Are you obsessed with ULF?

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Let's see:

11x14, check.
7x17, check.
12x20, check.
16x20, check.
20x24,check.
8x20,....8x20..not yet.
14x17, nope.
So, on balance, I am not adicted. I have with stood temptaton twice.

Damn, Allen only two more to go! I have to clean my apartment before I can expand the camera line! Cleaning begins Saturday! The addiction has begun!

Jim

 

[doughowk]

Getting interested in alternative processes has been the primary spur to moving beyond 4X5. My 4X5 and smaller gear frequently stays home while I take the 8X10 & 7X17 Koronas. Some of my friends have gone the digitally enlarged negative route for alt processes, but there is something special about viewing the final image on the ground glass. And 7X17 is an ideal format for flat Florida wherein the clouds are often the primary subject.

 

[Dan Dozer]

Jim,

You're not allowed to start the 11 x 14 until after you expose at least one sheet of 8 x 20 - so just keep it a fantasy for now. Sounds like you're just about ready for another road trip to Joshua Tree. Hugo and I are both ready. I think I got my holder all ready now and I'm going out on Sunday for a test run. Keep you posted.

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Jim,

You're not allowed to start the 11 x 14 until after you expose at least one sheet of 8 x 20 - so just keep it a fantasy for now. Sounds like you're just about ready for another road trip to Joshua Tree. Hugo and I are both ready. I think I got my holder all ready now and I'm going out on Sunday for a test run. Keep you posted.

Dan, it is turning out just great! I'm finishing the ground glass back as we speak. I'm still contemplating the bellows. It will be faster if I have Mark Kapono build it for me. Have to wait a while as funds are low. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow. Yes, I would love to do another Joshua Tree with you and Hugo. I had a great time shooting with both of you.This time I need my 8x20 so we can all be using similar formats! I'll keep you posted. There is an idea, ULF's at Joshua Tree!

Jim

 

[barryjyoung]

I'm considering building a 11x14! I am crazy, I know, but does this obsession just go on and on?

Let's see. I want more than anything to leave my six figure job as a tool and die maker to move out into the middle of nowhere to manufacture photo equipment. This will cost me a TON to do. I will no longer have access to health care, family, friends or really good thrift stores and industrial supply houses. I expect to make a third of what I make now as far as money.

So to answer your question, no, it is not an obsession, it is an all encompassing passion.

Barry Young
Young Camera Company

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Barry, I think you have said it the best. It is a passion!

Jim

 

[Zebra]

I sold some land, drugged my wife into a semi catatonic state for 48 hours for which time I played a tape over and over that stated 20 x 24 Ebony, feigned surprise and wonderment at her okaying my suggestion after allowing her to come back to the lucid and then waited for 12 months to receive it.

Am I wrong to have done that?

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I sold some land, drugged my wife into a semi catatonic state for 48 hours for which time I played a tape over and over that stated 20 x 24 Ebony, feigned surprise and wonderment at her okaying my suggestion after allowing her to come back to the lucid and then waited for 12 months to receive it.

Am I wrong to have done that?

I love it! Now there is a contact print!!! I can only imagine you saying " ok honey, if I must get the 20x24 I must!" And who says drugs are bad???

Jim

 

[Curt]

Am I wrong to have done that?

Not wrong when she will do it to you and when you come around you will love her new diamond ring.

Jim, aren't you going to make a bellows for your camera? Think of the money you will be saving for film.
Curt

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Not wrong when she will do it to you and when you come around you will love her new diamond ring.

Jim, aren't you going to make a bellows for your camera? Think of the money you will be saving for film.
Curt

Curt, The film is in the fridge right now! Still contemplating if I will do it myself or have Mark in Hawaii make it for me? I know Dan would help me with the bellows. So I'm still undecided. I'm going to try and post some new pics soon.

Jim

 

[Curt]

Great, I eagerly await the pictures as I know how hard you have worked on the camera. I made a corner fold mockup for my Seneca 8x10 and will make a kraft paper bellows to check for accuracy in design then make the real one, soon I hope. It's been a long time since I made my last one.
Good luck,
Curt

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Is it possible to do ULF photography in this day and age (as if the day were somehow different from the age in this context) without it being something of an obsession?

I've only got two cameras larger than 8x10"--11x14" and 7x17" and I think I'm standing pat with those for a while.

 

[Curt]

I'm leaning toward the 11x14, I had Dave make a gg and the rest is just shop work. I still favor 5x7 but I did buy a new 4x5 in case my back takes a turn for the worse. The larger issue is lenses, they get expensive adding more and more to my already large inventory. My goal is to make an 11x14 that is relative light weight. I like the size of 11x14 also, that helps, and the move away from enlarging and towards a more Weston approach is another motive. I would like to see what I can do with a simplified approach to the medium. Contact prints are exquisite in their own right, not that there is anything wrong with enlarging if the enlargement is not that great. Reading the books about E.Weston and Paul Strand lately I noticed that both made quite of lot of small contact prints. Most were in the size of 4x5 and 5x7 with some as small as 3x4 inches. I think a person could rightly start out contact printing 4x5 and move up to ULF bringing with them the techniques needed, making the experience more enjoyable. I always said that with 5x7 one can contact print and enlarge. I considered 7x17 but half of an 11x14 would be 5 1/2 x 14 and that would satisfy my need for pano.

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Curt, I too like the look of an 11x14. I've been enlarging some 4x5 negs and they look right to me. It ia all a personal thing. Once the 8x20 is up and running maybe I'll start the 11x14.

Jim

 

[jonw]

Apparently, I too am hooked on ULF. I purchased my 11x14 Rochester New Improved Empire State in February. Today, I received a call from Freestyle confirming my 11x14 FP4+ order would arrive within the next 10 days. Checking out the fridge and freezer space, I discovered I have more ULF
11x14 film already stockpiled than I do for my smaller format cameras, i.e., 8x10, 5x7, and 4x5.

Jon

 

[ReallyBigCameras]

I considered 7x17 but half of an 11x14 would be 5 1/2 x 14 and that would satisfy my need for pano.

Aw, come on Curt. Why not just go all out for a 14x17 and 7x17? In for a penny, in for a pound (or 20). My first ULF was my 7x17 Franken-ARCA and I'm already dreaming of a 14x17 version. In fact, I've obtained a number of 14x17 Fidelity x-ray holders at reasonable prices (including two more on the way from Jim Galli) and have a couple boxes of 14x17 FP4+ in the freezer (next to the 7x17 FP4+ and TMAX 400).

Kerry

P.S. Me: "Hello my name is Kerry and I'm a ULFaholic."
All: "Hello Kerry."

 

[ReallyBigCameras]

Opps, I just checked my 14x17 holders and they don't specifically say "x-ray" anywhere on them, just "14x17 Film Cassette" and "Fidelity Mfg. Co. Burbank, California". Although I have seen them for sale new on medical supply company web sites in the past.

They are very nicely made, but don't have a raised ridge like other holders, and with the metal dark slides, they are VERY heavy - about 6 lbs. 7 oz. on average. But hey, they were cheap (as far as ULF holders go).

Kerry

 

[Curt]

I have two 11x14 older than the hills, BC, film (that's a laugh) holders. They were the made for glass ones. Will they work? I don't know yet, probably not worth the effort. Soooo I will have to make at least 6 film holders to have anything worth while. I will see what happens.

I am waiting to see the camera that Jim is working on for the time being and restoring two Seneca cameras, an 8x10 and its smaller 5x7. I would rather build one from scratch than restore one that previous owners have made their modifications on. If I made a ULF ULF it would be a 16x20 and not a 14x17 but then I am not in that mood these days. A light weight 11x14 is in my sights though.

My dream camera is a Canham 5x7. I bought a new Canham 5x7 bellows and have all of the materials to make a Canham like camera. I have two well seasoned planks of Honduras Mahogany and the rack and pinion ready for me to go to work. I just need my energy to return, in the mean time it's the restoration process.

Curt

 

[ReallyBigCameras]

Curt,

I've been drawn to the 14x17 format for a while, but the clincher was the availability of affordable 14x17 Fidelity holders. I have neither the skill, the inclination, nor the time to attempt making my own holders. Based on past experience, in non-standard formats (4x10, 6½x8½, 7x17 and now 14x17), I've learned to ALWAYS get some viable holders FIRST and then start worrying about trivial things like a camera. I got burned once in the past by purchasing the camera first (a 4x10 Wisner) and then being unable to locate usable holders that fit it. For about the cost of 1.5 cutom made 14x17 wooden holders, I now have 7 of the 14x17 Fidelity holders. The only real complaint I have (or will have when lugging them around in the field) is the weight. I think wooden holders would weigh about half as much (but cost 4 - 5x as much).

16x20 would be great, but I think I'll stop at 14x17 (of course, a year ago I "stopped" at 7x17).

Kerry

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

That's right guys I stopped at 8x10! Now I'm going to stop at 8x20! Yeh, right! I've been making some very nice 11x14 enlargements so why not build a 11x14 and do contact prints! Hell, why not skip the 11x14 and do the 14x17? I have lenses that may cover. The holders are the problem. But if Kerry was able to score some relatively inexpensively!!!???? But then again I just made my first 16x20 enlargements!!!! 16x20........ oh someone please make me stop!! I guess we should all just have a group build of 20x24's and be done with this!!! If we all do it do you think we could get a deal on T-Max 400 in 20x24??? How am I going to develop negs in my apartment? I guess I'll have to black out the whole place!!! Enjoy whatever size turns you on. ULF is great!!!!

Jim

 

[Curt]

Jim, how are you making 16x20's in a one bedroom apartment? Do you have an 8x10 enlarger in a closet?

These film holders need some rethinking, maybe a one film holder of another design. Build the holders and they will come...

Curt

 

[Zebra]

That's right guys I stopped at 8x10! Now I'm going to stop at 8x20! Yeh, right! I've been making some very nice 11x14 enlargements so why not build a 11x14 and do contact prints! Hell, why not skip the 11x14 and do the 14x17? I have lenses that may cover. The holders are the problem. But if Kerry was able to score some relatively inexpensively!!!???? But then again I just made my first 16x20 enlargements!!!! 16x20........ oh someone please make me stop!! I guess we should all just have a group build of 20x24's and be done with this!!! If we all do it do you think we could get a deal on T-Max 400 in 20x24??? How am I going to develop negs in my apartment? I guess I'll have to black out the whole place!!! Enjoy whatever size turns you on. ULF is great!!!!

Jim


FILM? We don't need no stinking film!!!

Film is merely a suggestion to the rational ULF man/woman. 20 x 24 Wet Plate Collodion--Tintypes and Ambrotypes is the way to go. Mix 'er up and pour 'er on. If you are ever in Asheville, North Carolina drop a line and come on over and take a dip in the silver Nitrate Pool we keep out back. Instant tan when it touches the skin to boot.

To answer your question about TMAX 400 in 20 x 24 yes they will take your order/money for it--getting Kodak to deliver it is another issue all together! Although those in the know say its soon to come to pass. I remain hopeful. Until then the FP4 in the freezer is SSSUUUUUUWWWEEEETTTT.

This was posted generously by Kerik when I was having trouble posting a while back but since this thread is all about temptation I'll throw one of my better efforts with the 20 x 24 out there to muddy the waters a bit more. Gum Over Pt/Pd Van Dyke Brown/Burnt Siena. My son Satchel Cochise--the Medicine Man. Sorry 20 x 24 Ambrotypes don't scan very well so I don't have any didgitized to share.

Enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole!

Monty

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Me: "Hello my name is Kerry and I'm a ULFaholic."
All: "Hello Kerry."

Geeze, Kerry. What ever happened to "Thalmann, Zen master of the ultralight backpacking kit"?

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Monty and everyone! I told you it is an obssesion! Then there is alternative processes! I love this! To bad I have to have a day job to help pay for all of this. Can't wait till I get my last two son's out of college. I got my oldest out of Stanford ($$$) but I still have USC and U. C. Santa Cruz to go! I told my boys that all I want for payback is a REAL darkroom! Well maybe a.......! Maybe then I can get serious about this.

Curt, the bedroom is the darkroom. Enlarger is in there and I develop and print in the tub/bathroom. I'm getting very good at space management. It comes from the degree I'm working on in Moving Science Technology. ( Moving three from dorm to dorm makes one very good with space limitations!)

Jim

 

[sanking]

BTW, if the issue preventing you form fully exploring the ULF option is concern from the partner, spouse or signifiant other about expense I have a wondeful remedy. Just take up sailing. You will spend so much money that it won't be long before someone gives you a brand new 7X17 or 12X20 Canham to lure you back into photography and keep you in the darkroom and off the water.

Sandy King