Latest in Vintage 35mm Series – Darkroom Drama

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Today’s image is the latest in a series taken with vintage 35mm gear (either my Leica or Contax 35mm rangefinder). This image was taken with my Contax IIIa, and Russian Jupiter 8 52mm lens (Damn it’s sharp!!).

The real drama with this image began with the film development though. I have a number of bulk loaders (so I can save money by buying film in 100 ft. lengths and “rolling my own”). I had thought this film was Fomapan 100, one of my favourite films in medium format. When it is developed, its anti-halation coating is dissolved and turns the developer a cheerful shade of green when it is poured out of the tank. When I started pouring out the developer this time around though, it came out clear, meaning it wasn’t the film I though it was. I immediately stopped pouring out the developer, topped it the tank with water, did some mental math and added 75% more development time.

mEily 35mm008

I dodged a bullet, and everything came out OK. (Perhaps a tad more grain than optimal, but I’ll take it). The sad thing is that the film has no edge markings identifying what brand/type it is, but at least in the future I know how to develop it. 🙂

Part of the Machine

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I don’t think I have posted anything from this session for the “Broken” project yet. It features the tricycle featured in a recent blog post. The way the model worked herself into the tricycle reminded me a bit of Charlin Chaplin in Modern Times, as he seemed to become part of the machine.

From the Broken Project

Out of Its Element

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For years we’ve had an old tricycle in our garage, getting dirtier and more rusty with the passage of time. I took the tricycle out of its element, and shot it in a studio setting, and I quite like how it turned out.

Old Tricycle

Vintage 35mm Portrait #2

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Today’s image is the second in my project of portraiture taken using vintage 35mm equipment. This specific image was taken using an early 1950’s Contax IIIa rangefinder, coupled with a Soviet Jupiter-8 normal lens. The inherent sharpness of this lens was just what I wanted for this look, while still keeping a vintage feel.

Old VInes

Inside the Watercolour

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Today’s image was taken last weekend, when the Cherry blossoms in High Park, Toronto were briefly in bloom. In this image, I was going for a luminous look, like being inside a watercolour painting.

Emily Among the Blossoms

(Nikon F3, Vivitar 70-210mm Series I zoom lens, Fujicolor Colour negative film)

Looking In the Mirror

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Sorry in advance for the introspective post, but I wanted to talk about where my creative energy comes from. This is a post that I have been thinking of writing for some time, but I’ve always hesitated — what would people think? I’ve finally decided to take the risk.

For me, creative work such as photography draws its energy from a lack of emotional equilibrium, either of the present or of the past. When I’m having to deal with something and my thoughts/feelings are jumbled, the work  seems to flow easily. When “life is beautiful” the well of energy and ideas can often dry out.

One motivation or source of creative energy I’m (at the very least) conflicted over is my need for feedback and attention. As an introvert and a loner for much of my life, my art is a way of screaming “I’m here, don’t ignore me!” It provides me with a lot of energy, but it is definitely a two-edged sword.

There’s more, but that’s enough for now.

Adox CMS 20001
Scrollwork Detail in Guild Park
(Leica IIIf, Jupiter 8 lens, Adox CMS 20 film at I.E. 20, Adotech developer)

Not Safe For Work

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Today’s image is Not Safe For Work (NSFW for short), so I am just providing a link and some commentary. Images are  normally marked this way for nudity, regardless of context (anything from porn to art nude to images of breast feeding of all things). I don’t see as many “NSF” images of violence, guns, or hunters posing beside a defenceless animal they’ve just killed, which is a pretty damning indictment of our society.

That’s not my main point of the post today though; I had a meeting with a model a couple of days ago about an upcoming shoot, and she mentioned that because she planned one day to be a teacher, she need to pose using a pseudonym (actually a couple of different ones), in order to segment this part of her life from the rest of her online persona that would likely be evaluated when she entered the field. The assumption is that if nude images were connected to her, the controversy would end her career.

Now it goes without saying that the vast majority of teachers are dedicated people with a positive influence on the lives of their students, but when I think of the news stories of teachers who were pedophiles, or engaged in exploitative relationships with students, were violent, or taught racist/homophobic ideas, I don’t recall hearing any of them being nude models, yet people still make snap judgements about a person’s morals, based on images that are seemingly Not Safe For Working. How about recognizing courage and risk taking for the purposes of making art?

About a year ago I did a self portrait where I am surrounded by cameras (and nothing else). It’s not a nude shot, in the sense that certain pieces of equipment are hidden by other pieces of equipment, but it is on the edgy side, and I had one person at work who saw the image draw me aside and tell me I was taking a risk. It was hidden for a while, but then I made the link public again, and public it has stayed; to keep it hidden would in my mind be hypocritical, disrespectful  to the models I work with, and a sign I was giving into negative public attitudes.

Trying a Fine Grain Film

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I’ve been shooting more 35mm lately (in addition to medium format), and of course with the smaller negative, grain becomes more of a reality. One can either embrace the grain, or try super fine grain film. For today’s image it is the latter: it was made using Adox CMS 20 film (with a speed of ISO 20, so it is very slow and wants a lot of light). It’s basically high contrast microfilm stock, but developed with a special developer to allow continuous tones. This type of film requires some taming, but I love the look! I used my Leica IIIb and a 50mm lens for the image, taken in Guild Park, Scarborough, Ontario Canada.

Guild Park, Toronto, Ontario

Old Friends #1

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Today’s image is the first from my new project “Old Friends” Originally the concept of the project was images of two people who had been friends for 25 years or more, but the parameters of the project have broadened, bringing new opportunities and challenges. In this image, we have Mallory, Kendra and Caitlin, friends since high school. It was a fun evening of shooting, a lot of laughter, talk and general positive vibes, with very strong connections of friendship between the three, and hopefully I caught that here.

Old Friends #1