Rediscovering An Old Friend

For the past five years, I've been shooting almost 100% digitally. I've shot all of my advertising, portraits and weddings with small format digital and have been very happy with the results. The other day though, I was cleaning out my storage shed and came across my old 4x5 view camera. For those of you who aren't familiar with a 4x5 view camera, basically, it's like those big old cameras you see in movies where the photographer is tucked under a dark cloth.

So I decided to have a little fun with it. I lugged my camera and tripod up to the choir loft of Saint Spyridon's Greek church in Hillcrest where my wife Jennifer was shooting a wedding. It was kind of fun seeing her and friends like Suzanne Pelke (the wedding coordinator) and Dan from Encore Video hard at work without me actually being involved in the day.

Anyhow, I set the 4x5 upstairs, out of the way. It's a big old beast so it's hard to get funky with it. Still the final result has a unique feel to it that is hard to emulate with small format cameras. It's not so much a film verses digital thing as it is the larger lens and size of the captured image. I shot with Polaroid Type 55 which is what creates the funky border effect. (It's not a digital special effect.) And by the way, I was shocked at the price: $85 for a box of 20. (I won't be lining up to shoot vast amounts of film anytime soon.) Click on the photo to see a larger version.


I'll probably try to bring this in to an upcoming wedding. It's a big contraption and there's usually not enough time to play with it, but for the right occassion it could work.

John