To respond to the obvious question, “half a cookie” refers to a now-famous question posed by my cohost (and longtime half-frame skeptic) Gabe Sachs in Episode 5 of I Dream of Cameras:
GABE: Look, when you go to a store, do you want to buy half a cookie? Or would you like the whole cookie?
JEFF: It depends how good the cookies are.
GABE: I would say you always want a full-frame cookie.
JEFF: Do you want a large, bad cookie? Or would you like two smaller cookies that are delicious? Also, think about this: How often do you want to have to go to the cookie shop to get the cookies? Because that’s part of it, too.
We even have merch commemorating this exchange:
What made you want to try half-frame, and what was your first half-frame camera?
The very first camera I bought with my own money was an Olympus 35RC. This kicked off a lifelong love of Olympus cameras, and if you love Olympus, then you’ll come to revere designer Yoshihisa Maitani, and if you revere Maitani, you’ll eventually find your way into Half-Frame Land.
My first such camera was the Olympus Pen EE-3, and although I eventually acquired the full range of Pen cameras — yes, all of them! — the EE-3 is still my favorite.
What is it you like most about Half-frame?
It’s so informal! When people say why they like shooting digital, invariably they talk about how you can just fire away without having to sweat every frame. This is also, of course, part of the Lomo “shoot from the hip” philosophy. Well, nowhere in the world of analog photography is this aesthetic more possible than Half-Frame Land, because you have at least 48 and probably 72 shots to play with.
Favourite subject and/or Half-frame photo?
This photo comes with a story. For many years I was the showrunner and eventually director of various American TV shows. And I took to keeping my Pen EE-3 in my back pocket, usually loaded with Ilford XP2 Super, for stealthy on-set photography. This strategy enabled me to grab a quick snapshot without attracting attention or interfering with the job I was supposed to be doing.
The shot below was taken during the filming of the 100th episode of Will & Grace, which featured Grace (Debra Messing) marrying her new beau Leo (Harry Connick). The setup is that the two are wandering by the lake in Central Park when they come upon a mass wedding, a hundred couples in tuxedos and wedding gowns, a stunt for NBC’s Today show. We even got Today’s Katie Couric to guest star. Struck by this romantic scene, Leo impulsively proposes to Grace, and the two spend the rest of the episode trying to make the vows stick.
From the moment we came up with this idea, I was besotted with this image of a hundred bridal couples by the lake. We took our production from Los Angeles to New York, and as we set up the scene, a light rain began to fall, forcing the wardrobe department to hastily issue umbrellas. I quickly snapped this shot to memorialize the moment. And when we got back to L.A. and began editing the episode… come to find out our director had neglected to shoot a wide shot. The image below is not in the show!
So this shot — blown up to 16×20 and hanging on the wall of my office — is the only evidence of the image I’d imagined, and had I not had a half-frame camera on hand, it would not exist.
Your top tip/s for shooting half frame photos?
1. Load a high-speed black-and-white film like XP2 or Tri-X or HP5 and shoot with impunity. Don’t sweat exposure or composition. Free your mind.
2. Don’t become a slave to “portrait mode” just because that’s the default on most half-frame cameras. Landscapes work, too!
3. Try a series of vertical shots, then stitch ’em together in Photoshop to make a super-panorama. Here’s an example, this one taken with my favorite autofocus half-cookie, the Canon Sure Shot Multi Tele. You have to look closely to see the seams.
4. You will eventually buy an Olympus Pen F, so why not go ahead and get one now?
Thanks for having me —
Jeff Greenstein
Half-Cookie Enthusiast from the Smash Hit Podcast™ I Dream of Cameras
