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

In a charity shop some time around the end of 2019 I picked up a small but weighty camera that felt lovely to hold but about which I knew absolutely nothing – an Olympus Pen EES. Sadly it had numerous problems and wasn’t usable, but even so it was hard to leave it behind. I read up about the Pen EE family, and read about half-frame photography in general, and I knew it wasn’t going to stop there.

A huge part of the appeal was the prospect of thinking in pairs or groups of images, of putting frames together that would look right sitting close to each other with just that thin black line between them, something that meant having to think a little differently. And part of it, I must admit, is a weakness I have for small and solid 35mm Olympus cameras.

Some months later, during lockdown, I was browsing the website of a camera shop and there, in the used section was a Pen EE-3 in good condition, with a warranty. And that was it. It’s still my go-to half-frame camera. Last year I did find a battered but very usable Pen FT which gives me more control over aperture and shutter speed, but it hasn’t replaced the EE-3 the way I thought it might.

What is it you like most about Half-frame?

I love the different things the camera makes me think about. In one film of 48 or 72 frames there will be photographs I took when I was trying to be patient, trying to put the thought into images that might make a specific pattern or story; but there will also be images that were taken really quickly with very little thought at all because I knew that they would be really good together but only if I took them fast enough. And then on top of that there will be mis-matched pairs of stand-alone images because that’s all I wanted or all there was time for and I wasn’t going to miss out on what might possibly be a good photograph just because it wasn’t going to pair well with the image next to it.

Favourite subject and/or Half-frame photo?

I don’t think there’s anything I photograph with the half-frame that I wouldn’t want to photograph with any camera – buildings, the sea and coast, reflections, people, anything with good light – but it’s whether in taking photographs of those subjects I can make the most of the fact that the camera in my hand is a half-frame.

Your top tip/s for shooting half frame photos?

If you’re going to shoot pairs or more, think at least some of the time about why and in what way you would want to see these particular images next to each other. The rest of the time have fun and take chances. And remember to turn the camera for landscape.