With a ten-year banking career, a wife and two children at home, and a serious yearning to be a photographer full-time, Michael Smith was in a position many serious hobbyist photographers have found themselves in. He wanted to shoot for a living. Originally solely interested in landscape and nature photography, a coworker in approached him in desperation after their professional photographer bailed a short time before the wedding. Grudgingly and with the proviso it was understood he didn’t photograph people, Smith accepted the assignment.

“I always thought nature photography was more up my alley,” says Smith. “There’s nothing moving. It suits my speed. Shooting people didn’t appeal to me because of the constant movement and change. Teaching people how to move didn’t interest me. Then I started doing it, and I surprisingly found I loved the challenge. I couldn’t wait until my next session. Here it is a few years later and I find I love the dynamics, the diversity, the differences in the people I shoot. I can mold a session to their personality. It was a really nice surprise, especially when I shoot people in nature settings.”

In May, Smith made the leap to full-time photography. He is careful to be judicious with his time, pouring all his effort into fewer weddings. “I’m very fortunate. I’m not looking to blow out fifty weddings a year. If I can provide for my family and be secure, I’ll be set. This is my passion and my art. It’s a dream job.”

“I’m shooting the Mamiya RZ67,” he reports. “I’m leaning toward eventually shooting film full-time at weddings. Definitely all the intimate and portrait shots at weddings are done with film now. I have the 120 and 220 backs for the RZ67. I’ve been using the Polaroid back on it now quite a bit. It’s great to bring to sessions and weddings. The clients love it. It really gives a unique feel, and I like doing things a little differently than every other photographer.”

A typical portait session for Smith now involves a whole roll of 35mm film, a roll of instant, a roll of Instax mini from Fujifilm and a roll of medium format. He’s found shooting across a variety of cameras and formats brings out things in both himself as an artist and his clients. “They love all the different formats. They get so excited to keep the instant film. It makes the client so happy, and this is possible, in part, with the Mamiya. I can flop out three different backs to shoot two different formats in one session, and it’s wonderful.”

A big proponent of remaining creative, Smith can draw the distinction between paying jobs and shooting for himself. “I know wedding photographers who only shoot weddings,” he says. “After the first hundred they stop innovating, and it all looks the same. I don’t know how they keep doing it. A lot of them forget to step back and shoot out of their element.”

To get the below photo at a night wedding, Smith shot Ilford 3200 120 film at f/4.5, manually metered. “I’m unsure of the shutterspeed, but I believe it was around 30-60,” he says.

“I bought the f/2.8 110mm Mamiya lens. My goal is to use it in a manner it hasn’t often been used. It’s a lot of experimentation, but I love it. I’m really excited about the Impossible Project. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I never had a chance to shoot real Polaroid because I got started late. I’ve been using the Fujifilm Instant ever since.”

Smith is relentlessly drawn to shooting in available light. “My goal is to do more fashion, but not studio fashion. Fashion on location is more exciting to me. Doing that and a combination of luxury weddings would make me very happy.”

“Everything about shooting film excites me,” says Smith. “Even the lensflares are beautiful, and add to the photograph. There’s something about the physicalness of the camera. When clients hear the sound of the shutter for the first time, they know it’s real-photography time. I also discovered that before I was seriously shooting film, I was trying to mimic film digitally. Now, it’s the real thing.” Indeed, Michael Smith. Indeed.

Ash Imagery
Ash Imagery Blog
Ash Imagery on Twitter
Ash Imagery on Facebook

---

Posted by Ron Egatz on January 12th, 2010 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: 110mm lens, Ash Imagery, digital back, Impossible Project, Michael Smith, RZ67

---

Geordie Wood first got his hands on a Mamiya camera while attending the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, beginning his academic career as a Photojournalism major. It was there the Winchester, Massachusetts native used an RZ67 with a Phase One back and a 645 AFD II with a Leaf back. Wood was the winner of a MAC-on-Campus Award while an undergrad. “Eventually, I got more into studio portraiture and fashion photography,” explains Wood. “I started using a Sekonic light meter, and I really fell in love with the timbre and rhythm of working with film. The pacing allows you time to think, which is something I couldn’t do personally with shooting digitally.”

Wood assisted Steve McCurry in New York, photographer of one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th Century, Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula. Wood was influenced by Alex Majoli, Alex Webb, and other Magnum photographers who made excursions into remote parts of the world and came back with rolls of brilliant photographs. He wanted nothing more than to become a photojournalist.

After graduating from Newhouse, he printed for McCurry for five months and acted as his digital coordinator, saving up money for a trip to Nepal. Staying four months and shooting 250 rolls of 220 Kodachrome with his Mamiya 645 and Sekonic meter, he “walked the valley, stayed away from the computer, and made pictures,” he says. When asked about his concentration of portraits taken of the Nepalese, Wood discusses the turning point in his career. “Even though I grew up having great respect for those documentarians and photojournalists, I realized I didn’t want to come back with the stereotypical National Geographic shots. That’s why I made the choice to move toward portraits. I really like working one-on-one with people, talking to them, finding out what their lives are like. I hope, in the end, my photos don’t look like a photographer went to Katmandu Valley and came back with a story about the Katmandu Valley. Instead, I want it to look like I went there and came back with my own perspective on the place and the people I met.” Planning a show of his Katmandu photos in New York, Spring, 2010, Wood printed a test at 36 x 48 inches. “A monster print,” he says, “off a chrome slide from the Mamiya 645. It’s super-crisp, super-clean. I’m really happy with the quality of the images off that camera, which I actually bought for that trip.”

After Nepal, Wood recalibrated his goals from being a photojournalist to more of a portraiture- and fashion-based photographer. “It took me a while to learn how to have foresight in my photography. It changed the way I took photos. Being able to think critically and use the film and my Sekonic L-358 light meter has changed the way I take photos.”

Wood also uses PocketWizard Plus II units which he chose as his prize when winning the MAC on Campus award, and totes all his gear in a Tenba bag.

Wood credits his big break as coming when he was hired by The Fader. “It’s really hip, and I shoot my Mamiya for their assignments,” he says. “They hire me and want me to be exactly the kind of photographer I am.”

As far as advice for other young photographers, Wood says, “In the end, you need to have a really sharp perspective of what’s going on around you. I speak to a lot of other photographers and view a lot of shooters.” He recommends this approach to all who hope to go pro. “Hopefully, at the end of the day you can compile a list of things you want to do and aim in that direction you want to work in.”

Geordie Wood Photography

Geordie Wood Blog

Geordie Wood on Twitter

---

Posted by Ron Egatz on December 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: 645, 645 AFD II, assisting, Geordie Wood, going pro, Steve McCurry

---

Yup, it’s here!

Read all about it on Mamiya.com.

---

Posted by admin on December 18th, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: iphone, ipod touch

---

Remember the smell that escapes the wrapper when you open up a roll of 120 film?

Mamiya M645 1000S from Brian Wagner on Vimeo.

We came across this film study by Brian Wagner on Vimeo and couldn’t resist. The dawn of a new era where photographers make films is upon us for sure.

Check out the rest of Brian’s work on:
Website Blog Twitter Flickr

---

Posted by admin on December 4th, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: film, m645 1000s, video

---

Like many pro shooters, these days fashion photographer Simon Gerzina finds himself shooting less and less film. “It’s getting relegated to passion projects,” he says. “A lot of my clients and art directors are on the younger side, and they’re bullish about technology, even more than just a few years ago. That said, I own Nikon film bodies, an old Leica, an old Rolleiflex, but when it comes to the cameras which get pulled out for serious work and not playing around, it’s been my two Mamiyas.” For film he shoots the Mamiya RB67 shooting 120. “It’s been a tank in the studio, and a great option for shooting portraiture when you want it to be more atmospheric and a little more timeless.” He also shoots some beauty work with it.

“I also have a Mamiya 645AF. I’ve actually been using that more for fashion until the digital transition went over the hump. Now I use it more for portraiture in the studio or on location. I still use both cameras for passion projects, portraiture, or just walking around to shoot some film. I’ve been a Mamiya film shooter for years. In the future, I see myself transitioning back to medium format digital and using digital backs on the 645AFD.”

Film or digital, fashion or portraiture, we look forward to seeing more great working coming through the lenses of the talented Simon Gerzina.

Simon Gerzina Photography

Simon Gerzina’s Twitter feed

Simon Gerzina’s Facebook Fan Group

Fashion Shoot with Ford Models

Simon Gerzina’s Flickr Photostream

Behind-the-Scenes on Flickr

---

Posted by Ron Egatz on November 18th, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: 645AF, Mamiya 645AFD III, RB67, simon gerzina

---

We’re proud to announce that we’re on Twitter and Facebook – very much looking forward to talking with you.

Check us out here:

---

Posted by admin on November 5th, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: facebook, twitter

---

David Saffir recently took the Mamiya 645AFD III for a spin, and has been blogging about it. If you’re unfamiliar with Saffir, he’s a top shooter and regularly holds Photoshop and book publishing workshops for photographers. In this blog post, he gives a solid once-over review of the 654AFD III and the Leaf Aptus DL-28 Digital Back, the immediate predecessor to the new DM28. This is the same rig he’ll be using on his Focus 2009 Tour and Seminar Series, Fine Art and Photographic Reproduction.

Saffir gives good marks for ergonomics, quality, and shooting in lighting-controlled situations. He promised more review details in future posts. Check it out, and follow this Top 100 blogger on Twitter.

---

Posted by admin on October 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: 645 AFD III, David Saffir

---

The September issue of Rangefinder Magazine has a feature of Rocky Schenck and the complete range of his visual accomplishments. Schenck is known for his moody and visually-innovative music videos, and his homage photographs in the style of 1930s Hollywood glamour portraits. His still work is shot on film with a Mamiya RZ67.

PDF download of Rangefinder’s Schenck profile.

---

Posted by admin on September 28th, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: rocky schenk

---

“Ever since I was young, I knew in my heart I would be an artist of some sort,” states photographer Ervine Lin. Unfortunately, the educational system in Singapore tended to frown upon students who chose to study art during Ervine’s youth, “leaving only the less academically inclined students to pursue it,” he says. Ervine was whisked away into science-related courses with other academically-gifted students. The closest he could come to art was becoming an architectural major, which proved to be an unhappy pairing.

Taking a year off from his studies, Ervine and a friend opened a photography studio. His friend quickly left the business, leaving the neophyte photographer with the studio and the rent to pay. Ervine found himself a professional photographer with professional responsibilities very quickly. Fortunately, commercial clients appeared, and Ervine began his autodidactic journey as a photographer.

When asked about his impressive blend of lighting and saturation, Ervine claims to have a split personality when it comes to work for clients and work for himself. He will do anything required to get what clients are paying him for, including total image manipulation with his formidable Photoshop skills. His personal photographs get very little digital tweaking, if any. Most are scanned directly from slide or negatives. Sometimes there’s dust removal, cropping, and maybe a small amount of dodging and burning. “Most of the saturation that you see comes from the slides I use,” he says. “If you thought the photos online were saturated, wait until you look at the some of the slides under a loupe!”

Although his black and white photos often exhibit a wide dynamic range of luminosity, Ervine professes to not work hard to get this effect with his Mamiya gear. “While I often bring my Sekonic with me, there are times when I’d rather skip the whole zone metering and just let the camera do its work in AE mode,” he says. “I’m using a Mamiya 6, (a forerunner of the popular Mamiya 7 II) and it’s metering is done through the viewfinder. Film latitude on black and white negatives is just so broad that it’s really quite hard to go drastically wrong.” For color work, he shoots Kodak VS100 and Fuji Provia 400F. His black and white films are Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 and Neopan 400, and everything is scanned with an Epson Perfection V700. He shoots with strobes for his professional work, but his personal photos are done with available light only. When necessary, he utilizes a Sekonic 758 meter. “One of the biggest plus points about the Sekonic is its ability to average out a number of meter readings. This really speeds things up for me when I need to move fast but still meter with a spot meter.”

Completely self-taught in the art and science of photography, Ervine switched from the Mamiya RB67 to the Mamiya 6 Rangefinder. The reason for the switch was ease of portability in the field, as most of his personal photographs are done in foreign countries. Of the Mamiya 6, he reports, “It’s shutter is so slient you can hardly tell it went off.” He shoots the 50, 75, and 150mm lenses. “All three lenses are superb and pretty much ideal for the work I do. They tack sharp even when wide open.”

Ervine has written about how digital photos appear too clean for him, and film seems “more authentic.” When asked if this is something to do with medium format film, he replies, “Not just medium format film. Polaroids, 35mm, 8×10’s, et cetera, all have this wonderfully beautiful look. Anything shot on film looks more down to earth, more humane, more alive, even. There’s the fact that when you tell people you shot a photograph on film, it helps to give you a bit more credibility as a photographer.”

When viewing the gorgeous tonality evident throughout his work in exotic locations from Australia to China to Bali, it’s clear Ervine Lin made the right choice. He is definitely an artist, and was wise to listen to the voice which spoke to him in his childhood. With his sights set on moving from commercial photography to more personal work and possibly opening a gallery, Ervine says, “I love making nice images for no other reason than making nice images. There’s nobody to answer to, no lists of deliverables and deadlines to meet, no invoices and quotations to write, and so on — just taking photographs for the love of photography and nothing else. Again I boil this down to my photographic split personality. In the future, if the time and opportunity arose for me to earn a decent living with my personal work, I would make the switch in an instant.” Although his commercial clients would disagree, we look forward to more stunning personal work by Ervine Lin, and wish him the best in continuing to make his artistic dreams a reality.

Ervine Lin Photography: http://www.ervinelin.com

---

Posted by Ron Egatz on September 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: Ervine Lin, Mamiya 6, Mamiya 7 II

---

Somewhere in London, Paris Seawell is shooting film with his Mamiya, and the world is fortunate for that. Although he paints, creates sculpture, and has made a few short movies (such as This Place) his black and white photography is where his most accomplished artistic vision shines.

Seawell’s series entitled Semblance is a unique vision of distorting the human body with seemingly random but highly controlled projections onto his model, Agata Rybicka. The results range from the horrifying to the sublime, but always remain fascinating and undeniable. Semblance harkens back to André Kertész’s groundbreaking series Distortions, but Seawell doesn’t bend the body’s form with light—he projects a series of images onto it. A fingerprint, marker jottings, splashes, and the initial letters of the four DNA nitrogenous bases (G, C, T and A) are source materials for these projections. His goals are not only to get us to view the body differently, but to think.

Seawell considers himself an artist first and a photographer second, and this makes perfect sense. “To me, large parts of photography are about creating a frame of reference.   This is a way of showing people how you think, and in turn, being able to compare that to how other people think,” Seawell says of his vision. Although he does shoot in color, he is more interested in working with shape, tone, form and texture at this time. People and their skin textures in particular are his primary inspiration and subject matter.

Proof of Life is about viewing the body differently, also, although the subjects are not manipulated with props. Scarred bodies themselves are the subjects, yet he consciously works to remove emotion from these photos. This series, he states, has more meaning than Semblance. “There’s more context, thought and philosophy around Proof of Life.” Originally conceived as an antidote to Robert Mapplethorpe’s perfect human forms, Seawell explains, “I don’t want to find the flaw or scar on a perfect body. I wanted to find the perfection in the flaw, and how the flaw can be beautiful.” Pointing to Jeffrey Silverthorne’s morgue photographs, Seawell strives for both stillness and mystery in these images. He’s not striving for romantic images and provides no backstory on his subjects and their wounds. This growing collection currently features an accident victim, an emergency surgery patient, a skin disease sufferer, and a self-harm patient. Other subjects are on the way, including a man aged 55. “These bodies are objects. Bodies are just things. I’m not objectifying the models, but showing the beauty of what and who they are.”

His frankness continues through to the equipment he uses and the photographic process he’s developed. Originally working with a digital SLR, Seawell quickly had a change of heart. “I got bored. It was too easy. I wasn’t learning anything about photography. It was shallow. When I found the Mamiya, it saved photography for me. It breathed life back into the process. It sounds stupid, but it was magic. I was shooting and I thought ‘this is how photography should be.’ I felt like a rockstar—like Avedon shooting Monroe or Leibovitz shooting Lennon. It’s not just nostalgia. A good comparison would be stairs and escalators to film and digital. People will always want to walk at their own pace, as opposed to having the work done for them.” There’s a tactile satisfaction Seawell reports with his Mamiya 645 1000s. “There’s the whirring of the winder and the clunk of the shutter. It’s brilliant. The mechanicalness of it makes you feel you’re accomplishing something.” Currently shooting with an original Mamiya 80mm lens, Seawell eventually wants to acquire a 645 AFD III.

Although the projections and scars may change, Paris Seawell can be counted on for his continuing vision of the uncommon and unspoken. An artist unafraid to show what is typically hidden both inside and out, Seawell plans on bringing us more images of the same. Viewers, no doubt, will continue to attempt to put their own stories to them and roam where Seawell’s textures may lead their eyes.

Paris Seawell: http://www.paris-seawell.com/

Paris Seawell on Twitter: http://twitter.com/paris_seawell

---

Posted by Ron Egatz on September 1st, 2009 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: Mamiya 645 1000s, Mamiya 645AFD III, Paris Seawell

---