I need a favour. When the world gets back to normal, I’d like to carry on taking pictures of people. Who wants to walk around Glasgow with me & let me practice shooting 120 medium format film with them?
Let me explain.
I use a Canon 5D mkiii for most things. This camera is like an extension of my arm, I can do most things I want with it without even really thinking. I use a Canon 1v for 35mm film photography. It’s a beauty and I love it, as close to the ease of digital as film could ever be.
But, it’s only 35mm. With 120 medium format photography, something special happens, photos are bigger. The kit is clunkier, weirder. Metering is odd, you have to do exposure, focal length, shutter speed maths. You get 10 photographs from a reel of film costing £20. Not as many folks develop it and it’s pricier then, too. But it has something special. The colours, the texture, the depth, the contrast.
Vuhlandes 
Eli Vicks 
Vuhlandes 
Barney Arthur 
Barney Arthur 
Andy Low
Here’s a little gallery showing some of my favourite photographers right now – these folks are all making beautiful photographs with 120 medium format. Visit Vuhlandes, Eli Vicks, Barney Arthur, J Flynn, Andy Low, Ally Green, I could go on & probably will, one day. So, you see, 120 *does* a thing. So, I’m going to put the time & effort in & master it for myself.
And that means I need volunteers. I want someone to spend a couple of hours in Glasgow city with me, when the pandemics calmed down, who will let me take their photograph using a Pentax 67 105mm f/2.4 120 medium format camera that I will be using for the first time. Zero cost to you, the only cost to me is time, film and developing. You can you use any pictures I take that you like, and you’ll let me use them, too. You might need to be patient with me, because it’ll be my first time.
Now, I could snap a friend, but I don’t have many of those IRL, and since taking a photograph steals a tiny piece of your soul, the person I usually photograph is looking for me to branch out & give her a rest. I could hire a model, but I don’t know how to use this camera, so before I do that, which I might, one day, I want to know what I’m doing, so nobodys’ time is a wasting more than they are ok with.
Here’s a few recent shots of mine, I’ll be looking to add whatever we take to my portfolio. Of course, none of these are 120, they’re all digital or 35mm. Not that the format matters, the result does. But, see, that’s why I need to practice, to see if I can get 120 medium format integrated into what it is that I do.
Fancy it? Get in touch!
