Biography and Information
Peter at Water Pass in Kluane National Park, June 2005.
BIOGRAPHY:

Peter von Gaza was born in Canada and grew up in Southern California. He spent his youth hiking and climbing in the deserts and mountains of California. He studied geology and geography at the University of California at Santa Barbara and spent his summers running youth hostels and climbing mountains in the Canadian Rockies. Peter first came to the north in his early 20’s on a summer hitchhiking trip. After graduating from University he moved back to Canada and completed a Masters of Science in Geography at the University of Alberta. He has lived in the Yukon for the past 8 years.

Peter has been involved in photography from an early age and since high school has been primarily focused on Black and White photography. His primary motivation is in visiting remote and desolate landscapes and trying to capture a sense of the immense nature of the planet. His work and travel has given him the opportunity to photograph many distant lands; some of his favorites include: The Karakorum Himalaya in Pakistan, the deserts of the Middle East, the European Alps, Yosemite Valley in California, Baja California in Mexico, St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon and Denali National Park in Alaska.

Peter's likes to say that his style of photography is motivated by what he considers to be the three greatest mountain photographers of all time: Victorio Sella, Frank Symthe and Bradford Washburn.

Technically, Peter uses a lightweight medium format camera (and sometimes a special lightweight 4x5 camera) because of the nature of his travels. He enjoys moving through the landscape and taking a photograph if an opportunity presents itself. Rarely does he sit in one place waiting for perfect conditions. His ideal situation is to photograph from high vantage points: from high in the mountains or from aircraft. Peter is currently working on a long-term project to photograph the contiguous landscapes of Kluane National Park, Wrangle-St. Elias National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Alsek-Tatshenshini National Parks.

Over 4 years ago Peter switched from producing prints in the darkroom to producing digital prints using archival “carbon pigment inks”. He scans his original b&w negatives and adjusts the tonal range and contrast using simple computer image processing techniques and outputs them to a digital printer. Using these methods he is able to produce exhibition quality prints that are virtually indistinguishable from traditional darkroom prints and archival for over 100 years. The “digital darkroom” greatly appeals to him because of the fine print control that can be achieved using computers and for the simple fact that the process is much less harmful to the environment (and to himself) than traditional darkroom work.

He is currently working on producing digital print portfolios of all his past work and is continuing his long-term project of photographing spectacular mountains of the world. He and Yukon painter Nathalie Parenteau own and run Shadow Lynx Artworks in Whitehorse, Yukon. His other job is as a remote sensing specialist and computer programmer.

Cameras:

Like most photographers I have too many cameras to justify. In order of most used:

Mamiya 7, 50mm, 80mm, 150mm lenses. This camera is my workhorse. What makes this camera go are the lenses. They are extremely sharp - across ALL f-stops. The 80mm lens is my favorite. Never had any trouble with this camera. Complaints against this camera start with its price (although digital cameras have seemed to slice the resale value in half) and the sometimes wonky range finder alignment. IMHO the best medium format camera on the planet for shooting landscapes.

Toho FC-45 Mini. This is probably the lightest and simplist 4x5 on the market. It has no movements other than focusing on it's rail. I absolutely love this camera. I find that my style of photography tends to place me in spots where I FREEZE for hours trying to get photos. Fiddling with camera movements is not an option. Getting the camera open and focused is hard enough. I don't do the flowers-in-the-forground-thing and mountains-in-the-background-thing, so don't need tilts or swings (Scheimpflug principle stuff). I'm an infinity dude and will climb thousands of feet to get away from the forground clutter (trees, bushes, etc.). If I get distortions, well there's Photoshop. Because of this I can use some really lightweight and sharp 4x5 lenses (don't need the huge image circle). My current favorites:

150mm fujinon, 200 Nikkor-M, 90mm Schneider Angulon.

Fuji E550 Digital Camera. This little digital camera is a GEM!! It is 6 megapix and has a RAW mode, that is unheard of in this type of compact camera. As well it has an 80 ASA setting. Menus are well laid out and it is easy to change basic shooting parameters, although the raw mode is buried in the menus. There is also a histogram mode that is very useful for checking for cropped highlights and shadow detail. The lens is good when not used at extreme telephoto or wide angle. I have taken many images with this camera that have made stunning 8x10 images. I am waiting for the Fuji E900 (9 megapix) to hit the market. Rumor has it that it might have real time histogram preview (!?). These types of cameras are great tools for previewing an image. I have to admit that I have taken images with my digital that I didn't take with my film cameras because I thought a scene was not worth it, only to be surprised later. I have found the LCDs on the back of these cameras are useless in bright conditions, which is when you really need them to help with exposure control on a film camera. Also, the E550 freezes in very little time in cold conditions, quickly becoming a useless lump of electronics.

Modified Gowland Aerial 4x5 with Helical Mount. I got this baby last year and have only used it a few times but hope to put it into more action in the future. With the Helical mount real infinity focus can be found thru simple film tests. Camera came with a Schneider Symmar 150mm.

TOYO-VIEW 45D (C?). Use this camera to photograph art or do portraits.

Modified Polaroid 110b 4x5. Awesome point and shoot 4x5 produce by a guy named Dean in Australia. Mine came with a the original 127mm Schneider Ysarex lens. In the mean time I bought a 127mm Schneider angulon on ebay and will send the camera back to Dean to have the more modern lens adapted and his new 4x5 snap-back installed.

http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~razzle/

Rollei 35mm. I used this camera to document trips for years. Gets left behind a lot now because of the Fuji E550.

Olympus OM1. Camera I started with in high school. Collects a lot of dust these days.

Film:

Black and White: TMax 100 or Ilford Delta 100. For years I used exclusively 120 TMax 100. An amazing film that when properly exposed and developed gave me the ability to make beautiful 16x20 prints that looked like they were from a 4x5. Then a few years back Kodak change the TMax emulsion (100 TMax instead of TMax 100). This new film SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grainy and not sharp. The old TMax was magic (I have a few dozen rolls in cold storage that I take out for special projects) I switched to Delta 100 for all my 120 work. GREAT FILM. For 4x5 I use mainly 100 TMax Readyloads, but would switch to Delta 100 if Ilford produced it as a readyload.

I develop all my black and white using a Jobo.

Color: Kodak E100VS or E100G. Seems to work. I currently send my color film out for processing because I don't normal shot that much.

Printing:

The Digital Darkroom: I gave up darkroom work a number of years back. I scan all my negatives and print on a variety of printers:

Black and White Printing: Epson 1280 with MIS UT2 Ink set or an Epson 4000 using the shareware program QuadToneRip (wicked!!). The prints I sell are either printed on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag or Epson Enhanced Matte.

Color Printing: Epson 4000 on luster or semi-gloss paper