In the hustle and bustle of Dundas Square, I took this picture of model Stacy, who is holding an old Zeiss 120 folder. I am continuing to find the analog/digital hybrid approach quite effective; the Sliver Efex Pro plug-in allows me to get the last bit of tonality I’m looking for from the scanned negative.
Here’s my first attempt at printing with a process called Van Dyke Brown: similar to the Cyanotype process, but the prints come out a beautiful brown. It will take some practice to get the paper coating and exposure right, but I think it will be worth it! 🙂 The image is another one from my Women and Vintage Camera series.
Today’s picture is of a model named Galana; she is posing with my Super Baldina 35mm rangefinder. A very interesting person; we ended up discussing education and when I mentioned that I had a degree in Russian and Chinese history, she asked me “Has there ever been a Communist state?” I’d have to say that all the models I have been shooting for this series have shown a lot of intelligence; the stereotype of the ditzy lightweight and vain model has been completely absent; each model has brains to go with beauty.
Here’s an image from the latest shoot for my Women and Cameras project. My model Amy is holding my Argus A, a 35mm camera from the mid-1930’s, and very important in the history of 35mm photography. What really grabs me about this image though is the eyes: they dominate the picture, and the mood.
One of the interesting things we saw on the photo walk in Hamilton Harbour was a large freighter/tanker ship. Apparently, the boat was for sale. I didn’t buy it; it would cut into my camera Gear Acquisition Syndrome budget! It did make for some interesting shots though!
The HMCS Haida is an old Canadian Warship, no longer in service, but located in Hamilton Harbour as an open museum/tourist attraction. While she is being maintained, I still found a sense of age and decay in various details of the ship, painted over time and time again. Still, a fascinating place to take pictures; more to follow.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved being in My Fair Lady, but it was eating into my photography time. With the show now just a very pleasant memory, time to get back to my first love, so this past Saturday I was able to join up with a few other film lovers/APUG members for a photo-walk in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The image below was captured using my trusty Mamiya M645J medium format camera, on Ilford Delta 400 film, processed in Xtol 1:1.
“I’d also love to throw a location nude black and white in there if you’re comfortable shooting nudes?”
While arranging a shot for my women and cameras series, I got this response from a model, so in the middle of June I will be shooting my first nude session, and it certainly gives me pause for thought, as I consider the issues I mentioned in my last post. My main objective will be to avoid cliche, and female nudes are particularly difficult in this area.
The shoot isn’t for another month, so I have some time to think about it.
Here is an image from my latest photo session for the classic cameras project. Sara was a great model to work with, and she did have one interesting comment, when she said “It’s refreshing to do a photo shoot with my clothes on.” I have never been one to have been objectified based on my physical appearance, but I could understand where she was coming from. The line between “art nude” and soft core porn is indistinct, and every time I think I might try my hand at the art nude genre I have to stop and think; what kind of image would I be making, and would it have anything to say? And can an art nude still recognize the subject as a person, and not just a body?
Here is another shot from the Voigtlander/Kathleen session. Shot on film, but then enhanced using the Nik SilverFX Pro 2 plug-in. This plug-in is meant for making digital pictures look like vintage black and white film, but I find that it is also useful for working with scans of pictures shot with real black and white film. Purists may scoff, but at the end of the day, I got the image I was looking for.
My Third Eye 