1st Step

Music | Firesuite by The Doves

It has been way too long since I've been down in the workshop to make some prints. Earlier this week, I processed two batches of 8x10 and my 3rd earlier today. I've had a fresh batch of chemicals so I decided to try a few test prints tonite. I'm really hoping for an encouraging evening with some positive results. My confidence could really use it. But in any case, it has been a very good day and early evening. I'm feeling creative and productive.


8x10 Negatives, Françoise Weeks and Stephanie

Imperfection...

Music | This Must Be the Place by Talking Heads

It isn't that I don't want to master the things I undertake, specifically in photography, but I am taking an appreciation for the flaws that come out of doing things in a non digital manner. Of course I want even development across the film plane, no dust, no fixer stains...

Looking at this image, and its inherent issues, I love it for what it is, but also that it shows that no, this is not a digital image. It was created with lots of time and love. Going thru its iterations of a blank canvas, to a latent image, development, fixer and wash... When going thru these stages, I am on top of my game as best as I know how. I care about each and every step I take with this piece of film... to make the image.


Hoop Skirt
I want wabi sabi. I like distinction. I want soul.

Muscle Memory

Music | Three on Two (Live) by Fred Anderson

It has been years since I processed roll film. I remember back at Loop Jr. College, where I took my first photography class with Ms. Jensen, she had us learn to load our film on to the more difficult stainless steel reels and tanks. I think her thought was, plastic was for amateurs! I always appreciated that as when I started to work as an apprentice to professional photographers, I fit right into any darkroom I encountered. I cannot fathom the thought of how many rolls of film I have processed, but of course as the digital technology took over, my exercise in developing film increasingly lessoned to nothing for years! Only on the rare occasions after 1999 where I wanted to entertain the past did I shoot a roll of 35mm or 120 film.

A little less than a year ago, I purchased a 1958 Yashica Mat LM. Dara started the roll over the summer, but never finished shooting it. Having the desire to shoot with that camera, I finished off the roll earlier today and processed this evening. I was surprised at how without much thought, how I separated the paper and film from the 120 roll. With just a minor hesitation, I slipped the paper end of the film onto the clip of the reel and with an ever so gentle bend, started to wind the film onto the reel. Several thousand times I went through those exact same motions. It was as if I was put back into the late 80's in either my own darkroom or of a photographer who I freelanced for to process film shot from a Hasselblad, Canon or Nikon...


Ms. Jensen taught me well...


...and I am sure would be proud

Late Christmas

Music | Look for Me (I'll Be around) by Neko Case

I love getting unexpected Christmas gifts after Christmas. To say it was unexpected is kind of unfair as I got to work with Françoise Weeks again. I just kind of expect great things whenever we work together. On this day, I put together a crew with an assistant and make up artist for the shoot. Also, I have a great studio to work in with lots of room to spread out. It feels like we are stepping up to the next level.



As per usual, we came up with a simple concept and moved forward. Because of a new project, I'd have to kill you if I told you what it was. Suffice to say, we have another absolute amazing image. It will be a while before these new images will be released. However, because we put so much into each shoot, we decided to do a secondary shoot where we could show something.

Having great support and lots of room to work, though I wanted to do even more, we got so much into each of the photos without feeling overly over done. The room to be able to breath cannot be taken lightly. When things ramp up in the brain, either by inspiration or some technical issue, it is nice to be able to physically step back and get a different view to work things out.

After working on getting our HERO shot, I let the make up artist go. Our only initial concept for the secondary shoot was that we were going to use mud and cheese cloth. It is an idea I worked with before, but thought this was another opportunity to push the idea further.





Having great talent to work with makes creating so fulfilling. The energy goes thru the roof when collaboration happens. Not often do you get lost in the moment. Time goes away... I'm all ready looking forward to work with these folks again.

8x10 Processed Film...

Music | La Wally by Maria Callas

I shot 6 sheets of film last Sunday and have been processing 2 at a time, which is what my tank allows. My thought process was to process the film over time and see where I stood regarding consistency. I'm feeling pretty good after the 2nd the 3rd go arounds, which I didn't feel the first time. I'm locking it down and feeling good about being able to get great negs for printing. Scanning too...

A Gift...

Music | The Fall by Gretchen Lieberum

It is an interesting evening for me tonite. The days events I don't think has led me into these thoughtful hours I have been experiencing. I think it started when I saw the package at the door just before dinner. I was expecting this box and knew of its contents, but it was when I opened it that I started feeling introspective. A gentleman on the other side of the country for whatever reason has stopped shooting analogue photography. I know from what he has sent, from the images I have seen that he has photographed and brief back and forth correspondence that he is skilled at what he does. A true fellow artist. We've never met in person... We somehow connected via a model we have both photographed and being a part of a community website that reaches internationally. Out of the blue, he wrote to me and we have been going back and forth ever since. We speak the same language, have similar interest in subject matter. Because of this, he has been sending me boxes with film in it. I think in most situations, I gladly would take the boxes and move forward. However in this case, I'm feeling I have to create special images, or at least make shooting a learning process that will put me in a more profound place.


Thank you Janusz

Hollywood Camera

Music | Into You by The Cinematic Orchestra

Between running errands today, I knew I'd be driving by Hollywood Camera, my most favorite camera shop in the city. Ed, the proprietor has been there for decades and knows his cameras. He only deals with analogue photography equipment and has photographic history in and all around the counters of the shop. He sells and processes film, all kinds of film cameras, darkroom equipment and items you might not find anywhere else.

I've been visiting his shop starting about a year after I moved to Portland. Since then, I stop in at least once a month to see what he has. Often, he pulls out something special to show me. I was asking him about a Rollei 35 that I had recently seen. Ed says for me to wait a second... He goes to his back room and pulls out a pristine Rollei 35S. The creme de-la creme of that model. He goes on to tell me about the superior optics of the Sonnar lens that is on that body, pulls out some prints that he had recently shot with that camera and suggests that I have not seen anything sharper or with that superior colour rendition. I agree...

As I initially walked in, 2 younger gents where in talking with Ed about a very nice looking Rolleiflex. He know immediately that even though the camera looked pristine, and was described as hardly used, he knew to be extra careful with it. His knowledge of cameras is amazingly vast and he also knew a hardly used camera might not work hardly used. He goes on and tells the kids that the lubricants of the camera, maybe over 40 years may have dried up and instead of doing its job, would create brittlenss and possibly break some internal parts. Ed's mannerism and hand gestures shows how serious he is about this matter and the kids listen with sincerity.

Later, a gorgeous young woman comes in, looking for a Polaroid Land Camera. As if he knew she was going to come, he has one waiting on the counter. We both learn she is an avid film shooter, of Polaroid, 35mm and 120 film. When she left, I say to Ed, "You get the best customers working in this shop!" He goes onto say that he loves how the younger generation has taken to film and the analogue ways.

If you are ever in town and are looking for some film gear, I highly recommend seeing Ed at Hollywood Camera. If not to buy, just to stop in and see all of the various cameras he has on display. It is quite a journey!

Fuji and Sarah...

Music | Breathe Me by Sia

In between plates, I got to shoot more with the Polaroid and Fuji 3000B Instant film. The camera does tend towards shooting a little dark, but on camera adjustments make it easy to fix. The Fuji film developes a very sharp, contrasty image. I do get taken back to the 70's seeing the beautiful black and white print with the big white border. As nice as the print is, I'm seeing the real beauty in the negative. The scanned results, inverted to a positive renders round edges, subtle tonal range and just something uniquely beautiful.

In my excitement to scan an image, I jumped the gun and accidentally layed a partial wet negative on the scan bed. I didn't realize it until the scan was complete. Too late to totally salvage the original, I worked on the digital file to have the image reproducible.


Sarah
Needless to say, I'm heading out tomorrow to pick up another pack of film...

Time Waits for Nothing...

Music | Anonymous Melody by ORG Lounge

Another step of the eventual demise of film occurred where there are no longer any manufacturers of motion picture cameras. Those that have survived and the new start ups are all making digital cameras. Soon, just like the recording industry where there is no longer any recording tape being made, film will soon follow in its footsteps, still and motion...

I'm not sure what the statistics are, but I wonder how many brand new still cameras are being sold. Anyone interested in film cameras have huge selections to choose from at great prices, mere fraction of the cost of anything new. The same can be said for anything related to film photography... Why buy new cameras, lenses, enlargers, etc... when the used market is so huge.

Over 2 years ago, I did buy a brand new film camera. In my lack of faith in being a creative in the digital world, I decided to go back to film, go back to large format and bought a 4x5 Chamonix field camera. It wasn't until this year where the camera is getting a nice work out, being used often thru spurts of shooting. Ironically, the last 3 cameras I've purchased were film cameras. A few years ago, I couldn't pass up on a Nikon FM with a 50mm f:1.4 lense. A few months later I got a nice inexpensive 35mm lense too. Sometime last year, I picked up my first Rolleiflex tlr. I haven't shot with it a lot, but I do enjoy taking it out and shoot when I can. The experience is totally new, since I have not had history with it. My next film camera will be the camera I regret selling the most. A Hasselblad cm500 with an 80mm t* lense and an A12 film back. I sold mine back in 2002, but yearn for one now.

I wonder is it that I'm in the age range when folks think things were so much better in the past that I feel so nostolgic about mechanical analog devices, or that digital is just bowling over everything and really changing the way we do things. I'm just not ready to let go.

A Rush!

Music | Epistrophy by Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane

I'm sitting on a cloud right now. For the first time in maybe a decade, I processed film with my own 2 hands. The procedure was actually much more simple than I anticipated, but I dared not look at the film, even after going thru the fixer phase which allows you to pull the film out into daylight. Methodically, I went thru my rehearsed routine and did not deviate from each step I had planned. Finally, after pulling the film off the reels to hand dry in the bathroom, I saw a beautiful negative image. Frankly, it has been so long where I had to judge negatives, I'm not sure how good of a job I did with the developing... But merely seeing an image on the film made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge! So, in the bathroom they hang, drying slowly before I can soon admire them up close.