Welcome (back) to March? Seems like every month in the last twelve was some “Groundhog Day” variation of March, and so now we’ve come full circle.
With limited travel and avoiding crowds we’ve all had to find new creative sparks to keep work fresh. One way that works for me is to create boundaries to force me to look at things differently. Sometimes it’s sticking to color or black and white, approaching the same subject from different viewpoints or limiting myself to a format, camera or lens. For example February was a month of black and white film shot across a variety of cameras, the contrast of black and white a good fit for Seattle’s cold, wet, winter weather.
For March I’ve decided to push myself with a month of (mostly) medium format film photography. I have two medium format cameras that both use 120 format film. The first is a 6×45 Mamiya 645 Pro and the second is 6×6 Hasselblad 500CM. The shot at the top of this post was taken with the Hasselblad earlier this year.
So I will spend this month shooting with the larger format cameras. IThe idea to to push myself not only into using the cameras in more situations but to really learn what works for me and doesn’t in shooting them. Of course I’ll shoot a lot of black and white, but with March hopefully giving us the first buds of spring I’ll break out the color too. Of course if the mood strikes or I need something only a smaller camera can give me I won’t hesitate to grab a Nikon or Leica.
Given the delay in processing film it’s unlikely I’ll be able to share too many of these medium format shots this month, so April will be the month to see the March results and challenge myself in a new way.
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