The Pacific Northwest

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Hello everyone, and apologies for the long absence - I have been extremely busy these last months, both with the usual stuff and especially with the preparations for a new step in my photographic journey: going back to analog, and in particular to 4x5" black & white photography. I have been working exclusively with this setup for the last month during our fall Workshop season, and I am loving it! But, results will start to be ready next year when I'll be back home and will be able to develop, scan and process the film.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share my latest developed Portfolio, shot last year with my Phase One IQ4 Achromatic and Alpa 12 STC and dedicated to the Pacific Northwest of the USA! The Portfolio is over 60 photographs strong, here's a few photographs for you:

















You'll find the rest on my website, here: THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: A PORTFOLIO

Comments are as always very welcome. Enjoy! Best regards,

Vieri

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Good one!

[MattBurt]

Beautiful work as always! I'm looking forward to those 4x5 images.

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Good one!

Thank you Slobodan, happy you enjoyed them!

Beautiful work as always! I'm looking forward to those 4x5 images.

Hey Matt, thank you very much! It feels strange to say that, but I am myself very much looking forward to seeing all the 4x5" images I took so far - the anticipation is great though, although the instant feedback of digital is undeniably nice

Best regards,

Vieri

[Rob C]

Vieri, if you don’t intend to make your own wet prints, what’s the point of film? All you’re doing is complicating life for yourself. If you intend to have an outside lab do that part for you, and if you already can wet print well, then welcome to the world of dissatisfaction…

I only ever used film when I was in business, and towards the end, only Kodachrome 64 Pro and no black/white at all. Digital made “hobby” photography possible in a situation where printing wet at home didn’t work.

Your digital work is excellent; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Vieri, if you don’t intend to make your own wet prints, what’s the point of film? All you’re doing is complicating life for yourself. If you intend to have an outside lab do that part for you, and if you already can wet print well, then welcome to the world of dissatisfaction…

I only ever used film when I was in business, and towards the end, only Kodachrome 64 Pro and no black/white at all. Digital made “hobby” photography possible in a situation where printing wet at home didn’t work.

Your digital work is excellent; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Hey Rob,

thank you for your comment. For me, there are so many points for using 4x5" film, besides wet printing. First and foremost, it's the aesthetics of film and 4x5" in particular, which to a large extent will be there whether you scan or print your negatives. Then, the full controls of the camera I got (a custom assembled Arca-Swiss F-line), which make for a much more powerful creative tool than any digital MF tech camera solution; the ability of controlling exposure / development of individual negatives, and of selecting film stock, thus removing the image creation process even further from the digital darkroom than what my Achro would allow; the slowness of the workflow; the extra focus that comes from knowing that I have available only a limited - and small - number of photographs to take; the slowness and "zen" approach of the process; and so on.

Thank you for your last comment, truly appreciated. I love my IQ4 Achromatic and I am not going to get rid of it anytime soon, plus I love digital photography and I won't stop doing it for the foreseeable future. But, part of the journey for me is embracing new creative challenges, and going back to film - and to 4x5" film in particular - is definitely one of these, and one of the things I was always interested in trying out. Now I feel the time has come to do it, and so far I am really enjoying it.

Best regards,

Vieri

[francois]

Spectacular set with very powerful images.
Bravo!

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Spectacular set with very powerful images.
Bravo!

Thank you very much Francois, happy you enjoyed them! Best regards,

Vieri

[bobfriedman]

Very nice... excellent composition and use of monochrome to enhance the mood.

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Very nice... excellent composition and use of monochrome to enhance the mood.

Thank you very much Bob, happy you liked them! Best regards,

Vieri

[Paulo Bizarro]

Wonderful set.

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Wonderful set.

Thank you so much, Paulo, glad you enjoyed it! Best regards,

Vieri