Shooting Large Format on the Galapagos Islands...
We got home from the Galapagos late Monday night. I just picked up my processed transparencies from Calypso Imaging this afternoon....and, although I'm still recovering from a stubborn case of Monteczuma's Revenge, I let out a little yelp of joy and big sigh of relief when I laid the results out on the light table.
I'm at the day job now but, will try to scan and post some of the photos over the coming days.
A little background: I agonized for a couple of weeks prior to leaving..."What camera? Which lenses? What film?" I literally lost sleep over it. I managed to speak by phone with another APUGger just days before leaving. Something titrisol said in our nearly thirty minute phone conversation set me straight. It was to the effect of "Nothing you do photographically should detract in any way from your experience". I reviewed every piece of gear I was contemplating bringing and asked my self, "If this gets lost, stolen, broken or falls in the ocean, will it ruin my vacation?". If the answer was anything resembling "I think so", I didn't take it.
I ended up taking my crown graphic, the stock Schneider 135mm Xenar, a hundred sheets of Provia, a light meter, ten film holders, an old, beat up, Vivitar 914 tripod and a changing bag. The tripod came home even more beat than before. The salt water took its toll but, everything survived.
We travelled as members of a group of fourteen people. Everybody had a camera. Most were basic digital point and shoot. There were a couple of 35mm shooters and one guy with a Nikon D-something and a couple of big ass, high $$$, vibration cancelling zoom lenses. The nature of travelling with a tour group forced me to shoot from the seat of my pants most times. Luckily, "Sunny Sixteen" works pretty well at the equator. I carried the camera on the tripod and shot almost half of the scenes without even taking the lightmeter out of my pocket. As Russell Crowe says in Master and Commander, "Sharp's the word and Quick's the action"; f/22 and 1/50 sec was, pretty much, the default exposure.
I gotta get back to work now but will continue later. I want to thank titrisol for his excellent advice and, I promise, I'll post some evidence that it is possible to do bird photography with a large format press camera and the "normal" lens!
We got home from the Galapagos late Monday night. I just picked up my processed transparencies from Calypso Imaging this afternoon....and, although I'm still recovering from a stubborn case of Monteczuma's Revenge, I let out a little yelp of joy and big sigh of relief when I laid the results out on the light table.
I'm at the day job now but, will try to scan and post some of the photos over the coming days.
A little background: I agonized for a couple of weeks prior to leaving..."What camera? Which lenses? What film?" I literally lost sleep over it. I managed to speak by phone with another APUGger just days before leaving. Something titrisol said in our nearly thirty minute phone conversation set me straight. It was to the effect of "Nothing you do photographically should detract in any way from your experience". I reviewed every piece of gear I was contemplating bringing and asked my self, "If this gets lost, stolen, broken or falls in the ocean, will it ruin my vacation?". If the answer was anything resembling "I think so", I didn't take it.
I ended up taking my crown graphic, the stock Schneider 135mm Xenar, a hundred sheets of Provia, a light meter, ten film holders, an old, beat up, Vivitar 914 tripod and a changing bag. The tripod came home even more beat than before. The salt water took its toll but, everything survived.
We travelled as members of a group of fourteen people. Everybody had a camera. Most were basic digital point and shoot. There were a couple of 35mm shooters and one guy with a Nikon D-something and a couple of big ass, high $$$, vibration cancelling zoom lenses. The nature of travelling with a tour group forced me to shoot from the seat of my pants most times. Luckily, "Sunny Sixteen" works pretty well at the equator. I carried the camera on the tripod and shot almost half of the scenes without even taking the lightmeter out of my pocket. As Russell Crowe says in Master and Commander, "Sharp's the word and Quick's the action"; f/22 and 1/50 sec was, pretty much, the default exposure.
I gotta get back to work now but will continue later. I want to thank titrisol for his excellent advice and, I promise, I'll post some evidence that it is possible to do bird photography with a large format press camera and the "normal" lens!
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