Alan Townsend

I am mostly a woodland photographer who goes to local woodlands and then goes on foot carrying my gear on 2-4 mile hikes searching for images. My gear needs to be light weight, so I am limited to 4x5 on the large side. I mostly shoot 35mm, but use similar methods as those using view cameras. I am always on the tripod with my mirror locked up. I use a 100 speed film (Kentmere 100) with yellow or orange filters with occasional red filter. My main camera is a 1967 Minolta SRT-101 which I like very much due to manual control and the mirror lock up.

I use a Tamron 28-200 zoom at F11 which gives good sharpness and depth of field. Also a Vivitar 17-28 that I use sometimes. These lenses give great speed and flexibility as well as allowing perfect composition. My exposure times run between 1/15th and 1 second, so mirror lock up is needed. I always use a right angle finder with a focus magnifier. I also have a Minolta x700 that I bought new 30 years ago but dont like much. I use this camera mostly for film testing. I use both the TTL meter and a hand held Gossen Luna Pro meter. I scan my negatives with my phone for aesthetic proofing. My best work is enlarged to beteen 5x7 and 16x20 for alt printing.

I also have several 4x5 cameras that I use with Fuji hru green double sided xray film. When I finish building my lightweight 4x5 I can use it much more. I love playing with chemicals. Home brewed developers and fixers, alt printing, and working on new processes and methods that are purely old school film and nondigital.