Photographic Pondering

I’ve been thinking more about photography recently than actually doing it! That said I have had three days out over the Easter break, when the weather was decent, and I made some photo’s. So it feels like my “Photographic Year” has finally started.

I have been watching a fair bit of You Tube. Yes, there is a lot of crap on there, but there is also some really good stuff. I first came across Shane Dignum. I think he has been described as the “Bob Ross” of large format, I can see why. If you get chance to watch any of his video’s, not only are they very well produced, the photography is stunning. This led me to Ben Horne. His content is superbly presented, again the photography stunning and another practitioner of large format 8×10. You tube by this point had some suggestions for me, some useful, some not so! We’ll leave it at that! It did guide me towards “Large Format Friday” and the work of Mat Marrash. Again an 8×10 shooter, but also medium format, darkroom work, teaching and more. He has a real energy that is infectious. Infectious to the point I actually moved off the sofa to get my enlarger out! If you have some down time, and feel like chilling in front of the TV, I can’t recommend these guys highly enough! If I came across a nice 8×10 outfit at the right price… lets not go there!

I’ve also caught up on some of the blogs I follow. The next round of film price increases seem to now be hitting the shelves. I’m in two minds about this, by which I mean, on one hand I find it sad that younger people especially getting into the hobby will find it less easy to afford a volume of film to practice on. Yes, I know there are cheaper options, but they are not always easy to find, especially colour. On the other hand I don’t really seriously think that anyone ever got into photography as it was a cheap hobby. I’ve been lucky, stocked up with some colour, while the prices were still sensible, when it’s gone, I’ll probably still buy more, but maybe much less than I would have. A roll of colour may become a “treat” like a roll of Kodachrome 64 was when I was young. Not necessarily a bad thing. “Think more, shoot less” !

It now seems that Pentax might be joining with Leica in re-introducing a film camera. Lets hope it’s with some real plan and enthusiasm for FILM, rather than just a cynical market move – we shall see! In my book anything that encourages analogue, chemistry, film, and craft over sitting in front of a screen for even longer is a good thing!

We’ll that’s my ramble for today – I’m literally going off to process 3 rolls of film now! Results soon!!