, so I have a decent start on understanding and using movements.
Glad I found this group. Thanks for reading!
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Originally Posted by Peter Collins
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