want: view camera

I love shooting landscapes. I consider myself extraordinarily blessed to live in a place where there are so many unique features and diverse landscapes to photograph. There may not be many people who know this, but Arizona is third in the nation for biodiversity. That means that because of our geography, Arizona has a greater variety of plant and animal life than every state in the nation, save California and Texas.

Lately, I have been capturing landscapes in the square, medium format. I could be wrong, but to me it seems like an unusual format with which to shoot landscapes. In my opinion, that can be a good thing, because it lends a somewhat unique quality to those photographs. I have no doubt that I will continue to shoot that way for a long time. However, I am starving to shoot landscapes - or any kind of photograph - on 4x5 large format.

A 4x5 view camera captures on a much larger film - and film with a larger surface area means more detail and larger print capability. So, instead of getting an image that is 6x6cm (2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches) the image is 4x5 inches on film. And while shooting square may or may not be a relatively unique approach to landscapes, the rectangular and horizontal composition is a much more natural way to view a landscape. In fact, anytime I am shooting 35mm, I tend to shoot horizontally almost exclusively. Afterall, because of peripheral vision ,the human eye sees horizontally. It seems like the more natural compostion, especially in landscapes.

"It's hard for me to frame subjects in a vertical format. It doesn't seem natural. The eye sees horizontally...A vertical image by its nature is going to be a formal photograph" (Annie Leibovitz, At Work).

On top of shooting a larger film, the view camera affords more creative control than other cameras because of the use of tilt. The ability to tilt the front and back of the camera allows for much more dynamic focusing planes and depth-of-field. These are just a few reasons why I will someday own a good 4x5 view camera. Perhaps even this beautiful (and very expensive) Linhof shown above. It will be mine. Oh, yes. It will be mine.