Walking the hills with a medium format camera
You can get surprisingly far with a loupe and some patience. Nothing here requires a medium format camera, though it does make things easier. A friend once described grain as hushed work, and the phrase stuck.
Odds and ends
I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around everything. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. Nothing here requires a film scanner, though it does make things easier. I like film stock that shows the marks of how it was made.
The patient part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Most of the editing happens weeks later, when the memory has faded. Most problems with portraits turn out to be problems with time.
If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you. I print small first, then decide what deserves to be larger. The result is not perfect, but it is candid. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version.
Between walking with a camera and scanning negatives, the second one taught me more.
Notes along the way
A light meter is a good teacher if you let it disagree with you. Most problems with film stock turn out to be problems with time. Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years. Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I found out them. I like light that shows the marks of how it was made.
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about film stock. A friend once described contact sheets as hushed work, and the phrase stuck. The grainy part is seldom the hard part; consistency is.
The shift showed up bit by bit, then all at once.
Second thoughts
The best advice I got was plainly to slow down. Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. It is simple to overthink scanning negatives. It is harder to just start. Thanks for reading, and for the generous observations that keep arriving.
The setup
It took me twelve attempts to see the pattern. Between printing and shooting film, the second one taught me more. Every autumn I revisit the same questions about grain. Looking back, the soft approach was the right call.