Back Into 4x5

As a long-time photographer, I’ve had some experience with everything from subminiature cameras to large format.  From the 7x11mm of a Minox spy camera to 8x10 and everything in between is quite a swath of cameras and films.  When I first got into photography in a big way in 2000, it was primarily with the Pentax MG that I’d been using for nearly 20 years and a switch to another 35mm SLR system - mostly Nikon.  It was about a year or two later that I was gifted an RB Graflex 3 1/4 x 4 1/4.  I had a 120 6x9 roll film back for it, so I never shot it with sheet film.  That was quite a camera, for sure, and at some point in the following decade, I sold it.  However, in the early 2000s I also received a Crown Graphic 4x5 camera that I used occasionally.  That was followed by a Calumet 4x5 monorail camera - not something that you would tote around.  At the time, shooting large format just did not fit into my shooting “style” and while I did use those 4x5 cameras, I was never really serious about them.  Then, in 2016 or 2017, I sold all my large format equipment, including an Ansco 8x10 that had been given to me.  Developing tanks, film holders, cameras, lenses, film, etc.  All gone. 

Calumet 4x5 monorail

In the subsequent years after moving to North Carolina in 2019, I think I found that I was missing something in my photography practice that I could not quite put my finger on.  While the majority of my film use was 35mm and some medium format, something in my nature photography was eluding me.  Something was nagging at my subconscious that there were more things to be discovered and revealed and a different voice given to my subject matter.  What was it? I think the more that I used my Pentax 6x7, I loved the results even more, but why stop there?  Going larger might be the answer, but I hadn’t thought of large format.

Me, with Crown Graphic, 2012.

Photography isn’t just simply pointing a camera at something and pressing the shutter button. For some people that’s actually true.  But there are so many variables that go into making a photograph - lens, film, format, focal length, etc., that one generally assumes that the photographer has figured them out to his or her types of photography.  On top of that is composition and intent.  A view camera slows down all of that and makes you more aware of the intent of your image-making.  Not that one needs to think of such photography as a laborious process. Yes, there are steps that one must follow, but it’s perhaps that purposeful chain of events that results in a single image that makes one think more about that image.

Over the years of my photography, I thought of using large format as merely another avenue of photography that was there if I wanted to use it.  I did, but not with the rigor that it requires.  For me, 35mm and medium format were enough to keep me busy.  That 4x5 stuff was just for the occasional foray.  On top of that, developing the film was a pain in the butt. Zone system? What?  That’s for the super photo nerds.  My Crown Graphic was there when I wanted to use it, but I rarely did.  

Taken with Crown Graphic on Arista 100, 2015.

Going to the Photostock events hosted by Bill Schwab did expose me to a group of large-format enthusiasts, as well as those practicing alternative processes, such as tintypes.  I was more than happy to shoot with my 35mm and medium format cameras, because I was proficient with them.  I did appreciate the work that went into large format photography, but mentally, I just was not ready to fully embrace it in my own work.

Harman Direct Positive Paper, Crown Graphic, 2012.

After I moved to NC, I almost immediately met a few other photographers, most notably Susan Patrice, whose usage of  large-format in her practice led her to produce beautiful circular images of the natural world.  My own work on the trees of the area was done with 35mm and some medium format, but it was the 35mm cameras that allowed me the greatest freedom to walk the trails and get the images that I wanted.   

My friend Russ Young in Floyd, Virginia is an accomplished photographer, photography teacher, and a polymath that I wish I’d gotten to know about 20 years ago.  He’s been generous with his time and photo equipment, and one of his passions is what I call “neopictorialism.”  He and I are working on a new issue of Monochrome Mania, and his images are fantastic.  Anyhow, in a visit last November, he gave me his Intrepid 4x5 field camera, which he felt was far inferior to any of his other large-format cameras.  Challenge accepted, I took it home and found lenses for it, film holders, etc.  However, before I shot a single sheet of film, I needed to figure out how I was going to develop the film without a real darkroom like I had in Ann Arbor.  That’s when I found out about the Stearman 4x5 daylight tank, which has been a complete game-changer.  I can develop up to 4 sheets of film at once, using the same techniques that I use for roll film.  That is the one aspect of the process that really made large-format accessible to me.  I am never going to be one of the zone-system people, developing each sheet of film according to the exposure.  I do use a Pentax Spotmeter V, which allows me to accurately meter the scene and evaluate what kind of exposure that I’m going to make.  

The Stearman 4x5 tank is great!

So, I really have just started this foray back to 4x5, and one of the first things I wanted was to get a modern lens, which I obtained from Ball Photo in Asheville.  The 210mm Rodenstock lens is really nice, and has a 49mm filter ring, making the use of filters and lens hoods far easier than the old 135mm Graflex Optar that came off an old 3x4 Speed Graphic that my buddy Bill Pivetta gave me a couple of years ago.  

The Intrepid 4x5 with a 7" Rapid Rectilinear from
 an old Kodak Model 3A

The Intrepid 4x5 IS pretty fiddly, unlike using a Crown Graphic which pops open like a jack-in-the box to a rigid metal frame.  So, I’m getting used to setting it up, and while it is not exactly a precise instrument, I’ve grown accustomed to to it. For one, it’s very lightweight, and once I have it set up on the tripod, it does not take me long to make an image.   Again, in large format, you need to be methodical in your procedures and mentally check off the steps.  Even as a long-time photographer, I’m not immune to silly mistakes, and with large-format, there’s lots of ways to screw up.  

So, here I am with lots of film and film holders, thinking about what I want to shoot with the Intrepid. Thanks to the Stearman developing tank, I have had no problems developing the film, and my results have been good.  I’m looking forward to seeing what inspires me to use the camera over the next few months.   I have some specific themes that I want to explore, and I think it will be interesting using the Intrepid 4x5 to try and achieve my goals. 

My very first 4x5 taken with the Intrepid. Graflex Optar 135mm lens, FPP Mummy film

Intrepid 4x5, Mummy 400, 210mm Rodenstock lens, March, 2026.