Medium Format

Walking The Beach With A Hasselblad SWC

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Sometimes it is really nice to just walk out your front door with a minimal amount of equipment and venture out on a solitary journey without much of an agenda. That’s exactly what I did a few weeks ago on a stormy Saturday morning when I left my house with a Hasselblad SWC and a couple of rolls of Rollei RPX 100 black and white film. I made it a point to keep my day light-weight so I didn’t even bring a tripod with me. Just the Hasselblad, the film, and a small hand held light meter. My water bottle and a few snacks took up more weight in my kit, just the way I wanted it.

Photographed with a Hasselblad SWC and Rollei RPX 100 medium format film.

I headed north to familiar territory, the riverbanks along Sauvie Island. I’ve made hundreds if not thousands of image on Sauvie Island and I’ll probably make thousands more before I leave this planet one day. I think most photographers can relate - it is just nice sometimes to have a place to go to make images that is familiar. It’s like sitting down on the couch and watching a television show you’ve seen over and over and over. There is comfort in the familiar. There is liberation in looking at a scene in just an ever so slightly new way. No pressure to create something brilliant. Just look through the viewfinder and enjoy the process.

Photographed with a Hasselblad SWC and Rollei RPX 100 in medium format.

I’ve mentioned before on this blog that the Hasselblad SWC in some ways serves as a bit of a point and shoot camera for me. It’s small for a medium format camera and the focus is done entirely through making a reasonable guess between myself and the subject. Basically zone focusing. However the depth of field is so long due to the wide 38mm lens that zone focusing rarely misses. There is no such thing as critical focusing with this camera. The scene either is in focus, or it isn’t. 99% of the time I just leave the camera focused to ten feet in front of me and call it good. Everything else I can handle via the tried and true Sunny 16 rule, which is especially easy on an overcast Oregon day.

Fujifilm Neopan Acros II: Two In The Studio

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I’ve long been a fan of the black and white film stocks offered by Fujifilm. For many years my staple film stock was Fuji Neopan 400 and I worked with it in nearly every situation in every season of the year. Indoors, outdoors, I could push or pull Neopan 400 to meet any environment I found myself in. That film was discontinued back in 2013 and I still mourn the loss to this very day.

Right now the only black and white film Fujifilm still makes (not counting instax film) is Fuji Neoplan Across II, which is a lovely ISO 100 film that is still quite beautiful and I get excited every time I load it in the camera. Unfortunately at about $13 a roll in medium format at the time I’m writing this, I don’t work with it nearly as often as I’d like.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fuji Neopan Acros II 120 film.

With the first image, you can see how the film renders using a very crude 500 watt flood light. This is why Fuji Neopan Acros II really shines in my book. Contrast if very heavy, but there is still a wide range of tones present. It’s dramatic with no details lost at all. On the full resolution scan of the image I can zoom in and still make out the details of the model’s skin and hair no problem. It feels as if the image was put on to paper using natural paints or inks as opposed to the silver gelatin of a camera negative.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fuji Acros II 120 film.

Even with very subdued natural light Neopan Acros II still produces a wide range of tones. Perhaps even more so. Deep shadows slowly transition to bright highlights in the most magical of ways it honestly takes my breath away when I look at it. In short, I just love the results!

This is just one of those film stocks where a scan or even a computer screen will never do it complete justice. Physical prints are just far superior and I’m looking forward to taking both of these negatives into the darkroom to make prints in the very near future.

A Simple Session On My Roof

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Traveling great distances for the sake of a photograph isn’t always possible, nor is it even always necessary. Take this session for example. All I had to do is travel up a flight of stairs to the roof of my building to find a great backdrop to work with.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.

Comparatively speaking to the buildings around my complex, my roof isn’t the tallest structure in the neighborhood. So I wanted to work quickly to keep too many prying eyes from nearby buildings from noticing what we were doing. All of these images were made when the COVID pandemic was in its early days though so most if not all of the office buildings that surrounded us were shuttered and closed. There wasn’t any traffic on the streets below us either at that time so quite frankly the entire scene and mood of that afternoon was a bit eerie. Nothing quite like existing out in a cityscape and being met with mostly silence.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.

All of these images are from a single roll of Ilford FP4 film that I later souped up in Rodinal. Stand development was 1:100 for about 45 minutes with a few inversions at the very beginning and a few more at the 20 minute mark. Despite the heavy cloud cover there were some bright patches of sun peaking through the sky at strange angles to the model and I figured stand development would help me pull out details even though the scene is semi backlit.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.

We probably could have gotten away with exposing more than one roll of film up on my roof, but I was feeling a little paranoid and wanted to get in and get out as quickly as possible. But hey, three images that I’m happy with on a single roll of medium format film isn’t bad!!

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.