Copingmechanism.com has alternated between being a general purpose blog and being a photography-only blog. It’s been mostly photography for months now, but I’m thinking of expanding the scope to include, well, everything I want to write about. If I were a real photographer, it might make sense to have a blog dedicated to “My Work” but I’m just a putterer. I’m guessing that very few people who visit this blog do so because it’s only about my photographs, and so they shouldn’t mind if I write about other things here as well. Let’s try it! ...

I finally finished the roll that’s been idling in the M6 for a couple of months. I took it out of the camera only to discover it was a roll of Portra 400. Color, dammit. I didn’t have any fresh chemicals. The only reason I have some C-41 mixed is that I’ve been too lazy to dispose of it. Screw it, I thought, and fired up the JOBO anyway. Surprisingly, they didn’t end up blank or completely unusable. The color is inconsistent, but that’s always the case with me and color processing. At least I proved that you can keep C-41 chemicals mixed for almost a year and still get images from your film. ...

A roll of mostly self-portraits taken in the basement “studio”. A black cloth backdrop, Profoto strobe with an octobox on left, and a led panel off to the right. Washing negatives. Leica MP. HP5 Plus. Self-portrait with weird lighting. Leica MP. HP5 Plus. Darkroom bathtub after printing. Leica MP. HP5 Plus. Self-portrait. Leica MP. HP5 Plus. Camera identification selfie. Leica MP. HP5 Plus.

Let’s face it, film is meant for well-lit subjects. Every time I bring a film camera to somewhere like a restaurant or a friend’s house, I regret it. There’s just never enough light for candid snaps. I had an old roll of Delta 3200 in the fridge, so I thought I’d see if that helped. It didn’t. I like grain, but not this much grain. Good grief. Flowers. Leica M4. Summilux-M 50mm ASPH. Delta 3200 @1600. HC-110. ...

I keep this blog around so that I have somewhere to post images and maybe a little background as well as the ever-popular gearhead nonsense. So why do I so rarely post anything? I don’t post often because a blog dedicated to photography makes me feel that each post needs gravitas. Each post needs to be worth something. Relevance. Well that’s obviously not working, so I’d like to behave a bit more frivolous about things around here. Maybe I’ll post single images with a caption and that’s it. Maybe I’ll let you know what I’m thinking about cameras in general, or a specific camera I’ve been using or wanting to use. ...

A few from the most recent roll from of the Leica MP. It’s HP5 Plus, processed in HC-110 (dilution B) for 5 minutes. Scanned on the PrimeFilm XAs. This roll is concerning because many of the frames have horizontal scratches, which could indicate a problem with the film pressure plate. There’s also boatloads of hair and dust. My process needs refining. Chuck the bulldog My Polaroid SX-70 kit Quotes on index cards Skeleton Trash, just finishing the roll Camera Identification Selfie ...

Leica M lenses are tiny little jewels with unmatched build and image quality. Leica SL lenses are giant monsters with unmatched build and even better image quality. And auto-focus. I prefer the small ones.

Short version: I am managing my TiddlyWiki wikis as stand-alone HTML documents using a WebDAV server accessed securely from anywhere via Tailscale and I can now drag and drop images into content and have them uploaded and linked automatically. It’s brilliant! As much as I love TiddlyWiki, I’ve never enjoyed managing images with it. Embedded images are easiest but can quickly bulk up the wiki’s HTML file size, so I reference them instead. I’ve done this a couple ways. ...

I’ve got nothing. Two rolls shot at the MSU tailgate. One with the MP and HP5 and one with the Olympus OM-1n with expired XP2. Lots of missed focus. Lots of too-far-away. Lots of dust. It’s dampening my enthusiasm for film, but here are a few anyway. Golden looking out back of party bus. (Leica MP. Summicron-M 35mm ASPH) ...

I miss Kodachrome. I was able to shoot a few rolls before Dwayne’s Photo, the last shop capable of processing Kodachrome, stopped processing it for good. The last roll was processed on January 18, 2011. For some reason, all of my original Kodachrome scans are fairly low-res, so I re-scanned the better images using my new Prime Film XAs scanner. Here are a few examples. It was beautiful film. ...

It had been a while since I used the Olympus OM-1n. The Zuiko 85mm f2.0 has been a favorite lens for a long time, so I put a roll through the kit while helping a friend take his boat and dock out of the water for the season. Olympus OM-1n with Zuiko 85mm f/2.0 The OM’s viewfinder is still one of the biggest and brightest I’ve ever used. The camera itself is actually smaller than a Leica M. It’s a great setup. Here are a few highlights from the roll. ...

Steve and Chuck The dogs were very popular, especially Chuck, the puppy Maybe too creepery, but I thought it was a beautiful and powerful configuration. Charlie was tuckered _25.jpg 600w, /img/size/w1000/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_25.jpg 1000w, /img/size/w1600/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_25.jpg 1600w, /img/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_25.jpg 2048w" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1200px" />My Nikon F3HP and motor drive _40.jpg 600w, /img/size/w1000/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_40.jpg 1000w, /img/size/w1600/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_40.jpg 1600w, /img/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_40.jpg 2048w" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1200px" />Megan and Aidan _55.jpg 600w, /img/size/w1000/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_55.jpg 1000w, /img/size/w1600/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_55.jpg 1600w, /img/2021/09/2021-Roll-031_55.jpg 2048w" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1200px" />Megan, Chuck, and Aidan

My 1962 Minolta Autocord has seen better days. I had an expired (in 2006) roll of Kodak BW400CN (C-41) film in 120 so I figured I didn’t have much to lose. The film looks ok, but the camera scratched the hell out of it on the way through. And the frame spacing was all over the place, including a couple of frames with no space between them. The old Autocord was fun to shoot, but I think it’s time for it to retire. It looks cool on the shelf, so that’s something. ...

Dogs, myself, and cameras are about the only things I’ve been photographing lately. I just don’t seem to have any ideas. Well, that’s not true; I have plenty of ideas, but I’m too lazy to act on them. So, I sit around the house and shoot what’s in front of me. I need to snap out of it.

The little Leica IIIf is adorable, tiny, and capable. Built in 1946, it’s showing its age a bit. Also, it’s kind of a pain to use, so I only drag it out occasionally. I notice there’s also a light leak. This time I used a long-expired roll of Ilford XP2 Super.

The best camera is the one you have with you. Unless it’s a shitty camera. In that case the best camera is the one you left at home. Idiot. Jack Baty, Twitter 2010

I exercised the M6 by running a roll of Portra 400 through it, as it’s been dormant since I bought the MP. This was self-processed in Cinestill C-41 chemistry using the JOBO. Scanned on the V750 and processed in Lightroom with the Negative Lab Pro plugin.

My repaired and overhauled Leica M4 was returned to me today. It’s beautiful, and with new shutter curtains and gearing, it works flawlessly. It’s so smooth! Apparently, most of the original lubricants had dried, which was making it a little catchy. Now it’s like butter again. Original (broken) Leica M4 shutter curtain So I currently have four beautiful Leica M cameras in perfect working order. They are (from left to right in the photo)… ...

I’ve been making 5×7″ prints for several years. I like small prints that are handy to toss around on the coffee table, are easily mounted in notebooks, and don’t take too much wall space (or storage). But I also complain a lot about the problems with viewing tiny Instagram photos on a phone. “Too small!” I’d lament. It got me thinking about making larger prints. I don’t mean crazy 16×20″ monsters that eat up ink, paper, space, and money. I was thinking maybe 8×10″ would be a nice, larger change of pace. ...

I had the house to myself today, so I set up a backdrop and pulled out the strobes for a few large format film self-portraits using the Linhof. These were all shot with the Linhof Master Technika on HP5 Plus, developed in HC-110 for 5 min (Dilution B) and scanned on the V750. I triggered the shutter by biting the bulb. Try that with an iPhone ???? [ Self-portrait (2021) I can’t explain it