The guest speakers at our December meeting were our own CPS club members Stephen Butt and Harry Mah

Stephen Butt and Harry Mah

Stephen and Harry presented images they made on a joint trip to Nova Scotia.

Their idea of taking a shooting trip together started 4 years ago. The statement that sparked it was: "I don't want to go with other photographers as we'll all get the same pictures." They decided they'd explode the myth, so off they went!

Before they showed us any images, they described their photographic backgrounds, preferences, and gear.

Both have been shooting film for decades. Stephen shoots Ilford black-and-white films, Kodak IR film, or Fuji Velvia - all in 35mm as well as medium format. He feels no compulsion to abandon emulsion right now! Harry, on the other hand, shoots everything - film in all formats, and digital too.

Stephen admitted that he owned not 1, but 2 enlargers. Not to be outdone, Harry claimed he owned 6 enlargers - 5 to use, and one for a spare. (Does Harry have a one-upmanship problem? Or perhaps he really does have one for every day of the week but the Sabbath!)

Harry tends use to selenium and sepia toner on his prints more often than Stephen does. It seems as though Harry likes to experiment more than Stephen - who prefers production rather than prototyping!

Their trip was in a loop around Nova Scotia, lasting 4 days. They had consistent weather the whole time - an overcast drizzle! While many would grumble, Stephen considered this to be the ideal light, as there's little need to dodge and burn in the darkroom in order to avoid blown-out highlights and shadows.

The images they presented were never the same. They used different films, different focal lengths, different compositions, and different cropping. And occasionally, one captured an image while the other was napping in the car! There was a surprising amount of variety in their images.

One other way their pictures sometimes differed was by flopping the image. Harry showed several pictures which were mirror images to Stephen's; they had been laterally flopped. Apparently, this happens when Harry scans his negatives on a flatbed scanner. In an effort to avoid Newton's rings, the emulsion side of the negative is placed against the glass, so the image is reversed upon scanning. Unless there's printing in the frame, Harry often leaves the image flopped - see the photo above for an example.

Occasionally, too, the choice of a horizontal reference was presented differently by the pair. One would carefully level the camera, while the other would twist it somewhat to emphasize the subject. (Of course, this is only done when there is no hint of a horizon in the image.)

Results showed that even when shooting the original in a very confined place with no room for an alternate angle, 2 photographers can display dramatically different results!

Our thanks go to Stephen and Harry for sharing their trip, their viewpoints, and their images with us!