Nudes
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Tmax 400 film.
I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Devi for the second time recently. I always appreciate when I have the opportunity to work with someone who travels into Portland regularly for the second time. Second photoshoots are almost always better than the first. Mainly due to the fact that by the second photoshoot I’ve grown more comfortable with the person I’m working with.
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Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Rollei RPX 25 film.
I’ve been trying to force myself lately to use slower speed films than what I’m used to. Most of the time, my instinct is to reach for films more in the ISO 400 speed range. For over a decade my default film was Fuji Neopan 400. When that went away I transitioned to mostly Ilford HP5 with a little bit if Kodak Tri-X and Kodak T-Max 400 thrown in depending on what film stock I could find for the least amount of money. Some of that decision making has to do with geography for me. It’s overcast a good amount of the year in the Pacific Northwest so a film stock that is a bit on the faster end just makes good sense.
But that doesn’t mean I should limit my aesthetic choices purely for the sake of convenience. Especially as my tastes tend to change with time. I’m really starting to like the extreme amount of detail and sharpness one can achieve with really slow speed films, particularly in the 35mm format. This particular image was made with a Minolta SRT-101 and a roll of Rollie RPX 25, probably the slowest film one can easily find still fresh.
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Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak T-Max 400 film.
This is probably my favorite portrait so far from my first photo session with the Hasselblad 500c/m. The lighting conditions were a bit challenging because the bulk of the light source was coming from up and to the left of the frame as the model and I were actually down in a basement below ground. I’m fairly amazed I was able to hand hold the camera for this image and I still ended up with a decent exposure and a fairly sharp photograph.
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Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Fomapan 100 speed film.
I really like it when I have the opportunity to make photographs in a location completely devoid of people. It happens so rarely, even when I go to great lengths to find locations far out of the way from main roads, cities , and towns. It’s part of the challenge when working in Oregon. The population here tends to appreciate the outdoors. Thankfully Oregonians tend not to mind nudity too much either.
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Photographed with a Pentax 67 and Ilford HP5 film.
Not long ago I found myself experimenting with a Pentax 67 medium format camera. It was one of those cameras that I always wanted to try out in part thanks to the heaps of praise other photographers tended to sing about it. I’m not going to deny, the camera sounded very appealing. Basically an SLR (single lens reflex) design but instead of tiny 35mm negatives you get big 6x7 negatives. Plus, the older Pentax 67’s tend to be fairly cheap on-line and even cheaper if you happen to find one not too far away on craigslist. Which is what I personally did.
I expected the Pentax 67 to be heavy. I’m perfectly fine with heavy cameras. After all, anyone who reads this blog or follows my work at all knows that I regularly use a Mamiya RZ67 which is no slouch in the size and weight department. However, though I liked the Pentax 67 in theory, I didn’t really like it much in practice. Putting a camera as big and heavy as the Pentax 67 up to your eye was annoying. Seriously, I quickly started to feel like I was going to give myself a black eye if I worked too fast. Plus, the edges of the camera body were just too shallow to get a good grip on the body when working hand held and I constantly had the sensation that I was going to drop the camera at any moment.
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