I keep get drawn back to this disused railroad in the Don Valley in Toronto. Apparently it has only been about 6 years since it was last used, but it doesn’t take long for nature to start reclaiming it.
(Pentax K1000 35mm SLR, 28mm/f2.8 SMC Pentax Lens with yellow filter,
shot on Rollei 80s film developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes)
Today’s image was created using my Yashica TL-Electro: my very first 35mm SLR camera, purchased in 1977 when I was fifteen. It has sat idle for almost 20 years until I recently decided to pick it up and see if it still worked. (It did, once I sourced non-mercury batteries). The image was taken inside the Eaton Centre is downtown Toronto of a man who appeared to be watching and waiting. In fact, the somewhat melancholy mood of the photo reminds me of the Moody Blues song Watching and Waiting.
(Yashica TL-Electro, 135mm/3.5 Pentax Super Takumar lens, Ilford Delta 400 film developed in TMax developer)
Today another image from High Park, shot on Rollei 80s film with a red filter. I continue to be amazed at the different reality I get with this film/filter combo. It’s look pulling back a veil.
(Pentax K1000, 28mm/2.8 Pentax lens with 25A red filter, Rollei 80S film developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes)
I don’t know what it is about being by the water that gets people to stop and contemplate. maybe we are unconsciously communing with our distant ancestors who lived in the sea before evolving to live on land?
(Nikon F2, 105mm/f2.5 lens, Tri-X film)
I’e talked about using filters for different light, but today I’m talking about different eyes. Not the eye of the photographer, but the eyes of the small child in this image. Imagine how large and magical this location would look to her!
(Pentax Spotmatic SP, 135mm/f3.5 Pentax Super Takumar lens, Ilford HP5+ film, developed in Tmax developer)
Sometimes when I look at statues, I wonder what they might be looking at. 🙂
(Pentax Spotmatic SP, 135mm/f3.5 Pentax Super Takumar lens, Ilford HP5+ film developed in TMax developer)
Yesterday afternoon I was at High Park in Toronto, shooting Rollei 80s film. This film has a very high red sensitivity, and to enhance this sensitivity I shot through a red 25A filter. To my eyes it seems the landscape became transformed, almost magical or alien.
(Pentax K1000 35mm SLR, 28mm/f2.8 SMC Pentax lens, 25A Red filter.
Rollei 80s film developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes @ 20 degrees C)
One final image from the shoot with Arnika last weekend, and again this is one of the reclaimed negatives from a Fuji FP-100C instant print.
Scanning these negatives is a challenge — they don’t have the orange background mask that conventional C-41 negatives do, and film scanners invariably get confused. It took a couple of tries, but I ended up with this tonality tha I really like, faded in a retro kind of way that reminds me a bit of the Autochrome process from a century ago.
Another from my Guild Wood shoot with Arnika this past Sunday. This time, I used the negative from a Fuji FP-100C instant colour print. the black backing is removed with bleach, and the developer “goop” from the emulsion side is gently cleaned off with lukewarm water. I like the colours this process gives me: retro, but with a raw intensity, not even pretending to be accurate.
Yesterday I had a great shoot in Guild Wood Park with frequent creative partner Arnika Autumnstone. This shoot was the first time I used Rollei 80s film for female portraiture, and I am hooked on the results — I just love the skin tones I get with this film! It will be my go to film for this kind of shot from now on!
(Pentax Spotmatic SP, 135mm/3.5 Super Takumar lens)
My Third Eye 