Today a film image from my recent Ottawa trip. I love the long shadows and dramatic lighting of early mornings.
Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 55mm/2.8 Mamiya Lens with 25A red filter
Kodak TMax 400 film, developed in Tmax Developer 1+7, 12 min. @ 20 C.
Category: Analog Film
Maria, Act II
Today another image from my photo shoot with my friend Maria Rozynska this past weekend. This is one of the colour film images, taken using Kodak Ektar 100 colour negative film, using my Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium format camera. I really like Maria’s expression here (this may be my favourite), as well as the slightly retro look of the colour film.
Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm/s.8 Mamiya lens,
Kodak Ektar 100 C-41 Film
A Magic World
Around 30 years ago in the early 1980’s I shot a roll of Kodak Infrared Ektachrome E4 Slide film (you can see an image from that roll here). It was magic, but I never got around to shooting more of it.
A couple of weeks ago I shot two more rolls of Colour Infrared Slide film, purchased from the Film Photography Project online store. They have a limited supply of an equivalent E6 process infrared slide film, expired but cold stored. Here is one of my favourite images:
With the proper filtration (in this case a yellow-green filter and a polarizing filter) you get some really interesting colour effects, with foliage coming out red in a lot of cases, and blues tone becoming very vivid. The world becomes a different, alien, fantastic place.
I wish I could shoot this film stock all the time, as I don’t feel digital infrared (either post-processed faux infrared, or specially converted digital camera) gives the same magical effect. But I must be realistic: this film is not cheap, it is no longer made, and E6 slide processing is getting rarer, except by mail order.
A magic, but transient moment, and I mourn its imminent passing.
Empty Spaces
Another image from early Saturday morning at the Toronto Beaches. Peaceful, quiet, but filled with the expectant anticipation of throngs of people expected to descend later in the day
Nikon N90s 35mm SLR, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens
Rollei Retro 80s film, developed in Rodinal 1+50,
14 minutes @ 20 C
A Tale of Two Talents
I had the pleasure of working with two very talented women recently. Katherine Matthews designs knitting patterns, and readers of my blog will recognize model/musician Jennifer Santos Bettencourt from previous posts. A lot of the photos I took for this shoot were close-up, in order to showcase the detail in the knitting pattern, and the level of detail in the shawl being showcased was quite impressive — I could learn a lot from Katherine regarding attention to detail! (Note: You can see Katherine’ pattern, and more images here.)
And of course working with Jennifer is always a pleasure — she understands that posing/modelling is like acting and choreography, and requires a lot of focus and awareness. It is certainly not a matter of just standing there waiting for the shutter to click.
It was also great to see how well the Jennifer and Katherine collaborated, and there was talk of future work together, so stay tuned!
Nikon F2, 85mm/f1.8 Nikkor lens
Kodak Portra 400 film, post production with Lightroom and Nik Efex
Facing the Sun
Yesterday I went to the Beaches in Toronto early; at 7 am the sun is lower in the sky, making for dramatic lighting and shadows. I’m surprised there isn’t more flare in this image, since I was shooting into the sun.
Nikon N90s 35mm SLR, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens with 25A red filter
Rollei Retro 80s film, developed in Rodinal 1+50, 14 minutes @ 20 C
Looking In
I must say I like the vignetting effect of using my Bower fisheye lens (meant for the DX crop-sensor size of digital camera) on a full frame 35mm camera. I feel like I am peering into a separate world.
Nikon N90s 35mm film SLR, Bower 8mm/3.5 fisheye lens
Rollei Retro 80s film, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14 min. @ 20 C
Graffitti
Today’s image comes from last weekend: I had my Lensbaby Composer with the Sweet 35 Optic mounted on my Nikon N90s 35mm SLR (a camera which more than one passerby has mistaken for a DSLR). I was drawn to the contrast of the curved graffiti lines over top of the straight lines of this alley garage door.
Nikon N90s, Lensbaby Composer with Sweet 35 Optic
Film: Rollei Retro 80s, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14 minutes.
Echoes of Power
Today’s image is another one from my Doors Open excursion last weekend. This is a meeting room from the Edwardian office building at 10 Adelaide (Canadian Heritage Centre). The room was empty, but still I felt echoes of authority.
Nikon F2, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens
Tri-X developed in Xtol 1:1 for 9 minutes
Post processing with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2
Latest Images and Music
I took an awful lot of Fisheye images on film this weekend, so I decided to create a slideshow, with “Bone Garden” by Blood Ruby as the sound track. I think the music fits well.:-) The feeling I get with circular fisheye images is one of peering through a keyhole, glimpsing another world.
All images taken with Nikon F2 35mm SLR,
Lens: Lensbaby Composer with Fisheye Optic.
Films: Rollei Retro 80s, Fomapan 100, Eastman Double X
Post production with Nik Efex
My Third Eye 