What's up Ya'll? Hope you're having a great day! This week I want to talk about something I have never discussed before. Because I just figured it out! LOL Shooting in different Aspect Ratio's. I have always just shot in what ever default the camera came in and cropped in post to the Aspect Ratio that I wanted. Sometime this works fine but others I end up chopping something off that I didn't want to like the top of someone's head. But if you shot in that Aspect ratio to start with you would not have that problem. Now if your not familiar with Aspect ratio's lets do a little review.

Aspect ratio in photography is the ratio of an image's width to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. For example, a 3:2 aspect ratio means the image is three times wider than it is tall. Most common aspect ratio's in still photography are 3:2 , 4:3 , 1:1 and most recently 16:9.  To put in more common terms 3:2 equals a 6x4 print you used get with film photography, 4;3 ratio is like the old computer monitors more square, of course 1:1 is square like old 6X6 film cameras and instagram loves this format. And more recently the 16:9 ratio is modern HD moitor and TV size. The latter is the one that I make all of my Title pages for the blog with the titles on them. They fill up the screen. Now there are other aspect ratios especially in printing. But cameras mostly shoot in these 4. My older camera only has two but my newer one has all 4.

Now that we know what aspect ratios are why would we change them in camera? Well for one reason is if you plan to print in a specific ratio you can make sure that it's framed correctly. When you look at your screen and your electronic view finder it's already cropped to the ratio that you picked. Lets say you picked 16:9 when you look at your camera there is a black bar above and below the photo giving you the aspect ratio of 16:9 when you view back on the screen its the same. If you don't like it and shot in raw and import to Lightroom you can go to cropping and put in original aspect ration and it becomes 3:2 again showing all of the photo that was in the black bar part of your camera screen. Older film cameras you used to get focusing screens that would show the lines where the different aspect ratio's would be. So back to the question why would I change ratios in camera? To me it puts a restriction on shooting which makes you think. Kind of like using one prime lens for a shoot for a whole day.  It makes you look at the world a little different making your creative juices flow again. And that's a good thing. If you're in a rut one way to get out of it is shooting restricted a little.  Say shoot 1:1 (square) all day. You will be surprised the shots you will get. And your mind will start seeing that way. It's much like shooting in black and white for a day the same thing happens. For a bonus it's a fun way to get your mojo working again without spending money!

Most camera's will have this feature you just have to look for it . I'm using older cameras and both of mine have it. The older one only has two choices but the newer one has 4 choices. I'm going to start experimenting more shooting like this. So until next week get out and shoot and experiment with Aspect Ratios ! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! How's your week going? Mine is going pretty well. This week I want to talk about my 2025 Film Photography Project. Last year I brought film back into my photography and had a great time doing it. I relearned how to process my own film and create negatives.  How to scan with my camera to get digital copies into my computer where I could do editing and send to screen or print. The whole point of that project was to relearn and perfect those processes to get nice film shots. Images through chemistry not electrons. I got to use some old camera's of mine and purchases a few more camera's. I got to shoot with camera's from the 1960's , 70's and 80's. Perfected using in camera meters (when they worked) and hand held meters to get the proper exposure. I got to see how less critical some camera settings were for certain
film stocks. It put me back in time when I first was learning photography in the 1970's. I truly enjoyed the experience although there are some parts that I didn't like. The price of film is very expensive. Especially for professional film. So I shot mostly on consumer based films which weren't too bad but still pricy. But I was lucky I had most of the equipment that I needed to develop the film and found the best way for me to scan the negatives that I created into digital. It was a great learning experience. But this year will be different.

Last year I shot mostly 35mm film stock. I shot it full and half frame. I took lots of photo's and even made a book of my prints. This year I'll still shoot a little 35mm but mostly 120 film. Medium format. Last year I purchased a Bronica ETR SI 645 camera . I got very lucky in the purchase and you can read about it in this blog. Bronica ETR SI first thoughts With an almost new vintage 1990's camera I plan on taking this camera around with me on other photo projects and trips and using it to make images. Hopefully I will get well thought out and planned fine art photos. This is not the camera for taking snap shots. I hope to take Landscapes and Cityscapes of places I travel to. It will be going on my big trips with the club but maybe not on trips where I have to travel in a plane. It's fairly big and bulky .  I've got at least one trip that I'm in the works of planning that will require plane travel. But mostly everywhere else. I really only took test shots last year with the camera to test the camera gear and my ability to process the film. I took the camera out today and started playing with it again and I'm not ashamed to say that I had to pull out the manual a few times to figure things out. The 645 format of this camera is the smallest of the medium format and it gives me about 2.5 times the surface area of a 35mm. I did this size to save on film. I'll get 15 shots per roll instead of 12 of 6X7 film or 6x6 film. I do like the format of 6X6 so maybe a camera will be in the future but until I find a great deal I'll be shooting this Bronica.  I plan on shooting black and white and Color film. For color I will be shooting mostly Kodak Gold 200 a consumer film stock. Maybe a roll of Kodak Portra every now and then a professional film stock. And for black and white most likely Illford, Kodak, or Shanghai film. I do like the look of color but will have black and white with me always. What's nice about this camera is the removable film backs so I can switch between color and black and white in mid roll to save on film. Hopefully my skill will improve and I get some dramatic Landscapes is what I'm hoping. 

Hopefully at the end of the year I'll have a book made of medium format film shots made with my Bronica. Until next week Get Out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to tell you about a photography trip that I took on New Year's eve. This is an annual trip that my photography wingman Robert and I take every year to capture the first light of the new year. Places we have gone are Carolina Beach NC, Mt. Mitchell, Charlotte, Cape Hatteras and this year it was Kill Devil Hills NC. Last year we added a member to the crew Mike and this year we added one more Caitlin. So we had 4 photogs on this trip. We are all in the same photography club and go on outings with each other often. So let me tell you about our trip.

First we left early on New Year's Eve to head to the coast. First stop was Alligator Wildlife Preserve. Mike is the wildlife expert in our group and comes here often and knows where some of the animals tend to stay. We arrived about 9 o'clock and rode around on dirt roads looking for any type of wildlife. We really wanted to see a bear this day. We saw lots of birds from
Tundra Swans, Hawks, Buzzards and lots of other birds. But no mammals and certainly not any bears although there were signs that they were around. If you know what I mean. LOL We stopped and had a picnic lunch provided by Robert. There were roast beef sandwiches with homemade bread. He likes to take credit but we all know that his wife did most of the work. It was a fantastic lunch which filled us up. The next stop was to scout Kill Devil Hills and Jockey's Ridge State Park.

Scouting Jockey's Ridge, If you don't already know. Jockey's Ridge is a very large Sand Dune Array with lots of sand and a very big Dune. I would guess maybe 3 or 4 Stories high. They actually hang glide off of the dune. Mostly in the summer. The dunes are always shifting and changing and we wanted to see where we would set up for a potential night shot and for the sunrise shot that we came for. We had got permission to be on the Dunes from the State Park (Jockey's Ridge State Park) after and before operating hours of the park. We wanted to get our bearings before trying to find something in the dark in the sand and with the least amount of hiking in the sand which is hard. We found our spot for the sunrise shot but decided to go to Bodie Island Lighthouse for the nighttime shot instead of the dunes.

Sunset Shot. Robert and myself had done a little research and found a spot to do a sunset shot in Manteo NC and eat at a restaurant that we had gone to before for Supper. Prior to going to Manteo we went to our overnight rental and took a few hours off to rest before the nighttime activities started and we had gotten up real early . After our rest we headed off to Manteo which was only a few minutes drive away. What we had forgot in our planning is that it was New Year's Eve and the town of Manteo had some plans of their own.
All of downtown was blocked off for the nights activities so we had to park a lot further away than we expected and it took a little longer to get to our spot. The long shadows of the end of the day had started across our scene so the shot we had planned didn't go as planned. But there were lots of other shots to get. So we did those on the way back to our truck. We did have a great dinner at the restaurant that we had picked out. Then we headed to Bodie Island Lighthouse for our nighttime shot.

Bodie Island . Robert has recently got a Star Tracker to shoot the night sky with. This is a device that moves the camera at the same speed as the earths rotation so you can take longer shutter speed shots . This lets you lower your ISO and bring in more light and keeps the stars pinpoint sharp. The wind was starting to pick up speed as the night went along and it was just a little windy when we shot there. Robert went through all of the motions of showing us how to align the star tracker and taking shots with the machine. I went with my normal set up that I usually use here. Tripod, ISO 1000, Shutter at 20 sec and f/2.0 aperture . This combo seems to work well with my camera/lens combo and I got some really good shots. It got colder and started to mist. Almost a heavy dew that got on everything and made some interesting shots. After the nighttime shots we decided to head to the rental and get some sleep before we had to get up for a early morning shoot at Kill Devil Hills.

New Year Sunrise. We got up and headed to Kill Devil Hills. It was very windy maybe 25-30mph wind with gust even higher. It was 50 degrees with a wind chill of 38. We got to our starting point a little early so we waited in the truck until it was time to hit the dunes. I put on my insulated coveralls to stay warm. I grabbed my tripod camera/lens combo and headed up the dunes.  The higher we got the winder it got. The wind was picking up the sand and blowing it across the dunes. Sand got everywhere to our equipment to our ears and eyes. We worked many compositions but I think I got what I wanted out of the shoot. After maybe an hour on the dunes it was time for breakfast! We stopped at a place that Robert and myself had gone to in the past and it hit the spot! We then started our way home. We stopped at Alligator River on the way home and saw less wildlife than we had seen the day before. I did see a couple of otters playing in the water but only got one shot of them.

This was a great trip and love going with my photog friends. Fun was had by all and lots and lots of laughs were had. Can't wait until next year I wonder where it will be. Until Next Week Get Out and Shoot!