The final post from my shoot with Grace was made with my Rolleicord Va Twin Lens Reflex Grace shows a dancer’s grace, and in a sense my old Rollei is part of another dance — over fifty years old and still going strong; its dance never ends either. 🙂
Rolleicord Va, 75mm/3.5 Xenar lens
Kodak Tmax 400 developed in Xtol 1+1 for 9.5 minutes @ 20 C
Another Beaches image. I believe the quiet and calm of the early morning hour yesterday lends itself to a minimalist approach to an landscape image.
Rolleicord Va, 75mm/3.5 Xenar lens
Tri-X film developed in HC-110 Dilution B for 7.5 minutes @ 20 C.
Toning adding in post
Last week I made the following statement on Twitter:
“The human face is the landscape of life, and is infinitely more incredible than any geography on Earth”
I think this image I took of model Jennifer Santos Bettencourt last evening serves as a good illustration of what I was saying. What sets Jennifer apart from so many other models is the depth and subtle intensity of the facial expressions she creates. truly a landscape of life.
(Rolleicord IIIa Twin lens Reflex, 75mm/f3.5 Xenar lens, Tri-X developed in Xtol 1:1 for minutes)
One of the reasons I still like shooting film is exemplified by this image of model and dancer Kaitlin taking using my Rolleicord IIIa twin lens reflex camera. The Xenar lens has a unique character, not tack sharp unless you really stop down. It is easy to get a lot of sameness with digital cameras; each of my film cameras has own voice, its own signature, and I have a love affair with each of them.
It took a few steps to arrive at the image below (again featuring the lovely Jenna). The original was shot on Fuji Reala ISO 100 colour negative film, using my Rolleicord III twin-lens reflex camera. I had to shoot pretty wide open, and with my eyesight I find this beast a trick to focus at the best of times. her face was not tack sharp, but I liked the image so much I was not prepared to give up. I converted it into black and white, added the antique look and I felt instantly transported back a century.
I posted a Polaroid from this shoot a few days ago, but I think today’s image (shot on a Rolleicord twin lens reflex camera) will be the “official” image for the “Old Friends” series. For me, this image captures the total ease in each other’s company, which is one of the hallmarks of a true friendship.
Here is the cyanotype version of my first image in the women and classic film cameras series. I am hand coating the paper with the cyanotype solution, so the brush marks will make every print unique. I like that 🙂
I like this image because of its ambiguity. To me it looks like it could have been made anytime over the last ninety years or so; there isn’t much in the picture that would give the actual date it was taken. (For the record, I made this image just this month, with my Rolleicord Vb Twin-Lens Reflex medium format camera.)
The viewer gets to fill in the blanks, and there are no wrong answers.
My Third Eye 