Reading Light

I had someone the other day come up to me and ask, how do I know my images are correctly exposed? Well, this is not difficult. One just has to put in the time and understand light, your light meter, your camera settings (Aperture and Shutter, ISO)….

Now for me….I always shoot 400 speed film as I work mainly in street photography. So given that, my ISO is always 400, right? That is one leg out of the way and now I just have aperture and shutter as variables.

First….trust yourself…. learn to shed those inhibitions or worries of taking the ‘perfect photo’ for yes, we all have our photos which come out a bit under-over exposed. So what? …. It isn’t the end of the world. So get away from the fear factor of imperfect photo’s.

Second…. learn the Sunny 16 rule. As mentioned, I shoot with 400 film so I know part of the tri-leg is ISO. Using the Sunny 16 rule I then try to keep my shutter at 500 since I am using 400 film, so I set my shutter at or near that ISO speed. From that, I look at the weather, the sun, the light…. If a hot day and the sun has sharp shadows, then I go for F16. If a sunny day on somewhat blurred shadows, I go with F11. If a partial cloudy day with shadows someone and going, I shoot F8. If cloudy, I shoot 5.6.

Now…it also depends on what you are attempting to expose. Are you in the open or in the shadows? you have to adjust for that.

Third….practice the Sunny 16 rule. Get a portable light meter and just walk around with it all day. Anytime you see a potential shot, take a reading. But before you take that reading, attempt to guess at what you feel might be the proper settings? Do you want F8 at 500 or perhaps F11 at 200? They are the same. Do you want F5.6 at 500 or F8 at 200? …. The wider or closer you are might vary depending on what you want in focus? More….or less?

Practice….Practice….practice….. just take the meter with you the way to the grocery store, or running an errand and sitting in a car. Eventually it will become second nature to you. Whenever I go outside,….my brain naturally thinks of ‘metering’ the scene. Am I metering under a tree, or in the open?

So it is not a mystery….photographers have been reading the light for over a century and a half…. it isn’t rocket science. But you do need to practice. Today with digital photography and “P” mode’ and automate or AP priority etc…. people really are not ‘thinking’ when they do photography, they merely take a snapshot; knowing the camera will do the rest. Digital has forced laziness upon folks. The light meter inside their camera tells them which way to turn the F-stop. To the left, to the right….stand up, sit down, fight fight fight. But hey, you get it…… I am essentially connecting the dots and waiting for the red dot to light up in the middle to know I have exposure correct, or…..I don’t even do that and just have everyone on “P” mode, the ultimate lazy man’s way. To boot…look at ISO as modern cameras go up to 50,000 or more in ISO compared to my 400 (film speed). Gees….

So…challenge yourself. Find a manual camera film, or even a digital camera that allows you to shoot manually….. Learn photography.

Barnacks Down Under

“Been Down’ a week….have shot about two complete rolls using my Barnacks Model 1 and Model 2. They differ slightly so I have decided that I need to only take one of them with me on a shoot. When I brought both along, to compare…..all I did was confuse myself as the ‘set-up’ of each differs slightly.

Never-the-less….. I do miss my MA but these two are well worth it. In my part of Melbourne, I must admit…..it lacks a certain flavor that begs for street photography, hence perhaps why I have only shot two rolls in a bit over a week. I intend to venture to downtown Melbourne where I have shot prior and know the lay. I am looking forward to that. In neighborhood’s such as I am in now, I walk…I find…I have to be very creative in my approach and then, well……will see once I develop these rolls in a few months from now.

Yes, a few months….. I can live with that. I think of it as Christmas…… I have a present to open in terms of rolls of film, and I will get there. One day, sometime…eventually, soon, down the road…. Yes, at not too distant future.

Barnacks...Down Under

I am off on my yearly and soon to be, bi-yearly adventure down to Australia as I have a daughter there with two grandkids and one on the way. Yes, a camera decision to make. Taking the ultra-small Ricoh GR is a give-me as I take photos of grandkids. But, which film camera to haul along? …Leica MA and if so, what lens(s)?, Leica Barnacks 1 Model A, or Olympus OM-1 and which Lens’s? My Decision…. leaned to the Barnacks…. Keep reading to understand my reasoning. You see, rarely do I shoot even a dozen images per day, when I venture into the streets. I like to frame my shots, slowly compose them…carefully craft the ending image, and yet admittedly, that goes with any camera. But it really relates to a Barnacks. Now, to grasp what a Barnacks ‘is’, let me ‘step out’ this camera to you and the process:

• Find a shot….not particularly unique here but perhaps unique in my view of the process. I look for the angle, the shadows, the tones, contrast….

• It is a Leica, so I need to make sure the lens cap is ‘off’ (same as with my MA!) and then pull out the lens and lock it in place. The Barnacks has a retractable 50mm Elmar lens.

• Advance the film manually in the Barnacks. It takes one complete turn of the knob.

• Using the sunny 16 and my 400 ISO film, I determine shutter and F-stop. Am I exposing for the shadows or the light? I cannot adjust the shutter (20, 30, 40, 60, 100, 200, 500) on the Barnack’s until after until ‘after’ I advance the film.

• Select the F stop….The stops on the Barnacks do not equal what we normally see on cameras today. The stops on a Barnacks are: 3.5, 4.5, 6.3, 9, 12.5 and 18. This requires a bit of re-thinking as the stops of yesterday, are not equal to the usual stops on cameras today, so a bit of re-adjustment in how to approach this needed.

• Then I take the protective screw off of the shutter button. This helps prevent accidental taking a shot.

• The focus on a Barnacks is not determined by a traditional rangefinder mechanism as we know of it today, unless I have an accessory called a FOKOS which fits on the top of the shoe (only reason for the shoe mount ). Otherwise the Barnacks focuses based upon ‘distance’ ….in feet or meters, depending on the version you have. It is surprisingly not all that difficult to measure by distance estimation and is rather an enjoyable part of the process.

• Once I have distance estimated or more precise using the FOKOS, I can now move the lens focus to the appropriate feet in length. On a Barnacks 1, Model A, you have to release the ‘lock’ on the focus adjuster on the lens. This is done by pressing the ‘hockey stick’ (which was what it was informally called) and sliding the lens counterclockwise to the estimated distance, in order to focus.

• After the above has been complete, I can then move my eye to the viewfinder and compose my shot. The viewfinder has no connection to focus, distance etc…merely composition as one frames the image.

• (h) Press shutter …. Then be prepared to do all of that all over for another shot, when / if, one presents itself.

FOR ME…..that entire process adds to the experience of creating, and crafting, and tooling and slowly ticking the boxes with a check. In no manner is this process akin to any automatic or “P” mode function or that of a traditional rangefinder for focus or cameras with light meters etc… You see, I am a bit of a highbrow when it comes to this particular camera, and relagate more modern camera designs to that of just taking a tourist shot, or an everyday snap shot…. A Barnacks’s is purposeful…. it is imprecise, it is slow, is can be tedious, success implies I shoot alone, so I can force myself to get into my zone, I immerse myself into the process. I demand that the tool I use, equals the rough 1930’s photographic outlook that at times, I require.

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.

Barnack's Update one day later

I had a quick go at the Barnack’s. I loaded up a 24 roll of 400 film and managed to escape the house before the wife had me do more Xmas chores or cooking. Sometimes she just gets a bit too carried away. So a well needed break for me.

Just walked our downtown neighborhood in Philly as this is a condo we have here on the east coast. I love Philadelphia for the ‘ street shooting ops’ as I can’t get this character of a city back west. I shot 9 shots which is rather high considering I was only out shooting for 30 minutes before I made my way to the grocery to pick up stuff (never quite got away from chores).

Within that time frame of 30 minutes…my 9 shots were not of anything I would call as shots I might normally take but, I want to run thru this roll of film to see how shutter speed is, light leaks etc. I shot at around F11 although the dial goes from F9 up to F12 but there seems to be play in between and I can visually observe the opening and closing so suspect I was at F11 or just under. I was at ISO 400 and speed of 500 since it was a nice ‘cold’ but sunny day. I eventually moved down to F9 as well.

My distance calculations was set at 30 feet as I wasn’t stopping too much to talk or grab shots. Perhaps that is for tomorrow. But 30 feet was fine, and a few even at 50 feet as I took from a top of a building looking down. The distance markers on this camera start at 1.5 feet min focus and work up to 50 feet and then to infinity. My Barnack shows distance in ‘feet’ and doesn’t show meters so must have been a camera meant for America.

Impressions? Pretty easy. I have to manually advance the film and that is easy with just a complete turn. The camera provides me with a warning of sorts as the winding mechanism gets a bit ‘tight’ when it is shows 10 + over the actual number I should be at. So, if I shot 9 shots and I advance the film, as I advance the mechanism should tighten up a bit around 20, which is 10 above where it actually should be. Then just keep advancing until you get to your number.

The “F stop is a bit more difficult to adjust. It isn’t impossible but does take a bit of doing as the lever to chance on the lens is small, difficult to grasp, difficult to turn. They should have made that bigger but, hey….I am not Leitz/Leica and obviously this camera was a winner so who am I to judge.

The shutter knob is easy to use.

The optic viewfinder is clear and bright although it took some getting used to as I had to ‘think’ where to place my eye as I am used to M cameras and the placement of the viewfinder. I will get used to this I am sure. Framing in the viewfinder was no issue.

Moving the ‘distance’ to match what I want is not difficult either but one does have to be in good light to see the slotted dot where it corresponds to the distance number. In fact, I have found that I have to turn my camera to bring some light to not only that, but also the small arrow on the film advance as well. Maybe thru years of use, those became less pronounced.

Tomorrow will bring a more productive day as I will have more time to actually work with the camera and walk around more. I want to play with shorter distances and become more proficient at dialing in the F stop, and getting used to the viewfinder placement.

All in all….a positive. I love the uniqueness of it….relying upon distance for focus….the compactness of this camera, lightness….look and feel that I get from shooting it. Again, not going to replace my MA but will provide a twist upon shooting.

Barnack's

In my continued quest to expand my ‘challenge’ ….to push my 35mm learning curve etc…. and of course to do so using film; I purchased a Barnack 1930’s Leitz 1 Model A camera.

I am off digital…..well, with the exception of taking ‘snapshots’ of my grandkids with my iPhone, or perhaps roaming the streets with a Ricoh GRD or GR2 or GR3…. Digitals are a different species, simply put. The enjoyment I get from my Ricoh’s is capturing the human in the wild, their expressions…their mannerisms etc… Yet I find myself not being driven to digital with any substance, depth. Frankly, most people who shoot digital or even film; lack impact…lack depth, lack subject matter. They are purely snapshots at best.

As I having been shooting my Leica MA lately, I have enjoyed it all. Love film. It has been a bit cold outside with the windchill and all, so I have been ‘Ebaying it’ and perusing my Leica books and ran across the older Barnacks. In the past I haven’t given them a thought as I was too focused on the latest, as opposed to earlier models which might actually be better. I found a few Barnacks and put myself thru the ‘history lesson’ of learning the family tree of Leica’s from the word GO. Model A or B or C, or 1, 11, 111, or F or G or Compur or Standard or or or or….. Go ahead, look em up…. It is quite the family tree and all of this occurred within 20-30 years. (1925 thru the 50’s). I settled on not getting the Leica 111 in any ‘letter’ which might follow. They were simply too close to the M3 and M2.

I narrowed it down to the Barnack version 1 or 2 (and there are sub-versions in between). I’ll let it go at that but did see a few on Ebay that I ‘watched’…never pulled on though, just watched. Today, as I walked around with my MA, I needed to ‘relieve my bladder’ so went into the local Unique Photo Store (Philadelphia) as they always have len’s I like, or more importantly, they had a bathroom I could borrow. On the way to the bathroom I started talking to the staff and they said they had Barnacks to sell… A Leitz 1, Model A…..a Leitz 11 and a Leitz 111F. Wow, all 3!I immediately perked up my energy to take a look but knew from the start that I didn’t want the Leitz 111F. That left me with the Leitz 1 and Leitz 11 as they stared at me on the counter. Pick me, pick me please. I picked up one, then the other. Tried this, pulled it to my face….pressed the shutters etc…. Gees ….which one? If they just had one of them it would have made a decision earsier.

Ultimately I decided that yes….screw Ebay….It would be better to buy one from the local camera shop who is aware of the camera’s history. Both of these came from the same collector so I knew they were in good shape. Sure, will most likely need a CLA but heck…who cares. I went back and forth and just decided I wanted the Leitz 1 Model A. No rangefinder….nothing, as opposed to the Leitz 11 which does have a rangefinder although not all what we think of what a rangefinder is, as we compare it to the current crop of focus models in the M line.

I liked the Leitz 1 Model A….. I focus by distance only. So, tonight I was grabbing my measuring tape and practiced distance…. How many feet from here to there? For, that is how I focus the Model A. I set the shutter, the ISO is film so already set, and I move my aperture and most likely to either F6.3 or F9, but they as those are the options. If I know the distance, and plug it in, I win….I get focus.

Does it work? Not sure……. I will play with it and expect some off-focus images until I know distance. If I can keep the shutter at 500 and F8 or F9, I should have enough depth of field where I can be ‘off in distance’ and still have focus. Again, will see…. More to come.

Barnacks Leitz 1 Model A, circa 1930. Black Paint with 5cm (50mm) lens.

Always be Ready, always

This morning as I did my ‘am’ walk-about here in Philadelphia….I walked out the door and immediately ran into a nice photo op, but…alas, guess who wasn’t ready? My camera was ensconced in my bag with settings that were simply ‘left-overs’ from yesterday’s jaunt. That combo meant I missed the photo……

What was the photo? ….it was cold and and icy rain falling so these two women were walking by with a dog. The dog was outfitted with homemade boots on all four paws, and the ladies had these funky boots as well. Would have made a nice shot of two booted ladies and one booted dog in between. All told…8 boots. So, always be ready and this implies both digital and film.

My camera is a Leica MA….a pretty pure camera to the bones as it is totally manual everything and yet, while not overly difficult to do quickly, it does help to have the camera at least out of the bag. While the ‘photo’ walked on by, I pulled the Leica from the bag, took a light read on my Weston, and settled on F8 @ 125 ….film is 400. Then, I walked on…all prepared and ready for the next photo which I wasn’t going to miss.

But after walked about 10 meters I decided on returning to that photo opp….why not? They were not far away and with a bit of power walking could catch up. So I pivoted and started the chase. All of a sudden they were gone, turned a corner. I picked up the pace. After I turned the corner I found my photo, minus one lady so now I am down to only 6 boots.

I approached the ‘now lone lady’….spoke to her….requested I take a photo of the dog and yes, of course….she loved it. Most doggers (people who like dogs) love to have their pet shot. So I knelt….took in the entire scene of just her feet from knees down and captured her feet with the dogs four boots. Nice shot….. But again….prepare yourself and be ready before you get out the door. Don’t allow that shot to escape.

Salt Printing

I just picked up a 28mm …F3.5 Ziuko lens for my Olympus OM-1…. So you might ask, what is in the bag? Well a 35mm, 50mm and a 24mm. I also have a funky 55mm which should provide some odd bokeh from what I understand, but that lens was purchased in Australia and until I venture down there, it stays down there.

I am an utter sucker for film as I believe it to be the purest form of photography. Yes digital is ‘close’….it is quick, live, real time etc…but sadly, it is not film. The next few days we are traveling up-state and will see how film does.

Update……. a few days later. I had three rolls to develop but the last is still in the camera so that will be awhile. As it be, that last roll is the one I really want to view! But I developed the first two and have some nice results.

I keenly want to stay as analog as possible, even though as I sit….I can see a $5000 Digital Leica Monochrom + a lens sitting on the shelf. There it sits….while I am debating picking up another OM-1 film as ‘backup….’ What? Backup?… well, I would hate to lose the OM-1. I can just hear the ‘sigh’ coming from the Leica as I longs to find a new home.

My analog process involves developing the film, which is not all that difficult. At this point I can go a few ways. I can take the negatives and scan them to my computer (yes I know, this is not an analog process), but with those negatives turned to digital, I can then create my zines which I have as physical copies. I want my images in my hands and not on the computer. I just published one called “No Eyes upon Me’…. and have a few more that I am working on, in degree or the other.

The other option is to select certain photos with high contrast and do a totally analog process called Salt Printing. This is not to be done with all photos, ….no, rather… ithe photos must have impact. What will make a person ask a question. Impact = questions and Impact = contrast. If I am lucky, I will find at least one negative I can use to salt print that takes into. account both of those ‘impact’ legs.

Salt Printing is how photography first evolved….. Salt printing was used to develop images of leaves, or twigs or anything that the sun coupled with chemicalized paper, would produce a view representing the said ‘twig or leaf’ etc…. Eventually technology led to photography as we know it today.

Salt printing using the sun to develop the negatives is a totally inconsistent process but it is about as natural as one can get in the photography world. I work with the variables of intensity of sun UV rays, type of paper, image contrast….length of exposure, how much sizing to put on or how much silver nitrate etc…. Cleanliness also comes into play. Can you say ‘variables?”

While suggested by many, I should cut back on the inconsistency such as paper and sizing and cleanliness and yes, ‘that’ I agree on. Try to build in the process some measure of consistency. But where I conflict with their suggestions is in the using of a UV Light box. I don’t envision that a UV light box was utilized in the early photography of salt printing , so…. My intent is to remain true to an analog process using the sun to develop'.

I expect several ‘takes….’. I expect some underexposure and overexposure. I expect the sun to come and go, and I expect difficulty with ‘dodging’ where needed. I expect failure more so than success but ….when success does come about, the end result truly belongs to me.