Film

The gentleman who sold me the Linhof later sent me (at no charge!) a Grafmatic sheet film holder. The Grafmatic will hold up to 6 sheets of film at once and allows one to “rapidly” expose them. Here are some instructions. I loaded four sheets and went out on the deck with Alice to practice. As you can see, it didn’t go all that well. Loading film into the septums was easy enough. And racking the guts of it in and out to “advance” to the next sheet is something I’ll get used to. My problem was that I never advanced past the last frame I shot and then opened the dark slide, exposing and completely wasting one sheet and fogging the next couple. Other than the frontmost sheet, which was totally ruined, this was the worst of them. ...

There are too many things that can go wrong when shooting large format (4×5) film. I made four exposures of my friends Steve and Bryan this afternoon. Two of the four were ruined right off the bat: The first, because I’d left the shutter open when pulling the dark slide. The second because I didn’t expose it at all and processed as though I had. Large format is hard. There are so many opportunities to fail that making a successful image is really quite rewarding. Today wasn’t a rewarding day. Both of the photos that weren’t completely ruined were spoiled in other ways. ...

Mostly snapshots from our family reunion. Leica MP, HP5+.

Anyone who’s dabbled in large format photography knows the name “Linhof”. It’s one of those companies with a long history and a reputation for building some of the best 4×5 field cameras available. I’ve always been curious about them. Are they really “the Leica of large format”? My first 4×5 camera was a beat up Burke & James press camera. Then a beat up Crown Graphic. Then a Speed Graphic, and finally a Wista Field Camera. The first three were super cheap. The Wista was bit more serious, but it was such a beautiful wooden camera. ...

I’m either going to have to shoot this faster or stop drinking Diet Coke.

Leica Leica MP | Leica Summilux-M 50mm ASPH | Portra 400 400 Scanned with Epson V750. Cinestill C-41 Negative Lab Pro v2.2.0 | Color Model: Frontier | Pre-Sat: 3 | Tone Profile: LAB – Standard | WB: Auto-Neutral | LUT: Frontier

Sometimes it’s fun to throw a roll through the little Olympus Stylus Epic. Mostly self-portraits around the house because I was bored.

Now that I have my dream MP, I should probably sell the M6. If I do, this will have been the last roll I shot with it.

Out with the new MP and a roll of HP5+. I think these are all shot with the 50mm Summilux ASPH

Here are a few from the very first roll through the new Leica MP. (Sorry, I lost them)

Tri-X in the Hasselblad 500C/M. This was the only shot on the roll that I liked. Alice (2021). Hasselblad 500C/M. Zeiss 80mm Planar. Tri-X in D-76.

I enjoy both film and digital photography, but the pendulum has been swinging toward film recently, and I’ve been having a ball. I’ve finally dialed in a film processing, scanning, and editing workflow that works and that I don’t hate. What’s more, I’ve been studying my recent film photos and I really like them. I like that they’re not so perfect that zooming in to 100% is useful. I like the defects and unpredictability. I like the process. But most of all, I like the cameras. Specifically, I like Leica rangefinders. ...

These are all taken with the Leica M3 on HP5+ and were processed in HC-110 Dilution B. I’m pretty sure I used the Elmarit-M 90mm f2.8 for the entire roll.

Leica M6, HP5+. HC-110 (dilution B). Scanned on V750 with Silverfast. Processed with Negative Lab Pro

I bought my first Olympus Stylus Epic in 2004 and fell in love. I’ve owned one ever since. That original copy was replaced in 2012 for $10, in the box, from a guy on Craigslist. Those days are gone. These little fellas have grown quite a following and fetch upwards of $300 on eBay. I’m not going to be paying that much once this one dies. Mine has been collecting dust in a drawer for a year or two, which is a shame, so took it out today and loaded it with a roll of HP5+. No sense trying to preserve it, right? ...

I haven’t been using film much this year, but once in a while it’s fun to get out and shoot a roll. I took the M6 out yesterday and finally finished the roll of HP5+ that I’d loaded into it a month ago. Here are a few from the roll. Most of these were shot while out walking around the neighborhood. Sorry, images were lost during a website move

I uploaded this photo of my daughter to Flickr on July 5, 2004. It was taken shortly after I got my first Leica rangefinder, (an M6 TTL), and I was practicing timing and focus. It’s still a favorite.

I’ve had this Minolta Autocord for so long I don’t remember where I got it. Or when, exactly. Mine is a model RG-2 from 1962 with the Optiper-MVL shutter. I don’t know much else about the camera other than it’s fun but challenging to use. I keep thinking about taking it out for a spin but haven’t done that in a few years. There’s more info about the Autocord at camera-wiki.org ...