Bellerive Blunders, Square Formats, and the Hasselblad Return
Posted by Pat Hathaway | August 24, 2026
The darkroom smells like fixer and stale espresso this Monday morning. I’m finally back on the Central Coast, shaking off the last remnants of airport security anxiety, and Big Boy Dan is pacing the floorboards.
The BMW Meltdown and Clark’s Late Charge
If you were watching the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club over the weekend, you know exactly why Dan is currently stress-eating my remaining stash of Costa Rican pastries. Dan had his entire sports budget leveraged on Rory McIlroy to close out the tournament on Sunday.
For a few hours, it looked like a lock. Wyndham Clark was bleeding strokes, dropping a five-shot lead and making what he later called “dumb bogeys.” But golf is a cruel, unpredictable master. Clark rallied, birdied the final three holes, and sank a 17-foot putt to snatch the trophy right out of Rory’s hands. Dan watched in absolute horror as Rory found two separate bunkers on the 17th hole. If you want the grueling stroke-by-stroke analytics, you can review the carnage over at
ESPN’s golf coverage.
Dan is already trying to run the math for this week’s TOUR Championship at East Lake, but I told him to take a walk. Desperation is the fastest way to empty a wallet.
Dusting Off the Hasselblad 500C/M
To escape Dan’s muttering, I retreated to the gear safe. After shooting the Rolleiflex down in the tropics, I decided I wasn’t quite ready to leave the 6×6 medium format world. But instead of the twin-lens reflex, I pulled out the legendary Hasselblad 500C/M.
There is a reason NASA took modified versions of these Swedish cameras to the moon. They are entirely mechanical, modular, and built with the precision of a bank vault. Slapping the heavy mirror up on a Hasselblad produces a satisfying, concussive
THWACK that lets everyone in a ten-foot radius know you just exposed a frame. You can read up on the unmatched history of the V-System over at
PetaPixel’s vintage camera archives, but holding one in your hands is a religious experience.
Coastal Fog and FP4 Plus
I loaded a 12-exposure back with Ilford FP4 Plus—my absolute favorite medium-speed black-and-white emulsion for overcast days—and drove the ATV up the coastal ridges. The morning marine layer was aggressively thick, blanketing the cypress trees in a flat, diffuse light.
Shooting fully manual without a built-in light meter forces you to actively read the environment. You use a handheld spot meter, calculate the exposure zones, and lock in the Zeiss lens settings. You can’t rush it. I spent three hours hiking the bluffs just to expose ten frames. For anyone wanting to understand the zone system and manual metering, the educational resources at
B&H Photo Video’s Explora blog are the best place to start.
I processed the film last night, and the results are staggeringly sharp. The Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 lens renders contrast with a biting clarity that modern digital glass still struggles to match organically. I’ve digitized the negatives and pushed the massive, high-resolution square files straight to the
California Views Gallery Hub.
Judge Roy Bacon sent his approval within ten minutes of the upload.
“A Hasselblad and Ilford FP4, Patrick. You are finally treating photography with the reverence it demands. Leave the digital computer in the safe.”
I’m not making any promises, Roy. But for today, the mechanical shutter reigns supreme.
Comments
BigBoyDan: Rory choked in the bunker, Pat. It wasn’t the math, it was the sand. East Lake is a different story. I’ve got the FedEx Cup algorithms dialed in.
JudgeRoy: The tonal transitions on the cypress tree scans are exceptional. The Swedish engineering never lies.
