photography Archives - Eric Hanson

Please check out my Film Photography Portfolio, or continue reading about my history with film photography.

My story with photography continues where my history with digital photography left off.

When my time at Zzyzx, CA – Desert Studies Center – was over, I decided to continue to journey through life instead of returning back home to North Dakota. I ended up meeting up with a long time internet friend of mine in Pahrump, NV and moved in with his friend and him. I ended up building a giant steel building in Snowflake, AZ with these guys, but also met a guy named Bart Cohen.

Bart introduced me to film photography. We would spend many hours talking over a bottle of Sailor Jerry rum and reminisce. He taught me a lot of things about photography and allowed me to pick his brain. He gave me a Zeiss Ikonta C to get me started. It shot a giant 6x9cm negative. Since I already had a pretty good 8MP digital camera, I wasn’t super interested in shooting 35mm film. The Zeiss shot medium format 120 roll film.

The bug was set. I’ve never had much disposable income, so I can getsuper amazing shots on B&W film using the top of the line lenses from history. The fully mechanical cameras are my absolute favorite.

After I lugged and shot many rolls of film through the Ikonta, I realized there were many leaks in the bellows of the old thing. So I had to start upgrading. Bellows are hard to come by, and the companies that used to make them are mostly out of business. I ended up getting another Zeiss Camera, a TLR called the Ikoflex. TLR stands for twin lens reflex, it actually uses two lenses, but only one to take the actual picture. The top lens is diverted through a mirror onto a lens that you look down onto from the top.

I’ve also gotten a bunch more cameras throughout the years, and even joined a few clubs and got other people interested in film. Film is still accessible today and hasn’t been completely outpaced by digital cameras, yet. The medium and large format films can easily shoot images with higher dynamic range and offer tighter and clearer pictures because they can be scanned at an equivalent of 50-100MP+ depending on the size of the negative.

A spread of my equipment — A spread of some of my equipment

See my Digital Photography Portfolio, or continue on reading about my history with digital cameras.

I began using cameras when I was in the Boy Scouts. My parents got me a nice automatic 35mm camera. I shot many many rolls through that during the times I went camping, especially in Glacier National Park. Then junior high school became more of a thing in my life and I ended up having less time to and interest in photography.

Then I began getting into website development and my father got me a Kodak DC120 digital camera. It was a massive camcorder looking still camera that took pictures at 1.2 MP. I did some neat web development and showcased my father’s business, the House of Color, and the work they were doing. The website has since been replaced with someone much more modern than something created in the late 90’s.

I took a ton of pictures with the 2MB CF cards I had for the Kodak, and used it up until I got into college. I was floating my roommates rent for him while he was waiting for his loan paperwork to clear. It took them many months, and when I was finally paid, I bought myself a new camera. I ended up getting the Olympus C-7070WZ. It was quite the leap in technology at 7.1MP over the Kodak’s 1.2MP. I used this camera to complete the Photographic Guide to Common Fishes of the Buffalo River.

During my capstone project I studied the behavior of the Green Darner dragonfly. While collecting data in the lab, I was presented with the opportunity to go to California to study an endangered fish. I ended up getting that opportunity, and worked in Zzyzx, CA at the Desert Studies Center for a summer with a student at North Dakota State University. About half way through that project, I had enough money saved up to get myself a better camera.

I ended up getting a Canon 30D, which was new that year, and the 70-200 f/4.0L Canon lens. This was an incredible leap in photographic technology. I spent a lot of time behind that camera. I still use it today, and a majority of the pictures on my portfolio were taken with this camera. Over the years I’ve gotten a couple other lenses for it including the 18-55 canon kit EFS lens, and the EF Sigma DX 50 macro lens.

Learning Through Life