Hasselblad Cameras

[DeonReynolds]

Hi All,

I love square format cameras, so it's no surprise I love Hasselblad cameras. For me it all started when I was eleven years old, my father had landed a contract to photograph his first coffee table book "ALASKA" for Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company in Portland, Oregon. He would end up designing 144 books for this company and photographing seven in this series. That year he won a Communication Arts Magazine award and got the cover of CA magazine for his photographic and design work on his "ALASKA" book. We packed up his brand new 1969 Land Rover IIa 88 and along with my Mother and I we headed north to Alaska! He had also just purchased a new Hasselblad 500C system with 50, 80, 150 and 250mm "C" lenses and a couple of 12 magazines. I was pulled from school to became his photo assistant travel companion for the 18 month period it took him to photograph this project. My Mother would fly back to Portland shortly after getting to Anchorage, as she was never too keen on camping and exploring the unknown like my Father and I. We traveled to every corner of the state in every season. I would end up in the back seat of bush planes, the pitching decks of fishing boats in the Pacific Ocean to oil rigs on the North Slope loading hasselblad 12 magazines for him and keeping track of what film was shot how/when/where. But, most of all I learning so much about landscape photography with medium format cameras. Later while in college I worked camera retail. It was at this point I made a "personal purchase" through Hasselblad buying my first Hasselblad camera. Hasselblad had just introduced the 500 C/M and the A-12 magazine, this is what I purchased through the program along with an 80mm C T* lens. While working camera retail I also enrolled in the Hasselblad School taught by Ernst Wildi. Over the years Ernst and I would swap books and Hasselblad stories. My first coffee table book "NEVADA" was completely shot with Hasselblad cameras and Fuji Velvia film, this was also the last book my Father designed before he passed away. A few years later digital came along running my fun with Hasselblad cameras. With great trepidation I ended up selling everything on e-bay, seven bodies including a FlexBody and ArchBody as well as eleven T* lenses. This would turn out to be a very big mistake! A couple of years later I ended up finding a mint condition 501 C/M with two of the latest A-12 magazines and my two favorite lenses the 60mm and the 100mm f=3.5 CFi. This is all I have in the system anymore, but I think less is more these days. I have found a simpler approach (less equipment) has been better for me photographically. More about design less about stuff...

You can find examples of my square photography on my website http://www.deonreynolds.com . In the drop down menu click "square" the only portfolio of images here that was not shot with a Hasselblad is marked "plastic camera" it was shot with a Holga 120s.

These days I mostly shoot B&W, Ilford Pan-F film.

My wife Trish shoots flowers with a Hasselblad 501 C/M and a 120mm or a 135mm lens with Auto Bellows. Her website is http://www.trishreynolds.com Everything square is Hasselblad everything else is Canon digital.

Best,

Deon
http://www.deonreynolds.com (website)
https://deonreynolds.wordpress.com (blog)

[JOReynolds]

It must be the Reynolds connection. I, too, sold my first Hasselblad kit 50-80-150 A12x2. It was to fund the family when my first child was born. But I managed to put another kit together when I retired and prices were post-digital, rock-bottom. I've never been good at envisioning the final B&W print and the square format gives me the choice of deciding on the shape later. Or not deciding, and leaving it full-frame. My glassless neg carrier won't allow me to follow the sixties fashion of printing the whole frame, including those two little tell-tale notches.

[DeonReynolds]

Originally Posted by JOReynolds

My glassless neg carrier won't allow me to follow the sixties fashion of printing the whole frame, including those two little tell-tale notches.

I have taken a file to all my glassless negative carriers, so I can print the rebate edge. Make sure to paint out the filed edge with flat black paint so as to avoid flair off the shiny edge.

It is a Reynolds thing...