Gersh Photo Post | Max Gersh | Multimedia Photojournalist

For me, film represents everything I love about photography. Don’t get me wrong. Digital sensors have completely revolutionized photography - especially photojournalism.

But where would we be today without digital? Film photography is more that an art form. It is a science. It takes knowledge to be a professional. Today, anyone with a load of cash can buy the latest and greatest gear. There is no need to worry about messing up. If a picture turns out poorly, it can be erased. All you need to do is check your local CraigsList postings to see how many “professionals” there are now.

Generally speaking, it takes an antiquated professional to know what I am talking about when I say “reciprocity failure” or if I mention the Scheimpflug principle. Many folks don’t know the difference between a zoom lens and a telephoto lens. Thought and creativity has vastly left photography for many shooters.

After getting my Hasselblad recently, I decided to go through some of my film from the past. I scanned a few 4×5 positives that I shot a few years ago on a Sinar large format camera.

A Lego man shot super macro to fill a sheet of 4x5 film. ©2010 Max Gersh

I remember the challenge I had to make this photo. On a large format camera, to focus, you extend the bellows between the lens and the film. To achieve this close of a focus, my bellows were over four feet long and the entire camera rig was supported by three tripods. Remember, this image filled a 4×5 inch sheet of film. This is MANY times greater than life size.

Once I acquired focus, the lighting was another challenge. I had to fire off my strobes about 15 times to build up enough light.

Misc. China things shot on a Sinar 4x5 camera representing the Scheimpflug principle. ©2010 Max Gersh

This picture may seem somewhat bland on its face, but it showcases the Scheimpflug principle - a way of focusing on a plane rather than by distance.

This picture also is gearing me up for one of my hopes of 2010 - to visit Shanghai, China for the World Expo. I’d love to be sent there on assignment but I might settle for a personal visit. Shanghai is truly one of the greatest cities I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting.

So, in summary, my goals for 2010 are:

1. Visit China again
2. Shoot more film

Two things. I should be able to handle that.

My challenge to the rest of the world - take time taking pictures. Think about what you’re doing. Try something different. Slow down and make nice images. The rest of the world will appreciate it.

If you read my last post, you know that I was testing out a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M.

The results are in.

Photos shot on a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Photos shot on a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Photos shot on a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Photos shot on a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Photos shot on a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Not too shabby. This is looking more and more like it might be the next camera added to my collection.

I shot one roll of 120 Kodak TMAX 100. The only problem was that I was running that through a Hasselblad A24 back , designed for 220 film. It seems like the first few frames didn’t wind fully and overlapped. Afterward, it was fine.

I’m excited to get this camera and push it to its limits. Hasselblads are rugged imaging devices. They’ve been to the Moon and I think I can find a way to put this one under just as much stress as space travel. I look forward to posting more images from this camera.

I shoot a ton of pictures on my Canon digital system. I have probably shot over one million frames in the last eight years. As much as I love digital photography, it is hard to beat the look of black and white film.

The texture. The latitude. No instant results. It makes you appreciate the roots of photography as well as where technology has taken the medium.

I haven’t shot 35mm film for a while. I have a cheapo Chinese Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) called a Mudan. It shoots on 120 film. However, letting go of a camera that is not on a strap is never a good thing. Bye bye ground glass.

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a Hasselblad - the supreme camera for shooting 120 film (medium format). I found a used one that I took out for a test drive yesterday.

It is a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M. On the front, I was shooting through a Carl Zeiss 60mm f/4 Distagon lens. Inscribed on the lens mount, it says “MADE IN GERMANY WEST FOR HASSELBLAD.” This camera and lens is a piece of history that will keep on recording.

I took a road trip down to Potosi, MO to visit the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to run a roll of film through it. I fired off twelve frames of Kodak TMAX 100 and I can’t wait to see the results.

A Hasselblad 500 C/M set up on a tripod overlooking a stream in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Trying to replicate the image I was about to make on a Hasselblad 500 C/M in Potosi, MO at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch. ©2009 Max Gersh

Looking down at the ground glass of a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at a stream in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

Over the last few months, I’ve ended up with a few photos that didn’t warrant a blog post nor did they go with anything else. Therefore, here are my odds and ends - the photos that had no other place to go.

A chipmunk sits on top of a natural gas line in my family's back yard in Louisville, KY. ©2009 Max Gersh

Bourbon barrels age at the Heaven Hills distillery in Bardstown, KY. ©2009 Max Gersh

Casey Miller, dressed as a zombie for the student film, Heaven is Dark. ©2009 Max Gersh

Yes. It is two in the morning. The perfect time to continue the throwback series!!

The summer after I graduated high school, I took a trip with five other recent graduates, a former teacher and his wife. We debated on where we wanted to go but we decided on Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. We were there for two weeks.

This was my first time out of the country. Here I was, 17 years old and ignorant to the world.

I don’t know how many rolls of film I shot. All I know is that I have contact sheets for film that I cannot find! NOT GOOD! Luckily, I also have a lot of digital images from the trip.

I entered one of my images into the Smithsonian Magazine photo contest the the following winter.

Days before the final day of notice, I received an email. At first, I thought it was a “we regret to inform you” letter. As I kept reading, I found out that my image was selected as an honorable mention. It was in the top 150 entries out of over 35,000 images entered from around the world. That was pretty cool.

Now that I have had some time to go through some of the negatives, I have found some of my favorite images from the trip. Like this one!

While my trip to Thailand was great, it was only a trip. When I was living in Shanghai for five months, it gave me a tremendous opportunity to make beautiful images.

One of my favorite images from China was shot in Longsheng. To get to this city from Shanghai, my friend Gavin and I took a train for 29 hours southwest. From there, we got on a boat for another six hours. After the boat dropped us off, we had to take buses and trucks for another few hours up the mountain. When we got to the base of the town, we had to hike for another few hours up the mountain on a narrow path. It wouldn’t have been bad at all other than the fact that it was midnight when we were climbing this path.

When we got to the village, after we taught a few Chinese people how to play the card game Uno, we hit the sack. We were getting up at 5am to see the sunrise come over the mountain side. There was only one problem. It rained all morning. The fog was so dense that we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us. After waiting for five hours, the fog cleared for a brief moment and a mountain appeared out of the clouds in the background and I snapped my shutter. This is what I got.

While I was going back through some of my film, I found a black and white image that I shot at the same location.

Most of my time in China was spent in Shanghai. I went to many different temples and pavilions. So many that I can’t identify which one is which. I believe this next image was in Shanghai somewhere. It was shot on a lucky roll of infrared film. This roll went through the x-ray machine in Beijing and appears to have no ill effects.

More to come…