Posts from the ‘Street’ Category
That old C/Y 50mm 1.4
Plus-X, N-1, HC-110
Developed on older roll shot with the Contax RTS mounting the C/Y 50mm 1.4. Like the look of this lens; just wish the camera hadn’t given me the fits. Liked the camera a lot, too.
Glowing Bag
This look of pulled Plus-X I will miss a lot once I’m through with all the rolls I have stashed.
Love the reflection in the window
This roll, for some reason, had a number of abstract images on it. They surprised me quite a bit when I looked at them.
Still working on the transfer . . .
Plus-X, N-1, HC-110 (H)
I’m still working on the transfer of the blog to this theme. I’m moving the folders on the web site around so the whole thing will work, and in the process broke the RSS feed a bit. So please let me know if you see this post in your feed.
This image was from a roll of pulled Plus-X, shot with the short-lived Contax RTS II. Loved that camera, but it couldn’t be fixed after it broke.
Paris Streets, Dec 2010
Delta 400, DD-X
If you remember, last December (that would be December 2010) I had the opportunity to walk around Paris for a two-hour period in the pre-dawn light before I had to leave for my flight back to the States. Going through my backlog of negatives not-yet-scanned, I came across 16 negs that had just never made it to the scanner. This post includes three of those sixteen. Someday I swear I’ll get back there in the daylight.
As I walked around the neighborhood, I noticed a few people (very few) who were up and awake there preparing for the day. Shop owners, people on the street (either going home or heading out, no way to tell) and street sweepers. The image above is one of those street sweepers, cleaning the sidewalks by hand on an early Sunday morning. Dressed in some sort of official municipal uniform, this young woman was not the only one of these souls I saw that day.
Others were prepping their shopd for the business to come as the city awoke.
Others walking somewhere.
During the holidays, I’ll be posting more images as I work my way through older rolls not-yet-scanned. In process now are images from Point Lobos, captured January of 2011. I’m not quite sure how these rolls fell to the bottom of the pile, but I’ll get through them, hopefully.
In these low light situations, gotta like the Delta 400. I pushed these rolls slightly, not much, and the Bessa hand-held often at 1/30th or 1/15th to get these on the roll at all. I know I’ve sung its praises in the past, but the combo of the Bessa and the Zeiss Biogon continues to reward me.
Have a great holiday, everyone!
No Special Way
Vancouver, October 2011
“There is no special way a photograph should look.”
“The photograph is a thing in itself.”
– Gary Winogrand
Vancouver, Oct 2011
One of my goals in 2012 is to take a street photography workshop either with Peter Turnley or Mary Ellen Mark. My street work is ‘ok,’ but I really want it to improve.
If a Day Goes by . . .
Tri-X, N-1, D-76, Studio City, California
“And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence . . .” — Richard Avedon
While I would love to accomplish this, and indeed share that feeling, the undertow that is my life ofttimes intrudes. This image is a sort of cousin to the image of the sidewalk a cigarette stub a week or so ago.
Still scanning, and more to come.
It’s the subject matter that counts
Akron, Ohio, Bessa R2a, Zeiss Biogon, N-1, D-76, Yellow Filter
“It’s the subject matter that counts. I am interested in revealing the subject in a new way to intensify it.” — Harry Callahan
Well, I guess I’m not the only one interested in these quotes. There’s a whole web page set up to store and retrieve quotes from photographers.
This image is from yet another roll of pulled Tri-X. Shot in Akron, Ohio on a day when I went to see a Todd Rundgren concert.
Also, playing with the theme, but I haven’t yet figured out how to edit the background of the side boxes. I’ll get there.
Making Visible
Tri-X, N-1, Bessa + Biogon, Venice Beach
“Art does not reproduce the visible. It makes visible.” — Paul Klee
“What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm – the relationship between shapes and values.” — Cartier-Bresson
Part of the reason I’ve been putting quotes about photography in my blog l,lately is to make me think about process. In the last year, as Mike Peters has gently and appropriately pointed out, I’ve been distracted quite a bit by equipment. Partly to push myself beyond that, and partly because I think about artistic process quite a bit (I teach it in my coursework) I have been reading a bit lately.
Venice Beach boardwalk
When I come across an image in my scanning where I am reminded of a quote, or am reading and I come across something that I think is appropriate, I have been putting it in the post.
Venice Beach
Not that I agree or disagree with the quote, per se, but rather that the quote made me think.
And I hope it makes you think, as well.
A simple shot
Tri-X, N-1, D-76
This shot looks simple. It was, however, deceptively tricky (for me, anyway). The following things challenged me about it:
- The bright afternoon sunlight, the dynamic range
- White flower
- Shadow detail I wanted to retain
- There was a wrought-iron fence between me and the fountain, and I was shooting a rangefinder, which meant that I had to manually position the lens through the bars and guess at the framing, because in front of my viewfinder was a vertical bar, making it impossible to see accurately.
Luck saved me in the latter case, and pulling the development saved me in the former. Especially on very sunny days, the advantages of N-1 development (which I am now a huge fan of) gives me a look that I just love in b&w film. Those who have followed me know that I have long sought a ‘look’ in b&w that digital just, for me with my limited Photoshop skills, anyway, cannot give me. I dabbled with HDR for a while, and I’m not against it, but the kind of feeling images such as the one above deliver I’m just entranced by.
I used to use the Nik Silver Efex (v1) ‘pulled preset, which I loved, but they eliminated it in v2 (don’t know why). The look above really gives me what I want. As good as the Efex p[reset was, it only approached this feeling, it didn’t nail it.
More to come this weekend.
Tri-X and Zeiss Glass
Zeiss Biogon, Pittsburgh, July
The images in this post are just a handful from the rolls I’ve scanned over the last couple days. The unifying theme is Zeiss glass (the C/Y 50 and also the Biogon on my Bessa) and the film is Tri-X, souped in DD-X.
Biogon, Chicago, July
Regarding the C/Y Contax experiment, I’ve given up. I returned the Contax RTS for a refund from KEH, I’m going to sell the C/Y 50mm on line, and I’m going to try and pry a refund from the adapter manufacturer.
C/Y 50mm, EOS 3, Vancouver, October
As Mike Peters, mentioned, there’s a limit to my patience trying to get this stuff to work.
C/Y 50, Vancouver
While the 50 and the adapter obviously don’t have the same troubles on the EOS and film. the 5D has difficulties.
C/Y 50, Vancouver
And while my love for Zeiss glass is undiminished, I’m just going to save up for the ZE series and get lenses that work on both bodies. And, of course, eventually get my Sonnar for the Bessa.
RIP, Plus-X
As some of you may have heard, Kodak stopped producing Plus-X. I bought two bricks earlier this week, and will try to stock up on it as long as I can.
Bessa, Chicago, Biogon
I guess I should start stocking up on Tri-X as well. Sigh.
Vancouver Trip
EOS 3, C/Y Zeiss 50, Tri-X, DD-X
Contrary to Mike’s comment, testing with the adapter is not the only thing I am doing these days. I currently have 16 rolls of exposed b&w film sitting on the sink in the darkroom, and tonight I just mixed up some D-76 to soup some of those rolls in. In fact, I am shoe-horning in the testing around a lot of film shooting these days.
In a Blenz coffee shop
This roll is the first I developed where I used the C/Y 50mm on the EOS body, and I honestly don’t see a great deal of focus issues like the 5D.
But I wasn’t testing so much for those issues, so I can’t be sure. I just went out shooting a bit.
More to come . . .
