I just had to bring it back before the end, something abandoned. In this case I am dragging you to one of my personal favourite locations, the Barber Mill in Georgetown Ontario, but unlike many of my trips, I took a chance and went at night. The Mill was built in 1823 but abandoned for several decades now. The ruins are beautiful at any time of day and in any weather. Dangerous…yes, but worth the risk.
Pentax 645 – SMC Pentax A 645 35mm 1:3.5 – Kodak Tri-X Pan (TXP, ISO-320)
Last month while I was on my usual fall vacation at the end of October I once again found myself in New Jersey. I have always been an avid fan of the Film Photography Podcast and have been listening to it since it’s third episode, and have been no stranger to the flickr group, organized a Toronto FPP meetup…the list continues.
So before I left I was sure to email Michael Rasso, the founder of the podcast/project to see about meeting up. The email I got in reply surprised me. I was offered to help guest host the podcast. Nervous could not even begin to describe how I felt, but I accepted the offer anyways.
Marthon session was right, 9am to about 5pm we recorded, I took a break for one of the episodes but still managed to get in at least three maybe four. The first was released yesterday (Nov 15th) with the rest being released over the next couple months. It was a riot, litterally just five guys sitting around a table shooting the breeze about film, cameras, techniques, and other such topics, all while surrounded by a great number of cameras (I personally had my Rolleiflex, Leica, Horizon, and Polaroid 600 CloseUp). And in typical form, at the end of hte day we all went to Mac’s Diner for a great dinner! A very full day, and of course special thanks to Michael Raso, Mat, Dan, and Hunter!
I’m not often one who will get a new camera and throw it into a project that has been going very well, and hoping that I’ll get something decent. I usually test out the cameras first. But when I was given a Lomo Smena 8m from Michael Raso of The Film Photography Project it must be a good camera. And well the manual was all in Russian so I just launched right into using it. The results were…interesting. I carried it with me over the course of Sunday errands so there’s really no rhyme or reason to the images, they’re shot straight from the hip with little or no looking at focus or settings.
The Smena is as basic as basic can be, it’s plastic (although sporting a glass lens), there’s no focus aid, you just sort of guess, shutter speeds are indicated by pictograms (the actually numerical speeds are listed on the side of the lens barrel), and the aperture settings are on the front of the lens and you seem to pick them by the film speed you have loaded although the scale is none that I had ever seen before. Oh and there’s no light meter or automatic settings.
You shoot from the hip, and pray it turns out.
ЛОМО ϹМЕНА 8M – T-43 4/40 ЛОМО – Kentmere 100
Demolition Man…
I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t actually own any of the buildings that I explore, but sometimes I can’t help but become attached to them, even shit holes like the former Park Plaza Hotel in Oakville. It sort of became my own personal abandonment since I work right across the road from it. I first checked it out late one night coming back from a church event, and then a second time with friends Wu and Boffo on a cold and snowy evening. The place was gutted and ripped apart inside, trashed by local kids and teens or druggies. But it became the spot for me to flee from the work of the day on my lunches, I’d find a spot in one of the rooms, overlooking the overgrown section in the centre of the building where the pool was, and enjoy the quiet.
Not so much anymore.
They’ve been finally starting the demolition on my hotel, replacing it with a big commercial building. So much for that idea.
Nikon FM2 – Nikon Series E 50mm 1:1.8 – Fuji Neopan Arcos 100
Back to the Siege for Week 22. It’s always fun carrying around classic or strange cameras it always makes for an interesting conversation piece especially when I’m out and around using it. These shots are mostly from around the fort and camps not of actual battles since a TLR takes a bit of effort to use and battles happen fairly fast, event during a war of 1812 reenactment. But despite the rain and mud I still brought it along and ran some HP5 through it to give that nice classic look.
The Saturday Morning Parade
Breakfast! Yes, some people even shy off modern conveniences and cook their food over an open fire.
One of the seven blockhouses along the Fort Meigs Wall.
Ewan enjoys a morning Pipe before the skirmish. This actually is my personal favourite shot from the TLR shots.
Another blockhouse. This one serving as the billet for the 41st Regiment of Foot. During the war the blockhouses were never used to house troops, they all slept in tents, while the blockhouses were dedicated solely to the defense of the fort.
A British Canon, one of two used for the weekend. This was a 9 pound field gun, but during the actual siege the British used massive 24 pound siege guns they captured at Detroit.
A friendly chess game.
Rolleiflex 2.8F – Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm 1:2.8 – Ilford HP5+
There are probably a lot of people on here who have much longer and fonder memories of this magically slide film called Kodachrome. Kodak canceled the long running film in 2009 along with all support and additional products needed to run the K-14 process. Introduced in 1935 Kodachrome became the first commercially available colour films. It featured bright colours, and long lasting stability. The reason for this was at its very core Kodachrome was a black and white film, with each emulsion layer sensitive to a different colour. Then during the process the dyes were introduced and stuck to the layers to bring out the colours.
I came into Kodachrome far too late.
At the beginning of 2010 Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, KS announced they would be continuing to process Kodachrome but only will accept orders for processing until December 31st, 2010. The Race was on. Having shot three rolls to this point, those three being major disappointments (poor storage), I went hunting on both Ebay and within the local photographer population and managed to secure myself six more rolls. Living in Canada meant that I had at least a month turn around for my photos.
These photos are from that last roll that I shot on December 18th, 2010. I went along King Street for the most part in Toronto, a street I hadn’t really explored that much with the camera. After I finished the roll, I mailed it off that same day.
This was the very last frame I shot, the building is the City of Toronto’s First Post Office (4th Post office for the City of York) it was shut down after the Rebellions in1837 when the postmaster was framed for aiding the anti-government rebels. It was restored and reopened in 1983 and serves both as a full service Post Office (I mailed the roll off that day from the post office to Dwayne’s) and a museum.
Contax G2 – Carl Zeiss Biogon 2,8/28 T* – Kodachrome 64 (KR)
For all my Kodachrome shots (Including the first failed rolls) you can visit my Last Days of Kodachrome set on Flickr
But fear not! As I mentioned previously, Kodachrome is at it’s core a black and white film, so several people have been experimenting with processing the film in normal b/w chemicals! The results, spectacular! So don’t ditch those spare rolls (if you have any) laying around! Sharp Photo does a good job as does Blue Moon Camera. (If you don’t want/need them, you can always send them to me…)
Recently on the FPP Flickr group someone posted up a link to a obscure Chicago Street Photographer named Vivian Maier. Vivian came to the US from France, learned English by going to the theater she wore a men’s jacket, men’s shoes and a large hat most of the time. She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn’t show anyone.
However one person has dicovered her works and is slowly posting much of it online you can view it here: vivianmaier.blogspot.com/.
I’ve only gotten to page two myself but I’m finding it a fantastic resource for revitalizing my work in the 6×6 format (and she shot on a Rolleiflex!).
Many people do a project 365 (where they post at least one photo per day for the entire year). I did actually consider doing this for 2011, but decided why not take my passion for shooting film and doing a roll (or pack) per week of film. Pick a camera, a lens, and a film shoot it in a week, take it in for processing, then post the best seven shots. Starting Jan 1st, 2011.
Here are my guidelines
1) Some weeks may have themes attached to them, the subject shot or equipment used must meet this theme.
2) It must be an analog photography format. (35mm, Medium Format (6×9, 6×6, 6×4.5), or Instant (Type 100 or Integral).
3) I must post at least 7 shots for the week, I may post more if I so desire.
4) A week starts on Saturday, Ends on Friday. Film from the week prior is brought in for processing on the Monday, Must be scanned, processed, and posted before the next film drop off (if possible).
If you have a suggestion for a theme (or constraint) please feel free to post in the comments.
No, these aren’t photos from an electric six concert. But rather one of my favourite places to go visit, the former Firestone plant on Hamilton’s industrial sector. This ancient structure, tucked neatly away behind a very active recycling complex (which was also at one time a part of the factory as a whole) was first built in 1921, and expanded over the years. It shuttered it’s doors in 2001, from active use (Firestone had already left it in 1987). It made the perfect place to give my Nikon F4 a work out, pairing this pro camera from the late 1980s (It was released the year after Firestone closed the plant) and the modern 14-24mm lens, and a roll of Fuji Velvia (the pre-2005 stuff). The only thing that would’ve made it better was if I was using Kodachrome.
The size and openness of the plant is what makes using an ultrawide lens perfect for this space, and the rich contrastry colour that Velvia is known for only added to the natural light filtering into the place.
Want to see more of Firestone? Visit here: Fire In the Disco on Flickr
Two guys in New Jersey. They’re really the ones to blame for this obsession, this obsession on instant photography.
You might know it better as Polaroid. Now I had already tried out Polaroid a couple years back but never really interested me, and of course the news that Polaroid has gone belly up, and was no longer producing film. As millions of cameras suddenly became useless. I never gave it a second thought.
It was shortly after listening to some of the early episodes of the Film Photography Podcast that I learned about a group called Impossible. This company had purchased from Polaroid the last factory in the Netherlands, their mission, to recreate the integral instant film that made Polaroid big. Yes it truly was a Mission:Impossible for them as much of the chemicals were long expired, and the notes shredded.
Well they did it, producing a first flush of PX100 film designed for the SX70 type Polaroids, and started selling off whatever parts and pieces they could find in the property they now owned. Old Artistic TZ films, Type 100 pack films.
The PX100 film, at least the first version was a rather interesting film to begin with, it suffered from tearing, pulling, and generally being a pain in the ass to use. As you can see from the photo above, it’s not a very good image. But I could take it out of the camera (leave it in the dark for several minutes) and pull out a print.
Let’s see your digital camera do that. Sure you can view the image on the screen, put you still have to take it to either a print shop or home before you can hold that image in your hand.
I decided to wait on getting more film from impossible. And then from the FPP guys I got a Polaroid Colorpack II, this was even older than my SX70 coming out in 1969, and it took…pack film! (Something that Fuji still makes!) and Mike Rasso was even kind enough to include a pack of said Fuji FP-100c film. You take the shot, pull the tab, pull the image, do the count, and crack and peel it open. The chemicals smell awful. But you have a print, a unique shot, never to be captured that way again, in your hand.
How Awesome is that?
Then I noticed that Impossible has some of the “Type 100″ pack film up for sale, so I put in another order, grabbing in addition to the two packs for the Colorpack II, some of the new PX70 colour film for hte SX70 and a pack of the second flush of the PX100. The second round of PX100 seemed to turn out much better than my first.
It was just rather warm that day, so the images really showed it. The colour shots however, those turned out much more interesting. I think the cold and damp really affected them.
Yes, very experimental, but rather interesting at the same time. And I still have two more packs of the stuff to shoot. And recently at a photoshoot I ended up bringing along my ColorPack II as a secret weapon, so that the couple each could have a print right there, in the park. They thought it was a pretty neat idea.