I look at my latest 5x4 negatives and I can’t say I am excited by the images. At least not, as pictures.* When shooting 35mm it is easier to accept the principle that most of what we shoot will be mediocre. The ‘hit’ rate is still relatively high because we shoot so many frames. This is clearly not the case with 5x4, where the exposure rate is so much slower.

Yet, I am still happy with the shots. In one, I’ve learnt about shooting with a red filter. In another, I have made a substantial mess of depth of field (there simply wasn’t enough for the subject, and I should have known better). In another, I’ve added to my experience of using multiple exposures in the place of long exposures to convey movement.

Mediocrity? Sure. But, happily, instructive mediocrity.

*To borrow a phrase from Modernist criticism, a successful picture is something more than an image. It is an image that must ‘compel conviction’, must hang together as a whole, a visual narrative, and deliver a sense of rightness and completeness.