Wheelchair LF Photography

[Jim Andrada]

Just curious if anyone else is doing LF from a wheelchair. I haven't done much since my 10 month hospital stint but am starting to think about how to get back into LF. There are a few "small details" to be dealt with, such as the need to reduce what has to be schlepped around. One hand is needed to drive the chair and there's no really great way to hang stuff on the back of the chair.

The other thing that comes to mind is how to keep the chair from knocking over the tripod and how to get close enough to look through the ground glass. I can stand up a bit but can't walk around to futz with the lens settings, so would have to do something like rotate the camera.

Another thing that presents a problem is that I don't yet have full use of my arms and am still pretty restricted as to how much weight I can handle. The half dozen or so surgeries during my month in the ICU left me about 90% paralyzed, but a few hundred hours of Physical and Occupational Therapy over the last 8 - 10 months are paying off.

Based on all this I'm thinking to start by using a 2 x 3 camera with digital back and sort of working my way back to larger formats and film. I'm also thinking of initially setting the tripod up in the van and shooting through the side door of my Ford Transit.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[Dugan]

Sorry to hear of your difficulties, but I admire your tenacity.
How about something like this? :
A SuperClamp attached to a part of the wheelchair frame near an armrest....connected to a section of monopod (or center part of a tripod)...with a panoramic tripod head, bringing the ground glass to eye level while seated in the chair.
Using a dark cloth might be risky, so maybe a binocular viewer would be safer.
You could then rotate the tripod head around to adjust settings, install filters, etc.

[LabRat]

For cinematography, wheelchairs are/were common alternatives to dolly systems when on a shoestring budget...

Search the cinematography forums for suggestions/approaches to their solutions for ideas for you...

Keep on wheeling!!!

Steve K

[Jim Andrada]

Thanks guys. Hadn't thought about the super clamp, but it might work. I have a bunch of them. Might be a bit longer before I can do much in the making stuff department, but it's refreshing to be thinking how to get behind a camera again.

[CreationBear]

It might seem counterintuitive since so many otherwise able bodied photographers describe using one as like wrestling an octopus but you might explore a Uniloc tripod as a foundation for your work. Here’s a YT video that might be useful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNqeip4WLI0

I used one for years when I was doing a lot of macro work here in the Smokies—basically you’re able to kick the legs out in any angle, then lock everything down with a single lever. The camera goes on an independently adjustable column that gives you 180 degrees of vertical play, as well as providing simultaneous yaw and horizontal adjustment. (The “System” model shown in the video has additional articulation at the end of the arm.)

What I’m imagining is that you deploy the tripod to one side of your chair, then use the horizontal column to bring the camera into a useable position. It’s not a ULF solution to be sure, but if you can maneuver so that you’re minimizing the extension of the horizontal column, I’m sure it would handle most 4x5 cameras with aplomb. (FWIW I might point you toward, say, a Horseman FA as a good option.)

[Jim Andrada]

Thanks for the suggestion - much appreciated.

I have a couple of what we used to call "Israeli Arms" from when I was doing AV, where multiple segments of a jointed arm lock with a single locking lever. I usually use (well, used to use, I guess) it with super clamps on each end to stabilize the rail of my 8 x 10 Kardan Bi. As soon as I saw the YT video you linked to it made me think about using the arm to hold a small camera on the wheelchair.

I have a rather enormous old Majestic with a horizontal arm that can support even the 8 x 10 Kardan Bi with no problem. I think if I mount a camera on it aimed parallel to the arm I can get close enough to the camera to focus etc without hitting the tripod, particularly if I can aim one leg toward me and let the footrests straddle the tripod leg. I think I'll try to set it up and see how it works - that can be my recovery project of the day. Or maybe of the week. Absolutely everything takes longer than expected.

[CreationBear]

Ha, it’s a rare day when a chop saw and a MiG welder aren’t of use here in East Tennessee. . Otherwise, here’s a brochure from Uniloc—the picture mid-page will give you an idea of what I was thinking.

https://www.uniloctripod.com/UNI-LOC...ide%20-WEB.pdf

[nolindan]

You can do hand-held LF photography with a Speed/Crown/Century Graphic. It makes the tripod issue moot. If the camera is hand-held it is easy to just turn the camera around to set the shutter and aperture.

If you want to do MF/LF 2x3" photography, and won't be using a range of focal lengths, consider getting a folder from Zeiss or Voigtlander.

[Jim Andrada]

I have a couple of Graflex's around here somewhere - a nice Crown and a Super. I like the Crown better. I also have a Graflex 2 x 3 view camera, come to think of it. Maybe, just maybe it's time to dust off the little Graflex SLR. I had it CLA'd a few years back - shutter works fine but not all the speeds are working. No big deal. It would sit on my lap and look COOL!

A lot of things make more sense than trying to use a view camera again, but I'm kind of pig-headed that way. I sort of suspect that if I weren't pig-headed I wouldn't have survived the recent ordeal. My wife thinks so too.

The "failure to survive" rate for this bug is around 30% if you're younger and healthier and I'll be 83 next month.

Still have 100 sheets of 5 x 7 Ektar 100 in the freezer and I intend to use it up.

[Jim Andrada]

By the way, I still have the 6 x 4.5 Zeiss folder that my father bought new in 1937. On a tripod it yields a surprisingly good result. If possible I'd like to mount the camera on a support independent of the wheelchair to keep it isolated from little movements I might make - like breathing. The chair weighs around 450 pounds so it damps things considerably, but it's spring mounted and does wiggle a bit.