My journey into large format film photography

In 2009, shortly after graduating from university, it became clear that I had a passion for landscape and nature photography. On realising this, I did what any poor ex-student would do - I spent what little money I had and upgraded my Nikon D50 to a Nikon D700, bought some nice lenses, and took them on a trip to the Scottish highlands! It’s a camera I still own today, and all the digital photographs on this website were very likely taken with it, so for the money it’s definitely stood up to the test of time. Some friends who joined the same trip to the highlands also brought film cameras with them, which spanned in format from 35mm through to 5x4 inch large format. While I was very happy with digital in general at the time, I’m certain that seeing first hand these cameras in action planted some small seed in my mind about film photography. I had used 35mm film camera before, but this was a good while ago by this point. Over perhaps the next year or two, and after the initial buzz of the huge upgrade, I found myself gradually becoming less and less satisfied with digital as a means of capture for landscapes, and began experimenting with film; starting with a Nikon FM2 which I ran beside the digital. It’s not that there was anything wrong with digital as such; I suppose technically it was perfect really. In any case, immediately after this film addition to the otherwise solely digital kit camera bag, I found myself feeling more interested and inclined to use the film camera over the digital, as it simply provided, what I now describe as, a stronger connection to the final image.

From a buyers perspective, this happened in the ‘golden age’ of film photography, which I now look back on fondly as the time when film cameras were cheap and in abundance, and film was available widely and cheaply. As such, it was a comparatively small outlay to buy a Mamiya RB67 kit, and upgrade (in terms of film size) to medium format. I still own this camera, as I simply could not bring myself to part with it. It’s heavy, fully mechanical, and comes with no extravagances like a built in light meter! Making photographs on this camera really started to scratch an itch, as it forced a step down in pace when compared to cameras with any form of built in automation. With the larger film size comes improved tonal graduation, more room to crop if, in hindsight, a slight mistake was made with lens choice, and indeed more freedom to print larger for a given reproduction ratio. All that being said though, I still wasn’t quite happy about something.

Thinking back to the first trip to the highlands, I recalled the large format camera which a friend was using, and before I knew it I was casually looking at websites describing large format cameras and large format photography. I confess that, when I get an idea in my head I usually have to try and give it a go, and before not too long, I had sold some older cameras and ordered a Shen Hao HZX-45iia, a Nikkor W 150mm f/5.6 lens, and a Schneider 90mm f/8. I couldn’t afford a scanner at the time, so I had to build up a collection of developed negatives so that a friend could kindly scan them for me, but I was hooked. Well and truly hooked. Starting to use large format brought about an almost complete decline in my use of any other formats, both on film and digital, and I finally felt this attachment to photography that I had been looking for. Nowadays, and after a few years of focusing on large format, I now supplement large format with both 35mm and 120 format cameras.

It’s not just about negative size. Granted, the greater freedom to enlarge holds its appeal, but it’s about so much more than that. The camera movements provide many advantages when it comes to perspective control and depth of field, and this alone sets it apart from even basic tilt and shift lenses for other camera types. Furthermore, it takes a long time to make a photograph, and per frame, there is the ever present financial incentive to take fewer photographs and get each one right! Most importantly for me personally however, and despite all of the technical advantages (and disadvantages!), it’s about drifting off with ones’ self and becoming immersed in the landscape and the photograph, to the point where it becomes both an escape and an outlet that I feel I was essentially missing before.

So there we have it. This is why I choose to make photographs on large format, and as said, I genuinely don’t see this changing until factors outside of my control become prohibitive. These days I use an Ebony SV45TE, with lenses ranging from 90mm to 450mm, and use a variety of film in B&W and both colour negative and transparency. I develop my own B&W frames, and scan everything on an Epson V700. I also have plans to build my own 11 x 14 inch camera, but this has taken a back seat for now…

My photography is for sale, and I welcome any correspondence towards printed copies or licensing.