Past Thursday I attended the first part of the street photography workshop. There were 12 participants, 9 women, 3 men for the theoretical part.
I did not learn much. It was about the balance between aperture and shutter speed and ISO as a third player. Basic stuff but I did appreciate the way the guy, a gifted photographer explained these rather difficult topics.
Then we went to the bar and enjoyed a drink and I made a few interesting contacts. That is great because I am not that social. I find it very difficult to interact with other people in a casual way. Small talk is not something I am good at.
Then we discussed a few more interesting topics like ideal spots for street photography, and technique.
Tomorrow, Saturday, we’ll be shooting in Antwerp Central Station. It has several floors and the lower you get the less light there is.
I’ll be taking my new and fantastic Ricoh GR II and an Olympus analogue camera with the 80mm f1,4 and Ilford HP5 Plus pushed to 1600.
Little A. asked me if she could come with me, to Antwerp, to do some shopping. She’s 16, I said yes but I know I’ll be preoccupied with her safety. Saying no is not an option though, she want’s to spend time with me. After all it this weekend she is staying with me.
I shot this at Little A’s school in the music class. The Ricoh GR II is an awesome camera and the digital noise looks and feels like grain
I few days ago I went for a walk on the moors of Kessel not far from where I live. It is one of the only places left where one can find sundew.
Seeing some Drosera was not my goal though. I wanted to enjoy the Kiev 6C.
It is truly a great camera and I shot two rolls of Ilford HP5 using mostly the 60mm wide angle and measuring the light with my handheld light meter.
I removed the TTL prism and switched to the waist level finder and made a few low POV images.
Working with the Kiev really slows me down. Each expensive roll of film holds only 12 shots. I noticed how at several occasions I waited for the sunlight to appear so it could paint spots of light on the scenery. I did not shoot if I did not like what I saw.
Back home I developed the films and scanned the negatives with the Epson V700 and Epson Scan.
The images are tack sharp but I have an issue with the camera though.
I had already noticed it on the image with the compass but thought/hoped it had to do with the fact the film had expired 5 years ago.
At shutter speeds lower than 1/30″ or even 1/125″ it is (almost) imperceptible but it increases and becomes apparent at 1/500″ and really a huge problem at 1/1000″.
The left side of the negative is slightly or much darker than the right side. I managed to fix one with PS but with images taken at high speeds this is not an option.
The Kiev 6C was sold in 1979 but was never used. P., the man whom sold me the camera, had tested the shutter speeds but without the right testing equipment it is very hard to detect the slight difference in speed between curtain 1 and 2.
He promised to fix it and we’ll test at the same time with film so I am not really worried.
Flower (2015) Kiev 6C with 60mm and loaded with Ilford HP5 Plus
What does a man do while waiting patiently for 50 seconds to pass by?
Enjoying a smoke? Not me, have been there, way to bad for health and wallet so I stopped. It wasn’t that difficult.
Having a chat? With whom I may ask, being there in the middle of nowhere.
So after the first shot I had an idea. Why not walk into the frame, stand there for 30 seconds and leave the frame?
Would 30″ be enough to get captured on film?
I walked leisurely into the frame and stood there while counting slowly to 30 and trying very hard not to move. Then I walked away and waited for the remaining time to tick away into oblivion. I closed the shutter by releasing the cable and loaded my camera, tripod and stuff into my car and drove to the next location I had pinpointed for some long exposures.
Little did I know my camera had a huge light leak that only showed during exposures longer than 1/15th.
I guess it is part of the charm working with old camera’s.
Me (2015) Olympus OM-1 with 50mm f1,4 and 10 stop ND loaded with Ilford FP4 Plus
Easter 2015.
Not much planned. Little A. is staying with me. Sweetheart and I had to get up early and early it was. I switched off the lights only 6 hours earlier after an intense and fun evening in a club in Antwerp.
Sweetheart was invited with her kids at their grandparents so I dropped the love of my love off at her place at around 10.
A sunny morning it was, blue sky too, finally, and dozens of fluffy clouds.
Back home I told Little A. I wanted to go out and shoot and she was free to come with me or stay at home. I would nevertheless go.
I cooked lunch, did the dishwashing and prepared my cameras.
Without Little A. I would take the Bronica so I could slow myself down and in my other bag I had my Nikon F100 and the D300 and some glass for the quick and dirty work.
“I’m ready”, Little A. told me.
“Great”, I replied and took the bags with the Nikons. I did not want to push my luck.
“Where are we going?” “Tourinnes-la-Grosse”, I told her. Of course it didn’t ring a bell and I could have told her we would drive to Wherevercity.
“Is it still far?” We were driving for 10 minutes. “Yeah”, I replied, “it is at least an one hour drive.”
“So we are not there yet?” “No.” (shut the fuck up Little A.) “I need to pee daddy.”
“Didn’t you go at home?” (rolling my eyes)
“Yes I did but I need to go again.” Sigh…. “Can you stop please Daddy?” “NO. Just fucking hold it up!!!!”
We have our moments, Little A. and I. Just making fun.
We arrived at Tourinnes-la-Grosse about 45′ minutes later.
It is a very small and insignificant little town in Wallonia and not that far from Leuven. It is just over that stupid linguistic frontier that exists in our country.
Stupid because we have a Federal Government, a Flemish Government, a French part of Belgium Government and a very small German part of Belgium Government and to top if off the Brussels Region with its own Government. No wonder I have to spend more than 50% of my income to taxes. All those parasites/nobodies/stupid asses (=politicians) have to be paid.
I don’t care. I speak Dutch (my mother tongue), French and English and a few words German.
When I was a kid I lived in Brussels and I can assure you, back in the sixties, I was not served well in shops because I spoke Dutch. Hell, I was ten or so.
Little A. was flabbergasted as she had seen nothing like this before.
Fields as far as the eye reached. Emptiness, loneliness and silence.
And then the hollow ways, sometimes 15 meters lower than the fields, sometimes at ground level.
She asked for my D300 and made photographs. She likes the sound of the shutter clicking but Little A. is not ready yet to enjoy the pleasure of seeing her creations. In Scherpenheuvel she also took photographs, taking her time to compose and shoot but never asked to see the results.
I finished my roll of pushed Ilford HP5 plus and then loaded my Nikon F100 with Ilford HP4 Plus. After 22 shots the camera told me the film was at its end and there was no way to shoot another frame.
Maybe a bad batch? Hell, the canister states it holds 36 exposures.
After developing I looked at 1.5 meters film with the bigger part empty.
Is this Nikon F100 failing on me too?
Tomorrow or Friday I am driving to Kortenberg near Leuven to pick up another Nikon F100 with motor drive. They accepted my bid of 150 Euro.
Hollow way (2015) Nikon F100 with 24-120mm with red filter and loaded with Ilford FP4 Plus
What does one do on a grey and cold Wednesday when the day is all yours? Hours free to spend.
Watching a movie for example and I enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s Memento very much.
But I scanned some film too. Images I took during my brief love affair with analogue film between 2007 and 2008.
I had forgotten I shot a few rolls during my numerous visits to the French Opal Coast. It is a region between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer and maybe even further like Le Touquet-Paris-Plage.
The Opal Coast changed so much for me but mostly my photography, the way I look when I’m away shooting.
For now I will content myself with posting a few analogue film images. I think I should do a whole post on this topic. This region has helped me become the person and the photographer I am today.
I know more about inspiration and motivational drive. I lost a muse and found a new one. Sweetheart took away and gave back new things.
Creativity is fueled by so many different forms of input.
Another piece of gear I own is a Bronica ETRSi and a few lenses. It is hard to believe I used this camera professionally as a wedding photographer about 20 years ago.
Boy is it heavy and, compared to nowadays digital camera’s, extremely slow in using.
I don’t want to start to think about the precious and intimate moments I did not capture during my reportages. There is much to say for auto-focus in high speed social events.
I haven’t used this camera for ages but now I have a working setup for scanning the 4,5 x 6 film I think I am going to use this beast more often. It will slow me down even more and that is a good thing. After all the whole purpose of switching back to analogue black & white is to get back in touch with photography.
Bronica ETRSi and Ilford HP5 Plus
The camera still had a film in it so I finished it with a few simple studio shots to check if everything was still in working order.
Then I developed the HP 5 Plus film and scanned a few images I took somewhere around 2007.
To my big surprise the scan quality is not that bad and the HP G4050 with Vuescan delivers rather crisp images.
So if a crappy scanner can give this results what will an Epson V7xx or V8xx do? I am pretty sure its results will blow my socks off.
Yesterday, Wednesday morning, I did something I hadn’t done in years.
I developed a black and white film!
I searched the Internet for the development time of an Ilford Delta using Kodak’s TMax film developer. I had no idea if the film would be exposed correctly so I settled for 8 minutes at 21°C with a 1+4 mixture.
Then I prepared the 300ml of developer, a recipient with 1+1 vinegar and water and 300 ml 1+4 fixing liquid.
After rinsing the dust covered Paterson film developing tank I set everything ready in the bathroom and gave the tank, scissors and film I had retrieved from the camera a place so I could find everything in the dark.
Out went the light and I started moving the reel to get the film on it. To my big surprise it was easy and I hadn’t forgotten how to do it. After closing the tank I switched on the light and walked to the kitchen.
I set my iPhone’s timer to 8 minutes, filled the developing tank and turned it around every 1 minute, putting it down with a harsh tap to remove the air bubbles that could have settled on the film.
After 8 minutes I emptied the tank, filled it with the diluted vinegar and after moving the tank for 45″ I replaced the stop bath with the fixing solution.
Six minutes later I drained the tank once again but before starting the rinsing process I wanted to see if the film was well developed.
I felt immensely excited when I opened the tank.
Wow, at first glance the negatives seemed perfect and well developed and showed a correct density.
I rinsed the film for about 5 minutes and then added a few drops of Agepon wetting agent to prevent water drops staying on the film and create spots while drying.
It is almost noon and the film is drying in the bathroom.
I am still so excited and cannot wait to start scanning the negatives.
*** *** ***
The bigger part of the afternoon I spend watching The Social Network, a biopic about a Jewish nerd who hates nipples and founded Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and taking a nap.
I find the negatives a little too dense. Or I overdeveloped the film or it was slightly over-exposed, maybe by about 0,7 EV. The battery could have caused the latter. Originally the Olympus OM-1n took a 1,36 Volt mercury battery but they are banned due to environment issues and there is no replacement except the ones that are sold by Wein on eBay. In my Olympus is a 1,5 Volt battery so that could be the reason why the exposure was a little over the top.
I loaded my second film, an Ilford FP4, and set the light meter to 160 ISO instead of 125 ISO so we’ll see.
It seems there is an issue with the scanner software too. Scanning 6 negs is not a problem but when I eject them and load 6 new ones the preview totally screws up. I’ll try to figure this one out later on before opening a support ticket at Silverfast.com. Note. After rebooting my iMac the problem went away.
I also have the impression that activating the ICE option (dust & scratch removal) does not make the scanner happy albeit it is hardware supported. The final scan resembles nothing and reminds me on how the world looks after enjoying a few magic mushrooms.
Anyway, as the negs are fresh and I take care of them I haven’t a real issue with dust and other imperfections so the lack of ICE is not an issue.
The lack of EXIF-data is something that really troubles me. Obviously information on date, time and camera settings are not available so I have to take notes or say something in my iPhone each time I take an image.
Yes, this is going to trouble me as I keep all my images sorted on date. I do not care that much about the camera settings though, but date and time are very important to me. I guess I’ll have to skip the time notion and I hate the idea. I know my Princess is smiling now when she reads this…
The guy who sold me the Olympus also gave me a Vivitar 85-205mm f3,5 zoom lens to test. It is a heavy lens and it is mine for 25 Euro. A no-brainer if you ask me even if I’ll never use it wide-open as I guess it will be way to soft. But at f8 it is a very sharp lens.
So I developed a film.
The first results?
Awesome.
Really, they are incredible.
Wow.
This is real black and white and not some Photoshop (plugin) substitute.
I love the discrete grain, the organic look and its large dynamic range. At the moment I am not looking for Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP5 high-speed film drama. The 100 ISO suits me well as it slows down everything I want to do.
This is what I want to achieve.
Imagine visiting a new place, landscape or abandoned site, whatever, and walk around being limited to only 36 images. Hell, let us take the battery away from the camera too so you’ll have to work with a hand-held light meter.
You’ll have to change the way you look and if you find something you want to photograph you’ll have to suck it in before pressing the shutter button. You will have to consider light and other technical aspects because you have only 36 frames. You’ll have to slow down. You’ll have to look and observe.
No shooting like a madman and browsing through 500 shots in the evening. No chimping or, if you are an experienced digital photog, analysing the histogram.
When you press the shutter you must be 100% sure you have it right.
When you drive back home you’ll feel excited and you’ll enjoy the anticipation and pleasure while developing the film, waiting for it to dry before you can scan it and see what you have created.
This is photography in its purest form and a craft forgotten by most of us.
It is something I want to find again, to experience and see as pleasure and art and not as something tedious I had to do so many years ago in order to get my degree in photography.
I want to take my time and see and observer before I take an image. I want to be Zen and in balance with what I see when I press the shutter button.
Also I want to stick to one type of film.
Back in my schooldays my film was Ilford’s HP5. I did not need a light meter to nail the exposure. My eyes looked at a scene and my brain knew what the film needed.
I could develop this film with pee if needed and drunk, stoned or both I knew the exact time and mixtures for almost every mainstream developing product to get 100% perfect negatives.
Yeah, I know, I was a nerd back then.
But guess what, the nerds get the best chicks, albeit I had to wait some 35 years for mine to fall in my bed.
No, I am not going to throw away my digital Olympus and prime lenses. Don’t forget, I am a very lazy person. But my digital micro four thirds Olympus cannot deliver what a full frame can.
At f1,8 the depth of field is very shallow and the bokeh is simply delicious. I paid 40 euro for this kit. A Nikon D600 and a f1,8 lens would set me back at least 1500 euro but it would make taking photographs easy. It would be a no-brainer but one I cannot afford.
Buying a D600 is not a problem. Buying the glass that goes with it is though. And it becomes even more an issue with a Nikon D800 as 36 megapixels needs lenses that can deliver in resolving power. Yet we all fall on our knees when we see, for example, images made by Magnum accredited photographers.
René Burri, my all time favourite Henri Cartier-Bresson, hell even Ansell Adams. Or my even bigger favourite and inventor of the so-called porno chique Helmut Newton did it all with film.
You buy art?
You buy what you like and not because it was made with a 6,000 $ Leica.
Less is more. Art is what the heart of the viewer feels. That is not necessarily what the artist wanted to express.
Do I create art?
Nah, I just take pictures.
Not entirely sharp but a great example of the tonalities
A Fortunate Traveler 