February 01, 2026
I’m Tim Layton, an Ozarks-based photographer working in 19th-century processes. I use large format cameras to create handmade darkroom prints of historic landmarks—mills, covered bridges, and old towns—before they are lost to time.
One hundred years ago, the Ozarks were home to hundreds of water-powered timber and grist mills. Dispersed across the region, mills served local needs and often thrived within a few miles of another site. They were centers of work, commerce, and community life.
Today, many mill sites are fading away. Time and weather are taking their toll, and even well-meant repairs can change what remains. When a mill disappears, the loss is not just wood and stone. It’s a piece of local history.
This project is a focused visual record of the last few surviving mill sites, photographed with a whole plate large format camera and printed as handmade platinum and palladium contact prints.
I’m using this slow, 19th-century method on purpose. It fits the subject: craft, labor, and materials shaped by time. Each handmade print includes a short caption with the location, water source, known dates (when available), and a note on what the mill meant to the community.
If you enjoy slowing down with film, darkroom printing, and meaningful photography, consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel. I share new videos each week focused on simple tools, timeless techniques, and the quiet joy of analog.
It was a chilly 8 degrees when I headed out to Hodgson Mill this morning, but that didn’t hamper my desire to go see the mill.
In this episode today, I share my experience in the field where I created four large format film exposures and the returned to my darkroom and developed the film.
I enjoy the slow and thoughtful workflow of creating large format images. The results can be amazing, but more importantly, I get lost in the process and think of nothing else.
In the next episode, I start the process of making the handmade platinum and palladium prints from each of the large format film negatives.
When I arrived on site, the first thing I did was scout for pleasing compositions that help tell the story of the mill. I had already thought about using two different focal lengths, one to focus on the mill and the other to include more of the environment.
I exposed four sheets of Ilford FP4 whole plate size large format film today. I rated the film at EI 50 and developed in HC110-B for 6 1/2 minutes.
For the first two exposures, I wanted to focus on the tighter framing of the mill while including the iconic spring.
The photo below is of the ground glass on back of the whole plate large format ground glass using a Fuji 300 CM-W f/5.6 lens. The 300mm focal length was exactly what I had envisioned in my mind. I exposed the first sheet of film at f/32 for 1/4s and the second sheet was a horizontal (landscape) orientation from the exact same spot using the same exposure.
As you can see from the Artist Viewfinder images, the 300mm lens was exactly what I was wanting.
For the second composition, I decided to use a wide angle lens to show the mill in its natural environment.
For this composition, I used my Schneider Super Angulon 120mm lens. I was not convinced this was going to work out, but when I got back to the darkroom and reviewed the developed film, I was very happy with the composition.
You can see just how much wider the 120mm lens is for this scene vs. the 300mm focal length that I used for the first two exposures.
I scanned in the negatives using my Epson V850 flatbed scanner so you can get a better look at the quality of the negatives.
This coming week, I will start the process of making the platinum and palladium handmade prints from the film negatives. I will share more details about the chemistry and my workflow in the next articles as I complete the printing process.
I print one negative at a time and it can take up to a week or more to finalize one print. Effectively that means I will be printing these negatives from today for the next three weeks.
I will share the new platinum and palladium print from exposure one in the next episode.
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