Ilford Delta 3200 Pro 120 - Yashica D - NYC Subway Images

One of the things I enjoy most about going to NYC is experiencing the things that we don't have in Cleveland. While we do have great public transportation, we have nothing that compares to the NYC subway system. It's easy for me to become engrossed in watching the people. There are people who ride on a daily basis, tourists who are new to the system, people who are riding to get somewhere and others who are just riding. There seems to even be an entirely different set of accepted behaviors and social interactions - it's not at all unlike riding in an elevator with strangers.

Of course, since I find the subway so fascinating, it's not surprising that I took the many trips in and out of the city as an opportunity to shoot. This type of photography (actually most of the photography from this trip) is really not my usual style. I would liken this more to street photography - which is a style I've always admired but never really been able to grasp personally, but, I think I see little hints of success in my more recent work. I attribute part of that to being more comfortable with my analog cameras but also to being more willing to shoot those images of unknown people - realizing now that it's often those people and their interactions with the camera that make good street photography good.

For reference, all of the images in this post were taken with my Yashica D TLR - a camera that I have come to love more and more as the results that I get from this camera are always fantastic. The film of choice for these subway photos is of course a high ISO film - Ilford Delta 3200 Pro - which allowed me to shoot handheld in the darker parts of the subway. This was actually my first experience with this Ilford 3200 and I'm surprised by how little grain there actually is in the scans. For such a high ISO film I expected to find much grainier images. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it and will likely shoot with it again in the near future.

Expired Kodak Elite Chrome 200 - Canon FTb - NYC Subway

I just recently have gotten some of my film back from being developed. I will probably do a longer, more comprehensive post soon with some of those images but for right now I don't have a lot of time. Quickly though, I do want to share one of my favorite photos from a roll of expired Kodak Elite Chrome 200. This was shot in the New York City subway with my Canon FTb. I'm not sure what it is about this photo that I like so much but for some reason it really stands out to me. 


I'll post some more from this roll soon and hopefully have a few other things to share as well. I'm off to Milwaukee and Chicago tomorrow for work and plan to take a camera or two with me in case I get the opportunity to snap a few photos. Fingers crossed.

Fuji FP-3000B45 - Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 - Orange Lillies

Recently, I was fortunate enough to be presented with the opportunity to purchase two boxes of expired Polaroid Type 57  4x5 sheet film for my Graflex Crown Graphic. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck with the film thus far.


Last night I tested two more sheets of the 3000 ISO rated instant film, and, thus far each has come out black. I'm unsure if it's a film problem, camera problem or a problem with my polaroid back. I've even tested with a longer exposure on my last shot to see if it would have any effect but it didn't appear to. The chemicals seem to be coming out of their pods, but no image is developing. I have yet to break into the second box of film to see if I have any better luck. If anyone out there has any thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them.


That being said, after spending the time setting up a shot to test with, I thought it would be a waste to walk away frustrated. So, I shot two sheets of Ilford Delta 400 and then fired off the last shot of Fuji FP-3000B45 that I still had loaded in my other polaroid back. Happily, I ended up with this beautiful shot of these Orange Lilies that valiantly sacrificed their lives to come inside for a photo-op. 


One other small detail of note - you might notice that this is my first image with the Crown Graphic in the portrait arrangement. Finally, after a few months of frustration and stupidity, I have realized that I do in fact have another location on the Crown Graphic body to attach my tripod plate, which, allows me to shoot vertically. In my defense though, the little guy was hiding under the leather handle that I have never used. Needless to say, that strap has been removed for the time being...

35mm Rollei ATP 1.1 - Last images from this roll

It's rare for me to get a lot of photos out of one roll of 35mm or 120/220 that I like and think are worth posting. The fact that so many have come from this roll of Rollei ATP is even more surprising. My first glance at these negatives led me to believe there was hardly anything worth trying to salvage from the entire roll. Everything looked to be a bit underexposed and ATP doesn't have much leeway when it comes to missing the exposure. With a little work though, I've found some things that I'm glad I didn't just ignore without even scanning. Sure, technically these aren't perfect photos... but then again, when has that ever been what this blog is about?

In case you haven't read any of my previous posts featuring this film, these were all taken with a Canon FTb using the Canon 55mm f/1.2 lens and an external Sekonic meter. The image at top is from an early spring trip along the shore of Lake Erie. This spot is now one of my favorite Cleveland beach spots and is located in the Huntington Reservation. The second image, also from early spring, is from outside a great wine and beer store located in Chagrin Falls. And finally, the image below, is a little still life that I set up while over at Aperture Photography and Variety one afternoon. It was actually the very last exposure on the roll - I only had one shot, and while I would have preferred to have been able to get a second photo bracketed a bit higher, I still like what I ended up with.

Hopefully, very soon, I will be getting back some color slide film of NYC images and some black and white 120 of varying things. As soon as I do, I'll start posting those selects. Stay tuned...

35mm Rollei ATP 1.1 - Chicago

A long while back I went to Chicago and took a lot of photos. Now, as I wait for some of my recent things to be developed, I figured I would post what is probably my last batch of images from that trip. I found these, like so many other things, on an older roll of 35mm Rollei ATP 1.1 that I shot using my Canon FTb.

If you'd like to check out more of my Chicago images, here are six previous posts that you can check out featuring multiple different film types - 1. Polaroid Sepia, 2. Impossible Project Black Frame Poor Pod, 3. Impossible Project Orange Flash, 4. More Impossible Orange Flash, 5. Black Frame Poor Pod in Wrigleyville , and finally 6. Some Kodak Ektachrome Elite 200 Slide Film

Of course, if you're not interested in any of that, you can just enjoy the rest of the images in this post.

Impossible Project PX70 NIGO - Brooklyn NY Part II

A while back, I posted some images from the Brooklyn area that were all taken with Impossible's PX70 NIGO. Today, I have two more images from Brooklyn that were from the same pack of NIGO - At top, the Eagle Clothing brand sign in the Park Slop neighborhood - And below, a nice looking bike that was parked outside a little cafe.


Not much else to say about these. I still have one pack of NIGO left, though, so keep an eye out for some more colorful frames in the future...

Impossible Project PX100 - More of Coney Island

A few weeks back I started posting some images from my time spent in New York. I realized this morning that I actually have a few more images left to post that I'd nearly forgotten about, and, that doesn't include the rolls of film that I've yet to develop. 

Amongst the images that I have left are these shots from Coney Island. Previously I posted some images from this area that I shot with a Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid Polacolor 108. Today's photos, though, were shot with my Polaroid SX70 Sonar using one of my favorite Impossible Project films - PX100 Silver Shade. Unfortunately there aren't many images to share since I was trying to shoot with so many cameras at once, but, hopefully sometime in the near future I can get the rest of my film developed and get those images posted here as well.


Enjoy.

Fuji FP-3000B45 - Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 - Little Kids with a Big Camera

This past weekend was spent mostly in Youngstown, Ohio and Erie, PA visiting with families. My brother and his wife were up with their three kids, and, there was a birthday party to attend up in Erie later in the weekend. I figured since I was going to be seeing so many of the kids in one weekend and had 7 or 8 shots of Fuji FP-3000B45 left in my polaroid back that it would be a good opportunity to take a portrait of each of them. 

These were all taken with my Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 in open shade at about f/11 with an exposure of 1/100th of a second. Shooting kids with this type of camera is definitely a bit difficult since their patience is limited, but, it was still pretty fun. 


Little did these kids know, they were getting their photo taken with what is currently the last stock of 4x5 instant film in the US. Fuji has decided to discontinue not only this 3000B45 (which actually happened months ago) but also their FP-100C45 (which is already out of stock everywhere in the US). Hopefully this will not be the end of large format instant film and we will see the Impossible Project come to the rescue again in the near future.

The photos if order of appearance are Vivian (Tiffany's Goddaughter), Tommy (my nephew), Taylor (my niece and Goddaughter), and below... Jade (the dog). There is another niece, Samantha, who I didn't attempt to photograph with my 4x5. I did get a few shots using my Canon FTb and some Rollei Retro 100, but those will have to wait until I finish up the roll and get it developed. 

As a final note... I did end up buying 4 packs of the final stock of Fuji FP-3000B45 yesterday while I still could. I'm a little disappointed to find out about the color so late - the price has already sky rocketed on Ebay. But, at the very least, I now have 40 shots of this beautiful film left. I'll probably have to savor it and make it last until someone else steps in to save this format of instant photography. I guess on the bright side, this is going to force me to start getting my sheet film developed...

35mm Rollei ATP 1.1 - Photos with Natalie

I figured I would follow up my most recent post about Rollei ATP 1.1 with some more of the photos that I came across on that same roll of film. These were actually taken as far back as October of last year when I headed down to the Columbus area to shoot with Natali. At the time I had posted a shot taken with a Polaroid 250 using expired Polaroid Sepia and mentioned that I had taken some 35mm images as well that I would share in the future when I finally got the roll developed. Well... eight months later here we are.

At first I was a little disappointed when I scanned these images in, but, after looking at them in comparison to the rest of the images on the roll I decided these weren't as bad as I expected. I did put in a little time working on the levels and contrast of these images after they were scanned to get them to where they are now. Whereas I am generally a purist with my instant film scans, I am a little more liberal with my 35mm, MF and sheet film scans. Since I'm not yet at the point of developing my own film, which takes away a certain amount of control, I am alright with considering Photoshop my digital darkroom for negatives after they have been developed and scanned.

  
You will notice though that overall I didn't do much work on these in the way of retouching as I would my traditional digital model photography. In fact, I ended up liking the sloppy scanned borders, dust and grit so much that I decided to keep all of those things in tact just as they came in. I think the high contrast, gritty feel of these photos actually works really well and the more I look at them the more they grow on me. 

As I continue through this roll of Rollei ATP 1.1 I'm starting to think I may need to give this film another go around. Yes, it is a bit more difficult to shoot, but I think the results can be very nice when all is said and done.

35mm Rollei ATP 1.1 - Super High Contrast

Shooting 35mm film is an interesting experience for me. It's probably the format that I shoot the least when it comes to shooting film. A roll can often stay in my camera from a couple months to anywhere around year or more. In the end it really does make it interesting to go through the negatives and look at the different places I've been and things I've shot over that period of time.


The photo above was the next to last shot on a recent roll of Rollei ATP 1.1. This was taken early this spring along the water front of Lake Erie. It was one of those unseasonably warm Saturday's so we had taken a drive and a couple of cameras out to enjoy the weather. Despite being in a park with a few other people milling about when I saw this tree it had a very abandoned and desolate feeling to it. This is one of those few times where I saw the image in my head before exposing the film and ended up with something almost identical to what I had pictured. I was so sure about it that this is actually the only frame I took.


As for this Rollei ATP... well, it's much more difficult to shoot then I had imagined. I've worked with the MF Rollei Retro 400 before (seen here and here) and immediately fell in love with the results of the film. I figured the ATP would be similar to shoot, but I found that the dynamic range of this film is thin and the final images are very very high contrast. 


After working with these images a bit I've found a few that I really like, but overall have to say that this film is much harder to work with if you happen to miss your exposure by even a little bit. Still, for my first time out with the ATP and my first time shooting anything as low as 32 iso I think I got some decent results. I look forward to posting a few more images from this roll in the coming days .

Impossible Project PX100 - A Birds Nest

Just a few short weeks back we noticed that there was a nest up in the corner of the back patio where we grill. I checked it out (without touching or disturbing it) and noticed that there was an egg in there. Since there was an egg, we decided to leave the nest as is and give the egg time to hatch... despite the worried mother's occasional attempted dive bombs when you exited the back door. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the mother eventually decided not to return to the nest at all. We waited a few days just to make sure, but it appears a lost cause for this little guy.


This is one of those photos that I'd consider to be sad but beautiful. Considering the circumstances it's a sad thing, but the examination of this nest and egg really is a beautiful, natural thing to see up close. After the mother decided not to return for a period of time I placed the nest on a ledge and grabbed my SX70 sonar to take this photo. The film is Impossible Project's PX100, which as I've mentioned before, is one of my favorite films from TIP.


This once, I might have preferred to have some color film loaded so that you could see the great color of the egg in contrast to the nest... but still, I think this monochrome image is just as nice.