Sightless eyes that have seen so many winters.
Pentax 67, 55mm/f3.5 lens, 1/125th @ f8
Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film, EI 80, developed in Rodinal 13.5 minutes @ 20 C.
Category: Medium Format
A Road We’ll All Travel
This past Saturday I went again to St. James Cemetery in Toronto, and I liked the look of this freshly plowed road leading to a mausoleum. I used my 200mm/f4 lens on my Pentax 67, roughly equivalent to a 100-135mm telephoto lens in 35mm.
Pentax 67, 200mm/f4 Pentax lens,
Tri-X developed on Xtol 1:1 for 9 minutes @ 20 C
The Tyranny of a Title
Today’s image was shot in Toronto in December of 2013, and looking at it I started thinking about titles. I could just call it “Birds on a Wire” and not try to put an interpretive spin on it. Or I could give it an psychological, angst-ty title like “The Introvert”, harkening back to my solitary youth. Or I could resort to cheap humour and call it “Who Farted?” It’s the same image, but a title can control the interpretation.
Pentax 67 camera, 105mm/f2.4 lens, Tri-X exposed at EI 800, developed in Diafine 3+3
Close-Up: The Dancer
One of my projects for 2014 will be close-up and macro photography. The first image is of a dancer in a snow globe; she is in her own little world
Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm/f4 Mamiya Macro lens, Tri-X developed in Xtol 1:1 for 10 minutes
Post work done with Nik SilverEfex Pro 2
More 6×7
Today another image captured on 6×7, but the camera I used was my Mamiya RZ67. Compared to the Pentax 67, this large, bulky beast definitely feels like a tripod camera, but is still a joy to use, at a slow, contemplative pace.
(90mm/f3.8 lens, Ilford Delta 100 film developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9 minutes at 20C)
Ideal Format?
Today, another image captured yesterday at the Distillery District in Toronto with my Pentax 67. the 6 cm by 7 cm format has been called by some the “ideal format”; one reason is that you can print on 8×10 paper with no cropping to speak of. By contrast, 35mm would required 8×12 paper to do the same.
Despite this, I found a couple of my images worked better when cropped as square (or at least “squarish”), including this image. With the sun still relatively low in the horizon at 10 am on a mid October day I liked the start look of the shadows on the building.
(Taken with 105mm/f2.4 lens, Kodak TMax 400 film developed in TMax developer)
Distillery District
Today’s image was created in Toronto’s Distillery District, using my Pentax 67 medium format camera. Larger sized negatives (such as the 6cm x 7 cm negatives created by this camera) make grain less of an issue so I was able to use Rodinal developer, which emphasizes sharpness rather than fine grain.
Cutty Sark 1 (Above deck)
In Greenwich, England the famous Tea shipping vessel the Cutty Sark is on display. Looking at all the ropes (I guess I should call them sheets, to be accurate) one can really get a sense of how complicated and sophisticated a sailing vessel can be. In it’s own way, very high-tech!
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 55mm/2.8 lens, Tri-X film)
Lines
I am a sucker for lines, straight, curved, whatever: I like the way they take the eyes on a trip through the image. This maze in a park in Canterbury, England is just full of lines, and so I was hooked 🙂
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 55mm/f2.8 lens, Ilford HP5+ film developed in Kodak TMax developer)
The Octagon Room
This image is of the “Octagon Room” at Greenwich Observatory in England. I was drawn to it by the its spare formality and open space, although I had to time my shot between groups of other tourists.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 55mm f2.8 lens, Ilford HP5+ film developed in Tmax developer 1:9 for 15 minutes @ 24 degrees C)
My Third Eye 