What made you want to try half-frame, and what was your first half-frame camera?

Back in 2011 and 2012 my photography was reborn, sounds dramatic but I felt like I’d been in the analogue “wilderness” for years, isolated film and darkroom user in a sea of digital with nothing but doom and gloom for the medium of expression that I loved.  

I then spent about 8 weeks off work following eye surgery and discovered the LFPP Podcast and realised there were others, like me out there and it was actually a great time to play and explore new formats and techniques as camera prices had fallen in recent years in the rush to the digital craze.

Polaroid and all things instant was my first rabbit hole and then other cameras like the Olympus Trip which I’d owned many years before I repurchased from Paul lamb at Tripman, back then he was selling refurbished ones for under £60 but he also had some PEN EE and EE3 half frame cameras so I dived in with the PEN EE which I still have to this day.

In 2012 I joined Twitter and began the decade long journey of meeting real and virtual friends around the world.  How the power of social media has rejuvenated my film and darkroom work I can’t begin to say, these days it’s mostly bluesky for my daily analogue ramblings. 

What is it you like most about Half-frame?

Story telling in short. The ability to put my thoughts and observations into a form that, for me tells a story of a place or a time – I hardly ever make a single frame exposure it’s all about constructed Panoramas, diptychs and triptychs.

And the end result has to be a print which ends up in an archival box with typed notes of my thoughts……You see I have to have a purpose for my printing, whether or not anyone else sees the final body or not is irrelevant, it’s my creative outlet.

Favourite subject and/or HalF-frame photo?

#HalfFrameStories is an ongoing project using mostly the Pentax 17. The idea is to record my daily wanderings and trips out to tell stories and construct narratives.  Some photos attached may give the idea. The Fens are my back yard and form the framework for most of these, where I’m trying to convey a “sense of place”. The Pentax 17 recently went to Vietnam with me so shared an image with you from there too.

Your top tip/s for shooting half frame photos?

Don’t get stressed over the number of frames but embrace the format to tell stories in ways that other formats just can’t …..oh and a Pentax 17 will change your life.