I recently discovered the work of Nick Carver, a Southern California-based photographer and YouTuber. He shoots urban landscape scenes using a large-format, 6×17 film camera, presenting the images as enormous 1:3 format prints (think 2 feet by 6 feet!). If you enjoy seeing panoramic photography at the hands of a master, Nick’s the man for you.
Are you a fan of Americana, urban decay, large-format film cameras, epic landscapes, or perhaps all of the above? If so, I think you would enjoy the work of Nick Carver. Based in Orange County, California, he is a professional architecture photographer, teacher, YouTuber, and dedicated large-format film-camera shooter.
View Camera
Although he owns several large format cameras, the most impressive by far is his Shen Hao, 6×17-format view camera, used to capture extreme, wide-angle shots of his subjects on film. Although I had seen photos of old-fashioned cameras, complete with bellows and wooden frames, I had no idea that such cameras were still in use today.
Nor had I appreciated the many ways such cameras could be adjusted to ensure that horizontal lines remain horizontal and vertical lines remain vertical. The camera (see below) is bristling with knobs and sliders that allow adjustment of the relationship between the front and rear ‘standards’ (lens and film planes, respectively).
Nick might be the archetypal slow photographer. To capture a scene, he goes through an elaborate sequence of steps to set up his camera, arrange his composition, and take the shot.
These include studying the scene and adjusting focus by looking at the ground glass screen on the back of the camera.
He then folds away the glass screen and fits a film cassette, preloaded with his film of choice. Next, he checks exposure precisely, using a spot meter, before setting aperture and shutter speed.
Finally, he takes the shot, sometimes manually holding open the shutter while measuring elapsed time with a stop watch.
The description above is based upon watching countless editions of Nick’s beautifully produced YouTube videos.
It’s all about the print
Nick views the end product of his photography as a large print, hanging on his, or someone else’s wall. In one of his videos, he described taking a photo of a roadside taco take-out joint. Here’s the photo.
He went on to relate his tortuous mission to place the framed print in the hands of the owner. The video is part documentary, part geography lesson, part photography class, and part adventure. It is superb.
As someone who lives in Southern California, I am familiar with scenes of one-horse towns and decaying buildings in and around the Mojave Desert region. But if you have never travelled to such places, you can enjoy Nick’s guided tour from the comfort of your armchair.
Dissecting a photo
Of the many themes he explores in his videos, some of the most enlightening are those from his “Dissecting a Photograph” series. Here is one of the photos he discusses, taken as dawn is breaking, at a cross-street in Los Angeles.
Nick provides an erudite overview of exposure for this and other scenes which include both ambient and artificial light, a diatribe about the scourge of LED street lights, and a reflection on his form of documentary street photography. It is one of his best.
I found Nick’s dedication to large format, panoramic photography inspirational. It led me to think more broadly about the subject of panoramic photography.
Not everyone is willing to invest the time required to take panoramic photos on film using a view camera. But, there are more accessible, albeit less immersive, approaches available to us.
I will be discussing these in a forthcoming article.
| Nick Carver’s website | Nick Carver’s YouTube channel |
| Shen Hao view camera review | A Leitz large-format camera |
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