OTHER STUFF

into ultra large format photography?

here's some shots from the Mammoth Camera Workshop 2000, Utah, USA

Tillman Crane ran the workshop, here he is with his  Wisner 12x20	Gordon Mark with his unique "Hobo" point and shoot 8x10, this camera was a lot of fun to use!
Tracy Storer and Calumets Polaroid 20x24	Tracey doing some fine adjustments with the 20x24
Steve Simmons, Lois Conner and crew helping set up a long bellows 12x20	Dick Phillips with one of his high tech cameras, this was a new format he developed, a 8x16

The Mammoth Camera Workshop was first run in 1999 and was set up by Tillman Crane who is Director of Photography for the Waterford School, Sandy, Utah, USA.

Tillman is a regular 12x20 user and he came up with the idea of the workshop when purchasing a new Wisner 12x20, he thought at the time "where can I get hands on experience with one of these cameras before I buy it?" At $US 5000 it's a lot of money to spend without a test drive! Apart from making a choice between the 4 current manufacturers whose cameras are all slightly different and suited to different purposes, there's also the worry of "will the format fit me".

So Tillman rang around the camera manufacturers, equipment and film suppliers and put a workshop together dedicated to ultra large format photography.

I attended the second annual workshop in 2000, it was sponsored and supported by the following contributors

Ron Wisner, Dick Phillips, and Keith Canham brought along a selection of their new cameras as did John Horowy who represents Lotus View Cameras of Austria. Gordon Mark had a couple of his point and shoot Hobos there and I can tell you they're great fun to use. Jeff Wheeler from Quality Camera in Atlanta brought along two huge crates of used equipment including 3 restored 12x20 Folmer Schwings (regular, long bellows and vertical) and lots of lenses in shutters for these and other formats.

I asked Tillman at the end of the workshop what cameras were there (I didn't use all of them) and he wrote down this list for me.

5x7	7x17	8x10	8x16	8x20	11x14	12x20	20x24
Canham DLC	Canham x2	Deardorff	Phillips	Lotus	Lotus	Wisner x2	Polaroid
Hobo	Korona	Phillips		Folmer Schwing	Canham	Folmer Swing x3
	Wisner	Hobo			Phillips

The camera builders gave individual instruction on their cameras which was kinda neat because you got an insight into their reasoning why their cameras were constructed in a particular way and had features some of the others didn't.

Dick Phillips builds the most radical camera of the bunch, made from a lightweight wood core and covered with layers of carbon fibre type material, they're both lightweight and rigid. He builds a lot of the cameras for landscape shooting, with short bellows and horizontal only format, this helps to keep the size and weight down. They have a shaft running through to the back with a knob just under the ground glass, this is for focussing, a clever idea, if you've ever tried to reach out for the focussing knob on a big camera you'll know why he did this.

Keith Canham giving some composition tips on a vertical 12x20	Dick Phillips with a horizontal only Phillips 11x14

Instructors on the workshop were as follows

Lois Conner	Lecturer at Yale University, regular 7x17 user and platinum printer
Michael A. Smith	Follows in the traditions of Edward Weston, dedicated Azo printer
Paula Chamlee	Michaels wife, uses similar techniques but has a style of her own
Dick Sullivan	Master Platinum printer and inventor of the Ziatype print
Sam Proud	Jobo man, showed us how to use the jobo for processing negs
Steve Simmons	Publisher of View Camera Magazine
Fred Newman	Owner of The View Camera Store, does everything with a Palm Pilot!
Tracey Storer	Full time user of the 20x24 Polaroid
Adrianne Ingel	Portrait photographer
Tillman Crane	12x20 user and platinum printer

Paula Chamlee (centre left) shows how to develop sheet film by inspection	Loading the cameras on one of the daily field trips

The seven day workshop included instruction on these topics

Equipment introductions and camera handling	Led by each manufacturer on every camera
Loading film holders (all sizes)
Polaroid 20x24 presentation and slide show	Tracey Storer
Jobo processing demonstration	Sam Proud
Ziatype demonstration and instruction	Dick Sullivan
Camera movements	Steve Simmons
Zone system lecture	Fred Newman
Development by inspection	Paula Chamlee and Lois Conner
11x14 portraits	Adrianne Ingel
Azo printing	Michael A. Smith
Lens optics	Ron Wisner
Composing on the ground glass	Paula Chamlee
Tray processing film	Lois Conner
Using the 20x24 Polaroid (we shot 2 sheets each)	Tracey Storer

the group shot