Comfy Couch

Shadowed Abs

Beads

Open Kimono

Camouflaged

Pillow Camouflage

Mardi Gras Beads

Towel Dry

Window Framed

Dining Room Chair

A black and white study of Dave Clark's superb physique.

Medium Format

About a decade ago, after a few years of more serious work behind a camera, I was smitten by medium format cameras.

If you aren't a serious photographer, "medium format camera" probably means nothing to you, but basically a medium format camera is a camera that takes pictures on larger rolls of film. Larger rolls of film create bigger negatives; bigger negatives create sharper images that can be printed in larger sizes or sharper images in small sizes. Medium format cameras shoot on film roughly the same size as was used in those old Kodak brownie cameras and create negatives that are at least 150% larger than 35mm negatives.

Of course the word "medium" implies there is something larger, and there is. Large format cameras shoot on single sheet film  that is either 4x6 inches or 8x10 inches. Large format film captures even more detail than medium format.

On the weekend that I shot this image of Dave Clark, as well as the earlier image posted this week, I had rented a Mamiya 645AF. I shot black and white negative, color negative and color positive film.

This image was shot on color positive film, which kind of like a large version of film slides, only there isn't a card board case around the film and projectors are not widely available for this size. Color positive film was most commonly used for magazine work.

This film positive was scanned and finished in Photoshop.

Comfy Couch

Dave's pleasant proportions, extreme definition and handsome face is the subject of today's post.

Labor Day

This image is from the same photoshoot with Dave Clark as the last post. Shot on color transparency film with a Mamiya 645AF. The rich color is a result of the wonderful medium format color transparency film and the time of day. It was early evening. The pool was completely in shade, creating lovely indirect light with a bluish tint.

The weekend I shot this I was renting the medium format Mamiya to evaluate it before buying one. Moving from 35mm to medium format film seemed like the logical step in my artistic evolution. A few weeks later I bought the Mamiya -which I still have but use infrequently. Once I buy a Canon 5d Mark II - which is a 22megapixel camera - the Mamiya will be completely unnecessary equipment for me.

This will date the shoot further. It was the Labor Day weekend before 9/11.

After the Sun

Over the last few weeks I have held off updating my blog because it always seemed that I was just a week away from a new shoot and having new photos to share. Unfortunately I have been plagued with model cancellations.

So this week's photo is another from my catalog. The model is Dave Clark.

This photo is available as an inexpensive print on Fine Art America from my photo gallery and has been getting a lot of views there.

In case you are interested in purchasing a glicee print or a canvas print of this photo or any of the others at Fine Art America, the link to my gallery is
http://www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/thomas-mitchell.html

Red Brick

This is another "catalog" image from an earlier shoot several years ago. The summer I shot this I had shoulder surgery and for several months was not allowed to lift even a camera. In early September, when this shot was taken, I scheduled a shoot with Dave, a model from San Diego.

I also rented a medium format camera to experiment with, the same model I eventually bought -- a Mamiya 645AF. I still love working with this camera, even though last year I purchased a digital SLR. The negatives -- or in this case positive, since this was slide film -- are so large and the images are so sharp and vivid.