Reunions

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Yes, it has been a while since I’ve posted. My role in the Alexander Showcase Theatre’s production of the Crucible has kept me quite busy of late, but I did have time yesterday to get out and do some shooting with my Nikon F2 35mm SLR and 24mm/f2.8 wide-angle lens. It was a reunion with Eastman SO-331 film, a special process film that is designed to be very contrasty, unless developed differently I used Diafine 3+3 and it seems to keep the contrast in check, although I will be testing with other developers. I did a bit of work in post on this image (toning and sharpening) so it is a hybrid image, sorry purists 🙂

Bridge at River Street

A Milestone

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I mentioned some time ago that I got to do my first cover photo for the new EP titled Leap by the incredibly talented Angela Saini  and with her recording now released in Europe and about to be launched here in North America I can finally take the wraps off and show you a scan of the cover.

Angela Saini: Leap

Angela is an artist who understands the importance of story; every song of hers has a story, and the concept that evolved for the cover definitely was definitely story-centric as well. The concept of the Leap cover was to show a mix of emotions surrounding taking the next step, taking the risk, “going for it.” That mix of nerves, fear, thrills and excitement you feel when you realize you are about to do something significant; the knowledge that when you go through the door, and take that leap, things will be different and that there will be no going back.

When going through the images there were a lot of very subtle differences in facial expressions, and the image that was finally picked I think has the perfect expression, full of the subtlety and complexity that Angela can muster so effectively.

The launch party for Leap will be held on November 14th at the Rivoli here in Toronto . I cannot go as I will be in 17th century New England that evening (as part of my role in The Crucible, being put on by Alexander Showcase Theatre), but that doesn’t mean you can’t go! The evening is sure to be a lot of fun!

In the meantime, check out some videos of her music!

The Magic of Slide Film

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I think slide film has its one particular magic: holding a strip of slide film in one’s hand is like holdng a collection of little universes, with each image being a doorway into  each world. Today’s image is from a roll of Fuji slide film I shot in England this summer using my medium format Mamiya 645 Pro TL

Grounds of Hever Castle, England

 

The grounds of Hever Castle (childhood home of Ann Boleyn

More 6×7

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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.

Scan-131014-0007

 

(90mm/f3.8 lens, Ilford Delta 100 film developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9 minutes at 20C) 

Ideal Format?

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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.

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(Taken with 105mm/f2.4 lens, Kodak TMax 400 film developed in TMax developer)

Distillery District

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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.

Wagon Wheel

Swirls

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Today, another image shot with my Soviet Russia era Helios 44/2 58mm/f2 lens. I took this image with the lens mounted on my Yashica TL-Electro SLR body, using Kodak Cinema XX film at E.I. 200. The occasion was the engagement photo shoot of GIllian and Kari.

The Helios 44/2 lens has achieved cult status in some quarters due to the “swirl” one can achieve in the unfocused parts of the image, when shooting wide-open, and the effect is really evident in this image. Shooting in full shade wide open at 1/60th means the image isn’t tack sharp, but I do love those swirls 🙂

Helios 44/2

Red Scale

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Today;s image was shot recently using the redscale technique. For this technique, you use regular C-41 colour negative film, but wound backwards in the film cassette, so you are shooting through the back of the film. The light hits the red emulsion layer first, resulting in the deep red and orange tones in the resulting images. I love the effect; it makes me feel like I am on Ray Bradbury’s version of Mars.

Red Scale - Don Valley

 

(Pentax K1000, 28mm/2.8 Pentax lens, C-41 ISO 400 no-name expired colour film, wound backwards)

Twilight Portrait

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Today, one of the film images from the session with Jennifer this past Saturday. This shoot marked the first time I used a recently acquired Helios 44/2 lens (58mm, f2). This lens is a Soviet Russian era copy of a Carl Zeiss Biotar, and has quite a cult following in certain circles. The fact that its focal length is slightly longer than normal for a “normal” lens makes it great for portrait work. In this shoot I had it mounted on my Yashica TL-Electro. The lighting was not bright, so I was shooting wide open at 1/60th of a second, on Ilford HP5+, pushed to E.I. 800. I like the gritty, documentary look I got: it is a good match for Jennifer’s intense expression. She is a master at bringing emotion into a shoot!

Candle Portrait