One nifty feature of using a tilting body to throw plane of focus around, is just like normal use of plane of focus, one can direct attention to very specific places. Unlike normal use of focus, tilting allows you to do this at infinity. Usually its not possible to separate one element at infinity from another via focus, but sometimes the difference between possible and impossible is merely the right set of tools.

Hasselblad Flexbody
Ilford FP4

Tags:   Hasselblad Flexbody Ilford FP4 Cascade Head Oregon Coast Oregon landscape film expired film black & white monochrome long exposure Tilt shift Pacific Northwest Pacific Ocean zaahphoto Scanned at Blue Moon Camera Nikon Coolscan 9000

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Learning a new camera is like learning a new language: there is grammar, syntax, vocabulary all that have to be experimented with, learned, incorporated.

I recently purchased a Hasselblad Flexbody. I've been wanting one for years thanks to the work of Keith Carter. And now that I have it, I am learning. I'm learning how the camera sees, I'm learning how it speaks, I'm learning its vocabulary and grammar. That requires trying its expression out, turning it one way, and then the other. Using redundancy for comparison. Normally I wouldn't make a photo using tilt only to follow it up with one using swing. But in this case I want to see how each speaks, so I will know for the future how to employ one or the other.

It is so much fun.

There is this thing when you learn another language where once you dive in you realize that other languages have words for things that your native language does not, or they have phrases for expressing ideas that you recognize but have never heard expressed. It is fascinating because rather than just learning how to translate a word from one language into another, you are learning how to express something you have never before had the words to express. Learning a new camera can be very similar. There are things I am learning the Flexbody can express that my 500C cannot. One camera allows me to see things that I had previously been able to imagine but never realize.

I think that is pretty cool.

Hasselblad Flexbody
Kodak Ektar 100

Tags:   Hasselblad Flexbody Kodak Ektar 100 twilight Oregon Mt Hood mountain Tilt shift film Medium Format Pacific Northwest landscape blue hour 6x6

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My second (or third) roll out of the Flexbody. What can I say, I'm having a lot of fun with this.

Hasselblad Flexbody
Rollei Superpan 200
R72 filter

Tags:   Hasselblad Flexbody Rollei Superpan 200 Portland Oregon urban infrared R72 filter black & white monochrome Tilt shift clouds summer skies Scanned at Blue Moon Camera Noritsu S-1800 Tilikum Crossing bridge

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The process of using a Hasselblad Flexbody is rife with opportunities for missteps, almost all of which I think I have discovered. The camera operates a bit like a mini large format camera. So you set it up on a tripod, the lens is open and projecting an image onto a removable ground glass focusing screen. You compose, focus, tilt or swing how you wish, then you thread in a cable release into a socket on the body. The trick then is you need to depress the release slightly less than halfway til it triggers the shutter to close. At this point you can put your Hasselblad film back on in place of the ground glass back. Actually you can put it on prior to this, but if you forget and pull the darkslide before closing the lens shutter.... well, I have done that at least three times now. Anyway, you close the shutter, mount the back, pull the darkslide, then depress the shutter the remainder of the way. Now you have two more opportunities to mess up at this point. The first is forgetting to replace the darkslide before turning the arming knob atop the camera that resets the lens back to open. Ooops, there goes an exposure. This encourages you to put the darkslide back in and remove the back right away before rearming the lens. But you also have to remember to wind the film back. There is a small crank on the side of the camera, much smaller than the usual Hasselblad crank, and it has a lock that needs depressing before you can wind. So put the darkslide in, wind the back, remove the back, rearm the lens, repeat.

I am learning the process but it does have its specific steps. This image, for example, was the result of me focusing on getting the back off the camera before I accidentally exposed the film when I rearmed the shutter. Of course, I forgot to wind the back and these two portraits double exposed over each other. At least I can say I have only done this once so far and this is it. But my muscle memory is setting in and the process is getting more natural.

Anyway, just wanted to share this one. Learning is about making mistakes, and making mistakes can often be the most effective teacher. It is the memory of the lost portrait here that sticks with me, especially since it was of someone I rarely see in person, when I am now exposing with this camera and hence, I have not forgotten to wind again yet.

Hasselblad Flexbody
Ilford XP2

Tags:   Hasselblad Flexbody Ilford XP2 portrait co-worker film photography double exposure inadvertant Portland Oregon 6x6 black & white monochrome Blue Moon Camera people Scanned at Blue Moon Camera Noritsu S-1800

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A throwback to an image from my first roll out of the Flexbody. I'm about six or seven rolls in now, so not that far removed.

Hasselblad Flexbody
Ilford FP4 (extremely expired)

Tags:   Hasselblad Flexbody Ilford FP4 Tilt shift Cape Lookout Cape Kiwanda Oregon Coast Oregon zaahphoto Medium Format 6x6 Pacific Northwest Pacific Ocean Ilford experiments Scanned at Blue Moon Camera Nikon Coolscan 9000 Nik Silver Efex

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