Chad Hill
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chadhill.bsky.social
Chad Hill
@chadhill.bsky.social
5.9K followers 1.4K following 4.4K posts
Archaeologist, photographer, dilettante.

Primarily posting nerdy analogue photography BS: 110-8x10. Photography = catharsis.

Co-Winner, 2022 #ShittyCameraChallenge - InstantRegret

(Avatar is the dad from the awesome kids book “Pokko and the Drum”)
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chadhill.bsky.social
“Laura”, Buttercup Cottage ruins, Philadelphia 2025

B+J Grover 8x10, Wollaston 125mm f1.6, long expired Kodak paper negative (~1s@f8)

#BelieveInFilm #LargeFormat
Black and white photo of a decrepit doorway leading into the former tiled bathroom of a barn that burnt down 40 years ago.
November 10, 2025 at 12:01 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
This cheap B+J 8x10 monorail camera is WAY more portable than I would have guessed. So much more portable than my 4x5 monorail. The rail comes right off, and then the camera fits in my usual 8x10 backpack. It’s also made of painted grey (why???) wood, so it’s not heavy!

#CameraGear #BelieveInFilm
The b+j camera set up among my favorite test location and some fall foliage. The b+j with the rail removed and placed on my oversized homemade 8x10 camera wrap. The wrap closed up and ready to put in a bag. Big 5.11 backpack with all the gear for the 8x10 loaded up and ready to go. The hexagonal monorail is sticking up in the front pocket.
November 9, 2025 at 4:51 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
Practicing, Philadelphia 2025

Burke and James Grover 8x10, Wollaston 125mm f1.6 (@~f5.6), Expired Kodak RC paper negative (single strobe)

More tests with the super wide meniscus, in my lair, playing banjo.

#BelieveInFilm #LargeFormat #WollastonLens
A blurry and partially out of focus black and white image of a man leaning back in a rocking chair playing a 130 year old banjo. The movement, light, and lack of sharp focus draws the eye to the banjo rather than the man.
November 9, 2025 at 4:36 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Testing (romanescu broccoli), Philadelphia 2025

Burke and James Grover 8x10, Wollaston 125mm f1.6 (@~f7), expired Kodak rc paper negative

Testing a new pairing with Reinhold Schables 19mm-equivalent fast LF meniscus at macro distance! 😅😅

#BelieveInFilm #LargeFormat #PaperNegative
A black and white closeup image of a weird vegetable. Head on view of a Wollaston meniscus lens. View of the same image on the ground glass. A setup shot showing the romenescu broccoli under the 8x10 camera with the camera propped against a joy of cooking book and the subject is lit by a bright directional light.
November 8, 2025 at 6:43 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
It would be incorrect to say I have ever been “cool”. But maybe the least (most?) uncool I have ever been is driving around in my ‘79 VW Westphalia camper with my handmade wooden kayak wearing a tie dye Calvin and Hobbes shirt and toting a Nikon f4.

Really miss that van. Still have the boat.

#TBT
A photo of a green vw camper with a wooden kayak mounted on the roof. A young man wearing a tie dye shirt poses in front of a green vw camper.
November 5, 2025 at 9:49 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
Rules are rules, Bakhita, Jordan 2025

Nikon f100, 24-120 f4 vr, motipix 50d

#Fieldwork #Jordan #BelieveInFilm
A teapot with a fake wood handle sitting on the ground. A man with a camera is visible in the reflective surface of the teapot.
November 5, 2025 at 2:29 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
More petroglyphs, Bakhita, Jordan 2025

Pentax 645n, 45-85 4.5, delta 100

#Fieldwork #Jordan #Rockart
A camel and some other animals with some Safaitic inscriptions. Not camels and Safaitic inscriptions. More Safaitic. A bunch of camels and text on a large boulder.
November 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
I did the thing. Go do the thing!

#Vote #PAJudicialRetention
Selfie of a beardy man with a “yo vote” sticker.
November 4, 2025 at 5:52 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
Look down, look up. Black Desert, Jordan 2025

Pentax 645n, 45-85 4.5, delta 100

#Fieldwork #Jordan #BelieveInFilm 📸🎞️
A shot looking down at my boots just before they gave up the ghost and fell apart. Looking up at a beautiful fluffy cloud in the spring sky in the desert. This was shot in March.
November 4, 2025 at 4:48 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Blerg. I do believe that’s the first round of “is it pictures” I’ve definitively lost this year.

It was not, in fact, pictures.

🤷‍♂️

#BelieveInFilm #BelieveHarderNextTime
November 3, 2025 at 5:11 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Flying drones, Black Desert, eastern Jordan 2025

Bessa L, Chroma Double Glass 24mm f11, Rollei IR 400

The tech has come a long way since I started doing this.

#BelieveInFilm #dronesforgood #Fieldwork
A quadcopter hovers in the desert while a man in the background takes a picture and another man sits on the ground. A drone sits on the ground. A different drone hovers over the desert.
November 3, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Chad Hill
tactlessogre.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 4:02 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
This game is so good that noted baseball fan*, my mom, is still up and on the edge of her seat.

*(citation needed)
November 2, 2025 at 3:46 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Jordan: the sunshine state??? Mercedes truck in Ruweished, Jordan 2025

Bessa L, Chroma Double Glass 24mm f11, Rollei IR 400

(Not a short bonnet)

#FloridaPlates #BelieveInFilm #Fieldwork
A Mercedes truck in Jordan sporting a Florida license plate. A Light leak from an accidental back opening incident almost obliterated this shot on the roll!
November 2, 2025 at 2:49 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Year 3 of my favorite Halloween costume. #BelieveInFilm #nikonf100
A mirror selfie of a man in a nerdy photog vest with a Nikon f100 and a hand lettered “press” badge.
November 1, 2025 at 1:13 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Vittala Temple, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2025

IR panorama, Pentax 17, 720nm filter, Rollei IR 400

#BelieveInFilm #fieldwork #Infrared 🎞️📸
Black and white 5 frame 1/2 frame panorama.
October 31, 2025 at 7:46 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
A true horror story for Halloween:

“Our ai turned your article into a shareable comic”

Ffs.
A notification from academia.edu on my phone that reads “our ai turned your paper into a shareable comic”.
October 31, 2025 at 3:06 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
Textures, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2025

Pentax 645n, 45-85 4.5, Tmax 100, Pyro 510

#BelieveInFilm #Fieldwork #India
A line of elephants at the Hazara Rama temple in the royal enclosure at Hampi. A shot of lots of animals being lead in different directions on the side of the Hazara Rama temple.
October 30, 2025 at 9:41 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
Around town, Ruweished, Jordan 2025

Nikon f100, 24-120 f4, Fuji 400

#Fieldwork #BelieveInFilm
Color photo of a closed garage with a Jordan flag flying out front Shot of a shuttered store. Another closed shop with a stray dog out front. A green door, wooden, on a sloped street.
October 28, 2025 at 5:23 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Making friends, Roppa Village, Karnataka, India 2025

Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 100, Pyro 510

#BelieveInFilm #Fieldwork #India
A man stands with his motorcycle under a tree. Same man with his heavily loaded motorcycle.
October 27, 2025 at 1:31 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Fall light, Buttercup Cottage Barn, Philadelphia 2025

8x10 no-name pinhole camera, Foma retrobrom #2 paper negative (rated at 6)

Testing out this old wooden pinhole cam at one of my favorite test spots.

#BelieveInFilm #BelieveInPaperNegatives
A black and white pinhole photo of an old barn that burnt down decades ago. Cell phone photo of the “small” wooden pinhole camera during the exposure. It’s small relative to 8x10 cameras, but it’s still big.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Chad Hill
jayabhat.bsky.social
Inspired by @chadhill.bsky.social photos from Karnataka in India, here are some of the photos I took on a trip there in 1984
My father was from that state in India
October 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
The “Queens Bath”, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2025

Trichrome with Bessa L, Chroma Double Glass 24mm, Dragonfilms no. IV (Svema 42l)

#Fieldwork #BelieveInFilm #TrichromeParty
Color photo of a beautiful bath building looking across the empty bath at the ornate interior structure.
October 20, 2025 at 9:58 PM
chadhill.bsky.social
I love my neighbors, Mt Airy, Philadelphia 2025

Bessa L, Chroma Double Glass 24mm, Fuji 200

A small local gathering instead of the bigger one downtown.

#BelieveInFilm #NoKings
View across an intersection of a small crowd of “No Kings” protesters in nw Philadelphia. A man in a costume with an American flag cape poses in front of a library. A man holds up a sign that says “this Jawn is still outta pocket”. A group stands together and one man holds a sign that says “protect Medicaid for my mom”.
October 19, 2025 at 5:08 AM
chadhill.bsky.social
Playing “is it pictures?” with some dragonfilms no. IV.

It’s pictures, but it’s a little thin. And by thin I mean both the negatives and also it’s a crazy thin PET base! Apparently Svema 42l aerial film.

#BelieveInFilm #IsItPictures #Pyro510
A flattened canister of Dragon no. IV film held in my hand.
October 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM