#49 Naturally Decaffeinated, Dang!

2021-04-13

Now that we don’t have the “bar room” chatter at the beginning of each show these occasional catch up shows allow us to update each other on all that we’ve been up to large format wise, or not, as the case may be. So no guest but, “dang” we enjoyed shooting the breeze and the welcome return of “Ask Erik”. Things we chatted about on the show: Andrew has been in a bit of a photo slump for a few weeks now, and that’s really odd as it’s completely out of character. Dr Erik tries to diagno...

So no guest but, “dang” we enjoyed shooting the breeze and the welcome return of “Ask Erik”.

Things we chatted about on the show:

Andrew has been in a bit of a photo slump for a few weeks now, and that’s really odd as it’s completely out of character. Dr Erik tries to diagnose his problems.

Both Andrew and Erik have been playing around with previous guest Jason Lane’s excellent dry plates. Andrew has been using the ISO 25 (shot at ISO 6) 1/6th (easier to type it than say it) plates in his Rolleiflex and developing with ID11 1+1 with minimal agitation to give some control over contrast. Seems to be working well which is more than can be said for his attempts so far with 4x5 ISO 2 plates – still more light needed methinks but we discuss some hints and tips.

Erik has started a little project photographing cars on driveways in his new neighbourhood as a commentary on all things American (way too deep for Simon and Andrew but we humour him).

You can find out all about Jason’s plates here, where to buy them and lots of useful technical detail to help get best results (which Andrew needs to read apparently).

https://www.pictoriographica.com/

Simon, surprise, surprise, has been buying more cameras this time it’s a Polaroid roll film camera that he will be converting to take 4x5 sheets. Lots of folk convert these cameras but Simon is ignoring all their advice and ploughing his own furrow so we look forward to how that turns out.

Erik mentioned a Thingyverse downloadable set of files for 4x5 conversion – a really great website where you can purchase the thing as a kit if you don’t have access to a 3D printer.

https://film.kolve.org/3ddesign/3d-design-polaroid-110-to-4x5-conversion-kit/?fbclid=IwAR2Bngul7kjpMMcMoJqeacujr3KfURzcJlcWr7Mg-1v-7jBf3JeYIz3vCzs

Simon also purchased a French enlarger lens to use on his graphic camera (maybe) – a Boyer Saphir. These series of lenses are M39 mount and are named after a variety of precious stones (don’t ask).

https://galerie-photo.com/boyer-lens-optic.html?fbclid=IwAR1weHjMeJR9kA6V2JkDYPR2ZoIQz6CA-xt2QsmfEckDoWhyL1X2yUkkTQ8

Andrew mentioned David Lago de Montana from the RB67 FB group who is making Instax Square backs for the RB – OK not LF but it formed part of a discussion around 4x5 conversions.

If you want to learn more here is a FB link.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/166020020119888/search/?q=david%20lago%20de%20monta%C3%B1a

With the triumphant return of “ASK ERIK” emails from;

Ian Wallace

Instagram & Twitter @ian_onahillroad

William Furniss

IG @williamfurniss

And a shout out to John Farnan

https://twitter.com/johnfphotos

https://m.facebook.com/farnanj

LFPP links -

https://largeformatphotographypodcast.podbean.com/