Over the last eleven months or so I’ve gained a bit of a reputation for my swing-lens 35mm panoramas so it’s a bit of a surprise to note than in recent weeks I’ve moved to pinhole and large format in preference to the panoramas.
Until you think about it that is.
I rarely move far from home these days so it is no surprise that I’ve temporarily run out of things that I want to photograph locally in the panoramic format. Once Winter arrives there will be different conditions and the chance of fog, rain, snow and ice to revitalise my panoramic wandering. Until then I’ve other formats to play with whilst still ploughing my local, urban furrow.
“What about Autumn!” I hear someone cry. Well, it’s no secret that I’m generally a black and white film worker but what will be less known is that once Autumn arrives I typically pick up the Fujifilm X-H1, a digital camera, and a 16mm lens for those colourful autumnal clichés. As I decided a few months back that I was no longer going to develop colour film myself there is also less incentive to load colour film. B&W film photography fits around this diversion.
Incidentally, I’ve still used my panoramic cameras. I’ve been experimenting with gels as contrast control filters on the KMZ FT-2 for example. I also took the Horizon S3 Pro to Hunstanton recently, but my main focus (see what I did there?) here at home has been urban pinhole and woodlands in 5×4.
As an aside when I went to the Norfolk coast recently I took a bag of 120 film along with the ONDU 6×6 and the Bronica ETRS. For the 35mm Horizon I took three rolls of 200 speed colour film, yes you read that right, colour. I used two and these will hopefully make an appearance here on the blog shortly. Once I get them back from the lab; but more on that in a future post.
So, whilst I get most enjoyment from my panoramic cameras, and wouldn’t dream of leaving Elland without one, I am pragmatic enough to recognise that mixing up the formats helps keep me fresh and interested. Especially in the current circumstances when our “normal” activities are anything but. Your mileage may vary of course but as a self-confessed photographic butterfly mixing up the formats can be just as effective at keeping my mojo alive these days as travel did in the past.
Dave's Place 