ATL In July

From a purely left-brain point-of-view, it seems that I did everything wrong with this photograph. I was using a grainy film with a half-frame camera on a hot and hazy day in Summer. What was I thinking? But the right brain tells me that the image itself works, and I am sure glad I have this particular moment recorded on a piece of film.

Tasting notes: Olympus Pen FT, 38mm f/1.8, Kodak XX film. 

Other People's Dogs

To be honest, I was pretty happy when I noticed this dog about to photobomb my shot. What is it about dogs, anyway? I guess we each have our own particular reasons for loving 'em. A few years ago we lost a beloved dog, and I'm still not ready for another. But at least there's other people's dogs to enjoy.

Tasting notes: Contax T, HP5+.

Its a Film Photography Thing

There was a time a few years back when I thought I should buy as much boutique film as possible, you know, to support the whole film revival that was going on at the time. So, what do you do when your tastes inevitably change and you're stuck holding a bunch of aging film you no longer like the look of? Well, I'm trying to come up with a creative way to use it up before it becomes an expired film I no longer like. Wish me luck.

Tasting notes: Leica R SL2 mot, 135mm f/2.8 lens. 

Before 2020

I am not usually a huge fan of cross processed film, but this lone roll of E-6 film was just sitting undeveloped on a shelf staring me in the face, so I impulsively chucked it into the developing tank along with a roll of regular C-41 color film. I was using the venerable Summicron R 35 mm f/2. It is a terrific lens, but flares pretty easily and has just the right amount of distortion. Looking back, the past often seems like a more innocent time. That is frequently down to nostalgia, of course, but for most of us alive today, it's probably an accurate assessment of our experiences prior to 2020.

Hey Pumpkin

Are you in the Fall spirit yet? Focusing on Autumn undoubtedly will be a bit of a challenge this week as temperatures are expected to climb back into the 80s here in the Deep South. How about some pumpkins to set the mood? The massive array of squashes at the Atlanta botanical gardens was possibly the most diverse collection I’ve ever seen in one place, and quite enjoyable to photograph, too. 

The tiny but mighty Pen FT half-frame camera certainly acquitted itself well here, producing sharp and contrasty images on Ilford FP4+.  

Canon L2 Rangefinder Camera: L is for Lovely

A couple of years ago, I came across a listing for the Canon L2 film rangefinder on a famous online auction site. I had never heard of this camera before, and I couldn't find much information about it from my usual online sources. So, I had to walk over to the studio and look it up in a physical book. At any rate, it looks like the L2 was mainly sold in the Japanese market from 1956-57. Apparently, just over 7000 copies were sold, so it is kind of rare. Although past the normal retirement age at this point, my copy still works like a champ. I like to shoot it with the Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens attached. The top shutter speed is 1/500 s, which could be a bummer for some folks. The 'cool' feature is that the rangefinder has settings for the 35 mm and 50 mm focal lengths, as well as a position labeled RF. This gives you a magnified view for more precise focusing. Nice. Other than that, it is a solid, workman-like light tight box for making photographs, if that's your thang.

Candidly, I'm not much of a tennis player, though it is a way to burn a few calories and break a sweat. Finding these images of the local courts (now replaced with newer and better ones) was the most enjoyable part of the outing.

Tasting notes: Canon L2 rangefinder, Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens, Kodak Tmax 100. Highly recommended.
 

Adding interest with multiple images

I've always enjoyed putting together diptychs and triptychs. These image groupings do not necessarily represent a time sequence or the beginnings of a typology, although they certainly could. Usually, for me, they are just a couple of images with interesting visual relationships. With this triptych, I tried to have the horizon at more or less the same position in the frame across the set. I enjoyed how the light and dark areas interacted between the first two images and how the shadows linked between the second and third. These were shot using a Leicaflex and 50 mm Summicron. Slowly, these old playgrounds are being replaced and upgraded.

Minty goodness

After several days of frustration and a few rolls of sacrificial film, I'm pleased to have finally gotten to the point where I can say that using mint and/or similar plant based materials is a totally viable way to develop film if you want to go in that direction. Obviously, it took many years of experimenting by a community of enthusiasts to get coffee-based developing from a classroom experiment in the mid 1990s to where it is today. The use of other phenol-containing plants like mint may follow a similar path, who knows? You'll have to decide for yourself if it is worth it. As for me, I feel like I now have a working formula that I can use to get reproducible results from properly exposed film, and that is good enough for the time being. Of course, there are plenty of things still to be optimized, as well as plenty of possible plants to consider other than mint (a topic which might be interesting to explore for a site-specific project).

No one cares about your process

Every day we go for a brisk 45 minute walk that covers just under three miles. That, coupled with pushing around some weights and enduring 30 min of yoga several times a week, has kept us from spreading out too much over the past nine months. Walking turns out to be a very pleasant way to burn a few calories since you can chat, too, while you exercise. From another perspective, of course, we've actually accomplished exactly nothing by walking, since we depart from and return to the exact same location (for me that would be the sofa). 

The first image was taken using a digital camera and converted to black and white using software to simulate the look of film. The same software allows you to add a black border to the image, which I thought looked cool and added to the retro vibe. By the way, this image was not taken during the pandemic; the reason the streets are empty is because the temperature was about 10° F that morning.