Tim Parkin - Landscape Photographer

With some of the concern about the future of film raised in association
with the discontinuation of Fuji quickload* it may come as a surprise
that Dav Thomas and I are starting a set of large format photography
workshops. Dav contacted me at the end of last year, asking if I was
interested in these and my immediate answer was yes. Dav is a great
photographer who is very knowledgeable about all things large format and
also is a great, artistic photographer. And if Dav thinks I have enough
to offer people who wish to start or extend their large format
experience and who am I to argue! I’ll blow my own trumpet a bit anyway
and say that although I arguably over analyse things in my blog at
times, this does mean that I have a good grounding in most aspects of
large format, which I can probably summarise by saying that I’ve done
the obsessive compulsive shitty, geeky work so that you don’t have to!

We’re offering a weekend course and a one day course with a couple of
‘advanced’ courses later in the year. Our one day ‘introduction to large
format’ course will allow anyone to come and get a taste of large format
as we can supply all of the equipment you will need to try it out. We
even supply you with some film and, if time permits, we develop it on
site so you can see what you’ve taken. The first course is a weekend in
the Peak District based at the Devonshire arms hotel in Baslow right in the heart of the Peak District where we’ll be giving an
introduction to large format that will hopefully give you all the
foundations you need to develop your own style of photography.

Our weekend course isn’t just for beginners either! Dav and I will be
running through many techniques and approaches that you may be
unfamiliar with and will definitely have a few tips that you’ll find
useful (unless you are Joe Cornish or David Ward, in which case you
aren’t allowed on the course because you’ll make us both a little
nervous. Sorry Joe/David!). We will also be spending a lot of time out
and about, so you will get some one to one tuition on whatever
aspects of large format you think needs the most attention.

If you are interested in what all of this large format stuff is about,
or just want to brush up on your craft, join us for a unique
photographic experience. You’ll come away with a few transparencies of
your own and also an idea of the processes that help large format
photographers produce the work they do. Take a look at…

Peak Workshops – Large Format Landscape Photography in the Peak
District

Part of the workshops will be a continuously building set of extensive
notes on some of the issues and techniques that are useful for a large
format photographer. Some extracts from these will be posted here and on
the workshop website as time goes on. If you are interested, sign up for
the newsletter or even book on a course!

And don’t be afraid about film being discontinued! Film is currently a
multi-billion dollar industry (even I was surprised at how large the
market still was), very unlikely to dissapear in the next decade.

I hope to see a few of my blogs readers over the next year at the
workshops and have a chance to show them another side of landscape
photography.

• The lack of quickload is not necessarily a bad thing. Sheet film is
  cheaper, more environmentally friendly and is actually lighter that
  quickload if you are happy to change film in the field. The only
  situation it might make more difficult is if you find yourself wanting
  to take 20 sheets of film on a single outing where you can’t get back to
  the car. The other good news is that we’ll be using sheet film and
  grafmatic backs during the course and will show you how to use them and
  reload them (time permitting on the one day intensive) and how to avoid
  common problems.

• I should also add that I am seriously dissapointed with Fuji UK’s
  recent post on their commercial website stating that the may delivery of
  quickload will be the last ever, despite their statement that stocks are
  expected to last until the end of the year. If you want quickload film
  now, you have to book it by paying a deposit of £10 on the Fuji website.
  The page states “Out of stock until April/May 2010. All orders will be
  placed on a waiting list. This delivery will be the FINAL batch of
  Velvia 50 Quickload, as it is being discontinued. “.