Ilford XP2 Super. I like this film a lot, but it just doesn’t have the nice grain and tone of the HP5+.
All except for the beer-and-chips shot are from a day a few weeks ago when we spent the summer day helping Alicia get started painting her and Jon’s house (while Jon was on a business trip in Alaska–surprise Jon!). Don’t get me wrong, we did stay well nourished and hydrated while painting. A watermelon fight also took place, but I didn’t get any pictures of it; turns out it’s difficult to get good action portraits while dodging flying pieces of watermelon.
Brandin on the roof, but is he aloof?paint scrapers sunbathing while the paint-scrapers were chillingTrixie wondering why I'm holding that funny thing and telling her to sit instead of playing with herMailbox shot #1Mailbox shot #2Rainier and Tim's Cascade, yes the Northwest is in my blood (and was even more so after this great post-workout snack, I might add)
Here are some more color shots–same old color film, same real nice slightly reddish vintage tones. I saved one roll of it for a special occasion, and I’m going to buy some film this week to sock away for a few years down the road. Nikon F3, e-series 50mm; no photoshopping or cropping.
clover flowers at the home field(took this one 5 years ago with mom's point and shoot 35mm)favorite cafe near home, shot 1house numberthe bikes, just before we hit the mountain (I definitely screwed up this scan--get a negative scanner soon, Dave)fiery in the rearview mirrorold screen
Graduation gift-money + selling math textbooks –> new old-camera owner and thank-you notes aplenty, and sad feelings of having betrayed my old standby math book.
I’ll miss you, oh antiquated 3rd edition Taylor and Mann calculus text.
Six important things she does:
1. accept 35mm film
2. aperture priority mode
3. meter light
4. time things (12 seconds, namely)
5. battle-mace duty in case somebody thinks they’d like have her, or other things
6. exposure lock
Six important things she doesn’t do:
1. shutter speed priority mode
2. automatic mode
3. auto focus
4. kill batteries (battery life measured in years of use…let’s see a dSLR do that)
5. exposure bracketing
6. tempt me to ruin moments by snapping off eighteen frames when one is perfect.
It turns out that if you let color film sit around for 5 or 6 years, it makes for real neat vintage colors. Old film makes old-esque pictures, cool eh?
Coincidentally, pops gave me a handful of old film the other day, leftover from when he shot a friend’s wedding.
Nikon F3, Nikkor 50mm f1.4, and Fujicolor Super HQ 100.
I burned up the first roll just goofing around in the front and back yard; the second was the progress-keeper of project lets-paint-alicia-and-jon’s-house-while-jon’s-out-of-town (Alicia and Jon being my older siblings, one an “in-law”). I like shooting color, but it seems easier to say things with black and white shots. Different strokes for different days and lighting and things, I guess.
Beyond the nice ones here, most all of the shots on these two rolls were horizontal and I have no clue why.
Roll 1 #12
Roll 1 #05Roll 1 #07Roll 1 #12Roll 1 #17Roll 1 #19Roll 2 #5 (Jon and Alicia are awesome gardeners)Roll 2 #09 (Trixie is a great dog)Roll 2 #24 (Dad finishing off the frontside and corner)Roll 2 #25 (Good dog :)
Pre-post note #1:
It’s a bit late to finish it now, but I’m working on writing/editing what I think about the “best” photo(s) I will ever take in my life. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have it coherently together.
Pre-post note #2:
These are the last shots I’ll be taking with Dad’s Nikkormat; hello Nikon F3 :D. Dear new camera: I hope you and I will do lots together and I appreciate that you double as a battle mace when I unlatch one side of your neck strap.
I decided to try Ilford’s C-41 400 film (so I can get it processed for…*drumroll*…cheaper. notice a trend?), XP2 Super. I like it, and when I finally get access to a good scanner, I’ll put it up against the non-C-41 (HP5+) shots I’ve got and see what differences there are.
This roll is the best photography I’ve done. I could be wrong about that..time may tell (do I hope it will in fact tell? I’m not sure). Here’s something odd though: I was convinced that one particular frame was the single best picture I’d taken, ever. Like, no doubting at all, I knew this. It wasn’t…it flopped. It flopped really badly. Composition, focus, aperture setting and all the works. It’s frustrating, but I can’t bring myself to be too cranky, considering how well so many other shots came through. Uncorrelated to that, I pulled my act together and numbered the scans by frame # finally.
Without more ado, here’re eight shots I feel good about:
Here are a few black and whites I shot on a hike up to Camp Muir the Saturday before last. It was a very somber day; on the way to the mountain my friend and I stopped at Burger King for breakfast at 4:30, we got to the mountain at 6:00 and talked with the ranger about avalanche conditions. Static filled radio reports from his handset filled the office, he was strained and chewing tobacco: an hour and a half earlier there’d been an avalanche on the mountain. Status reports were spotty, but there were at least half a dozen climbers hit and one likely fatality.
The exposures were taken with the same camera and lens setup, a Nikkormat and Nikkor 50mm f1.4; I shot Kodak Plus-X 125 film rated at 100. I’ve gone on the cheap and am doing my own scans now, but unfortunately I couldn’t get the really-fancy negative scanner at school to work, so again the scans are with a low end flatbed scanner. Hopefully I’ll have good scans in a few weeks. And again, same deal with the scan # versus the exposure #. Lastly, I do plan to touch up the ones that have obvious mechanical/chemical errors, i.e. the odd non-graduated horizontal tint/shade line in #’s two and five.
That day left a lot on my mind and heart, but none of it is really present and/or clear enough to be able to describe coherently; I want to though. Maybe in a few weeks, or months.
Edit:
I added three more shots. 6/24/10 DP
scan #2 (hiking buddy, Ben)scan #5 (helicopter leaving Muir to look for the lost climber)scan #24 (about two thirds of the way up)scan #30 (looking out over the land from Muir--used the timer for this one)scan #10 (on the way there. I still owe Ben gas money)scan #25scan #1
After shooting a roll of color film, it seems to me that it’s great for making pretty pictures, but those pretty pictures don’t really say anything. Sorta the idea that Ted Grant gets at about portraits:
“When you photograph people in color, you are photographing their clothes. When you photograph them in B&W, you photograph their souls. ”
Regardless, I’ve got a lot of work to do before I am someone to opine one way or the other about what different photo mediums are good for what all. This is nice, because “work” means taking more pictures :).
All were shot with (again, grand thanks to my pops for letting me borrow his camera!) a Nikon Nikkormat through a Nikkor 50mm f1.4; the film is Kodak Ektar 100, rated at 100. Kenmore Camera did the developing, and I used an older/cheaper Canon flatbed scanner to scan the negatives (less $$ than having it shop-done, but my word it took a lot of time. I’m going to start shopping for a good negative scanner soon).
(I forgot to keep track of exposure # when I scanned them, hence the “scan #” labeling. Smooth move David, smooth move.)
Edit:
So…somehow wordpress (naturally I blame it on them. Human error? Nah, couldn’t be that) ate this post, so here’s what I recall to be the four shots I posted.
6/24/10 DP
“The photographer first sees and feels a moment in time and life, then quietly tries to draw it from the world around it.”
It was more humbling than I thought it’d be, which is (hard to admit) a good thing.
Today I picked up my first two rolls of developed film. Although the lab did a great job, I’d like to develop my own film now. UW Photography darkroom, lets you and I become friends.
Part of me feels that I shouldn’t ever post only one or a few photos, as a musician may want an album to be kept whole. Being picky about that is something I’ve got to earn; I’ll wait till I’m better at photography to place/show each roll of film only whole.
The first roll is Ilford HP5+; the second is Kodak Tri-X 400. All were shot through a great 50mm f1.4 with a Nikkormat, both on borrow from my Dad (thanks pops!).
I’m not at all well versed in b&w filmstuffs, but I think I like the tones of the Ilford film.
Without further ado, here are a few that’re alright.
It’s from early ’08. It’d been a long and bad week; I woke up early Sunday morning, after not having rested very well (or much), to go run. I saw the sun coming through the front door (a sight I miss) and decided to take a photo before heading out. I did a lot of thinking, praying, and wondering during that run, and by the time I got back, some words had come together in my mind, and they matched (by chance?) with the photo.
esta mañana
dejé de la casa, para correr
y fui acogido
por el sol del amanacer
My thoughts, as my bus crossed the 520 bridge today:
There is something about it–I’m not sure I understand it (maybe that’s why it’s so…well…er…hmm…).
The water is broken into so many little pieces by the light breeze, and the sun is shining through a cloudy sky.
It’s not one of those perfect glassy lake days.
In the water’s brokenness, its imperfection, the sunlight sparkles; each wrinkle in the surface, made by a single whisp of breeze, reflects it’s own little claim of sunlight in some direction or another.
And all together, the water, it’s surface so disorganized and cluttered, is beautiful in the light shining on it.
(shot with my digital camera. odd) 
