After months of deliberation and research into large format photography, including figuring what camera and lens to buy, how to calculate bellows extension, and whether I should shoot sheet film or 120 film, I finally decided to make the leap to large format.

The process is tedious, and I was constantly questioning wondering whether it was worth the time and money. From waiting weeks to months for different gear and components to arrive, to navigating all the jargon on forums, to just feeling completely unconfident about whether I was using the camera correctly until I got my first scans back. It was a very emotional process full of ups and downs. Ultimately, large format is a long-term personal investment. Even if large format isn't something that I'll be using every day, it's something that I can see myself continually returning to in the future, which was the final deciding factor for me. I can see myself shooting large format once or twice every month as a way of exercising a new film photography muscle.

What makes large format special isn't its resolution and sharpness, but rather the movements that you can do to shift the plane of focus. The Intrepid 4x5 allows for plenty of movements, but I find that it's really easy to accidentally bump that camera while removing the ground glass to put on the 6x7 Horseman film roll back, and so you'll need a really sturdy tripod.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by my first test images made with the Intrepid. Maybe because I'm just impressed with the novelty of macro photography in general since this is my first time shooting macro, but these images are unlike any of the images that I've taken before.

I look forward to familiarizing myself with this camera more as we plunge deeper into the winter months.

Note: Apologies for the audio quality. I don't record voiceovers too often, so I'm still trying to figure out a microphone setup.

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