Searching for a way to enlarge some 8″x10″ prints without going digital, photographer (and close friend) Darren Samuelson decided to forego using an enlarger and instead built a gigantic ultra-large format camera capable of taking pictures on 14″x36″ X-Ray film. Taking over six months to complete, when fully extended the enormous hand-made bellows camera is close to six feet long. In this short by videographer Matthew Sultan, Samuelson talks about his process while on a photo shoot at Lands End in San Francisco.

Next week Samuelson will be embarking on a road trip, taking his camera along a route from New Orleans to New York, stopping off at points between. You can follow his progress on his blog and view images taken with the camera here.