Catching a Train and a Break

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Toronto is testing some new subway cars, and one of the nice features is that with these new cars the train is open from end to end, so you can walk between cars. From a photographic point of view, seeing right to the end of the train offers some interesting photographic opportunities. I had been wanting to shoot one of the new trains with a super-wide angle, and this past Saturday morning I lucked out. I had my Leica IIIf with me, with the 21mm/f4 Voigtlander Color Skopar lens. I had to shoot wide-open at 1/40 second, but I did get some that were sharp.

New Subway Cars - Toronto

It’s Not Always About Sharpness

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This image is of a fellow cast member from Man of La Mancha, taken at a recent fund-raising event. It was shot using my Leica IIIb rangefinder, and an postwar 50mm/f2 Summitar lens. It was not a very bright room, and I was shooting available light, so even though I was using Tri-X (a reasonably fast film) I had to shoot wide open, at either 1/20th or 1/40th of a second.  I knew that not much would be in focus, but the face and eyes were, and I was able to capture a lovely expression. The Summitar lens has a reputation for fairly swirly out of focus areas when wide open; some people don’t like the effect, others enjoy this characteristic of the lens, and I am in the latter camp — I like what it adds to the image.

Texting at the Table

Auto-Focus? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Auto-Focus!

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This picture is from the first roll I shot using my newly acquired Minox EL (one of the smallest 35mm cameras ever made, in the early 1970’s). I got the camera for next to nothing, and for now at least it’s working. (From what I read, the shutters are a weak spot). One of the interesting things about this camera is that it is scale-focus: no rangefinder, etc. Nada. You guesstimate the distance and set it on the lens, and hope you’re in the ball park. I am happy to report that every shot scanned so far is sharp, but given the tack-sharp 35mm f2.8 wide-angle lens, and the great depth of field I got from shooting at f16 on fast film, it might as well have been auto focus.

MInox EL007
(Minox EL camera, 35mm/2.8 Color Minotar lens, Tri-X at box speed, Developed in HC-110 Dilution B for 7 minutes)

Story and Mystery

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This has to be my favourite portrait I’ve taken so far this year, and it’s all because of her eyes and how they tell a story (“she is looking at something”) and yet preserve a mystery (“but what is she looking at?”). Kudos to model Emily for gifting me with such an expression!!

Catching the Expression

Hidden Allure

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In an age where (thanks to the Internet), graphically explicit pornography is just a mouse-click away, it is easy for the allure of the hidden to be forgotten.

Hidden Allure

(Mamiya 645 Pro-TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Fomapan 100 developed in HC-110 dilution H, post-processed with Nik Efex)

From Russia With Luck, Part II

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On my list of cameras I’ve always wanted, a vintage Contax rangefinder has been near the top. The post-war Contax rangefinders (IIa and IIIa models) are wonderful precision mechanisms, and I was lucky sometime ago to acquire a IIIa body at a reasonable price, but I still needed a lens. I had good luck with the Russian Jupiter 8 on my Leica IIIb, so I rolled the dice again and go the same lens in the Contax mount, very inexpensively. I just got the first roll developed, and I am again very happy with the sharpness of this lens!

Broken Hydrant, North Toronto

Homage to Man Ray

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One of my favourite photographers of  the twentieth century is Man Ray, a surrealist famous for (among other things) his photographs of nudes using the technique of solarization. I remember as a teenager in the 1970’s that this effect was very popular, almost to the point of overuse (sort of like HDR images today!). I think any effect is OK, as long as it serves the intent of the image, and in this case I like how it turned out. I had mentioned to the model that I liked Man Ray, and so I thought why not do a solarized image (although in this case the effect was applied digitally over a scanned film negative).  This one’s for you, Man Ray.

 

Tattoo

One of a Kind: Hand Tinting

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This is my first crack at hand tinting a photograph, using special transparent oil paints made for the purpose. I made a conventional black and white print on matte paper in the darkroom, then applied the oils. This process was popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, before colour photography was widespread and practical. It’s amazing that the materials are still available. What I like about hand tinting (in addition to the look) is that each print is unique, like a painting. I gave the original to the model Emily today, so all I have left is the scan. I can (and likely will) make another, but it won’t be the same, and I like that.

My first hand-tinted photograph

In Perspective

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Today’s image was taken recently with my Leica IIIb and Voigtlander 21mm Super-Wide angle lens. Although this kind of lens does not distort an image the way a “fish-eye” lens does, depending on the angle you can still get plenty of distortion. In the image below though this is accentuated by the building itself, Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum. (A very interesting place, well worth the visit by the way.) Its walls have a number of interesting and unusual angles, and in this image it is tricky to tell where the building ends and the lens distortion begins.

Outside the Bata Shoe Museum

Found Surrealism

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A five minute walk from our house is a perfectly ordinary convenience store, but on an outside side wall is some plaster, wires and plastic pipes that seems to turn into poles suspended in a sky, clear with one cloud. No post production trickery, just light.

Found Abstract