Plus-X N-1

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.

Weston Beach, Pan-F, Rodinal

I know I’ve been away aq bit, just been very busy at work. This weekend I was able to catch up on some scanning, and these three images were the favorites from that session.

HP5, Xtol, BVW Class, Oct 2010

And, then this one, shot just yesterday and developed last night as a test of HP5 in HC-110 (H)

HP5, HC-110 (H), Processed a bit in Silver Efex

More to come

Pan-F, HC-1120 (H)

Scanning away here and came across a roll I shot with my Mamiya around July or so. It might have been in August, I honestly can’t rermember. I’ll post a few images from that roll in the next day or so. That day was hot and hazy, humid in that Western-PA sort of way. This is the point at which the Beaver River flows into the Ohio. The railroad bridge crosses over the point.

I worked on the image to try and capture that feeling, but seeing it on the web page leaves me feeling I missed it somehow.

More to come.

HP5, DD-X

Continuing to catch up on my scans while I’m on vacation. It will end far too soon.

HP5, DD-X, toned in Silver Efex

Happy New Year to everyone, and thanks for your feedback on the theme. A theme has been chosen (you should be looking at it right now), and we are still in the process of migrating everything over and setting up the true landing page.

I thought that rather than setting goals for 2012, it might be more revealing to review, from my perspective, what I think I learned last year.

Film

The biggest shift this year was the inclusion of two Kodak films in my regular shooting regimen: Plus-x and Tri-X. I don’t know why it took me so long to truly see what these films had to offer other than to just assume that my historical influences kept me from really considering the options (my film teacher loved FP4 back in the day). I remember talking to Ray about HP5 and how I loved the contrast. He replied “yup, but once you have it, it’s not easy to get rid of.” And, indeed, once I started to shoot a lot with Tri-X, what I loved about it was the more gentle approach to drawing the scene. Who would have thought? And now, of course, Ilford is doing well, business-wise, and Kodak is going down the tube. Sheesh. Not that I don’t like FP4 and HP5, mind, it’s just that timing is everything. And I’ve spent enough time pulling Plus-X that I have feeling for how it looks. Now I need to replay those experiments with FP4.I’m just hoping that when Kodak sells off its film business, someone buys it who can continue with it.

My tests with older-style films have been a mixed bag. Fomapan turned out well, I’m going to try it in medium format, but my two rolls of Adox 25 were developed at grossly inadequate times (those times were gotten from MDC) and are extremely thin. I haven’t tried scanning them yet, so they may be salvage-able. We’ll see.

Rollei Retro holds great promise, but I think I need a different developer besides D-76. My two rolls of Rollei Blackbird were totally fogged and useless. I suspect I know when they got fogged, but I’ll never be certain.

I like the old-style films because they move further away from a digital look. The more I can find a style and look of my own, the better.

I’ll talk about developers in the next post.

 Today’s Image

This image was from a portrait shoot for a client last year, and was a candid shot I caught on film while they were prepping. The main shoot was captured on my 5D.

Pan F, Rodinal, Nik Efex for interest

Back to the old theme for a day while some work is being done behind the scenes. Another shot from Weston Beach for your viewing pleasure. You’ll see an announcement when we’re at a point where you can look and comment.

Pan-F, Rodinal

Another image from the Weston Beach rolls. Auditioning yet another theme. Obviously the images in older posts are squished a bit (well, more than a bit).

Auditioning this theme today. If I went with this, I’d increase the image size; that’s the one thing I really liked about yesterday’s theme. BIG photos.

MYC.

HC-110 Dilution H, HP5, N-1

Here I go, experimenting again. When I lived back in Mesa, I had purchased a bottle of Kodak HC-110 to play around with. Back in those days my, ahem, developing technique was rough at best, as was my scanning technique.

I developed a couple rolls with HC-110 because I had heard that its compensating effects were very nice. I didn’t see much advantage, and since diluting that little HC-110 was sort of difficult (the use of a syringe was involved) I gave up and closed up the bottle.

It sat unopened since October 2008.

Curious, I read up on using it again, realized that the techniques used were now certainly within my skill set, and discovered that the developer in syrup form (as it comes in the bottle) had a particularly long life span. I shot a quick dozen frames of HP5 yesterday while riding shotgun in my wife’s car, developed for N-1 at dilution H, and liked what I saw.

This image posting may have set the record for quickness for me; this image is posted 26 hours after shooting it.

Nishita

Today I begin officially trying out various themes as I begin the migration towards a new landing page / blog page design. Give me feedback, please.

Rodinal, Pan-F

Last January I got my second chance to wander Weston Beach at Point Lobos, California. Although I’m not an expert on Weston’s history, I assume this beach was named after him based on some kind of info that he had spent a great deal of time on the beach, probably photographing the area.

This was shot #1 on roll #1 of two rolls I had never scanned. Both rolls I discovered as I was going through my backlog, which now  consists of *only* 14 rolls of 35mm and 1 roll of medium format film.

Yikes. And I developed two rolls of Adox today, so that makes 16 rolls of 35mm to be scanned.

Good thing I’m on vacation.

Merry Christmas to all!