Tuesday March 21, 2017--More Experimentation

More Experimentation with film

So I've been dabbling and working with multiple film cameras over the past month.  On some bike rides around town (now that the weather is favorable) my neighbors joke about how many I carry to 'test' along with my small EOSM digital camera.  I can't help it--it's a testing phase, so I definitely have to test what I have.  It's important that these cameras I find on Craigslist and at Estate Sales are in fine working condition!  And the main thing is that I load my own rolled film now and shoot as much as I like due to the fact that I am getting better at the developing process. 

Around Mardi Gras, during Gallery night, I viewed the Moonpies exhibit at the Pensacola Museum of Art.  This guy has been taking photos of Mardi Gras in Mobile over the past 30-35 years. I was amazed at the way he could capture the moment with his lens, both film and digital. This has helped spark my interest in urban photography, but I'm still on the very shy side if it actually comes to asking strangers to take photos. I'm working on it though--hip shooting with the digital camera and other methods that I've learned about by reading up on Eric Kim and other streeters.  I also follow 'loadfilminsubduedlight' on IG, and he only uses cameras as old or older than him, film older than him, and takes pics of buildings that are 'usually' older than he is.  Very cool.  Love his naming conventions too--I've inherited them a little bit on my wr_35mm_ IG.  If a thought or lyric of song comes to mind, I use it.  Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't and I'll just describe the photo.  I have found that the title of a photo says a lot about it also.  Here were a few of my pics using the EosM--yeah, needs work. 

taken by kiddo next to the 64 bonneville convertible
Canon Eos M

I have also taken a particular liking to my Olympus Range finder--the 35SP.  It's been my go to recently to practice my street photography.  I took it to NOLA when we went to the Son Volt show (which was absolutely amazing btw) as we had time before the show to walk the streets of the Crescent City for a few hours before getting up with friends for dinner and the concert itself.  I only packed four cameras on this trip Fujica, Olympus, a nikon point and shoot af110 I bought the day before for $2, and the emergency digital Canon Eos M,  ha. 

So, I thought I had color film in the 35SP for some reason, but after all was said and done, I realized I loaded it with Kodak Tri-X 100 expired bnw that I got from my local Camera Store for $2!  Although NOLA won the 'hangover battle' (it usually does), Jen and I were still able to get up and get some coffee, beignets and grab some cool shots of Jackson Square, and the St Peter Basilica.  Since we only had an hour and a half, and since I had about 4 hours of sleep after being up most of the night (in the bathroom) we worked quickly.  

I think my shooting with the Olympus needs a little bit of work. Although everything is usually in perfect focus, my exposure seems to be off a bit, and I hope it's something I will resolve soon.  Maybe it is the camera, but I like to attribute using newer cameras to user error.  Long story short, I developed the pics from NOLA last night, along with a roll of Ultrafine Xtreme 100 BNW that I had loaded in my (I just remembered I hadn't shot) Minolta X7-A, yet.  I also pulled out the big 70-200 Kalimar lens I won at Sheriff's Office Auction and ran a roll of film through it while on the beach--some with flash, some without.  I used the X700 to see how well it shot.  I wasn't overly happy with the big lens, but there were a couple of decent shots. I think all my cameras do better with the use of Flash.  Here are some mudding pics at the races last weekend that I took with the 70-200--I wasn't overly impressed, but my tone looks were not that great.  I'm also noticing my scanner, an epson V300 that I bought for $20, leaves lines on the scans sometimes--I do use photoshop to remove, but that's a process, I'll have to fix with the developing process, I reckon. 

Not holding out, I also broke out my dad's old 78 Fujica ST705W.  Talk about shooting with flash (when I'm not overcooking the exposure and forgetting to change settings). Here are a few pics I developed in the Fujica using the UF Xtreme 100. I also took this film camera to NOLA along with the Olympus (hey, it already had a new roll of film in it!) 

Here are some shots from the Olympus 35SP, while in New Orleans.  They were developed in XTOL 1:1 for 9:15 minutes at 69.6 deg farenheit.  Followed by a 45 second stop bath and a 5 minute fix using new fixer ( I need to start utilizing the used fixer, but I'm always afraid it's not going to work right since I diluted it once when I erroneously attempted to develop color c41 in bnw chems). That'll be my next test:)