Will-full-frame on 4x5

Will-full-frame, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

Lauren 4x5

Lauren 4x5, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

Cambo

Cambo, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

New (used) Enlarger For My Darkroom

OmegaD5XLEnlarger_a, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

I currently have a very tiny dark room and two enlargers that I have to swap in and out depending on if I'm printing from 35mm or from Medium format.  I'm missing key accessories from each enlarger to allow me to only use one.  When I started getting interested in large format, I decided to look for a single enlarger that will do 35mm, Medium and Large formats.  And it had to be a common enough model that parts and accessories could still be found.  I decided to look for either a Beselar M45 or an Omega D model.  What I found was this Omega D5 XL.  It's currently in a friend's garage in Knoxville where I found it on Craig's List, but I hope to bring it home soon.

I started tearing out the counter top in my darkroom (which is really just the back corner of my bedroom closet) to make room for this beast.  It is a monster.  I hope to have some photos up soon of it in it's new home.

Speed Graphic

IMG_8961.jpg, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

I believe this is an Anniversary Speed Graphic. This belongs to a friend of mine. He's a photojournalists with over 20 years experience, but he's never shot this one. He bought it off a veteran that used this in the pacific theater during WW2. This camera has literally been to war. I've given it a light cleaning to make it easier to use, but I'm reluctant to do too much to it. The battle scares give it character.

Stitched 4x5

Stitched 4x5, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

First portrait shot using the borrowed Speed Graphic. The 137mm lens is crazy wide and the ground glass is sort of difficult to frame with. The combination of those two facts explains how miss-framed the paper backdrop.

This one was an experiment. The Speed Graphic I'm borrowing doesn't have a X-sync port on the shutter. So what I did was set the F-stop to 11 and the shutter speed to bulb. I opened the shutter with a cable release in my right hand then tripped my Alien Bee with a Cactus V4 in my left hand, then released the shutter. The Alien Bee is in a small octabox above and left.

This is a 4x5 negative, but my V500 only has a scan window of about 3 1/4" wide. So I scanned it in 2 pieces and stitched it together.

Arista EDU Ultra 4x5 film

Diafine developer (3+3)

I'm developing in trays since I don't have any hangers or daylight tanks for 4x5. I can't even use taco development because my JoBo is too short.

Dark

Dark, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

I shot this of our friend Lauren the other night when she was over visiting my daughters.  I had gotten stagnant in my portrait shooting and  wanted to do something different from my normal style.  I was tired of the overly posed corporate head shot type photo.  I also wanted more contrast since my recent prints in the darkroom were very grey. I felt that her blonde hair would contrast nicely with a black background.  She gave me exactly the expression I wanted.