Panoramic Photos of Norway Shot on a Hasselblad XPan and Kodak Film

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Most photographers could work their way through a few terabytes worth of memory cards during a trip to Norway. But when Tom Kluyver decided to join his buddy Chris Konig on a landscape photography adventure, he didn’t pack memory cards. Instead, he brought his panoramic Hasselblad XPan and some Kodak Portra.

The duo spent a week living out of a car, deciding where to go take pictures by that morning’s weather report. It’s a landscape photographer’s dream come true, so why, then, would you choose to shoot film when you can spray and pray your way through this epic photo adventure? Kluyver had an answer ready for us:

Film ads to the surprise/adventure mentality. The film added an extra challenge, you don’t know how it will look until you get it back. Film makes you more aware of what you shoot and how you shoot it.

And, in a way, the XPan is the perfect film camera to bring with you to Norway. Yes, you’re practically bleeding dollars and cents with each press of the shutter, but what better camera to use when you’re going to be (literally) surrounded by gorgeous nature?

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The camera’s almost 1:3 aspect ratio combined with the forced carefulness of shooting film is what made the trip a success for Kluyver. He relished every photo opportunity, took his time, and only pressed the shutter when he was certain of his shot.

“I did not buy the X-pan for snapshots,” he tells PetaPixel. “I often take some time to find the right composition and double check the exposure settings. Sometimes, this means I don’t even end up taking a picture, because in the end it would be a shame to waste film like that and the price per photo taken is high… I’m still a graduate student.”

That’s how he managed to come back from this trip with 15 sharable photos out of a few rolls of film, where a digital photographer might have captured that many after shooting thousands, or tens of thousands of frames.

Take a look for yourself:

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To see more of Tom’s photography, give him a follow on Instagram. And if you’d like to check out these panoramas in higher resolution, head over to his Behance profile.


Image credits: All photos by Tom Kluyver and used with permission.

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