The Large Format Photography Podcast

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

https://www.pictoriographica.com/

Stay Safe

Tuesday Apr 13, 2021

#49 Naturally Decaffeinated, Dang!

Tuesday Apr 13, 2021

Now that we don’t have the “bar room” chatter at the beginning of each show these occasional catch up shows allow us to update each other on all that we’ve been up to large format wise, or not, as the case may be.

So no guest but, “dang” we enjoyed shooting the breeze and the welcome return of “Ask Erik”.

Things we chatted about on the show:

Andrew has been in a bit of a photo slump for a few weeks now, and that’s really odd as it’s completely out of character. Dr Erik tries to diagnose his problems.

Both Andrew and Erik have been playing around with previous guest Jason Lane’s excellent dry plates. Andrew has been using the ISO 25 (shot at ISO 6) 1/6^th (easier to type it than say it) plates in his Rolleiflex and developing with ID11 1+1 with minimal agitation to give some control over contrast. Seems to be working well which is more than can be said for his attempts so far with 4x5 ISO 2 plates – still more light needed methinks but we discuss some hints and tips.

Erik has started a little project photographing cars on driveways in his new neighbourhood as a commentary on all things American (way too deep for Simon and Andrew but we humour him).

You can find out all about Jason’s plates here, where to buy them and lots of useful technical detail to help get best results (which Andrew needs to read apparently).

Simon, surprise, surprise, has been buying more cameras this time it’s a Polaroid roll film camera that he will be converting to take 4x5 sheets. Lots of folk convert these cameras but Simon is ignoring all their advice and ploughing his own furrow so we look forward to how that turns out.

Erik mentioned a Thingyverse downloadable set of files for 4x5 conversion – a really great website where you can purchase the thing as a kit if you don’t have access to a 3D printer.

https://film.kolve.org/3ddesign/3d-design-polaroid-110-to-4x5-conversion-kit/?fbclid=IwAR2Bngul7kjpMMcMoJqeacujr3KfURzcJlcWr7Mg-1v-7jBf3JeYIz3vCzs

Simon also purchased a French enlarger lens to use on his graphic camera (maybe) – a Boyer Saphir. These series of lenses are M39 mount and are named after a variety of precious stones (don’t ask).

https://galerie-photo.com/boyer-lens-optic.html?fbclid=IwAR1weHjMeJR9kA6V2JkDYPR2ZoIQz6CA-xt2QsmfEckDoWhyL1X2yUkkTQ8

Andrew mentioned David Lago de Montana from the RB67 FB group who is making Instax Square backs for the RB – OK not LF but it formed part of a discussion around 4x5 conversions.

If you want to learn more here is a FB link.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/166020020119888/search/?q=david%20lago%20de%20monta%C3%B1a

With the triumphant return of “ASK ERIK” emails from;

Ian Wallace

Instagram & Twitter @ian_onahillroad

William Furniss

IG @williamfurniss

And a shout out to John Farnan

https://twitter.com/johnfphotos

https://m.facebook.com/farnanj

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

https://www.reveni-labs.com/

Stay Safe

Tuesday Mar 30, 2021

#48 (Nico's) Large Format Photography Podcast

Tuesday Mar 30, 2021

Although not as cool as David Burnett (according to Greg Obst), nevertheless we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with the unique (if not cool) Nico Llasera.

Nico has been bringing us the weekly film photography photo news since 2015 and alongside his spin off “Super film support” channel they are must watch You Tube shows.

Things we chatted about on the show:

How the channel came about (episode 1 from November 2015 is an interesting watch to see how the show has evolved over the years).

Nico will be joining the Kamerastore team later in the year so he will be relocating to Finland. You can check out their website and blog.

https://kamerastore.com/

We chatted a bit about Orwo film, Reveni Labs and Jobo.

https://www.orwouk.com/

https://www.orwo.family/

https://www.jobo.com/ecms.php?ecms_lang=EN

Nico brought up the New Topographic work of Nicholas Nixon who is also well known for making annual 8x10 portraits of his Wife and her Sisters.

https://fraenkelgallery.com/shop/artist/nixon-nicholas

Nico’s links

Nico’s website with links to YouTube, a route to ask questions and to support Nico’s activities.

https://superfilmsupport.com

Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/nicolasllasera/

Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Nicolasllasera

Other News

Shrug

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

https://www.pictoriographica.com/

Stay Safe

Tuesday Mar 16, 2021

#47 Nicole Small: Vision/Experimentation

Tuesday Mar 16, 2021

Self-portrait artist, studio portrait photographer, pinhole enthusiast, camera builder and enthusiastically inquisitive about all things photographic sums up today’s guest.

Based in Montreal, Canada Nicole loves nothing more than to be out making (usually) large format pinhole self-portraits with cameras she builds herself, usually from foam core and tape – it’s all about the love of creating the image.

Things we chatted about on the show:

Using a pinhole camera for portraits with a longer “focal length” triggered an interesting conversation. There are some excellent resources including the Mr Pinhole site which is invaluable if you are thinking of making your own pinhole portrait camera.

http://mrpinhole.com/

Friend of the show Jason Lane came up a few times as Nicole, Erik and Andrew are all trying to get to grips with his wonderful J Lane dry plates.

Go to Jason’s website for useful info on using the plates under differing lighting conditions.

We go into some discussions about reversal processing, Nicole uses potassium dichromate bleach followed by exposure to light then fixing and second development.

Here is an on line discussion link.

https://photosensitive.ca/bw-reversal-processing-notes/

Hear more of Nicole’s ideas and camera building info on the excellent home made camera podcast.

http://homemadecamera.com/e50-nicole-small/

Find out more about the life and works of Andre Kertesz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Kert%C3%A9sz

Erik once again recommended Alan Green’s book for all things camera building and more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Primitive-Photography-Cameras-Calotypes-Alternative/dp/0240804619/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Nicole’s links

https://www.facebook.com/nicole.small.77

https://www.instagram.com/nicolesmall_oneonone/

Other News

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary,_Indiana#National_Register_of_Historic_Places

Stay Safe

Sunday Feb 28, 2021

#46 Jarob Ortiz; Ansel Did Not Do My Job!

Sunday Feb 28, 2021

When the USA National Park Service advertised for a large format photographer to come and work for them there were 4,500 applicants. Jarob Ortiz sent in his resume and, along with 18 others got through to interview stage and landed the dream job.

Things we chatted about on the show:

Before landing the job Jarob was already photographing historic buildings for his personal work – the town of Gary in Indiana for example.

We discussed the latest on the Reveni Labs spotmeter on Kickstarter now massively over subscribed but (as I type) still active.

https://www.reveni-labs.com/spotmeter

We discovered that it’s really hard to see much of Jarob’s work for the Park Service in a digital form as they are a tad behind on the scanning front but you can go look at all sorts of interesting things at the Heritage Documentation Program site.

The permanent collection of architectural, engineering and landscape documentation at the Library of Congress consists of measured and interpretive drawings, large-format black and white and color photographs, written historical and descriptive data, and original field notes. The collection captures the American experience through approximately 40,000 recorded historic structures and sites, from American Indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde to space-age technology at Cape Canaveral.

https://www.nps.gov/HDP/coll.htm

Although I was sceptical, there is a really interesting FB page too.

https://www.facebook.com/HeritageDocumentationPrograms

We didn’t get to talk lenses which is odd but we did chat a bit about apparently clever digital cameras called Phase one (Simon seemed to know something about them).

https://www.phaseone.com/en/

After the show, Jarob mentioned to us that he would have liked to have answered a question that we did not ask, so here's the question and answer;

What advice do you have for large format photographers?

It's great to draw inspiration from famous photographers and their technique, but it's far more important not to chase them. Everyone has their own approach, all of which is unique to that individual based upon their life experiences and the personality as a result.

Like in my case.... People calling me "the next Ansel Adams" - give me a break! I'll never be Ansel Adams. Ansel was a master of the craft; a man that revolutionized the photographic process with his Zone System approach. I'll never be that. All we can do as photographers is workhard and hold ourselves to a higher standard and someday (hopefully) we'll be noticed.

Jarob’s links

https://www.instagram.com/jarobortiz/

Other News

None to speak of…..

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

https://youtu.be/XkJ__N1Kl4M

Stay Safe

Friday Feb 12, 2021

#45 Matt Beckberger, On The Spot

Friday Feb 12, 2021

When Reveni Labs launched the Kickstarter for their innovative hot shoe mounted meter a couple of years ago it very quickly reached its funding goal. It was therefore no surprise that Matt’s latest Kickstarter was funded within 2 hours.

Things we chatted about on the show:

A fair chunk of time was spent answering some great emails from listeners and all four of us had things to say.

Billy Sanford wrote to us following up our recent discussion around the need (or not) to post to social media and we kicked that around a bit more.

Michael Wellman sent in a great email , although we think he meant to send it to our good friend Matt Marrash , all about image circle. We focused all our joint knowledge and realised it didn’t add up to much but we had a stab at making some relevant points.

A couple of great books that cover this in some detail are:

Using The Viewcamera by Steve Simmons.

And View Camera Technique by Leslie Stroebel .

Aforementioned Matt Marrash put out a video covering this;

Chris King wrote to us with some suggestions for LF press photographers, thanks Chris they are on our radar.

Simon draws our attention to the interview on Grainy Dayz Podcast with Frank Thorp.

https://anchor.fm/grainydayz/episodes/Frank-Thorp-V-gives-us-the-report-e9f4hp/a-a153jq0

Tim Holmes draws us back to our “naval gazing “ episode which led to more chatter and then lastly Michael asked about our hard to find Ko Fi page. Here is the link.

https://ko-fi.com/largeformatphotographypodcast

Eventually we get around to introducing Matt who gets Andrew very excited with talk of his innovative spot meter launching on Kickstarter. Pretty much all you need to know is here on the KS page. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattbechberger/reveni-labs-spot-meter-tiny-spot-meter-for-your-film-camera/description

Shout outs to

Homemade Camera Podcast http://homemadecamera.com/

Nico’s Photo News https://www.facebook.com/nicosphotographyshow

Nick Carver https://www.youtube.com/user/nickcarverphoto

Matt marrash “Large Format Fridays” https://www.youtube.com/user/mat4226

Todd Korol https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ33ldV4AWqroqqjDFbrSuQ

Ben Horne https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtiLZhefLrm4CEMrctJyzUQ

Matts links

http://www.reveni-labs.com/shop

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattbechberger/reveni-labs-spot-meter-tiny-spot-meter-for-your-film-camera

https://www.instagram.com/mattjbechberger/

https://www.instagram.com/revenilabs/

Other News

None to speak of…..

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

https://www.harveymilkphotocenter.org/

Stay Safe

Saturday Jan 30, 2021

#44 David Johnson – “A dream begun so long ago”

Saturday Jan 30, 2021

We were honoured to spend time with David and his wife Jackie for this show.

What a life!

Read and see more here: https://www.apogeephoto.com/octogenarian-photographer-extraordinaire-david-johnson/?fbclid=IwAR2gPD4veOTjGF_HJn3NVMY19cEH7gppmsBnZIxPVh4FJZgZLnDu4Igian8

Things we chatted about on the show:

Erik kicked things off by updating everyone on the progress he has made constructing the wooden barrelled lens for Alana Airitam (see show #39).

David grew up in segregated Jacksonville and then after a stint in the Navy ended up in segregated San Francisco where he photographed what was known to him, and available to him, the citizens of Fillmore.

When David was accepted into the California School of Fine Art it was none other than Minor White https://www.moma.org/artists/6342 who told him how to get the best from his newly acquired 4x5 camera and then encouraged him to make photos of what he knew.

David was part of the “Golden Decade” of photographers – here is an interesting article but you will find more if you search around. https://landscapephotographyblogger.com/tag/golden-decade/

When David came out of the Navy he was assisted as a “GI Bill” artist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Bill a scheme that continues to operate to this day giving financial assistance to veterans wanting to pursue a career in the arts.

During segregation in SF black artists could perform but not stay at the Fairmont Hotel – here is a Wiki entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_San_Francisco

David’s links

See David’s work at the Library of Congress and the Harvey Milk Photo Centre in SF.

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=name&q=Johnson%2C%20David%20S.%2C%201927-&fbclid=IwAR3ZQiFDvFCA9GPzgHJcjv5TADn14akpTIVDieIo5ZdkzDYfOsJA35b1sP4

David’s work is featured in the book from the exhibition of the Golden Decade Photographers.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22447813230&searchurl=isbn%3D9783869309026%26n%3D100121503%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

Other News

None to speak of…..

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

Friday Jan 15, 2021

#43 Unfinished Business

Friday Jan 15, 2021

Eric, Andrew and Simon together for the first proper podcast of the New Year, a time for reflection and looking ahead.

Things we chatted about on the show:

Andrew got a bit philosophical about the addictive nature of social media and to post or not to post and why.

Eric thanked folks for showing up to his world premier (in the LFPP FB group) of his slow riding picture taking film.

“Amish” Gill and 35mmc came up somewhere and Simon talked about lens mounts for large format photography “wot he is making” – for barrel lenses, projector lenses etc.

Bar room chat, how do we still incorporate that part of the show now that there are four of us.

Diversity – not for “diversity’s sake” but to force us to widen our perspectives and, quite frankly, not to have too many guests who look and sound like us!

Other News

None to speak of.

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.

Tuesday Dec 22, 2020

#42 Goodbye Cruel Year

Tuesday Dec 22, 2020

Andrew and Simon were all set to see out the year in peace and quiet but a voice from across the pond just wouldn’t let us rest. Kicking and screaming we were dragged from our respective bunkers to record one more show.

Erik and Andrew were “on camera” but Simon chose to be the all seeing “Eye of Sauron” , and why not.

Things we chatted about on the show:

Although we had planned to spend some time discussing the future direction of the Show Andrew and Eric took up so much time at the beginning we ran out of time, apparently Erik has a proper job that he sometimes has to go to.

Andrew was excited to talk about his new Chroma Snapshot camera from the super clever Steve Lloyd of Chroma Camera – check it out and much more here https://chroma.camera/snapshot/

Simon tried to shoe horn is new Chroma Carbon Adventurer into the conversation but we all agreed it was far too orange to discuss in detail.

Along with the new Snapshot is coming in the post a Schneider Anngulon 90mm f6.8 which is a teeny weeny lens that just about covers 4x5 and is an ideal companion to the snapshot for handheld LF photography.

Thanks to Ben Reynolds https://www.facebook.com/BadBeard or Ren Beynolds as his may be known as well for sending Andrew a Grafmatic film holder which will also pair up nicely with the Snapshot.

Somewhow we moved on to barrel lenses and projector lenses. All three of us I think have the Leitz 200mm f3.6 mounted for 4x5 and whilst this set up is OK for paper negatives we eagerly await a commercial barrel lens shutter system like the one the aforementioned Steve Lloyd is developing.

Erik spoke about the lack of creative spaces in the Bay Area where he lives and the need for such spaces where photographers and printers can gather, use darkrooms, compare prints and generally hang out. Simon tried to convince us that the Six Towns Darkroom in Stoke on Trent , England was such a space but we all agreed it just doesn’t have the weather.

Simon gave a shout out to the spin off podcast “Sunny 16 Presents” and especially show all about Caffenol – here is a link https://sunny16presents.podbean.com/e/on-location-caffenol-with-christian-strauf-and-jonathon-becker/?fbclid=IwAR0_DZ5eqh6_BHnVVw9GLMZlLH4aVpKTHxzBDhdp3KaTaQ-xg2Z_Q6KZpLs

And finally join us on January 2^nd for an exclusive LFPP FB Group screening of the Adobe Create documentary made all about Erik and his epic bicycle ride with a LF camera and dollar bill lens “Ride Slow, Take Photos”.

Other News

The Six Towns Darkroom was OPEN but is now CLOSED as Stoke enters Tier 3 Covid restrictions.

LFPP links -

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

Or from Simon –

Email feedback, ideas and questions for the podcast

largeformatphotographypodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Hosts Social Media presence

Simon Forster

https://www.instagram.com/simonforsterphotographic/

Andrew Bartram

Erik Mathy

A not updated website.

IG probably best for all things including rabbits.