Over the years, I’ve had many people say that I should photograph a tropical island. While I’m not generally one to give into unsolicited advice, it just so happens that a friend and fellow photographer (Kurt Stevens) lives on Oahu and was willing to graciously show me around. I would have ten full days on the island, and I wanted to pack light so for a change of pace the medium format 6x7cm camera went into the bag. Using roll film instead of sheets would make airline travel much easier, and since I don’t have very much experience shooting the ocean the goal was to be able to work with signi ..read more

Another year in the books! It’s time for my annual post where I share some favorites from the last 12 months and look back on what the year was like. While it didn’t hold the level of adventure that 2022 did (it’s hard to top a road trip to Alaska!), I still got out for some backpacking trips in the mountains and time spent in the desert and prairie. Spring this year was wet and incredibly green on the Great Plains, which made for excellent photography before the mountains melted out. Once the passes were snow free, the summer brought on backpacking trips in both Colorado and Montana, with th ..read more

I’m frequently asked about my thought process when it comes to selecting a specific film type for a scene. I already have a regularly updated article on color film choices, but I think it’s worth expanding a bit into what actually goes through my head in the field and why I reach for a certain film. In many ways, this topic will be highly subjective and frequently comes down to a “gut feel” on location, but I’m going to attempt to distill my thoughts and provide some useful insight to help you choose the right film for a particular image. If you haven’t yet read my article on color film choic ..read more

Now that some time has passed, and I’ve had the opportunity to work through most of my Alaska film, it’s time to write about the photography experience of the trip. Where the last post (read it here) was all about the adventure, this one will focus more on the logistics and challenges of photographing up there - especially on large format film. I’m also going to use this article as a chance to share a significant number of images from the trip, all taken on 4x5” film. Most will be from Alaska, but a few are from the travels through Canada. You’ll see that many of these images are of colorful ..read more

While I’ve always enjoyed seeing the moon turn red during an eclipse, I’ve honestly never made any attempt to capture it in an image. This time I decided to try something out, but I also wanted the image to appear like my own, something that would work with my personal style. The prairie was an obvious choice and I knew of a homestead that faced in the correct direction to make it work. Seeing how I shoot on film, I also wanted to get it right on just one sheet and not a composite. A multiple-exposure image of the eclipse progressing across the sky would be perfect for this spot! When I poste ..read more

A little over two years ago Kodak started offering its new E100 slide film in 4x5 sheets, which meant I was finally interested in it after the initial launch period made it sound like the film would only be available in rolls. While it was exciting that a new transparency film was being produced after a decade of gloomy discontinuations, I wasn’t quite sure where E100 would fit into my shooting style.  Sheet film can be one of the best ways to test out a new film, since you can easily change the film type with every shot. However, if I’m going to be honest with you, trying out a new fil ..read more

While I’ve never been one to put huge significance on the changing of a year, it turns out I’ve been doing these retrospectives on my work for almost a decade now. Generally speaking, it’s a rather healthy way to see where I’ve come from and how my work has progressed. While selecting images for 2021, it became quite obvious that I’ve been putting an even stronger emphasis on work from the prairie as this landscape has really been speaking to me on a personal level. I understand these types of images may not appeal to the widest audience, but it’s been rewarding to seek out new images and bui ..read more

Have you ever wanted to be a little more precise with focus when using a view camera? Where exactly should we set the focus and what aperture should we use to ensure a full depth of field with everything sharp from near to far? Raise your hand if you’ve ever used the method “just focus on something and stop down to f32.” It’s ok, I’m guilty of taking that approach myself. It works more often than we’d like to admit. But wouldn’t it be nice to know with 100% certainty that you nailed the focus and used the correct aperture? We shoot these huge sheets of film for the sake of maximum sharpness s ..read more

Nothing quite captures a vast landscape or moody forest scene the way a panorama does; the wide, narrow format can emulate the way our mind sees these views by cutting out the mess and revealing only the essential visual interests. I’ve long been a fan of panoramas, especially when it comes to large print sizes.  Today we’re going to take a deep dive into a rather frequent question I get: how do I create these panoramas using a 4x5 camera? There are actually several possible methods, ranging from rather convoluted to quite simple. If you know anything about my approach to photography, I ..read more

Ah yes, the year that went as no one expected. Over the last decade I’ve made a habit of looking back on the previous 12 months of achievements and photography by creating a retrospective in the form of a blog post. For 2020 I almost didn’t bother. This year has been rough on a lot of folks for countless reasons; I’m certain you don’t need me to remind you of the hardships. But it would be wrong to write the year off and say we didn’t learn anything. Some people found new passions they weren’t aware of, a fresh breath of creativity into their work or life, and hopefully many of us learned how ..read more