Fall is for Film?

During the doggiest days of summer, I find that I do not really want to shoot film. I guess I've gotten enough bad shots in bad light that I don't really need to repeat that experience anymore. So, I tend to reach for a digital camera instead. But as the season slowly changes over to fall, I start to think more seriously about shooting film again. 

I think the Nikkormat FS might just be the perfect film camera to take with you on a walk for some casual shooting. Just to keep your eye in as they say. It is a real no ups, no extras kind of camera. Bare bones, sufficient. On this afternoon, it was loaded with Foma 100 and I had a period correct 50 mm f/2 on the front. The FS is not burdened with a built in light meter, so I made my exposures using the Sunny 16 rule. I developed the Foma in DDX developer and got 36 decently exposed negatives. Mostly the photographs were pretty boring, though, and to my further dismay, it looks like my manual focusing skills are a little bit rusty. 

Calling an audible

My thought was to get some close-ups of large leaf magnolia leaves, which can be over a foot long on a mature tree. But it was quite blustery outside and nothing would stay still for even a fraction of a second. So I called an audible and just shot a few frames as the movement revealed and covered up the setting sun. By shooting freely, I learned a few things and came away with a few pleasant surprises.

I wish you good light this weekend. 

An old manual camera, Sunny 16, and stand development

Yesterday I shot a roll of Fomapan 100 through my newly acquired Nikkormat FS. You see, I'm going through a bit of Nikkormat phase, and I especially like the bare bones FS that comes without a meter. I had an old 55mm f/3.5 macro lens attached. I was using Sunny 16 and had an exposure index of 400 in the back of my mind. My plan was to go with stand development, using a combination of Rodinal and HC110, and I was expecting a boost in effective film speed. I've never tried combining two developers like that before, and dad jokes aside, the results were rather mixed. The negatives were too dense for my liking, and the contrast too high, but I think I can dial things in pretty easily. I want to settle in with a single film/developer combination for a while. So, I'm going to have to do a more serious experiment with a camera with a reliable meter. To be continued...

Two views...

As photographers, we know very well that windows are photogenic. In addition to providing a frame, they can act like a portal or a mirror depending on the illumination and other conditions. The first image of a glass door relies on both of these properties. The combination of the reflected and transmitted views is reminiscent of a double exposure and invites the viewer to engage with the abstract composition as a historian might consider how to decode a palimpsest. The photograph was made using a Canon F-1 and the 50mm f/1.2 L lens using Fomapan Retro 320 film.