I am seriously liking the combination of the 105mm/f2.5 Nikkor portrait lens, and Polypan F film (developed in Tmax developer 1:9 for 8.5 minutes at 20 degrees). It seems made for subjects such as the lovely Jenna (taken yesterday in High Park in Toronto)
The term “Lomography” refers to using old/cheap cameras such as Holgas to create images that may suffer from technical defects (light leaks, vignetting, out-dated film), but achieve a certain style and mood as a result. I have a new term, “Blowmography” for when I blow it technically, but the resulting mess looks interesting. Lomography is on purpose, Blowmography is accidental. This image (from the shoot with model Caroline in downtown Toronto) is an example of Blowmography — I developed the film (Polypan F) in the wrong developer (an extremely low contrast special purpose developer meant for another film, Adox CMS 20) and got a very muddy, thin negative. I cranked up the contrast on the scanner, and got this. I thought the colour shift artifacts, and the emphasis of some surface defects on the made for an interesting vintage shot.
Another image from the 35mm photo shoot outside Massey Hall, this time taken with my Leica IIIb and Russian Jupiter 8 50mm f2 lens. I thought I had ISO 400 film in the camera, but it turned out to be a roll of Polypan, nominally rated at 50, so the film had to be heavily pushed in development, 30 minutes in HC-110 dilution B. A good photogrpahy friend of mine was very helpful in suggesting a development process to salvage the frame. This is unretouched, and is technically certainly not perfect, but it is what I was after – the feel of decades ago; I think it would be less of an image if it were tack sharp and grain-free.
I took this picture last Saturday in Bluffers Park, Toronto. I shot it with a Yashica FX-D 35mm SLR. I got this camera on eBay, and because part of the exterior was in really rough shape, I got it for a song, not much more than the cost of a couple of disposable cameras. It is in good working order however. The film I used was Polypan F. I got some rolls of this film from my friend Mike in exchange for a developing tank, as detailed in this post. I then went online and bought 90 metres of this film (almost the length of a football field!) in bulk so I can roll it myself, for about $40 after shipping. And since I develop my own, I save there too.
Who says film photography has to be expensive?
My Third Eye 