Category: Women and Classic Cameras Series

Dimensions

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Another image from my women and classic cameras series; my friend Andrea Ross agreed to pose for me with a 1950’s vintage Stereo Realist. For most of its history, mainstream photography has been an exercise of two dimensions, but cameras like Stereo Realist allowed photographers to shoot in three dimensions. Effective portraits remind me of the search for dimensionality, in the sense that the goal is not merely to show what the subject looks like, but to find some insight into who the person is.

Andrea and Stereo Realist

Andrea is a fascinating, complex person, who has been through much in her life; she is a combination of both strength and vulnerability, openness and privacy. I’d like to think I captured some of that in this image.

Don’t Let Them See You Sweat

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Yet another image in my Women and Cameras series, but with an interesting story. When I got to the shoot and pulled out my trusty Mamiya, I realized I had brought the wrong finder (the part you look through; the Mamiya is a modular camera and has a number of options). Instead of bringing the eye-level finder I had brought the so-called waist -level finder, that you look down into. The biggest trick with the waist level finder is that the image you focus on is laterally inverted (backwards like a mirror) and this takes some getting use to; when you move to the left, in the finder it looks like you are moving to the right and vice-versa. Also, doing portrait orientation shots is very difficult; turn the camera on its side. and the image you see becomes upside down. I don’t use the waist level finder much, but I got through it somehow, and was very happy with the results I got of model Erikka, holding the Voigtlander Vito B, my father’s old camera, and the first “good” camera I got to learn on.

erikka021

Range and Subtlety

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Today’s image is another in my Women and Camera series, featuring a wonderful model named Fallon. One thing I am doing my best to avoid in this series is an expression I call “the pout.” It seems that a lot of photographers, fashion magazines etc. want their models to look angry, bored, petulant or generally hostile. These are not the expressions I’m going for, and Fallon was amazing in delivering a number of subtle, nuanced expressions that helped the pictures tell a story. Long live the Pout-Free Zone!!

Fallon with Kodak Pony 828

Kodak Retina IIa

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Today’s image is the latest shot from my women and cameras series. The model Bonnie (who was great to work with!) is posing with a Kodak Retina IIa 35 mm camera, built between 1951 to 1954. Built as high-quality precision mechanisms (partly in response to the German Leica’s), the Retina’s chief claim to fame was that it introduced the 135 35mm film cassette, which rapidly became the start format for 35mm film, continuing up to the present day.

This image, like all the others in this series to day, was shot using my Mamiya M645, on Ilford Delta 400 film. This film is definitely becoming my new best friend!! 🙂

Kodak Retina IIa

Hybrid Rocks!

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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.

Zeiss Folder 2

Another Vintage Process

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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.

Galina using Van Dyke Brown Process

The Thought Behind the Eyes

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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.

Galina

Mirror to the Soul

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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.

Argus A

An Interesting Comment

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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?

Universal Mercury

When Worlds Collide

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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.

Voigtlander 2