Wyoming Winters

There are no shortage of amazing images to be captured during winter with the snow and ever present Wyoming winds leading to plenty of high contrast images. But braving the elements is no small feat, with the snow and aforementioned winds shutting down roads and making travel treacherous at best. Add in the short days, I find my output during winter pretty drastically decreases.

Aside from making the most of the limited time outside, I find that I have to look for other aspects of my photography to work on during the winter. I’ve been watching plenty of videos from my favorite Youtube photographers for inspiration as the weather improves and working on refining my Lightroom abilities and building to an acceptable skill level in Photoshop. Browsing eBay for cameras that I can’t afford has become a favorite pastime recently. All things to keep my hobby moving forward even when the photographic offerings have been slim.

But there has been one project that has taken up more of my time than any other recently. I have become infatuated with the look of the images that the Hasselblad xPan produces; however, that camera will never be within my reach. And even if it was, I don’t know that I’d be willing to spend $5000+ on a piece of equipment that is a ticking time bomb when it comes to breaking and being extremely difficult or even impossible to repair. Just cropping a digital image to the 65x24 aspect ratio doesn’t really scratch the same itch, so this led to question: what alternatives do I have in the world of film?

The answer: the BrancoPan. A 35mm 3D printed camera that uses Mamiya press lenses to create the same effect as the xPan. It’s a project that requires lots of print time and patience, and more than a little elbow grease to get it functioning. I’m well into the process now and hope to have it ready to go for the return of some warmer weather, fingers crossed!