Mamiya Super 23 and Speed Graphic at Jolies Fleurs - a fantastic Thornbury florist.

The Mamiya Super 23 press camera with 6x9 back, and Speed Graphic shooting 4x5 large format sheets. This is the next video in my series photographing local businesses here in South Gloucestershire. I visit the amazing Jolie Fleurs florists in Thornbury. Links here: https://joliesfleurs.co.uk   / joliesfleursflowers     / joliesfleursflowers   Jolies Fleurs is run by Jo and her amazing team, and as you'll see from the video, they are a wonderful, happy bunch and I had a cracking few hours taking photos of them! Big thanks Jo, you guys were awesome. Now, about the photos. Not my finest hour. What we ended up with was not quite what was in my head. The 4x5 frames are sort of growing on me... but what I ended up with was not quite what I set out to get. Let's start with the Super 23. I was actually pleasantly surprised by this one. The film back was malfunctioning, the rangefinder was hard to see in the low light, and I had no idea if the rangefinder was even calibrated correctly, having re-calibrated it the day before the shoot! But what I got from that one was actually ok. The Super 23 is of course from the renowned Mamiya Press line of cameras, designed and intended as a 1970s press corps workhorse. But I cannot fathom how press photographers were able to use this consistently! I guess you would get used to it. The Speed Graphic was less impressive today. I went along to Jolies Fleurs with one light and an idea that I would use that light to isolate one person, pick them out against the busy background of flowers. But I underexposed, and indoiing so lost a lot of exposure latitude. So the final images are very contrasty, and what I had hoped would be faint details alll over the image slightly lost behind the main subject, turned into just the main subject and black everywhere else. But they're sort of growing on me. I think maybe there is some merit to them after all! Aaaaanyway, drop me line with any questions or comments, as always!