Enchanted Forest with P30

Sometime last June my husband and I watched the latest episode of the show Ghost Adventures (please don't judge me - it's one of my favorite guilty pleasures). It just so happened that the crew was visiting a site an hour south of us, The Enchanted Forest. So we decided to go visit the next day. And I brought cameras. Of course I brought my pinhole camera. But today I wanted to share the photos I took with my Olympus OM1 and Ferrania P30.

Little Miss Muffet

I love this film for the subject matter. The place is every bit as creepy as Ghost Adventures made it look on television, and I wanted to capture that on film.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Happiness

While we were in Amsterdam, we decided to spend King's Day in Rotterdam where Inge took us on a tour of her home town. The first stop was the  Urban Forest/Cube Houses. I was really excited to see these in person. The museum was open so we got to go inside of one to see what it would be like to live in one of these unique houses. I am torn as to whether or not I would want to live in one. I love it, but kind of think it would be impractical. However, if I did have the opportunity to live in one of these houses I think I would jump at the chance, no question. 

I shot this photo specifically because of the "happiness" poster in the window. I couldn't believe it when I saw it hanging there. I have wanted one of these posters for a long time. They are drawn by Gavin Aung, creator of Zen Pencils. I am a big fan of his work. He draws cartoons of inspirational quotes. The "Happiness" poster is a drawing of and a quote from Buddha:

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

 

And there is not much more to say about that. 

This was taken with my Canon Elan ii and Arista 100. Developed in Diafine. 

Amsterdam street food

This is another shot with the Olympus XA in Amsterdam. When I used up the roll of Afga Precisa I bought some Tri-x to see how that would fare in this camera. I love the results! I am not used to using a rangefinder and tend to find them a little awkward, but the XA was pretty easy to get used to. 

I've been carrying it around with me this week in my purse, working on a film swap roll and I am falling more and  more in love with this little thing every day. It's the perfect size to carry around for everyday use. I bought a couple rolls of Cinestill film and am going to run that through it and can't wait to see the results of that little experiment. 

I'll share more of of these XA Amsterdam street photos in future posts. 

The lesson of the group shot

Yesterday I spent the entire day meditating with this very wonderful group of people. We all decided that we wanted a photo at the end of the day to mark this occasion: it was the first real retreat of our little local sangha. Sometime in the middle of the day I remembered that I brought my film camera loaded with black and white film. I was wanting to use up the roll on my walk to the retreat so I could have something to develop. I was delighted that I would be able to capture this moment on film!

When we gathered together for the shot I decided to take a photo with my iPhone first.  Here is the shot that I took: 

In the iPhone photo everyone is smiling and happy and it truly depicts the way we were all feeling after a day of meditation together. After I took this photo I took two more with my film camera. When I developed the photos from my film camera and scanned them the only shot that was useable was the one at the top of this post. It's not a bad photo but the faces are more stoic and not as smiley. 

I thought about what I might have done as the photographer to make the photos different and I remembered that for the iPhone photo I made a joke. I told them to "say whiskey." Everyone laughed because for the situation it was kind of out of context and maybe a little irreverent and our group laughs at irreverence.  For the film photos they had been standing  there for a few more moments. The joke was over and everyone was ready to move on.

These are some things to keep in mind the next time I take a group shot. Maybe the first photo is the best? And maybe I should have a few more jokes up my sleeve for the second and third photos...

Sakura

One of the things I love about my town is that it is quiet at night. I live in a small town about 45 minutes away from Portland and I love the stillness of it in the evenings. The downside of this is that there isn't much to do here in on a Saturday night. Often, my husband and I will go for walks. This past Saturday our walk took us to the local Goodwill - the only business (besides the bars) that is open until 9:00 on a Saturday night. 

I made a beeline straight to the discarded camera section. It is bin in the very back of the store filled with all kinds of sad, old, electronics. Every once in awhile I will find something interesting. There were quite a few good things Saturday but the camera that I came away with was a Canon Sureshot.

I took it out for a spin yesterday and am rather delighted with the results of this little camera. It didn't do well with close up shots (I tried a few portraits of my husband and they were blurry) but it did pretty well otherwise. You can read a great review here on Jim Grey's blog "Down The Road." 

Here is a shot I too on Hawthorne Blvd  in Portland. 

Film used was Arista 100 and it was developed in Diafine. 

"I can't remember anything, can't tell if this is true or a dream"

The snow is all melted and long gone. It's like it was all a dream. 

The snow is all melted and long gone. It's like it was all a dream. 

I am not very good at coming up with titles of things. Photos are some of those things. I think titles are so important. As I move further into this hobby I am realizing this. I am realizing the importance of storytelling. I think the title is one of the very important elements in the story telling that goes on in photography. The viewer doesn't have much else to go on, there is the title and then there is the image. It is up to the viewer to create the story in their mind. The story is completely up to them. 

So I am trying to get better at titling things. 

With that in mind, I was looking at this image I took the day after our Ice Storm (this past Monday). I kind of liked it and thought I would upload it to Flickr. But, for the life of me, I couldn't think of a title. I thought of my standard "state the obvious" (ice on branch) but i'm sick of stating the obvious. I wanted to come up with something better than that. I decided to do something else, since my brain was being uncooperative.  I would let fate title this photo. 

I turned iTunes on random and thought, "the first song that comes on, the first line of that song, that will be the title of this photo. I don't care what it is." 

So I pushed play and Metallica's One came on. I listened to the beginning musical lines and thought "wow, if I could title this photo with music this would be perfect" because have you ever sat and listened to the musical introduction to this song? It's really beautiful and sad and it seemed fitting. But then the first lines played: "I can't remember anything, can't tell if this is true or a dream." It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

 

Camera: Canon EOS Elan ii
Lens: Canon FD 50mm 1:1.8
Film: Fomapan 100
ISO: 100
Dev: Diafine (home developed)
Scan: Epson V500

Let's go for a walk in the snow

Last week I found a camera in my closet that I'd completely forgotten about: A Praktika MTL3. I bought it last summer at at thrift store for $10. It came with another lens and some other extender thing that I haven't a clue what to do with. 

I hadn't heard of this camera before but I decided to buy it anyway. I brought it home and shoved it on the top shelf of my closet and forgot about it until last week. The weird thing about finding it when I did: It seemed like everyone on my Twitter feed was talking about the Praktica last week. In fact, someone posted a photo of the very same model that I had. So I decided that Fate was trying to tell me something. I loaded it up and took it with out on a snowy walk the other day. 

I really enjoyed using this camera! It is so old school but so incredibly easy to use. Very intuitive. I like the results from it too. My husband likes them too. He has decided that he wants this camera for himself. I think that's a great idea! 

Camera: Praktika MTL3
Lens: Pentacon auto 1.8/50
Film: Kodak Tri-x
ISO: 100
Dev: Diafine (home developed)
Scan: Epson V500

reflected

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This is from the same roll as my last post. I had my Yashica Mat in my purse with me as I stepped into the grocery store. I passed by this game as I do everyday but this time I looked at it and I saw my reflection. I stopped and took this shot as passers-by got annoyed with me for blocking the foyer. 

I have been looking at Vivian Maier's work, as many others have, and love her reflection self portraits. I was inspired by her, as well as Jana Obscura, who did a series of self portraits with her Rolleiflex a few months ago.

Though I am not sure inspiration is really the right word here. I have been doing these since I have had a camera in my hand. I think it is a natural thing for us photographers to do because I am not the only one. I wonder why? 

Camera: Yashica Mat 124G
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100
ISO: 100
Dev: Diafine (home developed)
Scan: Epson V500

Produce Stand


This week I decided to take out my favorite camera, my Yashica Mat 124g. I bought this camera two years (ish) ago. It was the first nice film camera I bought - a step up from my Holga. So this camera is very special to me. When take it out it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. 

Over the past couple of years I've decided that for this camera I like using Black and White film. I also really, really wanted to try shooting portraits with it. So last September I loaded it up with film and it has been sitting on my fireplace mantle ever since. I decided that neglect needed to end so I shot the whole roll on Sunday in about an hour and then came home and developed and scanned the negatives.

I have to say, there is something really awesome about not having to wait for someone else to develop you negatives. That waiting game has taught me lots over the past couple of years but, wow. I really like the (almost) instant gratification of doing it myself. 

Here is a shot of an old building in the small town I live in. It's kind of quirky and i love it. 

Camera: Yashica Mat124G
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100
ISO: 100
Dev: Diafine (home developed)
Scan: Epson V500

That bridge in Newport

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Yesterday was kind of a momentous day for me. I am still reeling from the happiness of it. I developed my first roll of black and white film at home! I have been procrastinating this for two years – at least. It is something that has been on my mind for a very long time. For some reason – fear- kept me from doing it. I spent lots and lots of time researching it and thinking about it and envying those who were doing it. Then last year I took a Darkroom class where I learned how to develop film as well as make darkroom prints. Since March of last year I have been going into Newspace a couple of times a month to develop film, using their developer and most of their equipment. They have a beautiful set up. I have had my own tanks and darkbag for a very long time (two years maybe?) and so I’ve been pre-loading my film in my tank at home and taking into Newspace for developing. After months and months of using their developer (D-76) I decided that I wanted to play around and try new things. So I took the plunge and bought the chemicals and equipment to develop at home.

I bought Adonal and was planning on starting with that doing stand development but while I was on a photowalk on Saturday,  a fellow film photographer sold me on Diafine. It sounded pretty fool proof and simple (like stand development) but with way shorter development time. I picked some up and mixed it the next day. I let it sit overnight and decided to go for it with the roll I’d just finished.

I read too much about it and debated whether I should or shouldn’t pre-soak. In the end I didn’t pre-soak but I ended up with some weird chemistry on some of the frames. After reading about it some more, I think I am going to try pre-soaking next time. We’ll see what happens. I can’t wait to try it again!

I am happy with what I have scanned so far, issues aside. I am loving the contrast, I think. I am not sure how easy these negatives will be to print in the darkroom though. That is the final test for me because my goal is to make my time in the darkroom efficient.

Camera: Canon EOS Elan ii
Lens: Canon FD 50mm 1:1.8
Film: Fomapan Creative 200
ISO: 200
Dev: Diafine (home developed)
Scan: Epson V500

Paris in Black and White

When I visited Paris in September I decided to bring four rolls of Kodak Tri-x with me - one roll for each day. I am not sure what made me decide to bring black and white film of all things, but I am really glad I did. I knew I was going to take my darkroom class eventually and in the back of my mind I decided that I wanted to develop this film myself. So I stuck it my desk drawer until this past March. It was a delight to develop this film after having visited several months ago. It was fun to relive the memories of being there! I've also been printing many of the prints which has also been fun. The last time I was in the darkroom the other person in there was also printing something from when he visited Paris. It was really cool to compare stories.

Film used: Kokak Tri-x Camera used: Pentax P30t

Sandy River Delta

I mentioned in this post that I brought my Holga with me on our hike at the Sandy River Delta. I finally got the film developed and scanned the negatives. I am getting better at scanning medium format negatives with my film scanner. I also learned that I had the settings all wrong for black and white which made the last batch of black and white negatives look weird. I'm going to re-scan them at some point (note to self). . Anyway, I am super happy with how these turned out! Seriously. I am in love with black and white film. I don't know if I want to ever go back to digital. I just love it that much. I love that this is how it looks pretty much out of the camera. Admittedly, I adjusted contrast and maybe exposure ever so slightly, but that is it.

I brought a roll of black and white film, Kodak Tmax 400 35mm,  to the beach with me yesterday.  I noticed the differences between shooting with film vs the immediacy of digital. With film you have to let go the notion of being a control freak. It's more about taking the shot and then letting it go. You take your shot and hope for the best and then wait (sometimes weeks or months) to see what it looks like. And there is something magical about  that space of time in between taking the shot and seeing the image.  It's like waiting for Santa. Sometimes you are disappointed but sometimes you are happy beyond your wildest imagination.

 

Film used: Kodak Tmax 400 Camera used: Holga

Source: http://monismithphotography.files.wordpres...

On capturing moments

When I bought my Holga to the beach with me on Christmas, I bought a roll of color film and a roll of black & white film. Since it was a beautiful day I decided to shoot the color roll first. I took the black & white roll with me on our trip to Long Beach over Christmas. It is crazy how quickly 12 frames goes by. I'm spoiled by digital photography and the compulsion to take shot after shot of the same thing. Film photography is going to force me to be a bit more cognizant of my present moment and what I decide to shoot for each frame. Related to that, I had forgotten how expensive film photography is! I did not get prints made from any of my negatives but I did have them scan them onto a CD so I could have digital copies. I am saving my money for a film/negative scanner so I can do this myself. When Raf and I were looking at these he remarked that he really felt that film photography has much more depth than digital photography, and really noticed it with the black & white shots. I could totally see what he was talking about and I have to agree with him. There is something about that image being burned into film that gives it way more depth than what you get with a series of zeros and ones (digital photography).

The fact of the matter (and now I'm going to get all metaphysical) is that in film photography the light (or the energy) of a particular moment is actually being burned into the film. So, essentially, that moment is that photograph. Does that make sense? Perhaps I've been listening too much to the crazy people who talk to me at the library. But I do think it is an interesting thought. Something to ponder, anyway.

Film used: Kodak Tmax 400 Camera used: Holga