The Vertical Portrait

Tonight at work I have been thinking of the monk photos, what they should look like. I quite often shoot tighter head and upper body portraits but what I want to start to do more full body verticals that include the feet. For years my 8x10 white background shots and my 4x5 portraiture work have been 3/4, 1/2 body and various versions of head shots, now I need to go wider.

This coming week off I will try to make some shots with the Deardorff and the 250mm Fujinon. I will make verticals with very limited depth of focus, maybe shooting at F6.7 or F5.6. I need to keep the shutter speeds up around 1/8-1/15 or higher. Like Sturges says the thing that destroys a large format portrait most often is the background, I need to concentrate on finding the right backs for the pics. Even if I have a very shallow depth of field of 6 inches or so I need to find at worst a neutral background or at best a background that helps the picture tell its story better. I will also try using my largest reflector to bounce some light on my subject.

Anyway it should be fun to do these portraits up, I will shoot the Ilford HP5 film (got it with my blog advertising money) for now but later if everything goes to plan I can do portraits in thai of Monks/Police/Soldiers/Ladyboys/Construction Workers/Fisherman/Students/Office Workers etc with the same set up using my more expensive Tri-x.

In my mind I can see the photos now in a nice gallery, large prints, dozens of them, maybe larger than 20x24, heck maybe life size. The prints are vertical portraits of people across the country of Thailand, my "Khon Thai" series brought to life. The portraits would tell stories of the humanity of the Thai people, the variety of who and what they are. It would be f-cking beautiful, and an important way to use this film. Gosh I got to try hard to get this done.

Monk Portrait Project?

Well another day and another photo series idea comes forth. I was thinking what project can I use my  600 sheets of Tri-x  8x10 film for? This film is expensive, I need to use it it on an important series of pictures. I have always felt that buying film was more important than other concerns, like gear, socializing with friends, traveling, buying the latest greatest toys etc. There is a catch thou! Once you buy the stuff you can't sit on your ass and dream about making pics, you have the film in your freezer getting older by the day, you need to create, you need to shoot! I bought my $4000 of Tri-x 8x10, now what do I do with it? The great thing about film is not owning it, that's not why its more important than those other things mentioned. The great thing about film is what you can create with it, with film you can make photos, you can capture immortal moments that tell powerful stories, if the pic is good enough.

I was looking through Kenro Izu's book "A Thirty Year Retrospective" and was inspired by 2 of his Buddhist monk photographs. I thought why not do a series on monks in Thailand? I could travel to all areas of the country to all the small temples I can find and make pics with the 8x10 Masterview or the Deardorff. Heck I could even extend the work into other Buddhist countries like Laos, Burma and Cambodia. This project like most of my others might take a 5 years or longer to complete.

Another more extravagant option would be to use a larger format view camera, Mr. Izu used a 14x20 Deardorff for his work so a 11x14 camera or something larger is possible. Like always more thought needed, got to think about this for a while and see if it develops into something greater.

14x20 Deardorff Camera?

At some point in the future I will probably buy a very large format view camera. I found one today that would be a blast to use, especially for wet plate, making tintypes and ambrotypes with thing would be freaking awesome. The other possibility is to make large 14x20 normal negs ($20+ a shot, HP5 is available) and then do alternative process prints such as platinum.

Kenro Izu uses this camera for his wonderful work, its a 32 pound $7750 14x20 Deardorff. One side benefit of going large like this is there are interchangeable backs for 8x20, 12x20 and 11x14. I am most interested in the 11x14, could do vertical portraits, only horizontal shots possible with the Deardorf 14x20.

http://www.deardorffcameras.com/products-page/deardorff-cameras/12x20-deardorff-view-camera-v12-duplicate-2/

This is all speculation and years away but if I could get a camera like this with the 11x14 back I could do a Buddha image (statues, paintings etc) series in Thai/Laos/Burma/Cambodia and also my "Lost Innocence" (broken hearts?) head shot series.

Anyway this is all a bit of a dream but sometimes these things percolate for years and then you end up making photos as a result. For example a dream from 20 years ago got me making photographs in Thailand, maybe these new thoughts will lead to something also.

New 14x20 Deardorff View Camera

Bought A Carbon Fibre Gitzo Tripod

Well I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a Gitzo carbon fibre tripod for my 4x5 portrait work. For the last 5 years or so I have hemmed and hawed, bought cheap chinese carbon tripods looked at the Gitzos online but never purchased one. I was looking on ebay for the longest time to a used Gitzo carbon fiber that had a geared center post (something Jock Sturges recommended to me for portrait work, he said it was essential). Today at long last I found a tripod that I think (hope!) will work for me. The tripod is a Gitzo G1325 carbon fiber with a G338 Studex compact geared center column, it is supposed to be in 9++ almost new condition and cost me $595USD plus shipping.

My rationales for buying it:

1) My cheaper Chinese tripod broke down and I glued it together in Thai 2 years ago. I am always worried I will be in the middle of no where making photos sometime and it will break down again.

2) This tripod has a geared center column, something that is very important for quick compositions in the field while your subject is waiting. I should be able to set this tripod up quickly and compose smoothly and with little effort.

3) The tripod has 3 quick release legs not 4. The 4 leg quick release design is usually more compact but its a pain in the ass to use, I much prefer the 3 quick release (my cheap Chinese tripod has 3). You can quite often set up your tripod by quickly unscrewing and tightening 3 legs not 6.

4) The tripod is extremely light, and its very well made, its a fricking Gitzo! I should get years of shooting, maybe a lifetime of shooting out of this thing. I have never been disappointed when I pay a bit more to get the best made gear, hopefully this purchase will continue that trend. When your in Thailand standing in a rice field, photographing a group of farmers, under the 30C burning hot sun, 15 hours by multiple bumpy buses from Bangkok you want something that's not going to break down on you!

Even thou this is a used second hand item (as is 95% of my equipment) I have high hopes for it. I hope to use it in Asia with not only my Linhof 4x5 but also with the Linhof 5x7 for many many years to come. It has a 26 pound load capacity so I think it can handle both cameras. I plan to shoot the crap out of this thing, $595 is a lot of money for me, but sometimes you just go for it whent he opportunity presents itself. When I make my first good portrait with this new tripod i will soon forget about the cost.

Kind of ironic that I got the tripod I always wanted and the 90mm Nikon lens I wanted, and this coming trip I will not take the fricking 4x5!! Maybe I need to change my mind again.

Quotes: Eddie Adams

"Making pictures in Vietnam is easy...things are happening all around and you just have to  press  a button and not get killed."

"Pictures do lie; pictures don't tell the whole story. You're looking at 1/500th of a second, it's a moment. It doesn't tell you why... You don't see all sides. But pictures are important because people believe in them."


"The camera is like a shield and I will go into situations unarmed, I've never carried a weapon, I feel That the camera's going to protect me, you know, and I think that's a port of survival too."