Buckshot’s Blog

4×5 tri-x, 90mm on the carving and pumpkins, and a petzval projection lens for the still life

Taking photos of a moving child is difficult with a big camera!  Gundlach Radar 12″ lens mounted on the Chamonix 8×10 camera.  Shot at f8 for the shots of Lilly, and f22 for the shot of the beach.  I would liked to have gone down to f4.5 for the shots of lilly, but I was unsure of my focusing on her (she was moving around!)  so I left it at f8 for a tad bit of wiggle room on the focusing.

I took this some months ago, my first time trying some portraits with the 8×10, and incidentally one of the few times I’ve shot under studio lights.  It was enjoyable, but I was uncertain of my results.  The look was intended to have an early hollywood feel.  If I try this again, I will try and make the background curtain brighter, to enhance the silhouette a bit more.  I wasn’t particularly fond of the photo when I first looked at it, so I stuffed the film into my box and didn’t really look at them since then.  I checked them out again today and found that it has grown on me a bit   Tri-x 320 on a Tachihara 8×10 with Gundlach Radar 12″ lens.

In an effort to find the 8×10 camera that is ‘perfect’ for me, I’ve ended up back with Chamonix.  For my 4×5 camera, I tried a few different cameras and ended up with a Chamonix 4×5 that has been serving me very well for close to a year now!  For my 8×10 camera, I’ve tried and owned a few, but have never been quite satisfied all around.  The Chamonix 8×10 just arrived this week, and it feels like a winner!  Light weight (though not quite as light as the Ritter 8×10), remarkably ridged, sturdy, and well made.   It is very easy to open, close, adjust, and use in general just like the 4×5 Chamonix that I have become accustom to.  By trial and error, once again I managed to end up with a Chamonix brand camera, I guess the design of these cameras (both of which, the 4×5 and 8×10 are very similar) just really fit me best, and satisfies the needs and wants for what I have been looking for in large format cameras!

Here are some photos of the camera, with a 450mm fujinon-c mounted.  Scanned negatives from the camera to come very soon!

Here are 6 negatives from a camping trip in Joshua Tree with some coworkers

What an interesting day!  The first 1/2 of the day El Mirage was just like it usually is, hot, windy, and dusty!  After we grabbed a bit to eat and noticed that the sky was getting filled with big dark clouds. When we came back to wait for sunset, a strong wind must have come by and blown all the dust away.  At first we thought the lake bed was wet once we got out into the middle, because we were seeing a reflection on the ground!  (A reflection up close, not a mirage off in the distance), but the lake was bone dry, and completely void of the dust that is usually on top of the hard surface!  The ground must have been so sand-blasted that it was smooth enough to shine a little, it was quite surreal.  You can see the shine in a few of the images here. Also uploaded one real good shot showing the mirage, where the lake bed got it’s name from