Pin Up and Hot Rods

Posted by Paul

A number of things have all conspired, yes conspired – not inspired, me to attempt this shoot.
There has been lots of talk about how we should, as photographers or other creatives, adapt with the times and embrace new technologies. To an extent, I would agree, but we as a society risk loosing so much of our heritage in the blind pursuit of modernism. If we look around us at the the landscape and it’s architecture we see castle’s and manor houses that are hundreds of years old but are still functional and impressive. Admit it, all of us at one time have wanted to live in a castle! Compare this to the buildings of the last century, these were build to meet a need, often quickly built and embracing new technologies (mmm concrete – so sexy…) Which one of these designs has lasted better I ask you?

Now look at our transport systems…which looks better steam or electric trains? Which would you rather travel on – now be realistic, if you are on a commute to work it is going to be the electric train. However this doesn’t mean we should discard the old technology but we accept that each has it place.
With shooting pictures there is a huge fight to have the latest, fastest, biggest mega-pixel camera we can, People sell kidneys and distant relatives to always keep up with the latest trend. We now have camera’s that can take pictures in almost pitch darkness and boast sensors of 18 or more mega pixels that can record a gazillion colours (shame our eyes cannot isn’t it?).

Look back through pictures that have defined history for us, they are shot on 35mm camera’s or the bulkier Medium Format or even Large Format field camera’s. Am I advocating that we all step back to this technology? Not at all, but we should perhaps look at the images we create. So we can now create an image the size of a small house with eye watering sharpness and a veritable rainbow of colours, the question is do we need to? Surely we need to consider the QUALITY of the image we create, not it’s technical quality but its aesthetic qualities, does it work as an image? will people see it and understand what you are trying to achieve?

oooh La La
Pin up Model, kit car

So when I shoot the pin up shoot I will be using a vintage car, I may shoot some of it on film, I will shoot most of it using the Canon 5d2 as it allows me to instantly see what I am doing and also is more cost effective. I will be lighting it using modern flashes / strobes. Do I want a technically perfect image from it? Not really, I want the viewer to look at it and think nice car, gorgeous model – rather than them remarking on the wide gamut of images, the fact you can zoom in and see the eye lashes on my model……..it’s not about the finer details it is about the whole image. It is a reminder of the 1950’s as they never were…..yes I am creating a fantasy but I also want to create a reality that almost was…..

Medium Format

Posted by Paul

When I was younger and playing with different types of camera’s there was a huge range of formats to play with for the general user. We had the tiny pocket sized 110mm cameras, we had the 127 film sized which were almost camera sized and we had a huge range of 35mm cameras, from simple point and shoot to ones that were either fully automatic or fully manual.

I think the first camera that I ever owned was purchased on a family holiday to Butlins. It was a black plastic camera and the shutter was fired by a little metal lever at the front. There was no focus, no metering and it was all mechanical. It was back in the days when you would put them film cartridge into one of those envelopes they had in every magazine for Bonus Print or Supa Snaps and a week later they would return the prints and another film cartridge for you to use.

If you were extremely impatient then you could pop to the local chemists and if you were lucky they would develop and print for you either over night or while you waited, Either way it was quite expensive.

The first real camera that I ever purchased for myself was a Canon EOS 35mm camera, it was quite a basic model but served me for a good few years. You could set the shutter speed and it would automatically meter and set the aperture for you. Although the fastest lens I had at the time was a f4.5 to 5.6 zoom! However that aside it did  what a camera should do and took pretty decent images. Not sure why I chose Canon as my dad shot using a variety of 30mm camera’s, a number of Russian made range-finders Zenit and the like, and latterly a Minolta which he only finally sold a few years ago. He has now developed a love of 3D imaging and is looking to return to film as he has found the limits of the Fuji FinePix 3D digital camera.

For a number of years I neglected picture taking and then bought myself a point and shoot digital camera and rekindled the love of taking pictures. At the time digital was very new and exciting and I saved up and purchased the Canon 300D digital camera…perhaps the worlds first affordable SLR camera. Although at just short of a grand I am not sure how accurate that saying was!!

From there I leapt to the Canon 1D2N which is an incredible camera (even today), each year at Focus on Imaging I would wander along to the Hasselblad stand and look at the camera’s there and drool over the medium format bodies there. Medium Format had always lived in the realm of the working professional rather than dedicated hobbyist and with digital backs starting at around £15k even then. It was never going to happen. Although the recent price drop by Hasselblad will allow you to enter into the range at less than £10k.

Recently I got access to an old Yashica Medium Format TLR camera to use as a prop in some images and there was something magical about the feel and weight of such a robust camera. The shutter was broken on this one but was a relatively easy fix but the cost outweighed the value and so as a prop it remained – but who knows one day?

However the seed was planted and I then acquired a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II. This according to some is the ultimate studio camera (or was in the days of film). It is built like a small battleship and weighs about the same. The lens are pretty much all prime for this camera and with no metering and manual focus the studio or perhaps landscape are it’s playgrounds. You are not going to be shooting action with this. However get caught in a riot with this and you are going to have a very effective club!

There is something very retro about peering down into a huge bright waist level viewfinder and hearing the resounding clunk as you fire the trigger. However with only 10 images per roll it is not the cheapest and developing costs in this country are somewhat prohibitive if you want the images scanned. However after watching Framed Network I contacted Richard Photo Lab in America who will develop and scan for a very reasonable price.

I am looking forward to seeing the results of scanned images as thus far have only used some polaroid through it which was not the sharpest image (not that it was ever supposed to be) and one roll that I had developed by Jessops. I wasn’t happy with the way they developed nor the results and so wont be trusting them again!