This is one of my new silver gelatin contact prints. I stayed on Jekyll Island, GA for a few days in February while returning to Pennsylvania from a Florida art show. Using my 8×16″ film camera I photographed this branch caught along the shoreline.
This is the photograph in progress.
And here is the negative in the darkroom.
I’ve had the ULF Phillips for a year now but my actual time out photographing with it has been fairly limited because of my art show schedule this year. Now that shows are over until January I’ve been out photographing with it locally quite a bit. Over on my website is a small portfolio of the ULF images I did last winter and details on the Azo paper I used for printing them. More images will be added as I finish the darkroom work. It’s an amazing camera. ULF portfolio on my website: http://joelandersonphoto.com/p488131877
(this was originally published last year on my old blog)
It is rare to be able to ask someone “How did you get into making cameras for a living?”, so I couldn’t resist. Mr. Phillips was an 8×10 Deardorff user but was frustrated when using it in cold weather – the knobs were hard to rotate. He pondered building a camera and spent many months on ideas and sketches and came up with nothing really new. The break came on vacation in the upper peninsula, when he came down with a flu-type illness. He spent the day sketching in bed. Nothing. Woke at 4:00am with the design of the front standard and focusing drive mechanism (the basics of the entire camera) solved so he rapidly sketched it all down before he would forget.
I don’t recall all the sizes they were made in but 4×5 and 8×10′s were the obviously most popular. I know they also made 7×17′s, 11×14′s, 9 or 10 8×16′s, and I think 14×17′s which take advantage of cheap xray film holders. He even made one 5×7 for a European customer who wouln’t take no for an answer. She insisted and said there’s always a price for anything – name your price. So he quoted an exorbitant price and she said “sold!” (photographers who use 5×7 regard that size as particularly “sweet”). Total 5×7 production: 1
There are no knobs on Phillips Cameras – they use bars.
(another post from my old blog)
The lenses arrived in their sinar mounts on Friday, so I’ve had 2 days to try the camera out. It has been just a seemless transition to the 8×16 – I feel perfectly at home with this camera, I couldn’t be happier. The negatives look terrific, scratch free, evenly developed, a joy to process.
I guess all that experience with 4×5 is paying off.
(this was originally posted last year on my old blog.)
One week ago, I had the pleasure to acquire a Phillips 8×16″ camera kit from Richard Phillips himself. He has been making view cameras since the early ’80s, stopped production a few years ago, and is now retiring to Texas. His cameras are known for being strong, light, compact, and have a novel focussing system that allows you to focus with one hand and tilt the back with the other. He made 9 or 10 of the 8×16″s. It weighs 9 pounds, folds down to fit in my semi-rigid pack, and came with 12 film holders. I like to think of it as an 8×10 with 3″ of extra film on each side.
Mr. Phillips was a gracious host in the middle of packing his Michigan household, and spent several hours with me going over every detail and question I had. His story is fascinating.
I have already learned a lot about these Ultra Large Format cameras – mostly patience.
