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This is the “Star of India” in San Diego, Ca.

Wikipedia article

Man, those darn lights! This would have been a great shot if the bright lights on the right were off.

Oh well, I will have to keep shooting. I don’t quite have the digital version of this location yet.

“Unconditional Surrender,” a 25-foot, 6,000 pound statue by world-renowned artist J. Seward Johnson commemorating a famous World War II photo.

Here is a larger view, and more photos of this location

Here is the story

Sorry about my new watermarks, it has become necessary, thanks for understanding.

Listen to this aticle

After a four year hiatus from shooting film, I was out on Coronado island the other morning before sunrise, shooting film again. It was definitely weird not seeing my shot immediately displayed on an LCD screen on the back of the camera. I felt like I was shooting blind. I didn’t even have my digital SLR as a light meter because I broke my backup tripod in the parking lot next to the beach. I mention this only because my Toyo 4 by 5 camera has no light meter. You need to carry a stand alone light meter, or use an SLR for a light meter. So with a broken backup tripod, I was then faced with shooting without a meter, although, I do admit, I already had an idea what the exposure should have been because I have shot this scene a few times, but until you see the actual chrome on a light table, you never know if you got the exposure right or not.

I picked up my film about 2 hours after dropping it off at Chrome Digital. I stood in the lobby and looked through a loupe on a light table for the first time in a long time. 4 by 5 slides, also known as “chrome” in pro photographer circles because of the word “chrome” in film names such as fujichrome, are a beautiful thing to see in person. With all the advances in digital sensors, large format film is still sharper, and contains more information than a sensor in any digital SLR on the market today. This chrome will easily scan to about 20,000 by 16,000 pixels, or 320 megapixels. Most digital cameras are now shooting between 10 and 20 megapixels, and can only produce sharp prints up to about 11 by 14. The 320 megapixel file this chrome will produce will print nicely to 60 inches or so. That is the reason why I considered using large format film again.

The image you see here was the image I took that morning from a beach on Coronodo island. My film scanner is not very good, so it does not do this gorgeous chrome justice, but it allows you to get an idea of what the image looks like. I will send this slide out to be scanned by a high quality drum scanner, and when I get it back, the resulting scan will be fine art quality. Drum scanning is the technique used by most fine art photographers to print large high quality images on light jet printers. Light jet printers use lasers to expose actual photographic paper. The paper is then processed in a similar manner as traditional photo printing. Light jet prints far surpass the quality of the traditional negative to paper exposure process because of the accuracy of the digital color control. To see such prints in person, I would suggest visiting a fine art photo gallery, like one of Peter Lik’s in Las Vegas, Nevada, or in La Jolla, California.

This one image has helped me realize that film is not dead, but it can be used as an additional tool in image creation, such as a skilled carpenter might use different kinds of hammers for different jobs. I intend to continue using digital cameras as my main image creation tool, but whenever I shoot a scene that I may want the ability to print up to 6 feet wide, I will take the same shot with my 4 by 5.