This year over the Christmas holiday I turned forty. It’s an awkward time to have a birthday actually, not because of joint Christmas/birthday presents, but it’s the time of year that people are unavailable. Either friends or family are traveling for the holidays, or they are simply seeking refuge from Christmas pudding and saving up for New Year’s festivities. Whatever the reason, the 27th of December is generally a very quiet day.
Lee and I initially started with some grand plans for my fortieth, but when decided to buy a house, a trip to the Cook Islands became a trip to Fulbrook in the Cotswolds, where we celebrated with our friends Will & Sean. They have a house called the Rough House just outside Burford, in a village called Fulbrook. Lee and I spent Thanksgiving there with our friend Kwong, and the Rough House is a perfect country escape.
With vacation planning, I’m typically a big picture person. I know where I’ll be, have a general idea of what I’d like to do, but frequently defer the details of the trip to Lee. He is excellent at researching the details, setting an agenda and planning out an excursion. For my birthday trip, however, he wanted to ensure it was truly MY day and tasked me with the actual agenda. I kept it simple: a country walk, a pub lunch complete with a local pint, and ample free time to shoot with my large format camera.
I bought my Sinar large format camera when I started photography school. For those unfamiliar with cameras beyond the world of point and shoot digital cameras or the more coveted SLRs, a large format camera is engineered simplicity. It is constructed of four basic parts: the bellows—the large part in the center resembling an accordion, a metal plate at the front with the lens mounted on it, and a plate of ground glass at the rear of the camera. Holding this all together is a long rod at the bottom that you use to adjust the front and rear plates to focus the camera.
While in photo school, I spent the greatest part of my first year shooting solely with this camera. My instructors’ rationale was simple—shooting with a 4×5 forces you to work slowly and deliberately to create an image. Nothing is automatic. First off, you put a dark cloth over your head to see what you are going to shoot. Looking into the ground glass, you see the image, but it is upside down. To ensure a crisp focus, you use a focusing loupe and adjust the focusing knobs on the side. If you want to achieve selective focus, you can swing or tilt both the front and back plates of the camera (hence the accordion flexibility) to achieve your desired results.
To expose a shot using a large format camera, you use a light meter. This measures the light and is adjusted based upon the ISO of the film you are exposing. Once you have determined proper exposure, you then manually adjust the lens aperture and set the desired shutter speed. You then manually shut the lens, cock the shutter and are then ready to load the film. (Tired yet?)
Up until recently, when using film for a large format camera, you would shoot a test shot using a Polaroid to confirm exposure and composition before switching to the “final” shot using film. Both Polaroids and film require a special “container” that is put into the camera. Film goes into black plastic things called film holders, and a large format Polaroid is housed in a light protecting paper sleeve (of sorts) with a metal bar across one side. The Polaroid is put into a special device called a Polaroid Back which is then loaded into the back into the camera between the bellows and the ground glass.
Once the back is in place, you then confirm that the lens is shut, aperture and time settings are correct and then you pull up the paper sleeve. The Polaroid back holds the metal bar in place, which is attached to the Polaroid film. This is then left facing the lens waiting to be exposed. You press the shutter release cable, it triggers the shutter and light passes from the lens onto the Polaroid negative. The shutter closes and your films is exposed. You push the paper sleeve back into the Polaroid back, and once it is firmly back in place, you remove the entire back from the camera, flip the sturdy lever on the device from Load to Process and pull the entire Polaroid (sleeve and all) out of the back. It passes through a roller that starts the development process. After about a minute, you manually split the casement and there before your eyes is the developed Polaroid. You then pull out a tube of fixer aka “goop” and smear it all over the photo. The goop is rather pungent and it was our joke during photo school that it was a photographer’s drug of choice due to its powerful huffing properties. Without fixing the photo, it can fade or smear with time.
P55 was my Polaroid film of choice. A black and white film that included a delicate negative from which a full size print or scan could be made. Once the right exposure has been achieved, and you have gooped the resulting Polaroid image, you could neatly rip the negative away from the sleeve and put it in a Tupperware container of water to protect it. Once back at the lab, you then wash with salt water, rinse and then hang to dry.
Once the Polaroid steps have been completed and you’re happy with the results, you then switch to the film holders and expose the actual film. Need to follow pretty much the same steps as above, except you don’t have to pull the film out—you do that in a dark room to avoid ruining the film.
As I’m an early riser, I was up at dawn on the 27th and took my 4×5 out into the field next to the Rough House. It was a damp and chilly morning with a light rain spitting down, but I was prepared with my toasty boots, stocking hat and gloves. Hoisting the large camera and tripod onto my shoulder, I walked up the muddy lane to the small wooden ladder at the edge of the field. The Brits have fantastic public right of ways. Ancient paths have remained working paths to this day. If someone owns a swatch of land and there is a public right of way through it, then people have the right to use it. An interesting note is that the UK’s rural retreat for the Prime Minister is called Chequers, and it too has a public path running through it. Hard to imagine Camp David in the US allowing random walkers. paths are typically trails through the countryside.
While walking along the path, if you encounter a barrier or gate, there is invariably either little ladder to step over or my favorite, a kissing gate . At the rough house, there is a small ladder. I stepped carefully over it and into the field where there is a copse of ancient oak trees, surrounded by a smattering of lone oaks on the periphery.
The oak trees of Fulbrook area a fantastic subject to shoot, anytime of year. Back in November Lee and our friend Kwong visited here and I photographed them then too, still with leaves at that point. Now, however, in the heart of winter, they were perfect skeletons against the cloudy sky. The first shot here is of a cottage framed by the oaks. The picture is smeared because I waited until I was back in the house to goop the shot, and it didn’t set properly. That said, the benefit of the Polaroid 55 is that it has a negative included with it. I’ve saved that and am going to be processing that in the next few days. Stay tuned for the final product. That said, I really like the beaten look that this whole process has given me.
FulbrookAfter shooting through the cluster of trees, I decided to hop the fence and shoot one of my favorite trees. This tree is so slender and stark. the lower right branch follows the curve of the bush in the background. I shot using an extreme tile with this, ensuring that only a small portion of the tree is in focus, with the rest of the shot falling into a soft blur.
I set up my camera and the first shot. I pulled out my first Polaroid. On Boxing Day the night before, I had given a lesson in large format photography to Will’s nephew Archie and counted seven remaining Polaroid 55s. While digital photography has made it so easy for everyone to share photos seamlessly, it has been devastating for the Polaroid company. In 2008 they filed for bankruptcy and sold off their assets. They also discontinued the entire production of their films. The remaining Polaroids that I had in my case were probably out of date, but I figured they would still do the trick.
Finding my way around the camera again proved to be a bit trickier than I had hoped. It’s been about five years since I have consistently shot with it, so I was rusty to say the least. I’d left my light meter back in London, so using my small digital camera, I took a meter reading. Rather than calculating in my head the exposure I’d need for my Polaroid film, I turned to a cool iPhone application called Exposure Assistant. This app allows you to enter the meter reading from one source and it automatically translates it to the desired settings. Quite handy, actually. Once the exposure was determined, I placed the Polaroid back into the camera, made my adjustments and shot. Click, flip, pull and wait. The Polaroid sleeve indicates that a shot takes 30 seconds to develop in 70 degree temperatures. It was significantly colder than that. I slipped the sleeve into my jacket to warm it, all the while enjoying the sounds of the field. Only a gentle breeze and the occasional hum of distant traffic broke the silence.
I split the sleeve and found my first shot was over-exposed. Shot two. Same process. Remetered, recalculated, put second Polaroid in, checked all settings and click. I removed the back from the camera, pulled the sleeve and immediately realized I hadn’t flipped the lever. The film was exposed and another Polaroid wasted. Must be the cold going to my head. Third time a charm–successfully exposed and framed result. Switched to film for a few backups.
By the time I’d finished this second shot, my fingers were numb and I decided it was a good time to call it a day. Lee came out to meet me and helped me schlep the gear back into the house. We warmed up with a cup of coffee by the fire and then made our way to the Swan in Swinbrook for lunch. Mmmmmm…nothing like a pint and some scrummy food for my birthday.
On the morning of the 28th, I took the camera out once more. I had one Polaroid left and had saved it for the Gibbet Tree.
The Gibbet Tree is a legendary tree in England, for it was here that the infamous Tom and Harry Dunsdon were hanged in 1784 for robbery. Their brother Dick died during the actual heist because legend has it he got his hand caught in a door shutter and his brothers cut off his arm help free him. Dick bled to death. Yes, they are the original Tom, Dick & Harry. The Gibbet tree bears their initial carved in its ancient bark.
Upon finishing my shot, I return to the Rough House and washed my negatives. They are beautiful pieces of art in their own right. In February 2008 Polaroid announced they were discontinuing their film. It’s such a shame. I looked online and a box of 20 can be bought, but it’s $300! Apparently an Austrian photographer and Ilford have teamed up to relaunch Polaroid film for enthusiasts. I never considered myself an enthusiast, but if that’s the case, I’ll become enthused when they sell for a reasonable price.
