Things I Did This Weekend
Well, it was not an idle weekend for me. While I was perhaps remiss in not posting ‘Daily Photos’ every day (and because of this, I’ve renamed it to ‘Life In Photos’ to allow for the occasional gap), photography still made up a good part of my weekend.
Developing
I developed film this weekend. I had three slides (technically, two, because one un-exposed one got mixed in – and I couldn’t tell which it was!) from the Kane mountain trip a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got around to developing them. Only the group portrait came out, which is good, I think portraits are more important than landscapes which I can shoot anytime. I was absolutely astounded at how well the group shot came out. I’m not in it, of course, because I had misplaced my self-timer (it was in my pocket with my keys, and I couldn’t feel it). Nevertheless, I think it’s a good shot:
The old Recomar 33 really can take some outstanding shots if you keep a close eye on it! I’m using my usual Efke PL100 9x12cm black and white film. More excitement to come on that though!
On Saturday, I got kind of bored in the mid-afternoon, and – recalling a conversation with my Mom that morning about black and white photography – decided to try my hand at colorizing.
Voila!
I used Gimp, added a transparent layer, and went to town. It’s not perfect, of course, but it holds up pretty well even as a wallpaper on my 30″ LCD monitor. The depth of this photo astounds me, and I’m very proud of it in either color or black and white (please note: my brothers DO NOT wear shoes in those colors, I took artistic license). Every three months or so, I get a photo I like with this old gear – and oddly enough they’re the ones that take the least effort, the least though, it’s usually just set up, meter, and shoot. The ones that take effort (e.g., lake photos in mid winter that I took three trips to shoot, or close-ups with every light in the house used for the scene) just never seem to come out.
I still have to develop the Bald mountain shots – I have high hopes for those, but I’m running low on fixer. I should be okay, though, as it’s only three sheets. For reference, I shoot my Efke PL100 with ISO 50 calculations, it just seems to come out better that way. I develop in D76 1:1 for 10 minutes, wash for one minute, fix for five minutes, wash for one minute, and hypo-clear for 2 minutes. Then I was for as long as I can be patient.
Upcoming:
I have purchased *da da da da!* a 8×10 camera. I’m so happy I think I’ll bust over this – 8×10 cameras are hard to come by cheaply. This is more or less just the frame of one, since the bellows is bad. It has also a 4×5 reducing back, so I will be able to save money by not exposing 8×10 film all the time. Has two lensboards as well. Here is a photo off the eBay site:
This is a Gundlach camera, PROBABLY a Korona View, but I can’t say for certain yet. There’s a bit of info about their line on the internet, and once I saw they can handle modern film holders I sprang the $175 for it. I recognize it’ll be a bit of an expensive project, but considering ‘complete’ 8×10 kit costs usually over $1,000, I’m confident I can make this work for less than average cost. Can’t be more complicated than an IBM Selectric.
I expect since it’s an 8×10/4×5, I’ll make use of the two lensboards and get lenses that will be semi-wide for 4×5 and wide for 8×10, and normal for 8×10 but slightly long for 4×5. That’s the plan, anyways, we’ll see how it goes. The 8×10 ground glass needs to be replaced as well as the bellows. I plan to run through and give the case and mechanics a good cleaning as well, and this unit will probably be ready for service next spring. I’m looking forward to it. STANDARD FILM SIZES! Whee! This means I can buy DAYLIGHT tanks for developing, no more sitting in the dark bathroom for 20 minutes. It also means REAL COLOR FILM may be used in large format. I’m thinking some Velvia 100 (Not 100F) will be in order. I can buy a Graflex back for the 4×5 reduction, and shoot 6 films in quick succession. It will be wonderful.
Oh, and I was thinking. Having read about this exhibit, with the chap from Russia who went around taking color pictures using three filtered black and white plates, that I might try for it myself. Since I can use a Graflex, I can easily and quickly switch between films, and switch out filters. The color recombining can be done digitally, so that’s no problem. It’s like Technicolor for still photography! I plan to try this out.
I’m back this week (well, and next) to having stews for lunch, I made a hopefully tasty stew cooked for about 6 hours yesterday. I won’t enjoy it much today though, as I have a sore throat. Oh well, I’m taking it easy.
That’s it for now!
