Irresistible

June and July have been pretty rainy around here until about the last week, when hot summer weather kicked in in earnest. The sunflowers in the yard all started blooming at about the same time. No matter how many times I see them, I end up taking photographs of sunflowers.  In some way, they are much like the human face. Each one is unique in its imperfections, with plenty for the eye to explore, and, hence, worth photographing. The fact that there were a few insects crawling around was so much the better. In this case, I liked the black and white conversion the best. I was trying to mimic the look of infrared film, or rather give just a hint of it, in the final image.

Have a fine weekend with good light. 

Sunflowers, the Fujica G690, and a roll of slow film

We have a pause in the rain for the next couple of days, so I decided it was an auspicious time to break out a roll of slow speed black and white film and shoot. Earlier in the year, I had purchased a large number of rolls of slower film for the summer, not realizing how poor the light would actually turn out to be. So, I grabbed a roll of Catlabs X 80 and I loaded it into the Tokyo Leica and set up a couple of compositions. I currently shoot with the Fujica G690 from 1968, which is the original version of the camera. I had the 100mm f/3.5 attached. Even in bright sun, the exposure was only f/5.6 at 1/125 sec. The rangefinder is still in calibration and I was working near the minimum focus. The depth of field was a real challenge! The film was shot at EI = 80 and developed in HC110 B for 8.5 min. All eight exposures were spot on. They were digitized with a digital camera and processed to taste in Ps. In this case the black border in fact corresponds to the edges of the physical negative. It is an interesting film with a lot of exposure latitude and flexibility in post. 

Sunflowers always remind me of the Fourth of July.

Le Sacre du Printemps

Our wildflower bed is doing great so far this year, as in fact, are all of our plants. It has been a fine Spring for the garden and we should have an abundance of blooms to enjoy. Nevertheless, I went ahead and bought two bunches of sunflowers at the store the other day. They looked pretty promising, too promising to pass up. The sunflowers I grew at home last year only reached a height of about 6 inches and were best photographed using a macro lens. I'm going to try my best to resist any thought of crowns when I look at my sunflowers this season. I'm more inclined to view the sepals as dancing.