Category: Analog Film

Auto-Focus? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Auto-Focus!

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This picture is from the first roll I shot using my newly acquired Minox EL (one of the smallest 35mm cameras ever made, in the early 1970’s). I got the camera for next to nothing, and for now at least it’s working. (From what I read, the shutters are a weak spot). One of the interesting things about this camera is that it is scale-focus: no rangefinder, etc. Nada. You guesstimate the distance and set it on the lens, and hope you’re in the ball park. I am happy to report that every shot scanned so far is sharp, but given the tack-sharp 35mm f2.8 wide-angle lens, and the great depth of field I got from shooting at f16 on fast film, it might as well have been auto focus.

MInox EL007
(Minox EL camera, 35mm/2.8 Color Minotar lens, Tri-X at box speed, Developed in HC-110 Dilution B for 7 minutes)

Story and Mystery

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This has to be my favourite portrait I’ve taken so far this year, and it’s all because of her eyes and how they tell a story (“she is looking at something”) and yet preserve a mystery (“but what is she looking at?”). Kudos to model Emily for gifting me with such an expression!!

Catching the Expression

Hidden Allure

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In an age where (thanks to the Internet), graphically explicit pornography is just a mouse-click away, it is easy for the allure of the hidden to be forgotten.

Hidden Allure

(Mamiya 645 Pro-TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Fomapan 100 developed in HC-110 dilution H, post-processed with Nik Efex)

From Russia With Luck, Part II

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On my list of cameras I’ve always wanted, a vintage Contax rangefinder has been near the top. The post-war Contax rangefinders (IIa and IIIa models) are wonderful precision mechanisms, and I was lucky sometime ago to acquire a IIIa body at a reasonable price, but I still needed a lens. I had good luck with the Russian Jupiter 8 on my Leica IIIb, so I rolled the dice again and go the same lens in the Contax mount, very inexpensively. I just got the first roll developed, and I am again very happy with the sharpness of this lens!

Broken Hydrant, North Toronto

Homage to Man Ray

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One of my favourite photographers of  the twentieth century is Man Ray, a surrealist famous for (among other things) his photographs of nudes using the technique of solarization. I remember as a teenager in the 1970’s that this effect was very popular, almost to the point of overuse (sort of like HDR images today!). I think any effect is OK, as long as it serves the intent of the image, and in this case I like how it turned out. I had mentioned to the model that I liked Man Ray, and so I thought why not do a solarized image (although in this case the effect was applied digitally over a scanned film negative).  This one’s for you, Man Ray.

 

Tattoo

Found Surrealism

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A five minute walk from our house is a perfectly ordinary convenience store, but on an outside side wall is some plaster, wires and plastic pipes that seems to turn into poles suspended in a sky, clear with one cloud. No post production trickery, just light.

Found Abstract

Slow Down!

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I’ve been asked recently why I like ambiguity and subtle facial expressions in my portraits, and the reason is simple: we live in a very black/white culture, prone to snap judgments and instant categorizations (good guys/bad guys, cool/uncool, attractive/unattractive, etc.). We are encouraged to make decisions and interpretations of people, situations and issues based on shallow criteria, anything to keep people from actually thinking for themselves.

Ambiguity and subtlety force people to slow down and consider more than one possibility, and this will always be a goal of mine.

Channeling the Mona Lisa

(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Delta 400 film developed in HC-110 Dilution B)

Images and Music

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Something I’ve wanted to do for a few months now is to combine photographs and music in a slideshow. The photographs are my favourites of female models, taken in 2011. It was an amazing year, tackling this kind of photography for the first time!

Customer in a Coffee Shop

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I took this shot using my Leica IIIb and 50mm Leica Summitar lens. I had stopped into Broadview Expresso, a non-chain coffee shop on Broadview Avenue, not far north of the subway station bearing the same name. I had come in for a coffee, and when I asked if the seat next to his was taken he said go ahead, and started to engage me in conversation. We chatted for a while, and then when I was leaving I decided to ask if I could take his picture (and asking people I don’t know if I can take their pictures is something I rarely do, and definitely need to do more of!). I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Customer in Broadview Expresso

Not Perfect

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Another image from the 35mm photo shoot outside Massey Hall, this time taken with my Leica IIIb and Russian Jupiter 8 50mm f2 lens. I thought I had ISO 400 film in the camera, but it turned out to be a roll of Polypan, nominally rated at 50, so the film had to be heavily pushed in development, 30 minutes in HC-110 dilution B. A good photogrpahy friend of mine was very helpful in suggesting a development process to salvage the frame. This is unretouched, and is technically certainly not perfect, but it is what I was after – the feel of decades ago; I think it would be less of an image if it were tack sharp and grain-free.

sarah silver unretouched