Egads

I was with a friend today….to whom we just met in physical form as he came up from DC. to Philadelphia. Up until now, we have zoomed…texted, and shared images.

But a realization became apparent; that was he is a ‘digital’ nomad while I am a ‘film nomad’…. Not a lot of either of us blends to the others likeness when it comes to the end product. It is like I prefer an old dusty spy novel from the 1940’s and he prefers the latest from Lee Child or the like.

I eat up on random noise….I enjoy a scratch or two on my film….stray dust particles are a welcome site….water marks from developing is an imperfection element of perfection. Even stray light from an accidentally opened film canisters are a thing of beauty. … To me, sharpness is a bourgeois concept …blur is character. I enjoy shooting ‘into the sun’…. or purposely exposing wrong.…. or speed set too low to create a blur…. expired film…. The list of what can be done continues, not to mention the fuzziness of wide contrasty subjects and a general feel of messiness inherent in film.

My friend…. ‘none of that’….. No, none. He enjoys nose hairs on his images to be perfectly sharp. In fact, ‘sharpness’ is central to his thinking as focus peaking is key. Auto-mode is necessary. Using ‘live view’ and adjusting some toggle switch to set exposure and end product. Or, taking 5x the number of images I take and still end up with one good shot. Now I know he has knowledge, so don’t get me wrong. He has an excellent understanding of photography and I know that includes camera basics as he goes back in photography time, as long as I do.

But somewhere near Albuquerque we each took another turn and haven’t looked back. We both grew up in a film world….both embraced the Digital age as it hit upon us like a surfing wave. But yes, somewhere, sometime…our paths as photographers separated. He kept going down the Digital Nomad path and now has and believes in having the best camera and lens one can get. As he says, you only live once. And yes, I agree. I took the path back to the ‘film nomadic’ approach…..While on occasion I do ‘look back’ to that time we both were in Albuquerque (metaphorically speaking), yet each time I go out to shoot, I grab the film camera. Like him, I want the best….and have deemed my Olympus OM series from the late 70’s to mid 80’s as best; coupled with my vast array of Zuiko lens. And to boot, I do have a Leica MA plus lens if I prefer that route. All film though.

Now, we both go out and find approaches to viewing a scene or subject….we both look for light and wait for the scene to appear. Nothing really different. Just that the nomadic approaches we each have become married to, has been dictated to us almost via osmosis. Digital and Film… equally as different as painting with Acrylic or Oil or Water Color. That is recognized in the painting world, and now, we need to recognize that same difference in photography.

Leica X2

If you read my postings you can conclude I have an affair with ‘film’….TriX or possible Fomapan 400. You can say I have duel mistresses.

I find myself in Australia….Melbourne to be exact. While I took my Ricoh GR Film camera and have shot, well….just a bit, I have concentrated more on my Ricoh GR111 or my Leica X2. Up till now, if not film, I shot Ricoh GR111. But I wanted to challenge myself a bit and see how I could turn the Leica X2 into a filmenesque look.

The last time I shot the Leica X2, I shot….viewed, and then laid it down knowing that while it is super sharp and a great digital overall from 2012, it lacked that film feel. But not so fast…I challenged myself to make it so. The past few days I have probably walked 15 miles around Melbourne (not downtown) and have experimented with settings, light….exposure, shutter etc and to my surprise, I feel I have almost more of a film look from the Leica than I do from the Ricoh….wow, go figure.

What is lacking from the Leica is the character within the light/shadows….. I just can’t get the same. But I can get ‘film’ out of digital. I have Character in the blur! … the dark shadows although not the same texture as the Ricoh, still none-the-less….bold, thick blacks which encase a person’s face or play with the edges as the eyes are led down thru the image. I am excited about the Leica. At the moment (and this includes three weeks worth of playing with the camera ‘down under”…) I have 158 shots. Not all are good, but most are acceptable in what I am looking for, just not all in the composition of what is being viewed. But hey, that is okay as that is what photography is all about. Shoot…shoot…shoot…shoot…and continue to do that and perhaps you will find one or two you like. Don’t get disappointed but keep shooting.

But I had presented myself with a challenge….turn the digital Leica X2 into an Analog/film, and I am successful. Now my only problem is when I wake up each day to go for my photo strolls, which camera do I take? Ricoh Film? Ricoh GR111 or Leica X2? ….Decisions, oh the decisions we must make in life.

Darkroom

An interesting idea is that many times we look back at ‘yesterday’ and think that yesterday was easy or the times were more simple. To a degree I feel this is true, at least when we state that times were simpler.

I can remember growing up as a kid, adolescent, young man…man…in an age where there were no personal computers or phones and yes, life was a lot easier and more simple. Those times will be memories I will always treasure. I cannot overstate the fact that life was better and I pity people now who might never know of that.

Now was life more simpler with photography? Maybe not, so technology might have actually improved. For instance, while I am not a scenic photographer, I can appreciate someone like Ansel Adams. Since he died in 1984, he never knew of the digital world, only analog. He knew only of the ‘wet darkroom’ and not the ‘dry darkroom’. He, like many photographers today, might spend hours in the field waiting for the right light or shadows to fall. Yet with film; as I know too…..you really are not sure of what will be on the film until after you develop it. That analog approach is very satisfying for sure as I too shoot film with my Leica M6. So it isn’t like shooting film is any better or worse, for it depends on the mood I might be trying to create as well as the acceptance of ‘not knowing’ until after I develop the film.

With digital photography it is much easier. I can immediately see the result of a shot and even prior to the shot I can shoot ‘live view’ and capture just what I want prior to pressing the shutter. Is this digital approach better t than analog? I can’t really say, but it differs. Admittedly there is something gained in the process of photography that is lost in digital. This process involves everything from the start to the end. This process is mostly intangible. The feeling of loading the film……the feeling of waiting for the perfect moment for remember, I have one shot usually to take with street photography before the scene leaves me, as opposed to a digital camera that might be able to capture 12-15 frames a second. The feeling I get from ‘not knowing’ is an intangible I enjoy for once I do develop the film, it is like Christmas as I view the negatives. Wow….I nailed that shot, or….ho hum.

The intangibleness of it continues as I might have to re-wind the film in the field, and I might have to load in the field under raw conditions. Even after the fact as I develop my film I go through the developing process using wet chemicals. I rotate the developing can and watch the time go by. Tick, tock… about 20 min per film. Then I hang the film to dry. Again, all analog, all intangible elements to shooting film.

But, for me…… I will take my negatives and scan them into my ‘dry darkroom’. The scanning process itself as I load the negatives onto a tray (4-5 frames at a time) is still analog but once I have on my computer, it becomes digital.

I must admit that a dry darkroom (I use Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro on my Mac Desktop), is a whole lot easier than going thru the chemical process to go beyond film development and into film processing. So even when I use film to shoot, I use a combination of analog to digital. The one thing that is a bit awkward (although that isn’t the word I want) is I find myself with a lack of frames when shooting film. I just run out of frames that I work with and have to return and shoot more. Since I rarely shoot even a roll of film (36) when out any given day, and out of those 36 developed images I might get 2-3 good ones…..well, you can see I run out of material.

That is where digital comes into play…..while I still take my time and don’t attempt to take a ton of shots, ….just because I can…….using my digital Ricoh, I usually end up with more that 35 images to process. Funny thing is thought that the ration of 3 good images (let’s say that is standard or about 8-9%)) on any roll of film, isn’t really any different than the ration of good images I take on my Ricoh, even though I shoot more. But since I do shoot more with my Ricoh (usually 100 images in a day), I just have more images to play with as the ratio is still 8-9%.

So…..what does this all mean? Really nothing….. as I still enjoy shooting film and developing my own film. I enjoy shooting with my Ricoh as it really is the best Street camera on the market. It is so much lighter to hold than a 3 pound Leica M6, especially when the weather is humid or real cold or I am walking 15 miles that day!

My thoughts…..