Run-and-Gun 4x5 Travel Shooting?

Hmmmm... Just wondering if you could attach a little Leica or

Voightlander viewer to the accessory (hot shoe) bracket on the

Ebony for a rangefinder style framing device... Just match up

your lens to a proper focal length viewer for framing. This might

be somewhat of a solution.

I think front tilt is an option on the Littman.

Also, regarding the "bellows viewer" idea, doesn't Linhof (and maybe some other manufacturers) make a bag bellows viewer with a loupe in it for just this purpose?

Hi Mark,

 

I love your photos. What lenses do you use with your Hassy on your travels?

 

Chris Goodwin

hi mark

sounds like a fun trip !

from the looks of your website, you are a photographer who will

be able to make great images no matter what sort of gear you

will be toting along. i would say "bring the 4x5" and don't worry

about your lady-friend. i am sure things will work out fine. but

then again, you did mention the baby-super-d ... i would scrap

the other cameras and bring THAT along instead. give away

polaroids, take home negatives, sounds like a win-win situation.

just buy a ton of glassine sleaves and unbuffered envelopes for

your negatives at gaylord brothers before you go.

Mark I live 50 minutes from San Miguel, e mail me and I will give you my phone number I can take you around to some great places other than San Miguel. As to San Miguel you got the right gear, I suppose you will have a back pack to carry all this. Really there is not much to it, people there are used to seeing this and you should have no problem. From the zocalo the cathedral is too close, you will have to use the 72 lens and even then I have never taken a shot I am happy with. the best view is from the "mirador" but you will not be bringing a lens long enough for it. Around town there are many things to photograph if you are willing to walk, it is just impossible with a car.

The climate here is warm during the day but cold at night so I would suggest you bring a warm jacket for the evening. I think for shooting you are not crazy bringing the 4x5, you will have a great time with it.

Go and buy a used Crown or Speed and just shoot like Weegee did!

 

No, seriously....

 

Unless you are going to NEED movements (architecture), and you REALLY want to shoot LF, go with the old press setup. I recently shot snaps at a friends Halloween party with a Speed, an old Ektar 135mm, a 545 back, two boxes of 800 speed B/W and a venerable Sunpak 511. It was really fun. I just guesstimated the distance of the subject, dialed it in on the focusing scale, and shot at f/16 and 1/400. 45 seconds later I gave the subjects a nice memento of the party (and informed them that yes, the camera DOES work....). It was really fun.

 

Give it a shot.

If you are planning to take N sheets of 4x5, take the Hassy and take just enough film for the same number of exposures.

<I>Go and buy a used Crown or Speed and just shoot like

Weegee did!

No, seriously....

Unless you are going to NEED movements (architecture), and

you REALLY want to shoot LF, go with the old press setup.

</i><P>

You don't understand; you must be a MAN. No commitment; no

loyalty. Once you bond to a camera, you gotta be faithful, and you

gotta keep it simple. I used to be the King of Gear; but now I've

gone the other direction. I say, buy one camera, and shoot a

million sheets with it, and get to know it like the back of your

hand. Hell, it's a stretch just for me to have TWO lenses for this

Ebony; I wish I just had one.<P>

 

On trips, I used to take a hassie body, an 80, a 40, and a red

filter, and a ton of 220. Oh, and a good pair of shoes. I think

comfortable shoes is the best camera accessory out there.<P>

 

Ive decided that I'm taking everyone's suggestion and taking the

Ebony, a 75, and a 152. A red and green filter. And 120 sheets of

readyload tmax100. Oh, and the Hassie with the Plungercam, in

case I freak out with the 4x5.

<P>

Thanks to everyone who contributed. This was very interesting...

<<Hell, it's a stretch just for me to have TWO lenses for this Ebony I wish I just had one lens.>>

 

Mark,

 

In the interest of helping out a fellow photographer, I'd be happy to take one of your lenses off your hands. I'd even pay shipping. Anyway have a fun trip.

 

BTW I have looked around you site a bit and really enjoy your work. For some reason your images seemed familiar, particularly the road trip photos. Then it struck me why. When I was younger I used to drink, well a bit too much. You have managed to capture the way the world looks in a drunken haze. The way everything gets blurry except for the one thing you�re focusing on. The way bright lights flare. Brings back memories of my misspent youth. ;-)

This is not a shot I really do like you work very much. :-)

 

Ed

<I>You have managed to capture the way the world looks in a

drunken haze. The way everything gets blurry except for the one

thing you�re focusing on.</i><P>

 

Uh... was that a compliment...?<P>

 

-MT, http://marktucker.com/

Yep. Sort of a stange one but yep. I did say how much I enjoyed it.

>filter, and a ton of 220. Oh, and a good pair of shoes. I think

>comfortable

>shoes is the best camera accessory out there

 

Absolutely the best, lightest, hardwaring and most confortable... :-)

 

(cut and paste)

http://www.brasher.co.uk/products/productdetail.cfm?stockcode=CMGTMN011&product_type_id=2

I too would like to compliment you on the photos on your website! I can't wait to see what your 4by5 stuff will look like.

Frank S.

"I'm taking everyone's suggestion and taking the Ebony, a 75, and a 152. A red and green filter. And 120 sheets of readyload tmax100. Oh, and the Hassie with the Plungercam"

 

It will be interesting to see how well you "shoot fast and move fast" with all that gear, as well as how well your shooting styles/schedules mesh with your company on the trip. Good luck. (At least your chiropracter can now put that last payment on his boat.)

Hi Mark,

 

Taking a 4x5 camera to such a trip I think is a great idea when you are going !!!!ALONE!!!! However taking such excessive gear (4x5 + Hassy) when you are travelling with someone for the first time definately runs a high risk that both of you but at least one of you will have a bad time.

 

I definately would try the 4x5 thing when travelling alone especially if this is the first time you do such a Run-and-Gun 4x5 shooting.

 

If I were you I would try something else on this trip. Something that you are familiar with and can rely on but at the same time try something a little different as well. You say you usually take the 80mm and the 40mm on your trips for the Hassy. I would take one of these lenses as you are familiar with it but switch the other one for something else. For example: take the 40mm but instead of the 80mm take the 110mm or 120mm or 150mm for tighter close portraits. Or the other way around take the 80mm and take the 50mm or 60mm instead of the 40mm.

 

The point is that you can do the stuff you know inside out but you can also experiment with something little different and see how you like it. You would have a great time with something new. You will like some things that the new focal length provides that the usual didn't and you will also appreciate more the stuff that the usual does that the new one doesn't do well. It's always nice to see things a little different for a change.

 

I really like 4x5 and would recommend taking it with you but not for this sort of trip. To much to worry about. Lot of gear, New woman, Different format, Time restraints etc.

 

To sum it up short: I would take the Hassy for this one and take the 4x5 on your next trip ALONE! The point of the trip is to ENJOYING IT!

 

Have a great one!

Hi Mark,

 

I think I saw some superb portraits of yours at the Bluebird a long time ago. Printed huge? Like 32 x 40 or so? Doc Watson. etc? You're an excellent photographer.....(I think the 4 x 5 will slow you down.)

 

Mark

Final Verdict:

 

Ebony, 55, 75, 152, 120 sheets of TMAX readyload. No

Hasselblad. Red filter; green filter, carbon tripod.

 

I have never anguished any decision more than this. But in the

end, (like someone posted above), it's about stretching, and

learning, and growing. Nothing in me wants to really schlep

around this thing; it would be so easy to hop on that plane with

the trusty Hassie and two lenses.

 

Even if I only get five or six frames, I just want to go through this

uncomfortable learning process of what I call "Treating a 4x5 like

a Leica". It may be impossible, and after three days, you might

only find me in the bar (at 9am), but still, I'm gonna do it.

 

There's something inside of me that's wanting to get heard. I

don't know what that part is. But I'm getting old enough to know to

listen to small voices sometimes.

 

I will report back in eleven days. I need a hug...

Mark,

 

I just looked at the new San Miguel de Allende portfolio on your website. Looks like the decision to go with the 4x5" didn't work out too badly. Really stunning work! Looking forward to the full report.

David,

 

Thanks for the note. I could probably write a novellette about the

experience of dragging around that 4x5 on a tripod around San

Miguel. The images are up at:

 

http://www.marktucker.com/sanmiguel/

 

In retrospect, I'm not sure I'd do it again. Especially for shooting

people. I carried around a little cheatsheet in Spanish, and

showed it to the people I approached. It explained that the

camera was slow and that they'd need to hold still after I

focused. I had a bunch of ridiculous hand gestures, and some

badly-phrased Spanish, to try to communicate further. I'm sure I

looked and sounded like an idiot.

 

Everything I do is digital, after shooting. There is this weird thing

that I don't understand, but pixels just act differently from film

grain sometimes. In short, I think that at 24x30 on Epson

watercolor paper, out of an Epson 9600, would look just about

the same from a Hasselblad neg as from a TMAX 100 4x5 neg.

Partly due to the dot gain, and dot merge, that happens on the

watercolor paper.

 

There was also a time that I thought I'd be making 44"x60" prints

out of this Epson, but I've just found that that is a ridiculous size.

I've settled on 24x30, and therefore, I don't think you see that

much difference in 4x5, especially to put up with all the extra

hassle.

 

I'm glad I did it, but if given another RT ticket, I'd definitely take the

Hasselblad and three lenses.

 

I also do much "abuse" to the toning and "bleaching" of the

images, that I think I lose whatever extra amount of quality that

the 4x5 gives me.

 

Still, there is definitely some magic mojo to shooting LF. In the

desert, with a red filter, with the light just right, I got a great deal

of personal satisfaction out of the sheer act of photographing

with the big camera. Since everything is manual, in the end, I

definitely had the feeling that I'd created something. When the

Hassie is on AUTOMATIC and I'm just walking around shooting, I

don't get the same kind of satisfaction.

 

One key point here: I think there's a potential danger in fooling

yourself (myself) into thinking that the photograph is "better" just

because it was a pain in the ass to drag around a big camera to

do it. Or, if there was a great deal of personal satisfaction from

the memory of taking the photograph, and being there in that

scene. In the end, it comes down to what's sitting there in the

image, on the paper; that's all that really matters. A viewer could

care less if it was shot with a lightweight Hasselblad, or a

tripod-laden, $3700, hand-crafted Ebony, and that your back was

killing you at the end of the day.

 

Just my opinion.

 

-MT, http://marktucker.com/<div></div>

stunningly good Mark - the first four even more so

 

tim

"if given another RT ticket, I'd definitely take the Hasselblad and three lenses. "

 

:-)

I read on this thread that someone thought the pictures on the Cuba gallery were done with a close up focus attachment, and I wanted to clarify that none of the many portraits shown in the galleries exhibited in my site have used this attachment as none of those photographers own the attachment.

 

 

The camera is intended to be used for environmental type portraits for those who consider the surroundings as something to be included by aperture or voided by shooting wide open and even more so when using the tilt.

 

In any event the lens selection of 110mm-150mm on 4x5 is best used for portraits at 3-4 ft as if closer you would get a distortion anyway and the neg is so big that you can easily crop and while maintaining a safe distance get a nice portrait which will be as shot with a normal lens.

 

You can get as close as 1 ft when using the ground glass but I believe the lenses are too wide to get that close anyway unless one wants to use distortions for editorial purposes.

 

The camera works best when used paparazzi style a la Jackie O, the idea is a synergistic apparatus for an inclusive/ environmental approach , it is nothing but a snapshot camera.

 

I believe that what was referred to as "portraits"( refers to a 180mm-210mm lens which is too long to be included in a light rig as the l45s but then again you maybe able to shoot full head shots with a 180mm lens on a different camera which will look more normal on a full frame but no Rf works that close on 4x5 on any camera so you are back at ground glass and 3-4 pounds heavier already.

 

Yes the Littman is Limited but the fact is that for Rf photography

on extreme close-ups they all are,

 

I have had great luck shooting tight 180mm /210mm on super D and on Gowlandflex but neither , practical or portable ways to shoot, Lf in a way has always a compromise on one end of the spectrum and I think its not a problem unless one expects that 1 camera has to do all of it, well none do, some are portable and spontaneous as the Littman and some are great for long lens portraits, and some are great View cameras as The Linhoff master tech and others.

 

On a 180mm lens on 4x5 the bellows travels a couple of inches between

5ft (min distance) and infinity but 3x that much between 1-5 ft therefore the close-up cam would have to be a separate one than the

regular rf cam and it isn't practical to make or combine.

 

My interest in the coupled parallax rangefinder project was to find a way to be able to get Frank Kappa type shots on large format and that required mobility and synergy .and closeness is subjective , I believe you are so much closer and communicate much more when the environment can be selected and included rather than edited out thru a long lens.

 

Anyway,on Run-and-Gun 4x5 Travel Shooting would not want to edit out the surroundings otherwise why travel?

Did you ask her? Maybe she likes you to take your time and have lots of movements. Maybe she prefers the Swedish touch. If you really can't be a "slowpoke" then maybe you should just use your point&shoot.