Facing The Storm - With Hasselblad In Hand

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I feel like every year as summer is coming to a close, and winter weather is on the horizon, I do at least one photo session where the model and I are rushing to outrun some incredibly foul weather. Such was the case a few weeks back when Floofie and I made a trip to Sauvie Island for some early morning photographs. The day started off warm with plenty of sunshine, but once we got out on location it was quickly turning for the worse with every passing minute.

With every challenge there is an opportunity however, so we made our way out to an open field and took advantage of the storm clouds heading our way, hoping to get through at least a few rolls of film before the rain started pouring down on our heads.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford HP5 120 film.

For the black and white images I had quite a few rolls of the tried and true Ilford HP5 with me. I was expecting to do most of this particular session in a grove of thick trees that block out a lot of natural light. Had I known I’d be spending most of my time in a wide open field I probably would have brought a slower speed film with me. I could have easily gotten away with something like Rollei RPX 100 or even Ilford Pan F. ISO 400 film felt a bit overkill in this situation.

Photography has always been about running with what you have in your kit, so Ilford HP5 it was. In some ways it was a nice choice because I could just set my f/stop fairly small (I think these were exposed at f/11), turn the focus barrel to infinity, and let a long depth of field take care of most of the work while Floofie was free to move around and experiment with poses. Not a bad way to work at all.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Gold 200 medium format film.

It has been a while since I’ve done any “serious” photographed work with Kodak Gold 200 and this may actually be my first session with the film stock in medium format. I have to admit Kodak Gold really works in medium format for my tastes. Colors are bright and exaggerated in a way that reminds me of E-6 slide film while also retaining the grain that is typical of color negative C-41 film.

The grain isn’t too overpowering but it is definitely there. It gives the overall look a bit of a 1970’s cinematic quality which to me is quite pleasing. I need to make it a point to work with Kodak Gold more often. It may very well be my favorite color negative film at the moment.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford HP5 120 film.

For most of these images I found myself down on my belly in the thick tall grass, stamping down the plants right in front of me with my left hand, so I wouldn’t get the grass blocking the frame, and operating the Hasselblad with my right. With an autofocus SLR this would be no big deal, but with the more manual nature of the Hasselblad it was a bit of a comical balancing act. I’m getting to be that age when my grunts and groans from rolling around int he dirt are a common sound during a photo session.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Gold 200 medium format film.

As we left the scene, packed up, and headed toward the parking lot where we left the car the rain was starting to come down. It was one of those strange sorts of late summer rainfalls, wet and sloppy in small spurts with patches of sun still visible in the sky. Anyone who has spent time in the Pacific Northwest will know exactly what I am talking about. There is a drama to this kind of weather, a kind of dance that takes place in the sky above us and the goal with these images was the mimic that a little bit on the ground.

I think we pulled it off.

Chicago With The Hasselblad SWC

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I’ve been taking semi frequent excersions to Chicago lately on business trips so of course it was only a matter of time before I brought a camera to make some photographs around the city while I had some downtime. I’ve quickly discovered that from a street photography perspective, Chicago is quite an amazing place. The Hasselblad SWC is an obvious choice for this city because the incredibly wide angle lens native to the camera allowed me to just take it all in. The architecture in Chicago is just gorgeous! I could easily burn through twenty rolls of film in a single afternoon if given the opportunity. One of these days I’d like to take a week long trip to Chicago with nothing to do but walk around and take pictures.

Photographed with a Hasselblad SWC and Ilford FP4 120 film.

Unfortunately I noticed when I got home and started developing some rolls of film that the back I use with my Hasselblad SWC had a light leak. What a bummer! The tall buildings in Chicago block out a lot of light so only certain rolls had a leak that was visible, but it did sadly ruin quite a few shots I would have otherwise liked. Oh well. A quick repair kit that cost me $15 has since corrected the issue (seriously, repairing light leaks on a Hasselblad back is incredibly easy), but I’m still bummed I had to discover the problem after it was too late. The challenges of working with film sometimes…

Photographed with a Hasselblad SWC and Ilford FP4 120 film.

Traveling with film these days can unfortunately be a bit of a logistical nightmare. Modern airport security scans will ruin your film. Though technically you can request a hand check from the TSA so your film doesn’t go through a scanner, I have found this to be hit or miss. Sometimes a friendly TSA agent is cooperative about this, sometimes they aren’t. So I’ve gotten in the habit of shipping my film to my hotel ahead of me and shipping it home before I leave. It’s not the most convenient thing, and it does come at a cost, but it is worth it to ensure that my film isn’t fogged or damaged when I go to develop it later. If I’m going to invest the time to make images on film I don’t want that time wasted thanks to airport security.

Photographed with a Hasselblad SWC and Ilford FP4 120 film.

Doing street photography with the Hasselblad SWC is quite easy though. It’s one of the reasons I really like this camera as it is not nearly as complicated as it would maybe first appear. For exposures I just use the sunny 16 rule and the depth of field is so long with the wide angle lens that I really don’t have to worry about critical focus all that much. So more or less the camera just becomes a point a shoot. Given the “open shade” of the tall buildings in Chicago most of the frames on this day where photographed at f/8 with focus set to infinity. Super easy.

It’s hard to argue with a point and shoot with a fantastic Zeiss lens and a big 6x6 negative. Plus, for a medium format camera the SWC is fairly compact. Not at all a problem to carry around on foot over long distances.

Polaroid I-2 In The Studio - Two Models and Natural Light

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I’ve been using the new Polaroid I-2 camera quite a bit lately. I was honestly very hesitant to purchase this camera when it came out because it is expensive for a Polaroid and I wasn’t sure it would give me much of an advantage over the SX-70 camera I already own. I decided to jump on it though when I found a really great sale and I have to admit I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.

The Polaroid I-2 has some great advantages over the SX-70 such as the ability to do multiple exposures (I’ll post some of those later), more precise exposure control, and best of all the ability to use 600 and i-Type film, both of which I honestly like better than SX-70 film due to the higher ISO. Polaroid cameras after all have fairly slow lenses, even in the models that are considered more premium and the Polaroid I-2 is no different. The maximum aperture is only f/8, which is impressive for an instant camera, but not so impressive when it comes to working in low light. Working with higher speed film has some obvious advantages here.

Photographed with a Polaroid I-2 and Polaroid 600 color film.

It’s incredibly rare for me to make any more than one or two instant prints during a planned photo session and even more rare still that I find myself in a situation working with more than one model. Typically when I bring an instant camera to a photo session the purpose is more to take one or two shots to document the day and take a break from working with a more “serious” camera.

With the Polaroid I-2 however, I feel like my attitude has shifted a little bit. The Polaroid I-2 *is* the serious camera, which just encourages me to make more images with it before going back to traditional roll film. It’s a fun an interesting shift in my creative thinking that I like quite a bit. Granted, given the cost of instant film my wallet doesn’t seem to like this so much, but my brain certainly does.

Photographed with a Polaroid I-2 and black and white Polaroid 600 film.

The black and white print is a perfect example of why some manual control over exposure can be a really fun thing with an instant camera. I underexposed the image by about one and a half stops to give the image a bit of a “ghostly” appearance and simplify the composition to pure lines and shapes. I thought it turned out pretty well. In fact it is probably my favorite photograph of this session, and that includes the images I made with regular film and my Hasselblad. That’s really saying something!

Photographed with a Polaroid I-2 camera and Polaroid 600 color film.

With the color prints, the yellow-ish quality of the natural light is really exaggerated. The natural light in the scene was on the warm side, but not nearly as yellow/gold as the final prints would make it seem. That’s just one of those things when it comes to instant film that you have to fall in love with or else pull your hair out in frustration. Color accuracy is never going to be the strong suit of a Polaroid print. You either embrace this fact and call it a good thing, or you just don’t work with instant film at all. I honestly found this to be true even back in the heyday of instant photography when tons of film stocks were available despite other photographers I know looking back at those time with some rose colored glasses on.

What I also tend to find universally true about instant prints is the scans are never quite as impactful or fun to look at as the physical prints. So much so that I’m honestly hesitant to share them here on my blog. I’ve come close to hitting the delete button several times because the scans just look kind of flat and the charm is a little bit lost when viewing them on a screen.

I suppose that is half the point of instant photography though. You compose an image, make choices with the camera, click the shutter, and out comes a finished print - a little treasure to be appreciated in the moment.

Color Film With Morning Light

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Waking up incredibly early in the morning for the sake of a photo session always has its rewards. This is especially true when the plan is to rely completely on natural light. I was itching to work with some color film after a long stint of exposing only black and white film and I wanted to capture that subtle warm light that starts peaking up over the horizon at around six o’clock in the morning.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.

I scheduled a session with Devi while she was traveling through Portland and made it a point to find a space with east facing windows. We armed ourselves with coffee to go, my Hasselblad, and about five rolls of Kodak Portra 400. It wasn’t the first time we had worked together so getting into the groove of a photo session only took a few minutes and about two frames of film to break the ice a bit. Devi has always been one of those models that gets into “photo mode” very quickly, something I really appreciate when we work together.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.

Even though I was working with ISO 400 speed film, the light was subdued enough to make hand holding difficult. I had a tripod with me, but the space was quite small and generally speaking I’m not a big fan of of using a tripod. So instead I decided to risk it and photographed the scene at about 1/30th of a second and wide open at f/2.8. My hands are still steady enough that I can get away with handholding the Hasselblad at relatively slow shutter speeds. There are a few frames from this session that are a bit too fuzzy to get away with calling “artistic” but for the most part the gamble paid off just fine.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.

I’ve been really craving the experience of working with color film lately and posting these images just makes that desire even stronger. Working with Kodak Portra 400 was the right choice for these images (it was low light after all), Portra has never been my favorite color film stock. I much prefer the bold saturated look of Kodak Ektar and I’ve had some great experiences using the new Kodak Gold 200 in medium format. I’ve also seen rumors that Ilford/Harman is going to be releasing their Phoenix 200 stock in medium format soon. I hope so….

Getting Used To A Portrait Lens

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I wrote on this blog recently that I purchased a Hasselblad 150mm f/4 portrait lens in the past year or so. You can find that entry HERE. It was inevitable that I would eventually bring the lens outdoors and try working with it during one of my regular location sessions. I’m not going to deny I found the experience challenging, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

Most of my awkwardness when using this lens is just simple physics. As opposed to using my usual focal length of 55mm or 80mm, with the 150mm f/4 lens I have to stand further away from my subject. Walking backward fifteen or twenty steps from the model feels incredibly disconnected compared to the way I usually work.

I imagine if I was a seasoned sports photographer or even a more skilled photographer when it comes to street photography this wouldn’t seem so strange to me. But, since I am neither of those things, standing further back from the model takes a lot of getting used to. Part of the reason I’ve always loved waist level finders on cameras like a Hasselblad or a Mamiya TLR is because I feel more connected to my subject. The longer focal length of the 150mm negates that a little bit.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

All of that being said, there is a quality to the images using a 150mm portrait lens that I very much enjoy. All of the images in this post were photographed between f/8 and f/11. Even with a relatively small aperture the bokeh is incredible. It is smooth and buttery and the central focus in the image (i.e. the model) really pops out against the background. This is especially true considering the model was standing in a thick grove of trees that would have made these images appear otherwise incredibly cluttered and chaotic from a compositional standpoint. I can definitely get a sense of the creative potential here which is thrilling to say the least.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

I’ll be bringing the 150mm lens with me from now on when I take my Hasselblad out for serious work. In fact, I’ll probably be leaving the standard 80mm lens at home and make the 55mm f/4.5 and the 150mm f/4 my go-to lens kit. It seems like it’ll be an interesting challenge to bring along the more extreme ends of the focal length range available to me instead of playing it safe with the 80mm “normal” lens. That is for now at least while there is plenty of sunshine and I don’t need the wider f/stop of f/2.5 that the standard 80mm lens provides.