The Back End of Things

The past few days in Philadelphia can be described as hot, sultry, humid…sticky with minor drops of perspiration. But I don’t fight it, as I just go with the flow. Out of the depths of this sultriness comes an opportunity to stay inside and work on what I label as just the back-end-of-things. This includes …. film developing and ‘orchestrating’ one of my upcoming zines.

I usually always have a roll or two to develop. Yet today I didn’t have two of the same film type as I prefer to develop several at the same time. So that left creating the beginnings of my new Zine. Using Affinity I ‘started’ by determining the layout and size for my zine based upon half-frame negatives. I needed the right size to properly project how the half-frame negatives of my Pen F will fit onto each page. Now, this zine project won’t be completed until early 2025 I imagine. You see, I have a couple of dates I need to ‘shoot’ to be included in this documentary zine regarding an open art studio event gallery. I still have Oct, Nov and maybe December to document. But today, I began looking at some footage from June.

‘Above”….. An interesting shot…and one I ‘like’…I enjoy the film look….the grain/noise and especially the extra mood added by shooting half-frame + 400 Fomapan. I love the end result. A candid shot of a lady digging thru her purse. Some art in the background….and her just sitting crossed-leg on a bench. Totally un-aware of being captured on a negative. This is one of several I took of her as I formed a small visual narrative of this ‘slice of life’.

Another shot….this one being more associated with a regular diptych. Again, candid shots documenting this same event. Notice the water mark from the film processing I did on the left image. I left it there. Sure, I can clean it up but why? Why not add character unique to my process to my images? This is what I mean by why I love film. Collectively and thru-out the entire process of capturing an image to that of developing or even printing an image just adds a bit of ‘me’ to each shot.

Tomorrow….should be cooler and not sultry and sticky and me being shamefully relegated to the indoors. Tomorrow has hopes of being out there, about….walking….’legwork’ from the beginning stages.

Film Noir

I really enjoy film noir…. a few months ago I watched a movie called Curtiz… it was a Netflix movie produced in Hungary. A fantastic movie as Curtiz was the producer of Casablanca (Bogie and Bergman) and the movie follows the tumultuous filming of these academy award winner actors . During WW11, Hollywood was under great pressure to put forth their share of propaganda and this film strikes that accordingly. if you watch, I recommend you view both the original Casablanca and this film Curtiz, back to back…a double header.

One, if not….the best thing about the movie was the film noir feel… All Black and White and filmed I believe on original film stock….with ‘oh so delicious ‘ shadows and the video-graphy is simply superb with high contrast shots….dark backgrounds etc.

If you have any familiarity with my shooting style….you have pieced together my strong propensity of a preference that includes high contrast and noise, film grit, darkness etc…

Now where am I going with this? Well recently I received a small package for Czechia and it arrived. This package cost me $100 but well worth it. It is chalked full of expired 2007 Fomapan 35mm film in BW. Oh my…. did I just get to heaven? 20 rolls….yeah….20 rolls of 36 count equals over 700 upcoming shots. Expired film is one of a kind. In fact each roll, each 35mm negative is unique or can be. That is what I am counting on.

A bit of blur or messiness….grit….noise above normal dust…scratches, light leaks….mmmmmmm. Better than **X you say…well, could be. Imperfect bred to perfection.

Now I just have to decide on what ‘upcoming’ project to offer this film stock to? I have several…which one best fits and which lens, which camera…. I love it….

Experimentation

Change, I am into it dude….. but alas, others sink in quicksand until their hand, grasping to ‘yesterday’ which has by now, sunk below the sand line. So , what has been blossoming in my mind? Different film brands…. My latest roll which I shot this morning and just processed this afternoon, was a Svema Black and White 400. Those old Ruskie’s are at it again.

Off the bat in the development process I noticed a few things. First, the negative itself is ultra thin on the Svema film….when compared to a more normal Kodak TriX. This thinness makes it difficult to load onto the spool and I had to take care to not cause a rip or notch in the negative roll, making it impossible to roll onto the spool. Also, the film, as one winds it on the spool, has this inherent crinkly-like sound, much like some of those baby rattles that have crinkly material attached to excite the little critter.

Once wound….it takes twice as long to develop at 1+1 going the distance at 20 min instead of 9-12 minutes for TriX. But since I am AA (Anal for Analog), I found I ate up up those extra minutes and enjoyed the tactile nature of agitating a film tank for an additional 10 minutes. I told you…AA. The more I can postpone scanning the film and entering the strange world of the digital peeps, the more attuned I feel to the entire process.

Oh, let me mention uniqueness. The film type renders a unique look. Listen folks….don’t listen to those subscriber hungry You Tuber’s who speak to the film camera itself as if ‘it’ is the missing variable in the world of unique image play. The camera is just a box man. It takes the image and that’s it. Nada mas (at least in the film mode), although, yes….some film cameras are more advanced with Spot Metering or having an Exposure dial but those are not the norm. Even the infamous Leica M3 or the newer version Leica MA, lack those features. So that unique look really comes down to the film itself + lens selection + your own skills playing with the exposure triangle. Not sure what that is? Look it up……

So given my lean towards film experimentation, in the past few weeks I have used Kodak TriX, Fomapan, Kino Monolit, Lomograph Berlin Kino, Arista and now Svema. I like it….oddity. Uniqueness. Un-norm-like. Some might even state some of my images as ‘errors’ or faulty film or bad image taking etc… Heck, who cares.

Jan 18th 2023 Pima Air and Space

First blog of 2023….New Year!

Today I am going into Pima Air and Space in Tucson, Arizona to do a shoot. I was going to go with the wife as she could shoot her Canon AE-1 ( which she has had since it was brand new) and I with my Leica MA. We could have a competition of 50mm. But she banked out, so…..I will be able to most likely get in the ‘zone’ a bit easier now.

But I am looking forward to the angles, the sun….shadows…odd views, both inside and outside. I have a few rolls of 400 Fomapan and my MA….

UPDATE: January 23rd, 2023. I spent 4 hours at the museum and went thru 3 rolls of film. You can view my images on my project pages under Air Space.

I came in to this project wanting images that were unique, and not the everyday Plane snapshots that offer little creativity. My images were taken with “Geometry’ in Mind….’Shadows’….”Pieces of Planes’…. I wanted something that offered a perspective where I could document uniqueness.

This first attempt underexposed my indoor shots. I shall return and re-capture those.

The outside images were taken on a day were most were shot in the F8 and F11 @ 1000. I liked the result in which they present themselves. My lens was a 35mm Voigtlander instead of the 50 Summicron I had initially planned. I am happy with that decision as a 35mm allowed me a bit of expanse in the images. If I would have used a 28 or 24 I felt I might have cropped too much. A 50 would have allowed for little ‘expanse’.

The film I used was 400 Fomapan where it “illicits” a noisy…rough….gritty feel to it. Again, my style…my intent. I enjoy creating Zines and I can see where this project will eventually turn into a Zine.

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.