 Today, Nori and I are wandering on the woods with the 4x5 camera which came along for the ride. As usual, my film today is Milford's FP4 Plus. Today we're going to old school. We've left all of our digital cameras at home and we're just going out with a large format today. I'm just going to enjoy the outdoors. Nice little pace. Another reason I'm out here with my large format camera is I've recently made some changes to that camera and I've installed a Fresnel lens to the back of it in hopes that I could actually see what I'm looking at. If any of you do large format photography, you know what I'm talking about when you when I say how dark the image can be, especially with wide-angle lenses. On this camera I couldn't see anything at the edges. A lot of the photography I've done over the past few months has just been guessing and I'd rather not guess. So I purchased a Fresnel lens for focusing and we're gonna see how that works. When I bought the camera I knew I'd probably have to do that but I thought I'd go ahead and use it for a while without it. I installed the screen on the back of the camera on top of the ground glass instead of in front of the ground glass because the cameras designed to have the film where the ground glass is so when you slide the film holder in your focus should be accurate. Hopefully sticking the the screen on the back of the camera will still give me enough brightness to make it worth doing and that's something we're gonna be finding out today. Well we just made a shot here with the these really thick high ferns like chest high in these ferns and these trees kind of poking up out of them looks I thought was kind of interesting. I got some moss and some peeling bark here on this first tree. A little bit of a breeze. I don't mind a little bit of motion blur in the foliage you know that's that's just what it is sometimes. The trees are gonna add enough sharpness for an anchor in the image so I when I'm doing large-format photography sometimes there's gonna be a little bit of motion blur in the foliage that's okay doesn't bother me that much. As long as there's sharpness somewhere typically anyway I mean that's my goal anyway most most of the movement won't be noticeable probably only closest to the lens this one was was a little bit challenged to to set up because it's so thick in here it's hard to get around to the front of the camera I've got my 90 millimeter on this is about 22 point you know 22 and a half something like that it's just a challenge to try to make a composition in here that's the best kind though you know ones that you have to work a little bit for. I think I'm going to look for one more composition I may only get a couple today that's large format you know I still got time but I think two or three compositions may be what I what I get today that's kind of my my goal all right let's let's pack up and look for something else come come on Nori come on come here something is something is spooked Nori she's not liking you here so I'm gonna take her cue and I'm gonna follow where she backtrack a little bit and follow her so something has got her little spooked you really should trust the senses of your dog if you're gonna bring one she's not wanting to go this direction now I'm not sure what she's smelling or sensing over that way but we're gonna go back to where we came because I don't think she wants to continue on this way so we won't be photographing anything in here let's go Nori lead the way girl when you're out by yourself in the woods you probably should pay attention to what your dog is telling you she's just not having any of it she just now it could be that she's just not familiar with the smells sights and sounds of the woods but she's been in the woods quite a bit so she's still just a little over-year-old so we're gonna head back the way we came look for shut somewhere else I'm pretty sure she's not really since seeing it smelling anything or seeing anything that's dangerous you know it's probably just the deer elk or something but we do have a lot of mountain lion and black bear in these woods so it doesn't hurt to be a little bit wary play it safe and I'm gonna let her trust her instincts a little bit she's still seems a little bit skittish she keeps stopping and looking down the trail and she's a good woods companion though I think when I'm setting up a shot and I'm really engrossed in an image under the dark cloth and that kind of thing it's nice to have another set of eyes and ears kind of keeping track of what's going on around I don't see cougar too often but I have I've seen them and I've seen the black bear as well I don't have any bear spray it's just something I probably should carry but you know you when you live in these woods all your life or this area it's just not one of those things we think about because most likely a black bear and I hear it's gonna be running running from you I would be a little bit more wary of the cougar if I'm not paying attention and I'm working on taking a picture sometimes you get that the hair in the back of your neck it starts to go up you you got to pay attention to that you gotta be in tune with what's around you well you can see I've changed locations and if you've seen my recent videos this might look familiar to you I was here about a month ago I actually wasn't seeing much before we were so that well let's drive down the mountain and revisit the area we were not that long ago and it looks quite a bit different than it did last time we were here we've had some rain and vegetation is starting to turn around here still kind of slow but it is looks quite a bit different than last time I was here well I just made a frame with this plant here in the foreground a little bit of a tremor I'm not sure if it was moving very much when I took the exposure about a one-second exposure I really like the pattern the texture of these rocks and how this plants growing up out of it and these light-colored foliage and then some the foliage reflection reflecting in the water but wetting the lens so it's kind of a one of those Hail Mary passes you know I there's just so much going on in the scene I'm having a hard time in this low light getting seeing enough of the the elements to make it where I feel like I might have something here I'm sure every large form of tarfer struggles with composition at times especially when they don't use the camera that much it's so hard to go back and retrain when you when you're used to using 35 millimeter you know looking through the lens at nice bright image at times it's this has been a struggle I I mean it's gonna be honest about I if I don't I and a part of this my eyes aren't as good as they used to be I'm pathing to where we're reading glasses and that is becoming an issue with my camera and my eyes it might not be that the viewfinder is dark it might be that my eyes just aren't that good anymore I'm getting up there in age that might be my biggest limitation right now is is my vision I may have to just I may have to pick my my gear based around my physical abilities that's sad sad thing to say that's that might be the reality of my photography in future I'm not ready to give up on this but I'm I mean I'd be lying if it wasn't I didn't say I wasn't struggling a little bit even with the front Fresno lens on it it's still pretty dark I'm just gonna take my last frame on the section stream here I like how the rocks are carved are carved by the water I don't really don't like this spot all that much I'm actually some cropping but there's enough negative there to let me do a little cropping I probably should have a polarizing filter on this but I don't have one to fit this lens so I've got a 135 millimeter on here right now it's a half-second exposure about f32 something like that a little bit of a little bit discouraged today I it's you know I don't know what otherwise what I have I just feel like I'm fighting my gear you know and I was hoping adding that Fresno lens was gonna make a big difference and it has made a difference just not as much as I was hoping and I'm I'm a little frustrated with that so I've got to think about what to do next but I will be going out with the color stuff here I might come back here probably next week or at least at the maybe at the end of the week I'll be back in this area with with the digital camera and try to get some fall color shots too today I just wanted to work with that work with the four by five camera and and see if we could get long a little bit better I really think there's gonna there's a lot of photos here a lot of potential I've said that before I I really like this spot I like all the rock and all the colorful foliage so we'll be back before the season's over I think so I think we're gonna end this video right here until next time