Hasselblad Research

Hasselblad is a Swedish manufacturer of high-quality still photography cameras based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company was established in 1841 as a trading company. In the 1890s, Hasselblad began distributing photographic products from Eastman. The photography branch grew, and during the second world war Victor Hasselblad was commissioned to develop an aerial camera for the Royal Swedish Air Force. After the war, camera production changed into civilian cameras. Introduced in 1948, the Hasselblad 1600F was a medium format SLR that became the camera of choice for many professional photographers.

Perhaps the most famous use of the Hasselblad camera was during the Apollo Program missions when man first set foot on the moon. All photographs taken during these missions used specially modified Hasselblad cameras.

Hasselblad cameras are still widely used by professional and serious amateur photographers. One reason is the superior image quality of 6x6cm size rollfilm over smaller film and digital sensor formats, along with a reputation for long service life.

In August 2004 Hasselblad merged with the Danish company Imacon A/S. Imacon is a manufacturer of digital photography equipment, e.g. digital camera backs.¹

A pictorial History of Hasselblads, a unique system consists of a body, lens removable film magazine and interchangable viewfinders. Each lens incorporates its own leaf shutter. The design has been copied by several other medium format camera manufacturers. Although recent models incorporate electronics, the bulk of the cameras are totally mechanical incorporating intricate interlocks. The use of interchangable film backs allow a photographer to change film types in mid roll.

One of the highlights in Hasselblad history was its role in the US space program. The moon camera used by Neil Armstrong was a Hasselblad 500EL/70 (special model 500 with a motor drive and a 70 mm film back). Due to weight restrictions only the film (backs) returned to earth with the astronauts. There are 12 Hasselblads available free, for the next person who visits the moon.

The 500 C/M was in production from 1970 until 1989. A Hasselblad camera or accessory can be dated by a 2 letter code in the serial number. V H P I C T U R E S represents the codes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0. Therefore a two letter code UC in a serial number indicates the year 1975.²

An extensive look at the 500 series Hasselblad.

A brief look at the differences between 35mm and 120 format cameras.

A Hasselblad Lens Guide, and how to un-jam or unlock a Hasselblad Lens & Body.

Melbourne Flickrnaut's Infamy

Well it's official, yesterday's Green Guide in the age has an article, by Terry Lane that talks about Flickr and even mentions the Flickr Melbourne Group. Now it seems that Terry Lane also writes online, and the blog entry is on a site called dpexpert.com.au. So yes indeed we are infamous now.

Photoshop Workshops

Hate to brag but, look has who the two top spots on google for the phrase "photoshop workshops".... today.

Heiroglyphics

Really enjoying film at the moment.

Flickr #1 Web App?

Flickr reaches new heights and levels of public consciousness.

Stunning Photography

Check out this guys work awesome!

Urban Landscapes March 2006

Returned to film recently, and if there is one thing I learned from my dalliance with digital, is, the process of image making doesn't need to operate at cyber-speeds.

This image from a series of images for the web to wall show with 19 other flickr photographers, as well as a continuation of my proposed 2007 show idea.

Walls?

A recent wander in a lane-way of East Melbourne produced these. More over on flickr—of course!

Upcoming Group Exhibition

Well it's official, the invite is printed, the space is organised and paid for, now all we need to do, is to actually hang the work in the space — oh and organise food for the hungry hoardes that will rock up on the day.

Writing and Photography

I am currently working on my application for my planned 2007 show. The first draft is written, and I have asked two people to read and comment on it. Despite the seemingly difficult task of writing about your own work, and the difficulties I had actually opening the the document, it was a useful exercise. I have managed to clarify some of my own concerns in my head about what it is I'm doing, as well as how and why.

I also seem to have dropped the digital ball completely of late. Being back at work and working full time doesn't help but some realisations about the nature of working digitally have effected my approach, if not changed it. I am now looking much more critically at my own work.

For either of my readers, this blog is now 2 YAH!

Is Sarcasm the Lowest Form of Wit?

Unless you were living under a rock here in Melbourne you'd know we recently had a large sporting event, fortunately with a planned 2007 show and a group show in May, plus my extra teaching at VU, I didn't get to see or hear much of it all. Kaz Cooke on the other hand had the good sense to write a bitingly funny diatribe about it all, onya Kaz!

Contact - After 2 Years!

Processes, are a bit like riding a bike, somethings you just never forget. Now of course begins the long process of looking at each image and deciding if i made the right choice before pressing the shutter and then there is still the whole how do I print them to look their best issue.

This first proof sheet is of an area I've long been attracted to. One that I drive past 4 to 6 times a week. Friday the 24th of March just seemed like the right time to go there, so I did, and I'm glad I did. Plenty of chaos and texture, manmade, and natural fighting it out, so to speak. The next proof was from one of those little exploratrory drives that I used to do so often but these days rarely take, I had originally intended to shoot something else but the light wasn't the way I wanted it so I kept driving. I found some excellent locations that will expand my proposed 2007 show, and will revist around dusk to see what I can get as there was some great views of the city from a couple of the spots. The place is so desolate and yet to close to the city I'm really looking forward to shooting more there.

Grass Roots

So yesterday I mentioned the nets ability to foster grass roots activism, well today I was sent a request to sign a petition to save one of our two non-commercial broadcasters. Burrowing around in the news feed for their blog I find that a campaign started to alter the course of a bill going through Parliament worked. And by worked I mean the responses form the Minister's contacted plus the result of the bill means that this grassroots organisation had some impact on the direction of the bill

What is Photography?

Here's a great entry on the flickr blog, about photography it's power and meaning and more importantly the way the web is being used at a grass roots level to by-pass traditional media.

Technorati Tags:-flickr, photography, media, grass-roots, politics

Pillow Fight Club

Pillow fight anyone?

120 x 5

So here's the results of a busy weekend of shooting. Processing will happen over the next few days, and who knows maybe in a months time I'll have scanned a couple and uploaded them. Thus allowing an emotional distance from them when they were taken, which in turn allows me to judge their real merits.

Please excuse the horrible colour cast, my little digi-cam has only so much control.

One place, two shots

Flickr is one of those places where you are constantly surprised by who you encounter. I have recently re-connected with Kent Johnson. A wonderful photographer and lively personality to boot. His website is an interesting read. He rather succinctly talks about the process involved in his creative process which was in part the inspiration to these shots, a mere two kilometres or so from my house. Of course if you look hard enough you will see some Robert Adams, some Frank Gohlke and maybe even some Lewis Baltz.

Thanks Kent for the shot in the arm looking forward to our first real life encounter.

As for my creative process, it seems I am more intuitive and time based, I have a vague idea what and where I want to shoot, go look for it, and maybe even revisit several times, process it put it away and come back to it over a period of time and re-analyse it, perhaps take the idea and images further or even go off on another tangent all together. Or maybe just scrap that idea and go somewhere else.

Haiku of yellow?

Been hitting the books of late, so not much image making going on.

Pre-Exhibiton Research

"the best landscape images, whatever their medium and whatever other emotions they evoke … propose the possibility of an intimate connection with a world to which we have access only through our eyes, a promise containing it's own denial"
Frank Gohkle
pg 696/698 1000 Photo Icons George Eastman House, pub Taschen

The start....

of the end?

I am changing the course of my image making practise. This change has come about after a series of small but none-the less revealing incidents involving the web, materials [sliver gelatin] and processes, my own.

The final catalyst occurred a day or so ago I went to my local photo supply store, to stock up on paper. I am in the process of printing some work prints for a planned show in 2007, and had run out of my favourite paper, Forté."No worries" I thought, Vanbars will have some, so down to north Melbourne I go, wandering in I say hi to Richard and head down the back to buy said paper. While Vanbars had plenty of paper in stock generally, they had nowhere near the variety that they used to have when I last had an exhibition.

This catalyst, is the last in a chain of incidents that have been bubbling away now for several months, a discussion on flickr about the appearance of digital photographs, was one such incident. This discussion made me realise that it was probably a futile cause to try to get people who don't want to see what they don't want to see. Namely that there are differences in the look and feel of Digital Photographs over Analogue photographs. Another incident I have already talked about here.

So this slowly snowballing effect, got me thinking, how can I make something that is truly unique? The process of putting together an exhibition, has my creative juices really flowing at the moment and I'm quite enjoying the act of returning to my darkroom. This reminded me of my final days at University where I started mucking around with a film developer agent called Pyrogallol. A mythical developing agent that was as renowned for its long tonal scale as it was for it's difficulty to control, not to mention the O H & S issues! I then poked around in my note books from around 1991 and dug up 3 or four technical book that either talked about it in length or mentioned it. I now have several recipes and, am ready to begin the long process that will be mastering this developer and it's intricacies.

Perhaps this blog will track that progress, sadly the only way to really appreciate the prints will be to see them in the flesh, something that the internet is incapable of; unless you live in Melbourne?