[APML] a large format experiment

["Jeff Ball" <jeffball@zoominternet.net>]

Hello all,
A while back I wrote for advice on large format for piggyback work.  I
thank all of those who responded.  My friend, Don Kemper, brought along
his Cambo 4x5 to the Laurel Highlands Star Cruise.  My plans were to
just setup for star trails and red lights.  As others advised, the film
selection is minimal and slow in large format.  I went with E100VS.  The
aperture of the Super Angulon lens at f8 is not very large either.  But
we decided to give it a go anyway.  I have to say I really fell in love
with the opportunities that large format presents in landscape
photography.  Nothing new to the seasoned photographers, but it was a
great learning experience for me in just working with the format.  I
think I am hooked and will probably try some landscape work with one.
To the point, the star trails were too dim.  Granted, our weather wasn't
perfect either.  On the second night I focused in the day on the local
telescopes in camp.  The plan was to composite this shot on top of a
deeply exposed star trail shot at focus on the stars.  I decided to just
ditch the stars and present the camp in red light.  What is nice with
this format is that you have so much film to work with you can crop like
mad and come up with a mosaic type shot.  I only had this scanned to
make a 50mb file.  One of our local astro club guys says the shot
reminds him of early work of Jackson Pollock.  Looking up Pollock's work
on the web, I have to say he is correct in that.  It is nothing special,
just interesting.  I certainly wouldn't go into large format cameras for
AP work, but there are some opportunities with the format if you have it
handy.  Best regards.

http://www.astro-photography.com/lhsc_2003.htm


Jeff Ball
www.astro-photography.com



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