Insta-Worthy Medium Format Shots

I explained what was happening in my last blog post in a recent social media post:

Last month, I did a medium format film / camera demo in my Photo II / Advanced Photo class. I sighed and mentioned a “trend” of not actually shooting with the camera, but instead pointing the camera at your subject and then getting a photo of the ground glass with your phone. After the demo, many students made photos of themselves in that manner using my cameras. 🙄🤷🏼‍♂️

This morning, I stepped outside and tried it myself for the first time (with an old Mamiya twin lens reflex), and made photos of our flowering tree and a pair of tulips in our garden. My students would be proud… I think…

Here were my 2 attempts:

[click each image to enlarge]

See my students doing this in our classroom in my last post.

Playing with Medium Format

I brought in a couple of medium format cameras to my Photo II / Advanced Photography class last month: a few twin lens reflex cameras along with my Mamiya RB 67.

After class, a few students stuck around to check them out in more detail. And they started taking "cutesy" Instagram-worthy pics with their phones looking down onto the ground glass. Here's a pic of the student on the left posing with a camera while the student in the middle makes a photo of her on the ground glass of another camera:

Click image to enlarge.

Oh, and note my drawing on the board of an unrolled roll of medium format film, showing the paper backing. I destroyed an old roll of expired film during class to show them how it works, but I had that drawing up on the board before class to discuss it before we got real "hands on."