traveling and shooting LF

hello all,
i am planningto spend 17 days in SW Utah. We are leaving from NY. i planned on taking my 8x10 2D. i am shipping it by the post office to save the plane difficulties. well, i decide to take my wooden 4x5 as well. am i crazy? i figure the 8x10 is the out of car shooter and the 4x5 i can carry in. i will also be shooting lensless images in both formats.

any suggetsions on how much film you would take would be great. i know everyone has there own style and techniques, i am just curious what others would bring. i have got B&W and E6 for both.

it would be great to hear from all you who take their LF on photo trips. i have been a travel photog overseas for sometime, but it was all 120 and 135 formats. this is my first plane trip LF photo outing. it should be awesome!

thanks
eddie

When we head to our place in Northern Ontario for holidays each year, I carry both the 4x5 and the 8x10 (I'm driving though , so it's easier). For film, I take unexposed 4x5 in the store packages which is easy. The problem is AFTER it's exposed - how do you carry it until its gets developed and STILL be able to use your film holders? This is also easy ... I made black ABS tubes with one threaded end and a thread cap to seal them light-tight (and also very liquid-tight within reason). As I unload my holders, I always unload them into the tube in order of my photo log and when I get home, I develop them from the tubes in reverse order so that they don't get mixed up. Because I cut my own 8x10 from rolls of Plus-X Aero, I have two tubes for the 8x10, one for unexposed sheets and one for the exposed sheets. This way I can take as many photos as I want without having to worry about the development until I get home. Also, the tubes are VERY rugged and if something happens physically to the truck we take, the film will likely survive and if it doesn't, we likely didn't either ....

cheers

Eddie,
whenever I'm travelling I stick with readyloads/quickloads/polaroid for 5x4, I know it's more expensive, but calculate the total cost of your trip and then compare the difference! take as much film as you can carry; whenever I take both formats, I find I shoot 5x4 about 3-4 more times than 10x8 and always in B&W. Take along spare film boxes for exposed film and secure with elastic bands, if you go for n+, n n- processing, label each box appropriately (label the quickloads as required). I haven't found the extra space a worry, considering how much stuff you will be carrying around.

I took about 250 sheets of 4x5 b/w and 100 of color transparency when I went to the Eastern Sierra for 6 days last year. I used about 125 of the b/w and 20 of the color. I'm doing a similar load for my upcoming trip to Argentina, which will be 12 days on the ground - because I'm toting 5x7 as my main format, I'll be a little more limited in my film choices - 250 sheets of 100 speed b/w, 50 of 400, and 50 of 100 speed color neg. I'd much rather take too much film than too little, especially when dealing with a format like 5x7 where finding film in the field will be essentially impossible.

I agree about taking some spare empty boxes for segregating out the N, N+ and N- sheets. Just take along a good mechanical pencil with a fine point to mark your holders as you shoot them, then sort the holders back in your room or your tent or wherever, offload in the appropriate boxes, and erase the markings so you're good to go for the next day.

John Bartley said:

... I made black ABS tubes with one threaded end and a thread cap to seal them light-tight...

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John,

Exactly what are ABS tubes and where do you get them?

Are they the same or similar to PVC pipe?

narsuitus said:

Exactly what are ABS tubes and where do you get them?

Are they the same or similar to PVC pipe?

Click to expand...

ABS is the older original plastic pipe which is no longer approved for certain uses. PVC is white, ABS is black. The two require different glues and primers. I've found both at Lowe's, but not the ABS at my local Home Depot. (For plumbing purposes you can use the two together with special connectors.)

For exposed film, I use the black plastic bags from Freestyle. 4x5's go into a 4x5 bag, that goes into a 5x7 bag, then into a cardboard mailer that I tape shut.

When you're traveling, and space is at a premium, this uses up a lot less space than boxes and allows for more separation of various films/shots, if that's important to you.

The lab I use in NY has not been pleased with this arrangement so I now transfer everything to boxes before giving it to them. However, I've not had any fogging that I can see.

thanks everyone. i just got back into town from a shoot. i appreciate all the info. one more question i should have asked. how many film holders do you take?
thanks
eddie

eddie gunks said:

thanks everyone. i just got back into town from a shoot. i appreciate all the info. one more question i should have asked. how many film holders do you take?
thanks
eddie

Click to expand...

ALL YOU HAVE and can beg or borrow. Never too many, even if you leave some in your room and carry what you expect to use each day, it beats unloading and reloading film holder on the road, or at least frequently.