i brought my not-so-light large format kit up to the german north sea island of langeoog for some large format views, join me for some black & white fomapan and ektar 100 colour goodness.
These shots were all taken back during Easter at some point and I have only gotten around to putting this post together now, which is quite nice because I had forgotten about these photographs completely. I had only just received my Linhof camera back from a full service from the factory, including new bellows, which explain a higher than usual documentary style shots of the camera itself.
Black and white shots taken on the trustworthy Fomapan 100 film and colour taken on my last two sheets of Kodak Ektar 100. Enjoy!
First shot of the day was an obligatory shot of the multi-coloured train island, although for this shot I chose Fomapan 100 black and white film.
The final shot. I just love this shot. It came out completely differently to what I was expecting although in retrospect using the polarising filter must have added to the darkness. I simply love high contrast images with simple outlines.
I continued with the theme of the island train and set myself up a bit further down from the island train station with my 90mm wide lens waiting.
The final shot - a bit blurry due to movement and I think I used f11 or f22. The airport in the background is tack sharp though.
I had a great time setting this shot up although then realised I was either too close (270mm lens) or too wide (90mm) and didn’t want to end up in the water with the tripod!
The final result. Quite dark and as expected as I used an orange filter. The composition is OK, but not great. I think potentially a cropped version of the boat without the distracting poles would have been better.
That is one good looking camera! Actually my Billingham camera bag setup on the front of a bike and the tripod strapped around my back is a great travel combo.
The final image. I actually cropped this to panoramic for my blog cover post. I really like the contrast in the ocean. It was really, really bright and I wasn’t sure how this would come out. I probably broke every photography rule there is by pointing directly towards the sun, but I love the result.
Where better to use Kodak Ektar 100 colour film but on a multi-coloured train?
A random video of the train and camera setup.
A tele photo shot of the island boat, which travels from the mainland to the island in under 30mins.
The final shot. I think I prefer the photos of my camera setup ;-)
So let me say this straight out - sandy beaches ARE NOT locations that are large format camera friendly. I suppose I learned the hard way. I basically had sand everywhere you can imagine, even inside the film sheet holders hence some of the questionable development I think. Well, lesson learned on that one at least I could clean everything afterwards!
I had to really clean this one up in post processing and also crop it to salvage anything due to poor exposure and sand inside the sheet film.
A surfer getting ready in the foreground and people walking on the beach in the background. I like the composition of this shot with the sand dunes and different shapes of the beach due to the wind.
A heavily cropped shot due to a significant light leak, but the great thing about large format is that the negatives are so huge you can crop to you heart’s content and not lose any image quality. I really like this shot with the couple looking out to the wind surfer.
overall observations
I greatly enjoyed this day out on the island, just me and my bike along with my Linhof gear and a tripod. I experimented quite a bit with using the polarised and orange filter and got some really high contrasty images as a result. I shot directly in the sun and the results were quite pleasing. I learned that large format cameras and sandy beaches don’t mix well and that is OK, it is a good lesson! I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them and I apologise to no one for excessive photos of my Linhof camera setup - she’s a beauty!
See you next time!
Neil
