8x10 of the day. Steam clock.

On today’s 8x10 picture, I bring you, the steam clock in Vancouver Gastown. Located on Water Street, this beautiful clock is one of the main attractions of the area. Because of its proximity to Canada Place, it gets constantly swarmed by tourist that wants to take a picture with it.

I’ve photographed this clock multiple times in past, and I personally prefer other focal lengths, for example, 200mm equivalent in FF terms. Sadly, I don’t think there is such a lens equivalent for Large format, and if there is one, for sure I don’t have a camera big enough for it. Taking headshots doesn’t mean I can’t take “street photography” pictures, even if using an 8x10 camera is not discrete or easy to hide, and using the dark cloth doesn’t count.

Now the details of the picture:

• Camera: Gibellini AG810

• Lens: Fujifilm W 360mm f6.3

• Film: Ilford Delta 100

• Developer: Ilford DD-X (1-9)

• Developed at: 100 ISO

• Number of interruptions of people asking about the camera: 3

• Exposure time: 1/60s

• Aperture: f6.3 (I know, I went wild this time)

• Digitized: SilverFast 9

• Post Process: Photoshop

Now the main question is, why f6.3 at that distance? I wanted some blurriness in the background, you can see people back there, and I wanted to have their faces blurred. With large format, at this aperture, for this lens, is like f0.7 equivalent so I could get something good out of it. Because there is constant traffic in that street, makes taking a picture at this time of the day nearly impossible, I’m surprised I could get the clock without anyone in the frame.

Using 1/125s, would have meant underexposing some areas in the shadows and I didn’t want that (don’t underexpose your film), I had to at least keep some detail there. Going to the f stop I like to use in large format, f22, would mean a couple of stops of extra light needed, if I recall correctly, would be 1/8 of a second or around that area. No way I could get a car stopped, and frozen without motion blur at that speed. The image took like twenty minutes to get, just between set-up, to focus, to meter and to wait for a clean clock (and to fuss people around me).

Because of the constant change of light, I like to use my gfx100s and check the histogram (this is the key, do not look at the exposure bar, check the histogram), as I don’t really have too much time in these places to take notes for later, I avoid the use of the light meter, just for speed. If I had more time or less change of light, using the light meter, could benefit the final picture.

Wearing airpods sends a sign of, “I’m working, please don’t talk to me, let my shy introverted personality not to suffer more because I’m using this outdated medium, that produces the best images you can possibly get, just for fun”, still I got interrupted three times by random people. Considering the location, and the volume of people, it was a huge success from that point of view.

If you like the picture and you would like to have it printed for your living room or something, you can always click on it and get one.