For my third image from Banff, here is a foot bridge. There is some flare, but I don’t mind it. I like the shadow lines 🙂
Rolleiflex 3.5E3, Xenotar lens
Tri-X developed in Xtol 1+1 for 9 minutes @ 20 C
Tag: Xtol
Back to Banff
I have just returned from a two week work trip in Alberta, and I did have one weekend for photography, so it was up to Banff on Saturday. The day was brilliant, clear and cold.
Rolleiflex 3.5E3, 3.5 Xenotar lens
Tri-X developed in Xtol 1+1 for 9 minutes
Snow, Not Sand
I finally finished a roll of Eastman 2366 duplicating film yesterday, both started and finished at the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto’s Beaches district. 2366 is a slow (EI 15) very sharp film that I am really learning to love the look of! In this image, a casual glance might lead one to think it was sand, but this is all snow, on a bitterly cold January day.
Pentax K1000, 28mm/f2.8 SMC Pentax lens
Eastman 2366 film, E.I. 15, developed in Xtol 1:1 for 10 minutes
Dog-Tired
It’s been a chilly weekend (by Toronto standards) by that hasn’t gotten in the way of doing some street photography. I saw this man carry a fair sized dog, and managed to pop off a quick image.
(Nikon F2, 50mm f.14 lens, Tri-X at box speed developed in Xtol 1:1 , 9 minutes)
Water Pipes
I was out recently in downtown Toronto with my Nikon F 35mm SLR, with a 105mm.f2.5 lens attached. This lens is a classic, and is certainly one of my favourites. I was drawn to take this image by the gleaming metal, surrounded by salt and snow.
(Shot on Tri-X film, box speed, developed in xTol 1:1)
A Simple Portrait
This image is from a photo yesterday afternoon with a multi-talented actress/model/poet. It is simply lit, with a simple backdrop, and no funky post processing. And it just may be my favourite portrait from 2011. After years of shooting anything but formal portraiture, then forcing myself to try it this year, it is ironic that it has now become far and away my favourite genre, because of images like this. It is simple on one hand, but on the other there is a lot happening with the model’s expression and her energetic and bright personality. Faces and expressions like this are as much a monument to the human spirit  as any cathedral or crumbling ruin.
A Helping Hand
On a shoot last week I found I had not brought enough Ilford Delta 400 film with me. This film is my bread and butter for black and white portraits, and so with some trepidation I was forced to dip into my camera bag for some Ultrafine Extreme 400, an inexpensive film I had not shot before. When it was time to process the film I did some research online and was not happy to see various lousy reviews of the film, until I ran into a post by a photographer I know on Flickr who had managed to tame this beast. I messaged him a couple of questions and in a very short time I had the magic formula (Xtol, 1:1 for 13 minutes @68 degrees). The negatives turned out fine (an example is below).
This will never be my primary film (I got it mainly as a cheaper way to test lighting set-ups), but I still got some great shots, thanks to a helping hand from the Internet
Breaking the Rules
A good rule of thumb is that when shooting a portrait when you have very shallow depth of field, you should make sure the eyes are in focus. This image, taken yesterday during a session with a model for my Women in Camera series, breaks that rule. The camera is in focus, but the model is out of focus. Although this particular image likely will not be the final selection for the series, I do like the effect and the resulting mood of the image, and the model made a great wardrobe choice with the hat, to give me the vintage look I was going for.
I suppose one could say the lens, or “eye” of my Voigtlander Avus folder is in focus so in that sense I’m not cheating 🙂
My Third Eye 