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

I decided I wanted to try half-frame because I hoped it would spur me to be a better visual storyteller. I often used to approach a scene and look for THE shot, missing a thousand interesting details in the process. When I looked at other photographers half-frame photography, it was full of diptychs and triptychs. It was rarely a single shot of a single scene. Briefly, I thought square format photos might also work for this purpose and started trying to shoot 6×6 diptychs. It didn’t take much experimenting before my inner infomercial pitchman started shouting, “There’s gotta be a better way!”

That’s when I bought my Pen F. As someone who shoots lots of landscapes, I’ve always been concerned about being able to resolve small details, which usually means going bigger in format- not smaller. I was pretty sure I was going to shoot one roll and put the Pen F right back up for sale. But gradually, it has done what I hoped it would do and has made me approach scenes differently so that I can get the most out of what it has to offer, which is quite a lot.

What is it you like most about Half-frame?

When I shoot half-frame, I’m always aware that I’m producing a very small negative. This makes me compose in a more thoughtful way, which leads to better results not only with half-frame, but with formats of every size.  I focus on filling the frame, using defined shapes and strong lines to make up my compositions in a way I might not normally do as much with larger formats. I rarely leave large sections of negative space. I get close to my subject and try to position myself to remove as many distracting elements as possible.

The other thing I really love about half-frame is the huge depth of field. That may be more of a bug than a feature for portrait shooters,  but for the things I do it’s amazing. I can set my lens to f8 or f11 and rarely if ever have to move the focus ring. Everything is sharp and in focus, which lets me use the Pen F almost like a point and shoot. And since there’s no meter in it for me to obsess over, I pick my settings once and keep shooting until the light changes without ever having to think about it. 

Favourite subject and/or Half-frame photo?

My favorite subject no matter the format is my wife, Emily. We work remotely and have spent the past several years traveling full-time. We stay in a place for 2-4 months, explore all we can in the surrounding area, then pack everything up in a giant van and move to the next place. As a result, she’s the only person I know in most places we stay. When I shoot half frame, I like to look for diptychs. A lot of them end up being one shot of her doing something, then another of the landscape we are in to show context. All of my photography is focused (see what I did there?) on documenting this wonderfully strange part of our lives so we can look back on it years later.

As a result, I don’t shoot many portraits of others, or strangers on the street, unless it is to add context for our own story. It would be difficult to pick out a single photo as a favorite, but I did shoot a roll of Kodak Gold on a week long road trip we did around New Mexico where I felt I did an especially good job of capturing the feel and spirit of the trip in a way I had struggled to do in the past.

Your top tip/s for shooting half frame photos?

When I go out with my Pen F, I try to think less about individual frames and more about what connects them. I know that might sound wishy-washy and vague, but if I look around a scene and see three or four things I can connect thematically, I know all of those frames will work well together. Sometimes I like to shoot “outside/inside,” “see/do” or “of the spot/from the spot.” On the roll I have loaded right now, I’ve been trying to shoot “before/after” diptychs. The idea came to me after scanning a frame of my wife nervously watching my father-in-law trying to find his balance on a paddle board, then another of her reacting as he fell into the water. Will any of these be any good? I’ll find out after about 50 more frames. 

I also like to shoot sharper, slower black and white film. I shoot a lot out in nature where I don’t always have as much control as I would like over what is or isn’t in my frame. Shooting black and white allows me to bring emphasis where I want it without bright or clashing colors distracting the eye. Trying to crop some distracting element out of an image when it’s already half-frame is not a recipe for success. Shooting slower films obviously reduces the size of the grain, but it’s still something you’ve got to embrace if you’re going to shoot half-frame. Large grain can be a deal breaker for me if I want to put a big, far off landscape onto such a small bit of negative, but if you’re shooting friends at a party with on-camera flash, for example, the grain of a faster film is probably not going to be an issue.