Fire Station

This firestation image scanned to about 16 inches long. It occupies nearly 4 35mm neg frames.

I loaded the Holga with an old roll of Fomapan 400 35mm. It is kind of tricky, not least because you have to count the clicks when winding the film (43 to load, 34 to wind on, decrementing as the takeup spool gets larger). I bolloxed it up of course but I think I wedged the 35mm cassette in too tight (there is a lot of wedging, shimming, elastic bands and foam plastic just to get the 35mm film travelling correctly through the 6×6 gate).

Up and down steps again

I find the ‘mistakes’ interesting. I have a rough idea of how I want the finished photo to look but there is a lot of guesswork involved. Vision is needed (natch…) plus the abandoning of traditional composition. Fingers need to be crossed too

The Point, Point Hill

Including the sprocket-holes is a bit of a cliche, but hey, I can, so I do! In true Holga fashion I needed to use copious amounts of sellotape on the 6×6 negative carrier so introduced yet another variable since the scanner lens focus is fixed at a certain height and it is difficult to stop the too narrow negs bowing.

Some of the results are eerie as hell. Look at the figure on the left in the photo below. I don’t even remember it and he/she looks naked.

Avenue, Greenwich Park

Some interesting effects with the animals too

Gizmo

The cat in the photo below is possibly the toughest cat in Deptford. She doesn’t give an inch to the dogs, in fact she seems to be saying ‘bring it on…’ Gizmo has to walk round her now that he knows how sharp her claws are (they ‘met’ recently hehe)

Tough cat

Here is my holgarised bastard take on Paul Strand’s White Fence, Port Kent, New York 1916

White Fence, Maidstone Hill, Greenwich 2009

The Fomapan 400 negs were developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 11 minutes, 30 secs initial agitation, 2 inversions every 30 seconds. Quality is actually a fairly secondary consideration here and I probably wouldn’t normally use Rodinal with Fomapan 400. However, I was aiming for Daido Moriyama like grain and I think I got it. This was the last roll of Fomapan 400 too. I won’t lament it.

I’ve really enjoyed this little Holga project. So much so that I’m going to explore medium format a bit more. I’m now waiting for a 40 year old Yashicamat 6×6 so I can get my teeth into into it, so stay tuned.

One of the greatest of words anyway!

My own internal alt-az mount is borked at the moment. I need to look up, down and around. My head is full of flu…

Altazimuth Pavillion

There are three broad aspects of film photography (for me). The first is common to all. Taking the photograph and all that entails. Being there. Visualisation, exposure, composition. Recognising the moment. Etc etc. Or just pointing and shooting. Whatever.

I have found that the wonderful thing about the next stage, ie developing my film, is not just the continuing control over the final image. I am finding that the process of developing film brings me unexpected peace of mind. Unexpected because of the anxiety and mystery that initially shrouded the process. It seemed to be a very difficult, complicated and risky thing to do. So many options reinforced a fear of failure and provoked a flight reaction.

One thing that changed all of this when I returned to film photography was the length of time it took the labs to process my exposed films and a distinct feeling of dissatisfaction when I finally viewed the results. If I did it all myself I would at least know it was me that was bolloxing the images, not the labs. And most importantly, I could do it quicker, instantly if necessary. That last point is very important for me. I want something and I usually want it now. I don’t do waiting very well, especially if aesthetic judgement is at stake. My anticipation levels are sadly hardwired to the cultural norm, ie instant gratification. Also, I want to see the results as soon as possible after the event so I can make an assessment of what is right and what is wrong, rather than what was right and what was wrong.

Now I look forward to the process and can’t wait to get back and develop the films. I look forward to the preparation. Laying out the tank, reels, Winchester bottles of chemicals and the other paraphernalia. Making a (by now hopefully informed) decision on which developer, what amount of agitation and how long to develop. Measuring and mixing the chemicals. Setting the timers. Warming/cooling the developer to 20C.

And so it goes. The sound of the film winding onto the stainless-steel spirals is such a pleasurable one, perhaps one of my favourite sounds. The film hisses as I load it onto the reel, giving aural feedback that it is seating in the spiral correctly. It is an aesthetic step-beyond the clunky plastic reels I started with and gives me some satisfaction not least because stainless-steel reels are generally regarded as harder to load. When I first started, my hands sweated and trembled in the dark bag, even though I had practiced for hours with an exposed film in front of the TV (with my eyes shut, natch – so much for TV) and knew I could do it in the dark. Now I look forward to it.

And the great moment arrives after the final wash when I hang the negs to dry (on a clothesline over the bath). There is an immediate inspection of the film rebate to check the letters and numbers are dark crisp and clear and then a quick inspection of the tonal range. Then I shut the door of the bathroom and wait for the negs to dry… waiting, yep. Can’t hurry this bit with my setup.

And of course sometimes what comes out the other end is absolute crap, which is disappointing. But not always, and only rarely has something gone horribly wrong because of the development process. It is such an opportunity to learn, learn and learn more.

The nearest analogy I can make is to the way I cook. Hell, even some of the terms are the same. The developer is called ‘the soup’. There are countless ‘recipes’.

I LOVE cooking but I haven’t looked at a recipe book for years and years. Cooking is such a creative process and our larder is often so near empty or full of random ingredients that the creative and experimental aspect is paramount. Usually with tasty results because I have been cooking like this for so long I am 100% confident. But I never stop learning and nor was I always so confident. I had to learn. Cooking is all about finding combinations you like – ingredients, flavours, textures, colours etc – much like getting a film from the visualised image to the print. There are so many options during the intermediate stages that can affect the result, good and bad depending on your personal taste.

The last stage, scanning, post-production and/or printing can wait for a later post…

And so to the final product.

Nearly right…

Why have such a supremely interesting open space and fill it with litter-bins and crap ‘street furniture’? One of those guys looks like he is dropping into the litter-bin, or rising out of it. I was even aware of it at the point of shooting. Next time I’ll try with the CV 21/4 for a wider angle and take the photo from the other side of the bins…

Old favourite

Of course, one of the things about cooking is that I continually return to old favourites. These are the arches between the covered footpaths in the Old Royal Naval College (I’m sure these covered paths have a proper architectural name). Bonus here is that I captured the couple holding hands. However, that wasn’t an accident. I’ve taken enough photos through these arches to know that human interest is needed so I just waited for the couple to get to the right place. It works for me anyway.

Another old favourite… benches

These just appeal to me for some reason. One of them is facing in the opposite direction. Who moved it and what were they doing? Would have been better if somebody was sitting on the bench facing the other way though..

Ingredients

Bessa-T, CV 28/1.9 Ultron. Fomapan 100. APH09 (Rodinal) 1+40, 7 minute, 10 seconds initial agitation, 2 gentle inversions every 30 seconds.

I’m beginning to notice something about the Fomapan. Either it is a dust magnet or the QC is crap. This only seems to happen with Fomapan, so I’m drawing my own conclusions. Very cheap it might be, but I can do without reconstructive post work.

Some sun! Hey, a real bonus, and getting lower in the sky as can be seen by the shadows. Mainly shot between f/8 and f/16.

Head full of cold

A mad puppy climbing all over me as I try and write this. Keyboard jealousy attention seeking…

Found myself at St Alfeges again. There is a childrens playground in the graveyard… how weird is that? Stangely, there were no children playing. Which was lucky because I would probably have to explain that I am not a paedophile with a camera (or without).

The temperature was sub-zero and the sun was strong. Even with fingerless mitts I lost the feeling in my fingers so much I hadn’t noticed a couple of cuts on my fingers and got the lense covered in blood. Nice…

Taken with a Bessa R and a CV 35/2.5

Playground (see the gravestones):

Flowers:

Bench:

Full gallery

That is what we like to see… throw down the brollies

First off, a mini user review

The CV Color Scopar 21/4 is a wide but slow lens. probably the least expensive way to go wide with this setup. The Leitz equivalent costs many more �����s and I’m not sure anything is available for screw mount anyway (ie the ‘crons for the M series).

It appears to be well constructed with that hard to define feeling of ‘quality’. CV describes it as ‘silver’ (a brushed anodized finish). It definitely isn’t chrome, so doesn’t make a brilliant match. Good enough though and I dislike the CV painted black copies anyway. The only niggle about the way it looks is that the bundled finder is black plastic. Horrors, WTF couldn’t CV bundle a silver finder with a silver lens… definitely looks out of place. However, the silver Leica SBKOO equivalent brightline finder costs ITRO �300 and the newer Leica black 21mm finders are even more expensive. Go figure… The Leica 21mm finders look bigger than the CV 21mm finder. So I’ll live with it

The lens is pleasingly small and fits well with the the diminutive If. I’m planning on using the combo for street photography. The widest I can go (autofocus) with the Nikon D300 is by using the 12-24 f/4, hardly a small and unobtrusive combo. The AFD Nikkor 21 prime has a fairly crap reputation too, so I don’t want that option. The FM2/n with a 28mm Nikkor AIS is the nearest to the If in my collection but my FM2/n camera has one of the loudest shutters I’ve ever heard (ie not discrete) and still feels huge compared to the Leica (the FM2/n is one of the smallest Nikon SLRs).

The aperture ring has well defined clicks, including half stops and the focus ring is very smooth and well damped. I am a fan of the focusing lever on Leica lenses & the CV has one too, which is nice… Zone focusing is a doddle since the focus index registers at the top of the camera so it is simple to glance down rather than having to hunt round the sides with the Summaron 35/3.5. Distances are in feet and meters for the metrically challenged (North Americans?).

One other niggle. It does not seem possible to use a lens cap if using the lens hood (LH-1). Possibly a consideration with aging shutter curtains. It is possible to burn pin-holes in the shutter curtain if the lens is left pointing at the sun. It is recommended that the lens hood is kept on anyway to avoid progressive light leaks through tiny holes. That assumes some sun of course…

On the subject of the lens hood, I hope this nugget may help somebody else. I thought the built in hood was jammed on the lens when I first came to remove it. This may be a case of RTFM but you don’t actually need the strength of a silver-back gorilla to remove it. Rather than try and unscrew it directly, slide the lens cap over it and use that for leverage. Doddle… the other way is hard. You have to remove the integral lens hood to attach filters and/or the larger and more effective LH-1 hood, so it is worth finding this out first rather than in the field

I shot two roll of films: Ilford Delta 100, developed in Ilfosol 3 1+9 for 5 mins and Fomapan 100, ditto development. The Ilfosol 3 has a disturbingly short (5 min at standard dilution) developing time and I think is classed as an all purpose developer for low speed rated film. I’m not dissatisfied with the results. I do seem to have a dust problem though. This is hardly a surprise TBH. There is so much building work around here that dust gets everywhere. And yeah, I really like housework too… as I sit and watch the tumbleweed dust/hair balls rolling across the room I like to think I’m in some iconic movie location. Not.

Images

All of these shots were taken with the LH-1 lens hood in place. There was bright low sun and I’m pretty sure that it has controlled flare very effectively. One disadvantage of the hood is that I can’t hide the camera under my coat so effectively while it is hanging from my neck – stealth consideration. I can, of course, but it looks like I have a serious deformity

Delta 100:

Fomapan 100:

I’m loving the ‘painterly’ rendition of the reflections in these windows. I’ve noticed this before and will return for a more dedicated exploration of the phenomenon. It must be something to do with the kind of glass (or perhaps its age) used in the Old Royal Naval College windows

The lens has a reputation for sharpness across the image and for being contrasty. I’d agree. In fact it is a pleasure to use! I can’t wait to use it in a more appropriate street setting.

Like all wides with this angle of view it becomes a ‘pointless and shoot’ (tm hehe) if you are expecting something that doesn’t require thought around the composition.� The huge depth of field and wide angle of view requires and understanding of foreground/background relationships, ie a foreground subject can be right in your face and it can remain contextualised and emphasised because the background is falling away behind it to a great depth and distance. Something renaissance painters knew about. I suspect many of them would have been using wide lenses if cameras had been around in 1500. This ‘distortion’ of reality can be used to great effect on the street.

And finally a bench to round it all off

Full gallery

I’ve tried two methods so far. First, box speed, 1+80, with stand development for 60 minutes. Minimal agitation for 10 seconds to start, then nothing more. Because of the dilution, I did this in a 450 ml tank to get the right amount of developer (ie 5mls of Rodinal in 395mls of water) sloshing around the film, with one filled and one empty spiral. The 250 ml tank wouldn’t have had enough developer in the solution from what I read. The results were interesting:

I like this image, it seems sharp (and to me, paradoxically dreamy) and I can live with the grain. However, the light was poor and I had to use the Summaron fairly wide open at around f/4 or f/5.6 with a slowish shutter speed. I was wildly guessing exposure too, since sunny f/16 seems a distant memory.

Today, after more torrential rain, the sun unexpectedly put his hat on and came out to play. I took the opportunity to wander down the Southbank since it is always good for photos (and I am beginning to feel like a stalker around the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich where I shoot most of my test rolls).

The light was bright when it wasn’t obscured by clouds – sudden and dramatic changes in lighting were the norm. I wanted to get the exposure right so I would know that wasn’t a factor if the results were crap, so I took along the little Sekonic L208 as an aide.

There were some great subjects, particularly the sculpted, brutalist and dramatically sunlit architecure of the Royal Festival Hall. The sun and shadows on the concrete reminded me of some rock climbs, the edges were really well defined, looked ‘imposing’ and I thought ‘jackpot’.

Hubris 101… I only had Fomapan 400 with me and it was a little too bright for it. Top shutter speed of the If is 1/500 so I shot the roll pulled at EI 200. I’ve read that Fomapan is not a true ISO 400 film anyway.

How to develop? Despite everything, some pixie in me fancied the APH09 (from now on I’ll call it Rodinal), so I hunted the net for stuff on pulled Fomapan 400 and found 16-18 minutes with minimal 2 inversions every 5 minutes. This was appealing. Unfortunately the results turned out to be somewhat underwhelming.  Overdeveloped, lumpy and grainy. Some of the subject matter was suited to this though.

Here is a selection of the photos:

This works OK for me. The grain etc works well in this context and it seems sharp.

These two appeal to me too, interesting light and dark.

However, this one below would benefit from less visible grain I think (and a lens slightly wider than 3.5cms). The light was working really well on it but it isn’t immediately obvious. And the person walking behind should jump out at the viewer a bit more to scale the composition.

However, the ones that got away were a bit heartbreaking. There was a lovely shot  of a chef smoking a cigarette, framed nicely in the skateboard park (what I used to call Cardboard City where the homeless people lived in the 1980s) – he was oblivious to me taking the shot and it was a great candid portrait. However, it looked like a 100% enlargement from a much bigger image, the pointillist grain just destroyed it. Scream…

The pictures of the RfH were muddy as hell and simply don’t look good, I couldn’t even bring myself to scan them. Sculpturally they were gorgeous and for some reason there was nobody there. The big sheer faces of the concrete weren’t defined well enough even though the light and shadow really threw them into relief. A lost opportunity I think, but soooo close.

Bottom line is that I don’t really quite know what to expect being new to this etc etc (grrrr…). What is acceptable? How personal is what is acceptable? Is what I’m doing achievable with this combo?  Are my neophyte developing skills militating against good results, and so on?  Do I have unrealistic expectations of a ISO 400 film? I haven’t enough experience to compare except by looking at results from other people and that is doing my head in. Most people obviously only post images they are fairly happy with and proud of – we don’t usually get to see the real dogs. And I believe HCB himself had a few of those. He certainly cocked-up his coverage of the 1968 Paris student riots.

However, for some subject matter, both the stand-development, and the longer agitated development, the grain works well (IMHO) in the photos shown above, I like the grittyness of the latter and the slight dreamy quality of the former. But I’ll have to experiment more. I found the results from the Foma 100 with Rodinal just what I was looking for (images a few posts below).

2nd bottom line – I’m getting to know what to expect from this developer/film combo so I know what to concentrate on in future. However, the Foma 400 has nearly run out and I’ve replaced it with Tri-X for a new experience. And I’ve read a great deal about Rodinal with this venerable old film. Some hate it, others (usually high ranking cadres of the High Church of Rodinal) love it. I’m really hoping I’ll be in the latter group

Once I’ve found the combo I like I will stick with it. At this stage I’d be mad to ignore the sweetie box, who knows what I might be missing. Fomapan is cheap and worth experimenting with although relatively little data is available. Tri-X has something like 50 years on the clock, so there is lots of data and a huge number of photos available.

<Rubbing hands with anticipation />

This is a good thing. Fomapan is really cheap at the moment compared to Ilford Delta Pro (about half the price at  retro photographic) so I’ll happily stump up for some more rather than get the Delta with these results. The APH09 is cheap too, unlike Ilford DD-X. Doh, seeing a pattern here… hello Ilford?

It is not so apparent in these images, but the Fomapan gives skies a ‘yellow filter’ look, ie some empahsis on clouds. Must be the emulsion.

Using the Leica If with the SBLOO, so zone focussing. Tis a joy to use. I piqued the interest of some Goldsmith art students, but few other people noticed. Try that with a big DSLR down Deptford Hight St on a non market day. You don’t really want to be noticed…

Using sunny f/11 rule, exposure was f/8 @ 200

These two are f/5.6 @100 to cope with the contast and shadow. I’ve included them both because of the shallow depth of field, the focus is on the paint roller and the candle respectively.

I’m liking the Summacron too, it seems very sharp in the centre. I got the lens off ebay, near mint. which can be a lottery. However, it was from a reputable seller with a no quibble return. And I have no quibbles. It is a relatively early copy judging by the serial number, probably early 1950s. It has a very smooth focus action although the rotating lens mount needs a bit of getting used to for zone-focusing. Now I need to find the FOOKH hood (dontcha just love those Leica naming conventions) to avoid flare.

See the full gallery in the sidebar…

I’ll be using this blog primarily to record my film development experiences. Seems easier than writing it all down on post-its and bits of paper that get lost. There will be many links back to snapsthoughts which is my image ‘dump’. However, snapsthoughts it is too general to discuss film tech/geekery, so here we are.

WordPress has been very easy to set up and customise, so that is a bonus. But given what I do for a living, it would be poor if I couldn’t do it. I extensively customised the NewZen stock theme by Shelby DeNike & made it more ‘photographic’ with my own images/design. Tis tempting to go really cheesy, but hey…

The weather has been sh*t this weekend in London, so photo-opps have been limited. So limited in fact, that I quickly shot a roll of Fomapan 400 between biblical showers (on the If) and had a first attempt at stand-development in Rodinal. I’m quite pleased by the results considering I was expecting the worst (see image). Bit more on that in a further post.

The ubergeeks will have noticed that the banner is a film leader trimmed for a bottom loading Leica LTM. Nuff said…