A Walk in the Park
Captured by Peg with her new tripod
Peg used her 40D (a wonderful camera) and I used my Canon FTb loaded with Ilford Pan F, which I intend to develop with Rodinal in honor of my friend Paul Lester who swears by that combination. The image above was also put through Nik Silver Efex, and I thought the look was very nice. One obvious advantage of digital is that we can enjoy this image she captured now, while my images from that walk are still in the camera, undeveloped.
I’ve always enjoyed using a tripod. While yes, you do have to lug it around a bit, these new tripods (Manfrotto 055XPros) were a joy to work with and were tall enough for both of us. My old Gitzo, while light and it certainly gave me years of great service, never got very high and I was always bending over. The image above was on a small rise above the trail we were walking, and it was such a joy to just aim the camera up and stand at our full height to futz with the shot. Some people would never want to carry around a tripod; I can certainly understand why. But there’s a thought process and a rhythm you get into with a tripod that works for me, especially when we’re walking through woods like this. For me, it’s very meditative.
Tomorrow it will be September 21st, and fall is most assuredly in the air here in Pittsburgh. It’s not especially cool yet, but the angle of the sun and the lack of rainfall really combine to spell out ‘fall.’ I have an order prepped to send off to Freestyle to get some Velvia for capturing the fall colors. In a couple weeks that season will begin and I’m sure that Peg and I will be out trying to capture the changing of the leaves.
Speaking of Sept. 21st, it’s been a full month since I sent back the Mamiya 645e that I bought used from Adorama. I don’t mean to call them out here in this blog, but, honestly, how long does it take for them to fix the thing they shipped to me broken in the first place?
Every day that passes I miss my Nikon scanner. I reached the point of impatience on Saturday when I sent off seven undeveloped rolls of b&w to North Coast to develop and scan. At least that way I can look at this work and share the best (or maybe the worst) with you when I get it back from them.
Here’s another image from the group Peg captured yesterday:
Also tweaked in Nik
Great work Peg. Keep posting Peg or start your own photo blog so we can see more.
Chris, I will be in and out of Seattle for the next few weeks so if you want me to stop by Glazers and send film let me know. I plan on picking up some for the Nikon FM and the Leica.
Been off line in the San Juan Islands for a week and am impressed with the new images you have posted. I also am liking the earlier sunsets and later sunrise we are starting to get here in the NW.
So, wait, you’re shooting film and landscapes? What have I done to you? (grin)
Dabbling at it to learn something new, YES you are a ‘bad’ influence just ask Paul.
Landscapes…… it is hard to get models to show up that time of morning.
Chris: You are a bad influence. You’ve become rather viral in the number of people that you are affecting, or is it, infecting?!
I guess that I’m doing my part by shooting all of this film and talking about liking it, which I do.
I’m with you on the tripod thing! When I’m shooting landscapes, I’m always on the tripod. After a while, it’s not a big deal. It’s just part of the process. I’d like to find a fairly tall tripod so that I can use it while standing up. It would need to be about 6 feet tall. I don’t do extension posts because they aren’t that stable.
Regarding the Rodinal, lots of people love it, myself included. However, if you like ultra fine grain, Rodinal is not a grain reducing developer. You are going to get the natural grain of the film, but what you get will appear very sharp, indeed. I’d say give a try and see if you like it.
That is something I really gotten used with, that you get to see the images as soon as you get them on the computer. I’m not sure how I would adapt to the waiting. On the other hand, developing the film at home and then using a film scanner would have me up and running with the computer in a few hours. I would have fun with doing something for real, as well. Just some thoughts, not necessarily a response on anything you wrote, but most certainly a sign that I’m thinking about a film camera again… You and Paul have had a bad influence also on me, but I’m not hooked yet. (If I had the funds, I would be, so we’ll se later on).
I like Peg’s images as well. You handled them well, to give you some of the credit.
@Ove: From start to finish, it takes me about 30 minutes to develop the film. 15 minutes development time, 30 seconds stop bath, 5 minute fix, 10 minute wash. The negatives dry really quickly, usually in about 20 minutes. Let’s call it a total time from develop to scan. Not a bad investment.
I’m glad to see that I’m having an influence on you as well. Film! Film! Film!
@Paul: Rodinal it is, then! Also, the tripod we bought can raise the camera viewfinder to about 6’6″ if we wanted; we too didn’t want to bend down. Lastly, how do you wash your negs? There is a method espoused by Ilford where you fill the cylinder with water, invert vigorously 15 times, empty, then fill it again, invert 25 times, empty, then fill it one last time, invert for 35 times, then empty, and Ilford says this is as good as the other method.
@Chris: I wash my negatives the way that I always have. I led with that sentence to say that I have negatives that I developed 30 years ago and they still look wonderful!
After I finish fixing the negatives, I rinse them 3 times, by filling the development tank and emptying it. I then fill the container up for the 4th time and let the water run into it for 10 minutes. My tank holds about 600 ml of water, or about 20 ounces. I’m guess that this exchanges the water quite a few more times in 10 minutes. The flow of water is enough so that it would be able to fill the tank in about 20 or 30 seconds.
After that, with the development tank still full of water, I add one or two drops of dish washing liquid (Dawn) into the tank and stir it around with my fingers, careful not to make any suds. This breaks the surface tension of the water, or, you could buy Photoflo, which is the same thing, but a lot more expensive.
After that, I take a squeegee, get rid of the excess water, and hang it to dry for about 25 minutes. That’s it. You get nice, streak-free negatives.
I think that you’ll love the tonality that you’ll get with Rodinal. IMHO, it’s unbeatable for sharpness and tonality.
The two major epidemics in the World, right now, the swine influenza and film!
Less than an hour then, Paul, that’s no time too me.
Have I written that one of my dream cameras is the Haselblad X-pan? The 24×65 mm rangefinder really makes me drool…
Ove: I see a Hasselblad XPan in your future!
It’s a growing epidemic, becoming a pandemic! As you can ‘feel’, it’s already crossed the world and made it into Sweden!
I met Joe McNally’s Adorama contact when I did JM’s workshop in June. Email me if you want the name; maybe that – and a well-dropped Nat Geo photog name – will get your baby back to you sooner.
I spoke to Issac yesterday, and I left that conversation certain they had sent the 645e out-of-house to be fixed and had no real idea when it was coming back. So, yeah, Mark, if you could send me that info in a private email I’d be grateful.
If I could see the results of film before walking away from the scene; if there were no stinky chemicals, if all this didn’t require a scanner. If, if, if—I might decide to experiment with film. Clearly, it isn’t going to happen for me. Still, I enjoy very much following the adventures of the film guys. Does that just prove that I’m nosy and want to to know what you guys are up to? I am enjoying your posts and look forward to seeing more of your recent film work.
I wish you could do this work, being able to craft on both sides of the fence is wonderful.