Soup Time!

Film developing tanks full and ready for processing (Panasonic GF-1 w/20mm f/1.7)

I think there might be something a little wrong with me that the above image makes me smile with anticipation. This plus almost a dozen more rolls of color negatives on their way back from Dwayne's Photo, means a whole lot of scanning and hopefully some good images to post.

While I've recently finished up scanning several rolls of negatives that were shot to test a couple of new emulsions, the resulting images are kind of disappointing and a lot of them were scratched to kingdom come due to my own ineptitude. (Pro tip - read the instructions for using a daylight loader before spooling up several rolls of film incorrectly.) Better hopes for the new group.

Winter Pines

February 2012, Chicago, IL (Holga 120N, Ilford 3200, home developed and scanned)

So I got relatively caught up on the processing, scanning and editing of a bunch of photography that had been languishing away . . . and then promptly fell behind all over again. Not quite as much time on my hands in recent weeks as earlier this year, which is a good thing actually, but posting might get somewhat thinner. Will continue to put stuff up as as can - and will perhaps get around to finishing up some non-photography related posts that I have been kicking around for awhile.

Still loving doing my own black & white film developing. Lots more of that to come. Maybe a little Spring color as well.

Alcatraz, November 2010 (Holga 120N, Kodak Tri-X 400)

Second pass at some of my early Holga shots. I had taken the Holga out for some test shooting, but when I took it on K and I's vacation to San Francisco in the last part of 2010 I was determined to really put it through its paces. Put about ten rolls of film through it, but did not get a lot of keepers as I still wasn't use to the quirks of shooting with the Holga. Alcatraz Island is pretty much a perfect setting for the Holga. Would love to go back there again and do some more shooting now that I have a better sense of how to work with this camera.

Winter In The Bone

December 2011, Chicago, Illinois
(Agfa B-2 Cadet, Fomapan 400 120 film, home developed and scanned)

K said she would like to see this printed big - something along the line of several feet across. This does get cooler as it gets bigger, maybe one day when I'm fabulously wealthy.

North Side Space Port

Holga 120 WPC, Kodak T-Max 400, Home developed and scanned
November 2011, Chicago, Illinois

One of the CTA elevated train stations near our apartment. Shot with another one of my plastic cameras: the Holga Wide Pinhole Camera, which takes 120 film and gives you a 6cm x 12cm size negative. Never done much with pinholes before, but I like what I am getting with this camera. More coming soon.

Rudder In The Grass

(Kodak Tri-X 400, Holga 120n, home developed)

Happy Everything

"Happy Everything" (December 2011, Chicago)
Ilford Delta 3200, Holga 120n, home developed in Ilford DD-X

Fuji 400H Film With The Holga

I would like to like Fuji Pro 400H more than I do, as it would be nice to have an alternative to Kodak Portra 400. Jury is still out, generally, but it doesn't work that well with my Holga. The Fuji film appears to be rated at least a stop faster than it really is - meaning that it really needs to be overexposed to get decent colors and negative thickness. Since the Holga only has two aperture settings (at best) and one shutter speed, you either need to get just the right lighting conditions, or you need a fairly forgiving film. Black & white films tend to have a lot more exposure latitude, so you can get decent exposures under much more varied lighting conditions than with color negative film. Kodak Portra 400 also has a lot of exposure latitude, although not as much as the better black & whites. I've had very good luck with the Holga using Portra. However, given Kodak's recent troubles, and its apparent attitude toward us "backward" film shooters, having an alternative would be both helpful and prudent. Unfortunately, it looks like the Fuji isn't going to be it.

"Eventide" (Roscoe Village, Chicago, October 2011)
Holga 120n, Fuji Pro 400H
I like this shot, even though it is strongly underexposed, as I think the underexposure helps create a mysterious and evocative mood.

"A Little Light Is So Religious" (Roscoe Village, Chicago, October 2011)
Holga 120n, Fuji Pro 400H
This shot shows a much better exposure, resulting from the more direct light on the steeple and the bright sky.

Learning To Play With New Toys

A few of the first shots from my "new" Mamiya RB67 Pro.  The Holga is a total medium format gateway drug of a camera.  It's is very fun and gets you to appreciate the possibilities of the larger negatives, but it is not exactly a precision instrument.  I was looking for something that would give me better control and the RB67s have a good rep and are going for a song on the used market.  I picked up a body and standard lens on eBay and a couple more lenses from keh.com.  The Mamiya is a complete monster, it's got to weight at least 10 pounds, and is built like a tank - not exactly a street shooter - but so far has been living up to its hype.  Shooting with it is a lot more involved than with your standard 35mm slr, but I can't argue with the end results - big, gorgeous negatives.  What's not to like?

Garlic Scapes, June 2011, Chicago IL
(Mamiya RB67Pro, 90mm f3.8, Fomopan 400, developed by 120processing.com, scanned self w/Epson V600)

The photos were taken in my apartment's backyard, over the fence into our neighbor's garden.  The back yards of the neighbors on either side of our place put our backyard to shame.  On one side, we have a landscape artist whose place could be featured in a magazine.  On the other side we have an older Cuban gentleman, who has cultivated about a third of his yard into a lush garden.  He is getting on in years, but you will still see him most afternoons puttering around with his wide, floppy straw hat, his cigar, and his khaki shorts.  (We should all only hope to be so cool in our old age.)

Guardian

Holga 120N, Kodak T-Max 400
(processing by 120processing.com; scanned with Epson V600)

An early spring shot from my neighbor's garden.

Frantic

A little experiment with the Holga and multiple exposures.

Holga 120N, Kodak T-Max 400
(processing by 120processing.com; scanned with Epson V600)

A Few More Random Holga Shots

Coit Tower

Coit Tower, San Francisco - Holga 120N Portra 400VC, color conversion via PS CS3

This is another Holga image from the trip K and I took to San Francisco last November.  The original of this is a color image.  The color image is fine, but the color distracts from what I think are the cool elements of this shot - the textures and patterns of the tower and sky, along with the compositional framing coming from the tower base and the tufts of trees visible to either side.

In color, the shot is okay, but a little flat.  In black and white, I think it really comes into its own. Here is one of those situations where the digital darkroom kicks the wet darkroom's ass without even trying that hard.  Once scanned, I can take the color image of this shot into Photoshop and not only convert the image to black and white, but do it in a way that allows me to simulate the effect that would have been achieved by taking the shot on black and white film with color filters.  For example, in this case, I dropped the reds out of the image before conversion, which gives an effect similar to having shot the image with a red filter - darkens the sky, emphasizing the clouds.

Black and white films provide a feel to the image that can't quite be matched by the effect of a color conversion (black and white film has a very broad tonal range, for example - broader than color film and much broader than you will get with a digital camera).  I like shooting black and white directly, but when shooting color its nice to know there is the option of producing the end image as black and white.

Simplify, simplify, simplify . . .

Chicago Board of Trade Building (aka "Wayne Tower")
Agfa B-2 Cadet Box Camera, Kodak 120mm Tri-X 400
Developing and lo-res scan by 120processing.com

I picked up an old box camera awhile back on eBay.  It cost me less than $20.00, including shipping, and was in great shape, especially for something that is probably better than 70 years old and is basically just a cardboard box wrapped in thin leather.  I had seen some really interesting shots in the Box Camera Revolution Flickr group, and wanted another "toy" camera to go along with my Holga.

This is a shot from the first roll I put through the camera.  I haven't shot anything else with it yet, because I wanted to see what came back.  The image above is just a lo-res scan emailed to me from the service that I send out for developing (the negatives will be coming shortly by mail).  This is just the straight lo-res scan file. I didn't even correct the horizon tilt, which is probably going to be an ongoing problem with this camera since you frame the shot by looking down through a little offset mirror.

The light leaks are from the film roll not rolling up tight on the uptake spool (known as a "fat roll"), which allows light to get in from the side when taking it out of the camera.  I will have to see if I can increase the tension on the spools a little more to try and cure this.  It looks like almost all of the shots came out a bit underexposed as well.  Other than choosing a higher speed of film, there is not way to adjust exposure values on the camera.  It was designed to take pictures outside in bright sunlight on the slower films available at the time.  I used 400 speed film, but it was a grey, overcast day, and I took these near sundown as you can see from the streetlights being on.

I am looking forward to getting a look at the actual negatives from this roll.  Now that I know that the camera is functioning properly, I can take it out with some more film and do some more experimenting.

Holga Crane

Holga 120N, Kodak Portra 400VC

I think I am getting the new scanner that I got for Christmas figured out.  This is a new scan of a Holga 120mm film shot that I took at my in-laws' awesome backyard last November.  Scanned with an Epson v600 and using my new custom film holder from http://www.betterscanning.com.

My Continuing Descent Into Hipsterdom

You still won't find me sporting a pair of skinny jeans (you're welcome), but my hipster cred continues to accumulate.  A couple of months ago I became the somewhat sheepish owner of a Holga 120N medium-format camera.  For those who don't know, the Holga is a "toy" camera - a cheaply-made, all plastic Chinese camera that shoots 120mm film.  The camera is prone to light leaks, accidental double-exposures and heavy vignetting, but is very popular with art photographers and people looking to get into medium format film photography on the cheap (and, of course, hipsters, although Polaroid still takes pride of place on that score).

I've shot about ten rolls of film with the camera so far and just recently got the first set of developed negatives back from the photo lab.  Below is a shot from the first roll that I put through the camera:

Ira in his usual afternoon napping spot (Holga 120N, Kodak Tri-X 400)

Okay, so yes, it's a pet shot - that's our oldest cat, Ira (named after NPR radio host Ira Glass, of This American Life; yes we are that big of geeks) - but I think it came our pretty great, especially considering it was the first time I used the camera.

I will be posting more shots from this camera soon.  I really could fall in love with medium format.  Those big, frick'n negatives are pretty damn sweet.