Finally!

OK. It took a while, but this is a 4x5 from a shoot we did in my garage. We built a "Candyland" theme set and shot two models wearing some tu tu's from a local business called Chrissy Poofs. Yeah, kind of weird.

But this is a 4x5 image of Sabina, one of our models while she was not on set. I added the black borders because I can't yet get my scanner to see the edges of the film like I want. But rest assured this is an otherwise full-frame image.

Some film from the RB67

I'm taking a brief interlude from the Cambo 4x5 to revisit the Mamiya RB67. I shot a roll of Fuji Reala and Kodak Verichrome at the Renaissance Festival. I really like the results. The RB is such a heavy camera and I was winging it around with one arm while shouldering a gadget bag on one side and my Nikon Digital on the other.

That's pretty harsh duty. I really need to bite the bullet and take ONLY the RB on one of those trips--that's a hard leap of faith to make anymore.

I'm including one photo I really like. It's a shot of a falconer with a kid listening, but it has a small light leak that ruins it--so goes life with film. I'm not sure how the light stain occurred. It looks like the kind of thing that could happen if you jiggle the film back on the camera. It's kind of weird because an identical stain appears in an adjacent frame in the same location. I could Photoshop it out, but for now I'll leave it as is.

Grandma's Pearls

This is my friend Jessica posing for me in my garage studio. I managed to fit in four sheets of 4x5, TMax 100 in between about 165 digital frames we shot that afternoon. We made some great digital images, but I think this is pretty sweet stuff.

This is actually a happy mistake. I was supposed to shoot this with only the available light from the garage-door windows, but forgot I still had the studio strobes plugged into the Cambo. So this is a 1/2 sec. exposure at f/5.6-8 with bunches of strobes piled on.

We're on a roll

OK. This is kind of breaking my unwritten promise of only displaying full-frame film images. But this one begged for cropping. I returned to Apache Junction on Saturday with the wife and kids so I could take advantage of the clouds moving in. I ended up trying to do some macro work with the 4x5. I think this is a brittlebush or what's left of it. I was trying to focus on that stalk in the foreground, but with the bellows racked out and the wind gusting just a bit, I sort of back-focused. But still fun.

Back after a long hiatus

So these pictures are nothing to write home about. I debated even posting them. But I felt it was important to note some things:
1 I finally got a chance just to drag out the view camera and do some shooting.
2 My buddy, Mike, and I got stuck in traffic and reached our destination just as the sun was setting. We really should have been to the location about an hour earlier.
3 The light changed so fast I really should not have even shot these images. But I really wanted to go through the motions of using the camera and getting a feel for it after a long layoff.
4 Good news is that Sarah is finally sleeping through the night and that means I can get up in the mornings to process film again. Yea!!!
5 These images suck as far as content, composition, lighting, etc. But I consider it a small victory just to pick up the camera, shoot and process 4x5 film.

Rose is a Rose

I keep fighting my natural instincts which are to photograph people and I pursue still life and landscape when the opportunity presents itself.

So I've been toying around with these dried up roses with little success.

I've got this idea of photographing dead and decaying things.
In my mind's eye, I can see exactly what these pictures are supposed to look like, but I fail miserably at staging and lighting the moment.

I've been half-heartedly vowing to stop photographing live models because of the time, expense and hassle involved in dealing with them, but so far they provide my best and most satisfying material.

Deanna with Piano

Here's a Polaroid 55 pos/neg of Deanna Dupre a wonderful Phoenix model. This was shot at f/5.6 which unfortunately was about one stop underexposed. I forgot that I was metering for TMAX film and the Polaroid is ISO 50 while the TMAX is ISO 100. This was supposed to be low-key lighting anyway, but it would have been nice to have that extra stop of light.

The neg's got some nasty sodium sulfite streaking that I failed to clean thoroughly. I may have to go back and rewash and photo flo again.

4x5 scanned using color neg settings

I finally pulled the Cambo into the studio for a photo shoot with Donna.

The scan here is originally sized at 98 mb and scanned using the color neg settings which gives it this bronze/sepia effect. There are still a lot of dust and scratches. But overall I'm happy to be back in the darkroom.

New-ish Web site

Carlos has updated his Web site. I've taken off the art photos because I'm currently working more with schools and families and don't want to give off the wrong impression. My site, as always, is www.morenophoto.com. I will continue to post art photos to my film blot at www.carlosfilm.blogspot.com and I will also keep my art portfolio updated at modelmayhem and onemodelplace.

Back in the Saddle

This is from my first studio shoot in the studio I'm sharing as part of a co-op deal in Phoenix.
The model is Stacie Snow and this, of course, was shot on Polaroid 55 pos/neg media. Not sure how long my supply will hold out and if I can get anymore since Polaroid has gone away.

I'm still here

I promise I haven't abandoned this blog. The new baby has kept me from getting out with the 4x5. I've got some medium format stuff I will post up hopefully soon.

Trust me. I'll be back.