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Back when I decided to take on this project I somehow sold myself on the idea of stand development.  It’s a technique I have no previous experience and that made me want to try it even more.  If you’re not familiar with the process I’ll simplify the concept for you.  Instead of agitating your film during development you just let it sit there in the soup.  They should really call it sit developing but what the fuck do I know?  Extended tonal range and lush mid-tones are just a couple of the stated benefits.   There are volumes written on this topic so if you want more info try Bing.  The two developers best suited for the stand process are Kodak HC110 and Agfa Rodinal.  I chose HC110 because it’s readily available at the place I like to shop.  HC110 also has a long shelf life so you don’t have to worry about your developer going bad after a month.  The general idea is to use a very diluted mixture so rather than mix an intermediate solution I’m working straight from syrup.  The ratio I’ve been using is 1+119 at about 70F.  Times are a bit of a guessing game but one hour seems to be the consensus for the starting point.  When rating Tri-x at box speed negs come out overdeveloped at 60 minutes.  Overdeveloping with  and Tri-x creates extreme grain.  I reduced my time to 45 minutes with much better results.  Grain was under control and tonality was excellent.  Some of the initial samples displayed here were overdeveloped.  Here’s what box speed, stand developed correctly looks like.  This image is squished into the column so it’s somewhat distorted but it shows larger and I wanted you to be able to see the grain.

Much nicer in my opinion.  I gathered some information from long time users like kingqueenknave and it seems nobody shoots this stuff at box speed.  320 or 200 iso seem to be popular choices on the low-end.  1600 and 3200 on the high-end.  I hurried a roll through my Fuji GS645s rated at 200 iso to see what it could do.  Previously I pushed a roll to 1600 but don’t really feel like sharing those images today cuz they are lamer than my usual tree bullshit.  I was confident if i reduced my development time to 30 minutes I could achieve good results.  For a change I was right.

Low grain and good tonality again.  Handled properly I’m starting to see why Tri-x is loved by so many.  I hope to shoot the next couple of rolls at 1600 and 3200 and report on the results.  Until then I’ll leave you with one more image.  Full disclosure:  I really hammered the blacks on this one in Lightroom so not SOOC.  If you don’t like it you can suck it.  By the way, shooting a Holga is never the wrong decision, Dan!  P.S. I never proof read these things so sorry.

A couple of posts back I made a promise.  Now the time has come to make good on that.  One of the best cameras I have ever owned is my Leica M6.  When it’s paired with a 50mm f1.5 Summarit the results are always extraordinary.  I’m sure it has something to do with the age of the lens.  It was made in a time when lens manufacturing was an art.  Not just computer aided design and mass production but an individual literally putting a piece of themselves into the product.  As usual I’m getting a little of topic here so time to get back on track.  I loaded my camera jumped in my car and took off.

Before I tell you about my experience this time I thought I would give you some more background.  It occurred to me one day that some people reading this might not understand what I’m trying to do.  I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who have been shooting Tri-x from day one sometime in the seventies thinking, “so what, I’ve been shooting Tri-x for forty years.”  Well that’s not me.  I’m in my mid thirties and happily shot film until dslrs like the Nikon D70 became affordable for everyone.  After years of shooting digitally and working in the industry I felt like the craft of photography was imperiled.  You ‘ go out around town without some fuck with a D700 giving you a business card and claiming their a pro.  What a bunch of bullshit.  Anyway I decided it was time to, “buckle down,” as you O.G.’s would say and get back to the craft of photography.  And why not do it with dirty ass Tri-x.  Again way off topic but I thought it was important.

My biggest problem right now is lack of interesting subject matter.  I live in suburban winter hell and there’s not shit happening here so you get stuck with trees again.  The form of a skeletal tree is really appealing to me and in some ways great for monochromatic images so I don’t feel to bad about it.  I’ve been stand developing in Kodak HC110 with better results than previous attempts with agitation.  Again all of these images are out of camera except for the vignette.  That’s my next project.  No vignette for 2012.

In a couple of the images I noticed a very faint horizontal line at the top of the frame.  I’m guessing this is in the developing but I’m not %100.  If anyone has a guess pipe up and leave some comments.

There it is.  volume III.  Hope this helps you in your daily life.  I won’t be writing volume IV until the weather changes   can shoot something other than snow and tress so it might be a while.  In the meantime take your camera out and push the button.  Stop measurbating to resolution charts and dp review.  And for fucks sake stay away from the zooms.  Oh yeah, Tri-x is starting to grow on me.  I must be getting old.

Big Juicy Kris

That’s right because for a fraction of the price you could have bought a Fuji GW690II . I know what your thinking, well if I didn’t have a 5D Mark II I couldn’t call myself a pro. That’s right but you could tell all the poseurs that there is more to life than digital full frame, over twice as much more to life. The Fuji GW690II’s image is 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 which is 57.15 x 82.55mm and a 5D Mark II is 24 x 36mm. Put the pieces of your mind back together and crunch some more numbers for me.  A 5D Mark II cost $2,499 at Adorama right now and the three versions of the GW690 run from about $400-900 at KEH, which leaves you about $2,000 for a scanner and film.

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Winter is a bitch and really not the most inspiring time for me personally.  That’s why I figured my Holga would be the perfect tool for this outing.  I also wanted to try some Tri-x 120.  I met up with a good friend and colleague Johnaldo Giovani and headed out to the sticks.  I’ve been dying to hit the streets lately buy Johnaldo’s not into that so much.  Plus I cant seem to shoot anything but trees lately so i figured what the hell.  As you probably know using a Holga doesn’t require a whole lot of technical prowess so I loaded it up and went to town.  The first thing to catch my attention was a giant cloud of pollution from a nearby refinery.  Most might pass on this but not me.  Perfect subject for a plastic prime lens.

As you can see I’ve broken every photographic rule known to man here.  My subject is dead center,  there’s dust and hair from the scan and grain the size of golf balls.  I’ve been stand developing lately for reduced grain but you just can’t get around it with this film.  It seems I was really focused on pollution because the next couple of images that drew my attention included con trails from airplanes.

I know I teased you with the promise of trees earlier and I’m a man of my word.  If it’s one thing we got plenty of it’s gnarly hibernating trees.  The last time I went out I found a killer tree but I was shooting 35mm and it just didn’t look right in a rectangular frame.  I was psyched to put it in a square and that’s exactly what I did.

It’s not like I’m gonna win any awards for this one but I liked how it turned out.  Another great part about the Holga is double exposures.  Sometimes you make ‘em without even knowing it.  One of my favorite techniques is to capture an image then flip the camera upside down and capture the same thing.  If you get it right the results can be great.  I call this one lost in the desert.

This one’s got you a little fucked up doesn’t it.  Don’t worry cuz that’s the last one I’m gonna share with you for today.  I have another roll hangin to dry and I might update this post later but I think you get the idea.  Even a plastic prime lens is better than a high end zoom.  Stop being a poseur and go make images.  And until further notice Tri-x is garbage.  I’ve got eleven more months of it ahead so things could change.  Stay tuned.

Biggy

Because I didn’t have much time and I hate the cold I went to a favorite spot near my home.  U more park is an abandoned military facility and also a great spot for shooting nature.  During the summer it’s great to explore the structures and get into trouble.  In the winter I prefer not to trudge through waist deep snow so I stuck to easier targets.  I was using a Minolta SRT-101 and MC Rokkor 35mm f1.8 and rated the film at 400 iso.  I seem to have an attraction to trees lately and there’s plenty of ‘em out there so i commenced shooting.

I really liked how the top branch of this tree was broken so I figured what the hell and took a shot.  BTW these are all straight of the scanner except for the vignette.  I also have a thing for vignettes but that’s another article.  I wanted to include some of the structures so I trained my lens on some other stuff.  Keep in mind I was moving about, not just zooming in and out with my 70-200 f2.8.

You can see that these images are grainy as hell.  I developed in Kodak HC-110 for about nine minutes.  The film was overdeveloped about half a stop for a little extra contrast.  Ideally I would have liked to shoot something a little slower but whatever.  Next time I’ll try rating the film at 200 iso and pulling it a stop in developing.  That”s kind of the point of this exercise anyway.  Well I’ll show you a couple more shots and then you can head over to Dp Review and see what those fucks are up too.

So far I’m having a really good time with this old ass film.  I’m curious about what I’ll be able to do with it as this project progresses.  Next time around I’ll be shooting with a Leica M6 and a fifty year old Summarit f1.5 for a real classic look so be sure to check back.  Oh yeah.  If your using a zoom just stop already.  Stop being such a douche bag and do it right.

Biggy

One of the cool parts about using only prime lenses is the challenge to do what you can with what you got.  It was this frame of mind that helped me decide on my 2011 new years resolution.  For the entire year I’ll be shooting all Tri-x all the time.  I have a variety of cameras, in various formats to use but no matter which one I use it’ll be loaded with Tri-x.  The only problem I foresee is they don’t make any instant Tri-x.  Are you listening Kodak?  You could steal some thunder from Impossible Project.  It wouldn’t be too hard cuz they’re film is shit anyway.  But i digress.  You might be wondering why I would make such a ludicrous resolution and you might not but I’m gonna tell you anyway.

The main reason I want to do this is because I hate Tri-x.  Maybe hate is too strong of a word.  I don’t understand Tri-x and people fear what they don’t understand.  I figured if I gave myself a solid year of Tri-x at least I would understand it.  I might not like it but that’s another story.  The second reason is that by challenging myself I’m sure I will grow as a shooter.  My work will evolve and I will gain experience along the way.  If your primary lenses are zoom lenses this will be hard for you to understand.  You will drone on about convenience and flexibility all the while you brain will be turning to mush.  Oh yeah and one more thing.  If it was good enough for Ansel it’s good enough for me.  I know that’s cliche but I don’t give a fuck.

Tri-x has long been prized for it latitude and flexibility.  With the right developing you can run it from 200 to 6400 iso.  It’s not especially fine grained but has a classic, journalistic look.  I’m curious to see how this pairs with subject matter that is not journalistic in nature.  I’ll be doing my own developing and scanning.  I’ll also be striving to present images to you that are straight out of camera.  My camera of choice will be a Leica M6 though I have a serious addiction to toy cameras so expect some of that too.  I’ll be posting images and thoughts here as often as possible so be sure to stop by once in a while to see if I’ve lost my mind yet.  If you haven’t made your new years resolution yet it’s not too late.  If you got zooms get rid of ‘em.  If you got friends with zooms get rid of ‘em.  If you got nuthin but a sack full of fixed glass join the revolution!

Biggy

I have named the Voigtlander Bessa L OOL because if James Bond was a lomo photographer this is the camera Q would hook him up with. Not because this is a small crappy plastic camera but because the Bessa L is a small clever camera. This camera is so clever because it’s so simple. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this camera it’s a Leica rangefinder meets a Holga and it packs what we like most about the two together.

The Bessa L is rangefinder without a rangefinder or viewfinder. Hold on a sec, don’t run back to your Daddy and his zoom lens because this is what makes this camera so clever. It doesn’t need a rangefinder because it’s intended to be used with ultra wide angle lens that have such deep focus and depth of field that there is no need for precise focusing. The knowledge I just dropped above is also referred as zone focusing and, OMG, go figure Voigtlander was nice enough to make some zone focus lenses to go with this camera. This camera isn’t just for zone focus lens, you could use any Leica M mount or Leica screw mount lens, and the zone focus lenses aren’t just for this camera. The shots you see here were taken with the Voigtlander Heliar 15mm 4.5 ASPH Screw Mount, that I also use on my Leica M8 but alot less since I’ve gotten this camera.

This camera feels and handles like a rangefinder. What it lacks in the durability of a brass Leica it makes up for in size. It’s about the smallest Leica mount camera you can buy. Rangefinders are designed to be small and discrete and that’s what I love about this camera. It’s a camera you can bring with you anywhere and take photos of anything.  Half the reason I call this the OOL is because it’s like the Golden Gun in the epic Nintendo N64 game Golden Eye, it kills everything in sight with one shot.

Now that you knuckle heads know what makes this camera like a Leica you may be scratching your thick heads wondering what makes it like a Holga. The run and golden gun attitude makes it like a Holga, which make no mistake is a good thing. Like I mentioned earlier this cameras simplicity is what makes it brilliant and that simplicity will be reflected in your photographs. The Bessa L is stripped of the endless amount of useless option modern cameras provide like fifty different focusing, metering, and exposure modes. You will not be distracted like you are at the vending machine when stand there for an hour contemplating what snack to get. Instead you’ll be focused on your image with no hesitation.

While the Bessa L produces a much higher quality image than a Holga it has similar spontaneous attitude. It liberates you to shoot fast a freely because your only concerns are the waist level exposure indicator, which is sexy as hell by the way, and a external viewfinder for composition if you choose to use one. The exposure indicator is the only thing that’s different from a normal rangefinder besides the absence of a viewfinder. The exposure indicator is located on the top of the camera so you can calculate your exposure without pulling your camera to your eye and exposing yourself to your unsuspecting victim. It uses the same circle sandwiched between two triangles that other rangefinders use. Either triangle lights up red when you are over or under exposed and the circle between them lights up green when you have a proper exposure. Pretty simple huh. My technique when I’m just strolling down the street shooting candid portraits is to meter off the side walk because the lens is so wides that if I meter pointed at a subject it will expose for the sky and turn their face into a black cave of under exposure.

This camera is ergonomically crafted, economically priced at around one hundred dollars used, and a blast to shoot with. If you haven’t already bought one half way through this article or need some technical specs for some ludicrous reason then see more about the Bessa L at Camera Quest. The Bessa L is so awesome that I have less to say about it and more to show, and these images are only from the first two rolls I shot.

Outro

Dr.Dragon

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