Now that some time has passed, and I’ve had the opportunity to work through most of my Alaska film, it’s time to write about the photography experience of the trip. Where the last post was all about the adventure, this one will focus more on the logistics and challenges of photographing up there - especially on large format film. I’m also going to use this article as a chance to share a significant number of images from the trip, all taken on large format film…

Updated - April 2023

One of the most common questions from fellow photographers is about the types of color films I use and why I use them. I figured this would be a good subject to write about to provide some insight on film types. The question frequently comes from someone who may have just gotten their first film camera and wants to know what kind of film to use for landscapes, as well as those who are committed to one film type but curious about trying something new…

Have you ever wanted to travel as far north and west as roads will take you in North America, to see a land covered in glaciers, tundra, and wilderness? It’s a idea that’s been on my radar for a decade; after a brief trip by plane I found the vast landscape to be captivating on a level I’d never experienced before. But to do it right required a slow tour with plenty of time, and the journey would be just as important as the destination. This meant seeing it by road, on a trip without a strict schedule and with months to burn. After being tied up with busy summers for years I decided to set aside the summer and autumn of 2022 and finally make it happen…

Nothing quite captures a vast landscape or moody forest scene the way a panorama does; the wide, narrow format can emulate the way our mind sees these views by cutting out the mess and revealing only the essential visual interests. I’ve long been a fan of panoramas, especially when it comes to large print sizes…

Have you ever wanted to be a little more precise with focus when using a view camera? Where exactly should we set the focus and what aperture should we use to ensure a full depth of field with everything sharp from near to far? Raise your hand if you’ve ever used the method “just focus on something and stop down to f32.” It’s ok, I’m guilty of taking that approach myself. It works more often than we’d like to admit. But wouldn’t it be nice to know with 100% certainty that you nailed the focus and used the correct aperture?…

Whether you’re just starting out with large format photography or looking for the next lens to expand your shooting style, choosing the proper focal length for the scene makes a big difference. What I’ve noticed with 4x5 is that unlike smaller formats, it’s a lot harder to pick out what focal length a photographer used when taking an image. When viewing an image shot on a DSLR of a flower bush pressed close to the lens and a grand mountain scene in the background, it’s often easy to tell that an extreme wide-angle lens was used. This becomes a little more difficult to pick out when a wide angle lens is 75mm compared to 24mm and distortion almost unnoticeable. This has led to a lot of people asking me “what focal length did you use for this image?”…

This is just going to be a quick one! As many of you may know, new CT scanners are being installed in airports around the world at a rapid pace. These new scanners are being used to inspect carry on baggage and Kodak has reported that only one pass through the scanner will destroy your film. For decades it has been the recommendation to simply let your film go through the carry on X rays, but that is no longer the case….

Color negative film has increasingly become a larger part of my workflow over the last several years and with good reason: the flexibility of the stuff is just phenomenal. It can be used to capture all the delicate subtleties of a low contrast scene as well as landscape scenes with intense dynamic range. If you don’t know what you will be getting into when you head out for a shoot it’s an excellent choice because it can handle anything you throw at it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for a specific purpose or aesthetic either. Color negatives are the film type that I get the most questions about, mostly because people see such a wide variety of looks coming out of the same film types…

This one is for you DSLR scanning folks, or those who want more control out of your film scanner. It’s been just about three years now that I’ve been using a drum scanner which has drastically changed my scanning process with color negative film. While the software for this scanner is incredibly powerful, it falls apart when it comes to inverting color negatives. This means that I had to develop a method to do this on my own that can work for every image I throw at it. While I love sharing my findings with the film community, I wasn’t sure that a technique I developed for drum scanning would be helpful to the average shooter. It turns out that this manual inversion can work no matter what you use to scan your film with…

If you’ve browsed through my images, chances are you’ve noticed that I’m a big fan of twilight and early morning light; the soft warm glow on the landscape is just sublime.  Shooting in twilight comes with its own set of challenges, but those are greatly increased when trying to use a large format view camera. I’m going to share some tips that can help you out when the light is fading fast, or when you arrived well before sunrise and don’t want to miss the morning glow because you can’t see anything…

After a year of backpacking with the intrepid 4x5 camera, I realized I was really falling in love with the idea of just using a lightweight wooden box to create images. I used the “older” mk2 version last summer during several trips…

Many of you who follow me on social media have heard that I acquired a drum scanner about a year ago.  I spent much of the last year learning how to properly wet mount film and operate this beast of a machine.  Now after scanning about a hundred sheets I now have some results to share...

I just wrapped up a nice 5 day backpacking trip in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, which gave me a great chance to become familiarized with the new Intrepid 4x5" field camera.  If you're not familiar with the Wind River Range, it's a huge area with over a thousand alpine lakes and deep wild valleys surrounded by lofty granite spires that attract climbers from around the world.  It's also known for lengthy hikes to most of the locations that keep the day hikers out and make it a great backcountry destination.  Just about all of the good spots.....

It’s time for me to answer another set of frequently asked questions, one that I get almost weekly so I need to make a blog post about it.  Do you use GND filters, how do you choose the right filter, which ones should I buy, how do you position them, and how do you meter for them?  Well the answer to the first question is a big definite yes, I use GND filters for the majority of my images and I will explain the rest throughout this post in great detail...

It's time for a long overdue post.  Looking back through my archives, I realized that I've covered topics like film selections and scanning film but to date I've skipped one really important part: metering and exposing color film.  This is something I get quite a few questions about so bear with me while I try to be very thorough and cover topics from different lighting conditions and how I would meter with the various film types, both color negatives and slides...

The backcountry is where it's at for landscapes!  The feeling of waking up in a remote location that only a few people see in a year and capturing a sunrise that no one else witnessed is amazing.  Many times when I get to my destination there isn't another person to be seen anywhere!  It really lets us connect with our surroundings and create better landscape images.  It has changed the way I photograph forever.  After being in such remote locations and having a whole mountain valley to yourself, it's really hard to imagine...