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I just recently moved from my apartment of 3 years in the little neighborhood of Tremont in Cleveland. I didn't move far (just out to what would be considered the suburbs I guess) but as a collector of cameras, antiques and everything vintage... you could say I had a lot of things to move. It took all of 3-4 days to break-down, clean, move, clean, set-up and finish the process. Luckily, since I'm moving in with Tiffany, she was so kind as to help me get everything moved and by mid-Monday we had everything pretty much done.
Now, you might be thinking, "Well thats a cute story, but, what's it have to do with your photoblog?" Well, last night was something like my night of decompression. A chance to reset myself. So, I set out and drove around with my Crown Graphic looking for some things to take photos of, eventually ending up at Mahall's 20 Lanes bowling alley. I've taken some photos inside of this alley before, but never of the sign that I've drove by so many times before.
This particular image is one of my favorites from the night and was taken with Fuji's FP-100C45 using a front rise and tilt and approximately a 3 second exposure. I've only shot with this camera at night before using Fuji's FP-3000B45, but, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the 100C45 could handle the long exposures just as well. I think the color and range of the film worked out pretty well for this image, but, I will say that thus far I'm not a huge fan of the bokeh on this lens when it comes to dealing with brighter lights in long exposures. I guess until I purchase another lens for this camera though, I'm out of luck on that one.
I didn't take many more shots last night, but, I did end up reloading my Polaroid back with a new pack of the 3000B45 and look forward to heading out soon to shoot some more night time images.
There's not a lot to say about this photo - it was taken with my Crown Graphic 4x5 using Fuji's FP100C45. I took this a few weeks back while driving through town. This is a sign I've always thought about shooting and since I had my camera with me I decided to stop. This one is alright, but, after taking it I realized the photo in my head was in black and white and was taken at night. I might have to go back sometime soon and reshoot this.
Today I have a quick post from a very quick shoot that I did this past weekend. I worked with a newer model in a few different spots around Cleveland, and, had the chance to grab these two shots in the process with my Crown Graphic and some Fuji FP-100C45. These were actually taken just off the side of the road in a mostly industrial area of Cleveland - the grass just happens to be overgrown and not yet taken care of as it's still early spring. This Fuji peel-a-part film grows on me a bit more each time I shoot with it.
The end of last week offered up some weather that was nice enough to allow me a chance to get out and shoot. As usual, once I actually had a load of camera's in the car I had a difficult time finding things that I wanted to shoot. I think that part of me is always worried about wasting film and so I become extremely choosey on what I will and will not shoot.
At the end of the day, or at the end of my drive I should say, I ended up in a familiar spot. I've shot St. Theodosius a few times, but, since I hadn't shot it with my Crown Graphic I decided it wouldn't hurt to take another photo. It really is a great looking place with some beautiful architecture. This photo was taken on Fuji's FP 100-C45 peel-apart film at about 75 degrees with a 120 second development time.
Personally, I really like this film. It appears as though it is consistently a little washed and milky, but, I'm not sure if that's just me, the development timing, the temperature or the batch of film that I have... Either way, I usually end up liking the results.
I spent a lot of time over at Aperture this saturday. During the day I was doing some filming for an upcoming promo piece for the store and about the analog photography lifestyle, and, later that night I was meeting new people, making friends and talking photography while browsing some great work from Mat Marrash. Saturday was Mat's opening for his show Dapper - a documentary style exhibit on barbering shot entirely with an 8x10, and, developed and printed by Mat himself. Needless to say, if you find yourself anywhere near Cleveland while the show remains up (till April 28) you should stop in and take a look.
Of course, all of that conversation about photography with all of those talented people made me want to go out and take some photos myself. Luckily, Sunday was a beautiful day with temperatures up around 80. I took a couple cameras out with me, but, focused mostly on shooting with my 4x5 Crown Graphic - using both Fuji FP-100c45 and some Delta 400 sheet film. I have yet to get any of my sheet film from this camera developed, but the above image of a blooming Magnolia tree is one of the images I did get on the Fuji instant film.
Some more images from this past week coming soon...
Months ago I decided that I wanted to get into large format photography. I did a ton of research, read up on all the different formats and types of cameras, looked into the accessories for each and all the different costs. I decided right off the bat that I was probably better off starting with the 4x5 format over the 8x10. Cost obviously played a factor in that decision, but, I also thought that something like a folding press camera would be a better way to become familiar with large format, film loading, composition, etc., without jumping directly into a large monorail camera that would require learning a lot more than the basic camera movements of large format (rise, fall, tilt, shift, swing) and the results of all of those combined movements on the photo.
The camera I decided to go with is one of the most tried and true of the press cameras - the Graflex Crown Graphic. Here's a photo of the one I just purchased -
This particular model (there are many variations within the Graphic series) comes with the f/4.7 135mm Graflex Optar lens paired with a synchronized Kalart rangefinder. With it I also got some sheet film holders, a Graflex 23 roll film adapter to shoot 120 on this camera, and a Polaroid 545 back (which at this point is nearly obsolete.) To compensate, I also went out an got the Polaroid 550 back which holds the Fuji 4x5 packfilms - FP-100C45 and the discontinued but still available FP-3000B45. The seller also threw in a few extras like an original case, changing bag, two flashes and some sync cables.
This all arrived yesterday in the mail and to this point I've really only gotten to take two photos. The ones you see here in this post are the first two out of this camera and were both shot on the Fuji FP-100C45 pack film. I didn't have a lot of time, so I pretty much just took a walk around the block with the camera and a tripod till I found something I could shoot. I also didn't have my light meter on hand, so, both of these were metered with my iPhone's free light meter app that I had previously calibrated with a real meter. The image at top, my first photo, is of the Crittenden building downtown and I used a front rise and tilt on this image to get the tilt-shift look that you see. The one below, shot in the same area, is a more straight forward photo.
These two photos were pretty much all it took to fall in love with this camera, and, with large format photography. There's nothing that compares to viewing, framing and focusing an image onto a large ground glass like you get in large format. I am really looking forward to getting out to shoot more with this camera soon, as well as the opportunity to load up a few different sheet films. The only downside... I know this camera is just a gateway drug. The 8x10 monorail camera that looked so frightening during my research seems to have become an inevitable future investment at this point.
Stay tuned, I hope to have some more interesting images to share from this camera soon...
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