Celebrating analogue photography and Stirling Photography Festival Programme for 2026

Monster camera in Stirling to celebrate traditional photography

Test Build of camera in Studio - the bowler hat serving as a shutter........

Around two years ago Al heard that David Mitchell had a rather rare and unique lens which had come from a Spitfire or Mosquito towards the end of WW2 - it was huge - and there was planted a seed to make images using this beast. Al had a large tent he had used as a camera obscura for the Stirling Photography Festival - got Gregg roped in and we were off....

A large walk - in camera will be in Stirling this Saturday (27th June) as part of a day to celebrate Analogue Photography across the UK. The camera comprises a large tent, an aerial reconnaissance  lens from a 1942 fighter plane, and some large sheets of photo paper. Photography specialists Gregg McNeill and Al Dawes have decades of experience between them but this is a new challenge. Getting the tent to be light tight and capturing a large image projected upside down of the person in front of the camera is no easy feat.

As part of the annual celebration film suppliers Analogue Wonderland support photo walks across the UK creating the largest concurrent photowalk ever. Analogue Wonderland have kindly donated film and developing materials for the ‘big camera’ and photowalk participants will visit at the end of their walk. Visitors can get their photo taken with the ‘big camera and lens’ and learn about the process of film photography.

The Lens

This is a very special lens. It was made for aerial reconnaissance in WW2 and used in both the Spitfire and the Mosquito in an F52 camera. We don’t know the history of this particular lens but it has certainly seen use. It was made for the Air Ministry by one of three lens makers around 1942.

It weighs 8.3kg, its largest aperture is f6.3 and a huge focal length of 36 inches which is 914.4mm - much longer than any good telephoto of 300mm. It was known as ‘big Bertha’ and when focused on infinity projects an image of almost half a metre or 20 inches or so.

This lens is part of a collection of ultra large format lenses held by Wolfcraig Photographic Studios - a new non profit launching at the end of the Summer and joining Stirling Photography Festival, under the banner of ‘Stirling Photo’ who aim to be awarded charitable status in the coming months. Situated in the Wolfcraig building members of the public will be able to attend educational courses with a focus on film photography and members will have access to traditional darkrooms and modern digitisation equipment as well as a library of cameras and lenses - including rare examples like this.

Image projected from lens onto panel within tent ready for test shots- image circle is approximately 20 inches !

Janie Meikle Bland from the Stirling Photography Festival said

“The Big Film Camera is a great opportunity to begin the reveal our amazing programme of events and exhibitions for this year’s ‘Journey 2026’ festival… so come speak to us! We are looking at an exciting year ahead with the formation of Stirling Photo. Next year also sees the tenth Stirling Photography Festival, which will make it Scotland’s longest running annual photography festival! As a grass roots event run by volunteers, we are proud to have built a network of fabulous partners across Scotland’s cultural community. Together we bring some of the best emerging and established artists here to Stirling every August and September for a programme of free to attend exhibitions and events and today’s event is part of our community programme of public engagement. Stirling has been building a reputation as a place for photography and over the past decade, and we are proud that the festival has been at the heart of this.”

Al processing test shots literally 'in camera'

Gregg McNeill is one of a handful of photographers using the wet plate collodion process from the early Victorian period and working out of Wolfcraig, where he has a studio and also runs Wolfcraig studios day to day. He said

“ The world's oldest surviving photograph is View from the Window at Le Gras around 1826 by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépc. From this point photography saw exponential growth and technological development using a myriad of techniques and processes.

Those with greatest longevity were images made on glass plates using a wet or dry process, and the plastic film base in a variety of sizes in rolls and sheets.

The adoption of digital cameras in the late 1990’s saw 150 years of tradition eroded for most although traditional photography was kept on life support by those who preferred the aesthetic and often superior performance at larger size. Major manufacturers like Kodak, Fujifilm, Ilford, Polaroid and others saw mass market sales slump but managed to downsize or adapt to survive while other household brands vanished.

Leap forward to 2026 and the unthinkable has happened - film photography has seen a large scale resurgence. There are around 42 Million active film camera users worldwide. The number of cameras in circulation is difficult to establish but its enough to meet the demand of those going back to film or those trying it for the first time - like the return to vinyl its an antidote to digital overload”

Test shot creates paper negative - small circles are where the magnets held paper onto the board

Timings

The big camera will be located at the bottom of King Street from 10am until 3pm.Volunteers from Stirling Photography Festival and Wolfcraig Studios will be on hand to talk about photography and exciting plans for the community in Stirling.

Paper negative flipped digitally to show positive image on 8x10 paper

We will share images from the event next week !