Last year I started making point of view videos to accompany these blog posts, since I thought it would be nice to remember the context of some of the pictures I was taking. A lot of people seemed to like these video, so it quickly became my favourite type of video to make for YouTube. These videos gave me an opportunity to show off my work and at the same time also provided some interesting context. And that one time I actually forgot to rewind the roll before opening the back of the camera, I at least had the video footage to fall back on! Generally it seemed like exactly the right kind of thing for me, because I have always tried to provide context with these blog posts and often felt myself limited by the medium! Now I can just do both, show you a video for context and post the photos here in case you want to look at them in more detail.
One limitation was though that my GoPro mounts to a flash cold shoe and not all of my cameras have that. In January I finally figured out a good way to mount my GoPro on many cameras without a flash socket though, so I could start making my point of view videos also with those kinds of cameras. It’s basically a flash cold shoe bracket that mounts to the tripod thread, and most of my cameras have at least that. There are still a few plastic cameras that don’t work with this kind of setup either, but even there I can probably figure out a 3D printed solution if I ever feel the need.
The first camera I tried with this new GoPro mount was of course my favourite medium format camera, my Rolleicord V. It’s my most used medium format camera, so if it worked with that one, this would already be a very good start. To test the rig I took the camera with me on a hike into the mountains, which is something that I’ve been doing more and more lately. The landscape around here is stunning and I just love spending time with trees!
There had already been a roll in the Rollei, but without any pictures shot and I couldn’t for the life of me remember what type of film it was. I tried taking it out and looking at it, but of course the first thing I always do when loading a roll of 120 film is to remove the label so that it doesn’t get stuck in the camera somewhere. I guessed that it was HP5+ though, since that was the film I was shooting the last time I had used the camera. Luckily that guess turned out to be correct and I didn’t have any problems developing the roll at all. It was a stunning day and I had such a great time. The best part: For some reason I like all the pictures on the roll, which is quite unusual for me. Normally my keeper rate for a roll of 6×6 is more around 6 of 12 shots and not every single picture. Definitely a very nice day.
All pictures taken with: Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/3.5, HP5+, HC-110.
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
© Lilly Schwartz 2020
Last one!
very beautiful series Lilly !
i always prefer BW images talking about forms without all the distractions created by the greeenish nature and the blue sky 🙂
Thank you so much Victor! I love organic forms in black and white! Cuts down on some of the clutter for sure!