8x10 at a Wedding

Occasionally I bring my Kodak #2 8x10 View Camera (circa 1906) to weddings. I pull it out and shoot 2-4 frames at most. Slow photography.

I often shoot solo. I will set up the 8x10 and leave it over in a corner until I feel it is time.

These clients work in the film industry in NYC and specifically liked the idea of just a handful of family portraits with the view camera. Their wedding was intimate and so were their portraits. We made four exposures in just a few minutes on the sidewalk in Tribeca.

On a mountaintop in Western Pennsylvania I went for it. I rarely scout a job, but this time I went to the rehearsal on Friday and had a sense of the grandeur of this setting. I had plenty of time the day of the weddding to set the camera on a tripod and place it at the back for a wide panoramic view. I framed the shot, preloaded the film, set the exposure and asked the wedding coordinator to click the shutter when the bride walked past with her father. This all happened very fast. The planner balked at the idea of touching my strange camera, so, as I was shooting backward with my Leica and my medium format, I reached across and clicked this one frame.

When the light is this fine, nothing can beat a single sheet of 8x10 film.

The composition on this image is slightly tilted because the dog ran up the hill barking and bumped me before I clicked the shutter. There is a power to only getting one shot at it.