shooting sheffield

This project was the first time I have used large format and as such there has been a steep learning curve. One unexpected thing that i learned from the experience was just how much harder work using equipment that cant fit into a bag can be. I actually ended up buying a sack barrow from B&Q to transport the camera case and a hefty tripod around. In addition to this i found that field cameras not only have the edge for, you guessed it, field work because of their size but also they are far sturdier. This sturdiness is particularly crucial when photographing in exposed locations as wind will cause the camera to shake not just on the tripod but at every joint, making the provision of a cable release feel somewhat pointless. Another issue with the monorail cameras is the far greater surface area provided to the wind by their large bellows, this lead to one particularly horrible moment when a fierce gust of wind took my tripod over and sent the camera rolling down the steep hill which i was perched on. Thankfully the store where quite sympathetic. unfortunately for me I was stuck with an ARKA monorail camera for the whole project as it was the only one which excepted a 75mm lens, nether the less i think jumping in at the deep end has helped me gain a new set of skills so i cant complain.

The image above has nothing to do with my gripes about cameras but a lot to do with landscape photography. One thing which was a constant issue was the weather and how to deal with sudden and torrential rain which plagued my trips. Although I had assumed that being entirely mechanical that the large format cameras would easily cope with rain so long as they where dried properly after words I had not considered the effect on the dark slide or the film. Now film i thought was pretty water proof, it goes through multiple baths and washes when processed so a little rain shouldn't hurt it, right? well it turns out that dark slides are not water proof and the emulsion on film must become sticky when wet. After one particularly unpleasant shoot I took the pictured dark slide to photo to be processed only to find that it and the film had cemented together and Mic couldn't remove it. Eventually I ended up going into their dark room and prizing the edge up with a key, thinking that a scratch at the edge of a neg is better than no neg. Upon receiving the film it became apparent that the set emulsion had actually ripped the paint off the inside of the dark slide and it was now stuck to my image!