Having settled on Tri-X in Rodinal as my go-to film and developer, my interest in experimenting with photo equipment, materials and process pretty much evaporated. When my cardiologist recommended brisk walks around my neighborhood to alleviate the monotony of indoor exercise I thought it would be an opportunity to take pictures too. Continue reading “Stalled”
“New Tri-X” in Rodinal – Part 2
One of the bloggers I follow (I suspect it was Dan James) asked why I have five essentially interchangeable Leica thread mount camera bodies. I didn’t have a good answer at the time, but when I looked in the desk drawer where I keep my factory loaded film and saw that I had five varieties of film I decided to shoot a few test subjects with all five films using all five cameras. It would be the first time I ever had film in all of them at the same time. Continue reading ““New Tri-X” in Rodinal – Part 2”
“New” Tri-X in Rodinal – Who Knew?
In an effort to simplify my hybrid film workflow I experimented with a variety of films, developers, and scanning and post-processing techniques, but I did so in a haphazard manner and didn’t come up with any clear answers. I’d just about given up when I hit on the idea of simplifying one thing at a time, and finally everything fell into place.
[SPOILER: The answer turned out to be Tri-X, developed in Rodinal, scanned as RAW with a digital camera, and post-processed with nothing more than inverting, setting the black and white levels and adjusting the gamma.]
Coming Back
I had a massive heart attack on March 24. I am told that I was very very lucky. If not for the excellent training and quick thinking of the 911 operator, the amazingly fast response of our local voluntary first aid squad and the fortuitous presence of an outstanding cardiologist in the emergency room when I arrived you would be reading my obituary here, rather than this post.
I took a few pictures of visitors and my meals in the intensive care room with my iPhone but, otherwise, photography was nowhere near the top of my list of concerns. But as my recuperation and cardiac rehabilitation proceeded I began to think about what is really important to me. It turned out to be a relatively short list: family, friends, the church, music and photography.
Part of my cardio rehab program involves setting goals, short term and long term. My first two short term goals were to sing with my church choir on Easter Sunday and to shoot, develop, scan and print a roll of film. I met the first goal on Sunday. I vested with the choir and participated in the service as best I could, remaining seated much of the time and saving my breath for the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, which I got through without a hitch. At this point it appears that my volume will be as good as before but I am going to have to pay a lot more attention to my breathing.
I am moving along with my photography goal as well. Yesterday I assembled the Visoflex rig on the IIIf, put it on the tripod and carried the whole kit out to the back of the property where I took some closeup pictures of details on the the old shed. I finished the roll, removed the film from the camera and loaded it into the developing tank. I expect to develop it this afternoon, scan it tomorrow and, if anything looks interesting in the contact sheet, make some prints this weekend.
Is IQ a chimera?
Intelligence Quotient (abbreviated IQ) Tests are under increasing attack as a fundamentally flawed means of determining intelligence because they do not take into account the complex nature of the human intellect and its different components. I suspect that they will eventually be thought of in much the same way that we think of phrenology today. Image Quality (also abbreviated IQ) is an interesting parallel. Continue reading “Is IQ a chimera?”
Power Wagon
Picture taken ca. 1975, Tri-X, developer unknown. A friend asked for a copy of the print on my workroom wall. I thought I might post it here too.
Hiatus
I am setting this film photography blog aside for a time to work on a new project that the patron insists be done in color, with a digital camera. A brave new world for me.
