Are you old enough to remember?

[DownUnder]

DownUnder so many of us followed the same path. So interesting!

Did you work as a photographer all your career? I did, just shy of 55 years. I majored in chemistry and microbiology but worked my way through college as a photojournalist and was making great money so I decided to just stick with it. I apprenticed in a commercial studio for a year and a half and spent the rest of my career shooting catalogs, ads and annual reports. Most of that time I had my own studio. Never regretted my decision.

Very good story DownUbder.

I had a long run as a news reporter, almost 20 years Started in 1961 when as part of a school project a wise English teacher assigned his three best students (was one) to write articles on local topics for a French daily paper in eastern Canada (now long closed). The other two dropped out but I hung in there, by 1962 I was writing for three newspapers and doing radio blurbs and penning feature articles for mgazines, and earning more than my stepdad did at his regular job.

Boarding school 1962 to 1965 interrupted my writing for money but taught me the basics of good English, and in 1965 when I dropped out I snagged a job as a junior reporter. The grind was punishing, 45-50 hour weeks and four hours every third Saturday, all for $35 a week. Lousy pay but valuable basic training. I lasted a year and then went to France as a desk rewrite editor in Marseille, at age 19! Then to Canada to another newspaper and in 1967 a challenging year as a promotions officer at Expo '67. In 1968 I returned to uni study and a night desk job translating French news into English for a Montreal paper. To Toronto in 1970 as a TV promotion officer, to news again in Vancouver in 1972, and to New Mexico in 1973 to finish my BA (which I finally did in 1980 not in media but in education).

As part of my work I did a lot of photography. Most times my published images paid far better than my writing.

In 1977 I gave up news work and moved into book and magazine editing and media marketing in Sydney, which kept me busy for a decade. Photography took second place but in the '70sI got into stock, in that halcyon era when markets were keen to buy and paid well for published images. This lasted until digital came along in the mid-2000s and ruined almost all the lucrative markets for so many of us.

In Australia I found I had a good eye for modeling and glamor photography and I thought of setting up a studio, but the costs were too high and the markets too competitive. Australia wasn't (and still isn't) a great place for commercial photography, even 40 years ago many pros were struggling and clients knew how to play off one against the other and paying only pocket money for published images.

From the '90s until I retired in 2012 I was an architect in interior design, mostly offices. I enjoyed this work and of course I did all my own photography. Many would find this boring but I had an affinity for it and it satisfied me, tho it seems to have left me with a preference for mostly static images.

When young we try to preplan our adult lives but fate often has different ideas and takes us down some unexpected and odd, even strange byways. Yet for me it has been enjoyable and a great learning curve. I'm now 76 and I hope to keep on photographing - and learning - for a few more years if my health holds up, I now spend more time in southeast Asia abut I go home now and then to see how life is in Australia. Travel suits me - while I still can.

 

[neal3k]

I bought an enlarger exactly like this in 1962 when I was 17. I found this in an online auction and now it is decorating my office/guest room. It is quite small as the metal head is roughly 4" X 4" X 5" tall plus bellows and lens..

Flashback 1962. by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

 

[titrisol]

From 2005, not that long ago, I have the B&H "35mm SLR Photo Sourcebook" which nominally sold for $6.95, but was mailed free to their regular customers. It's the size and thickness of an urban phonebook, and the title says it all. I glance through it periodically, and it feels like a trip to a galaxy far away and long ago, when real photographers snickered smugly at digital. All gone and pretty much forgotten! And every time I see the listing for a Hasselblad X-Pan complete kit for $2499.99, I kick myself. Hard.

I used to have those, left them with a friend when I moved out of Europe

 

[chuckroast]

I bought an enlarger exactly like this in 1962 when I was 17. I found this in an online auction and now it is decorating my office/guest room. It is quite small as the metal head is roughly 4" X 4" X 5" tall plus bellows and lens..

Flashback 1962. by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

Where do you put the 8x10 carrier? Asking for a friend ...

 

[Richard G]

This is a golden thread. When I bought my first house in 1998, still my only house, I needed to do repairs here and there. We’d moved to the cheaper end of one of the best suburbs in Melbourne. I went up to Chalmers, an elegant facade hardware store, double fronted, where the guys wore brown dust coats. I needed a screw to better secure the top onto the base of my plain early Victorian bookcase. One of the older guys ferreted around in old boxes and eventually found the screw I needed next to one of the boxes and gave it to me. I bought three other items I needed and put them on the counter. $9.46. Had it been $29.96 I would not have been surprised. That store has gone long ago.

 

[chuckroast]

This is a golden thread. When I bought my first house in 1998, still my only house, I needed to do repairs here and there. We’d moved to the cheaper end of one of the best suburbs in Melbourne. I went up to Chalmers, an elegant facade hardware store, double fronted, where the guys wore brown dust coats. I needed a screw to better secure the top onto the base of my plain early Victorian bookcase. One of the older guys ferreted around in old boxes and eventually found the screw I needed next to one of the boxes and gave it to me. I bought three other items I needed and put them on the counter. $9.46. Had it been $29.96 I would not have been surprised. That store has gone long ago.

I do think we've unnecessarily lost the instinct to fix rather than replace, and it shows up in even the smallest ways.

We've been on a plastics diet in my home for many years. The real environmental threat - far, far, far worse the the temperature going up - is the incredible amount of plastics waste dumped into the sea and waterways. So, we prefer to buy in large containers and refill the smaller ones, reuse plastic cups given by the fast food places when we (rarely) go there for things like mixing paint, employ reusable shopping bags and so forth. We've even stopped buying what little soda we drink in cans because the cans are lined with - you guessed it - plastic. We now look for glass bottled drinks whenever possible. (This turns out to also be a good thing from the POV of human health.)

One of the small dish soap containers we routinely refill finally had its thread on top crack. I was all set to buy another small container for subsequent reuse when it occurred to me that perhaps I could just find a new cap. Well, I did, and for only slightly more than the cost of the new, full container, I now have an additional 11 caps to promote bottle reuse without as much incremental new plastic.

I similarly reuse the brown bottles provided by my local brewer when empty (!) for darkroom chemistry.

In general, I prefer to buy as much used as I can and fix as needed. It's not an economic thing so much as it's a "quit making such a big mess" imperative. At least that what I told my spouse when I bought a used M2, M5, and 4 lenses within 6 months. You, see, I was being environmentally responsible and not introducing new manufacturing waste onto the planet ...

(Besides, learning to fix things, large- and small is a real joy.)

 

[x-ray]

In general, I prefer to buy as much used as I can and fix as needed. It's not an economic thing so much as it's a "quit making such a big mess" imperative. At least that what I told my spouse when I bought a used M2, M5, and 4 lenses within 6 months. You, see, I was being environmentally responsible and not introducing new manufacturing waste onto the planet ...

(Besides, learning to fix things, large- and small is a real joy.)

I like you philosophy!

 

[Richard G]

I do think we've unnecessarily lost the instinct to fix rather than replace, and it shows up in even the smallest ways.

We've been on a plastics diet in my home for many years. The real environmental threat - far, far, far worse the the temperature going up - is the incredible amount of plastics waste dumped into the sea and waterways. So, we prefer to buy in large containers and refill the smaller ones, reuse plastic cups given by the fast food places when we (rarely) go there for things like mixing paint, employ reusable shopping bags and so forth. We've even stopped buying what little soda we drink in cans because the cans are lined with - you guessed it - plastic. We now look for glass bottled drinks whenever possible. (This turns out to also be a good thing from the POV of human health.)

One of the small dish soap containers we routinely refill finally had its thread on top crack. I was all set to buy another small container for subsequent reuse when it occurred to me that perhaps I could just find a new cap. Well, I did, and for only slightly more than the cost of the new, full container, I now have an additional 11 caps to promote bottle reuse without as much incremental new plastic.

I similarly reuse the brown bottles provided by my local brewer when empty (!) for darkroom chemistry.

In general, I prefer to buy as much used as I can and fix as needed. It's not an economic thing so much as it's a "quit making such a big mess" imperative. At least that what I told my spouse when I bought a used M2, M5, and 4 lenses within 6 months. You, see, I was being environmentally responsible and not introducing new manufacturing waste onto the planet ...

(Besides, learning to fix things, large- and small is a real joy.)

The carbon footprint contraction of taking over 2 old Leicas and four lenses is admirable CR. All my film Leicas are second hand, and all my Leica lenses. Better, is my second hand diesel hydropneumatic Citroen. It’s 3km to work. The car was three years old when I bought it. The purchase and use of a new Tesla by a friend, driving over 40km per day puts a lot more CO2 into the air than my car, in Victoria, where burning coal is the chief source of electricity.

On the repair front is the cost of servicing a Leica. The dollar amount is more than buying a second hand SLR. But some can do the repairs themselves. Paying top dollar for a good CLA puts the Leica jewel back in your hands, and possibly still ahead financially if your cheap SLR needs new light seals in the first year and the shutter plays up. My M2 last had a first class CLA in 2007. Repairable requires the item to warrant the expense. Same deal with replacing the soles of my Loake shoes for work. Someone told me there’s a lifestyle TV show on repairing stuff. Must hunt it out. I serviced our 30 year old Braun coffee grinder with the help of a YouTube video.

 

[titrisol]

The carbon footprint contraction of taking over 2 old Leicas and four lenses is admirable CR. All my film Leicas are second hand, and all my Leica lenses. Better, is my second hand diesel hydropneumatic Citroen. It’s 3km to work. The car was three years old when I bought it. The purchase and use of a new Tesla by a friend, driving over 40km per day puts a lot more CO2 into the air than my car, in Victoria, where burning coal is the chief source of electricity.

On the repair front is the cost of servicing a Leica. The dollar amount is more than buying a second hand SLR. But some can do the repairs themselves. Paying top dollar for a good CLA puts the Leica jewel back in your hands, and possibly still ahead financially if your cheap SLR needs new light seals in the first year and the shutter plays up. My M2 last had a first class CLA in 2007. Repairable requires the item to warrant the expense. Same deal with replacing the soles of my Loake shoes for work. Someone told me there’s a lifestyle TV show on repairing stuff. Must hunt it out. I serviced our 30 year old Braun coffee grinder with the help of a YouTube video.

Agreed,
Maintaining and using equipment for longer time eliminates the front (production) and back (disposal) ends of the resource footprint
That is one of my pet peeves with all the disposable technology of these times

Case in point: just serviced my 32yr old Rollei slide projector, new bulb and belt $20 and 1.5h of elbow grease (and a dab of moly grease) should work fine for another 10-20yrs (or until plastic fails)

 

[DownUnder]

I also like old things - not unusual as I'm old - and my life has long revolved around old mechanical cameras, old watches, fountain pens, vinyl and slow travel. Whenever I can I opt for glass over plastic, and my kitchen at home has so few modern devices that it would discourage any modern housewife. I still don't really know how to deal with a microwave oven. My blender and juicer are Brauns from the 1970s run off convertors as they came with me from Canada to Australia in 1976.

We drive a 1991 Audi and live in a renovated weather board (this may be an Aussie term for a wood) house built in 1925.

My partner is younger but shares my nostalgic fondness for well-made older things. Fortunately for us in Australia, charity shops abound and deceased estate sales provide many fine products built during a bygone age when things were made to last and almost everything could be repaired. I remember my stepmom darning socks and reversing the collars on all our shirts. Towels were used until they were threadbare. Cars had recycled bits put into them by the local mechanics. Everything we art and drank came wrapped in waxed paper and put into paper bags or in glass bottles. Nothing was thrown out, all was reused as much as possible

If anything life was more fun back then. We had the freedom to roam freely in our small towns. Nobody minded if us kids walked on to their properties, it's what kids did and how it was. No such thing as "oi, you! Trespasser! Off my property, now, or I call the cops!"

Obviously we are seen as scourges of the modern day Throw It Out And Buy New ethic. But we have neighbors who drive SUVs, have $2,000+ coffee makers, the latest Iphones wear all the latest fashions and have four and even six cars per household, but who are now using our local food bank as they insist they cannot afford to buy from our supermarkets. TBH I'm skeptical of the honesty of their claims, but I see them doing it, maybe they are scamming the system but it's now a common thing and it's not just a passing fad.

So much has gone badly off the rails with today's consumerist society and I for one am happy to not be too big a part of it...

 

[CMur12]

Agreed,
Maintaining and using equipment for longer time eliminates the front (production) and back (disposal) ends of the resource footprint
That is one of my pet peeves with all the disposable technology of these times

Case in point: just serviced my 32yr old Rollei slide projector, new bulb and belt $20 and 1.5h of elbow grease (and a dab of moly grease) should work fine for another 10-20yrs (or until plastic fails)

I have ten TLRs and I have always shot slide film in them. I would love to have an old Rollei 6x6 projector to project my slides.

I've heard/read that to project 6x6 slides, they really need to be glass-mounted. Any truth to this?

- Murray

 

[Sanug]

I've heard/read that to project 6x6 slides, they really need to be glass-mounted. Any truth to this?

Yes. I have tried glassless slide mounts with not satisfying results. In 35mm, glassless is already an issue, with 6x6 it becomes unusable for me.

I have a Kindermann 6x6 slide projector. If you will buy a 6x6 projector, it may be a good alternative to the Rollei. Take care about the lens. It should be equipped with a Schneider or Docter 2.8/150mm lens.

You will find quite often projectors fitted with an inferior 3.0/150 mm (Maginon, Heidosmat,...) lens made of plastic. Avoid them.

 

[titrisol]

I have ten TLRs and I have always shot slide film in them. I would love to have an old Rollei 6x6 projector to project my slides.

I've heard/read that to project 6x6 slides, they really need to be glass-mounted. Any truth to this?

- Murray

Mine is only 35mm (P355 AF), had autofocus which at the time was a great advance.
Technology is simple, and fixing it was a matter of cleaning, removing all the lint and regreasing a few places
At some point I will have to replace 3 capacitors since the "slideshow timer" is off, but I rarely use that feature anyway.

 

[CMur12]

Yes. I have tried glassless slide mounts with not satisfying results. In 35mm, glassless is already an issue, with 6x6 it becomes unusable for me.

I have a Kindermann 6x6 slide projector. If you will buy a 6x6 projector, it may be a good alternative to the Rollei. Take care about the lens. It should be equipped with a Schneider or Docter 2.8/150mm lens.

You will find quite often projectors fitted with an inferior 3.0/150 mm (Maginon, Heidosmat,...) lens made of plastic. Avoid them.

Yes, I remember Kindermann 6x6 slide projectors, too. One of them would certainly meet the need.

Thanks for the feedback on glass vs glassless slide mounts for 6x6, and for the information about projector lenses.

- Murray

 

[markjwyatt]

Picture of the film processing area at San Marcos High School, summer 1976. My dad taught photography and maintained the darkroom/facilities, and I was only there for summer (I did not attend High School there otherwise). Always D-76 1:1 in the big plastic container. I suspect the two bottles closest to me are STOP Bath (Kodak w/indicator) and Fixer (cannot remember which). You can see the labeled bottle is hypo-clear. I as well as most students never used hypo-clear, but it was there for special purposes.

Zeiss Icarex 35S TM Pro; Zeiss 50mm f1.8 Ultron

Film Development Chemistry by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

 

[DownUnder]

A query for our British readers.

In the mid-1960s the late Ron Spillman published a formula in one of the UK photo magazines (Amateur Photographer, I think it was) for a two bath developer. I home mixed up a batch and got truly gorgeous results with Kodak Verichrome Pan and GAF Versapan, two films I have missed for a long time, along with Kodak Panatomic-X and the old Ilford FP3. Maybe it was the amount of silver used in these emulsions, but they were special.

I few years ago I posted something about Kodak DK60a (no longer a useful formula with Century 21 films) and the Spillman developer - the formula for which yet eludes me - on another web site, with which I am no longer associated. I recall one or two comments to my thread but alas, no formula.

Would anyone here have memories going back long enough ago to come up with the mix for this two bath?

Maybe Ian Grant will read this. He seems to be a master of anything to do with darkroom wizardry.

I have enough chemistry left at home for a few liters more of home brewed dev, also films in my fridge to use it to process them with.

If anybody remembers this, and yes, it was so long ago, I would be greatly chuffed.

 

[zane0777]

A query for our British readers.

In the mid-1960s the late Ron Spillman published a formula in one of the UK photo magazines (Amateur Photographer, I think it was) for a two bath developer.

This undated article calls it "Spillman's Resofine 2B" and says it's available from Speedibrews. The author then provides formulas for a two-bath process, but the way it's written it's not clear if it's meant to be Spillman's.

HMECINE

It's also mentioned in this thread from 2007:

Resofine B-- has anyone used it.Is it like Diafine?

Following up on my thread about developer/film options for a b/w beginner.I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the 2 bath developer Resofine 2B.Available in the UK from Speedibrews via Silverprint etc. I can find a lot of info' on DIAFINE,but not a much on this one.I was wondering...

rangefinderforum.com

...and the formula is listed in this thread:

Resofine

Has anyone any thoughts on/experience with Resofine? In particular, what're the true speeds of HP5+ and FP5+ in it? Thanks!

www.photo.net

Solution A

Sodium Sulfite, 35 grams - Hydroquinone, 6 grams
Phenidone, 0.2 grams - Sodium Bisulfite, 6 grams
Water to make, 1 liter

Solution B
Sodium Sulfite, 65 grams - Sodium Metaborate, 20 grams
Or, Borax 20 grams, for results "like that of D76"
Water to make, 1 liter

 

[x-ray]

I be don’t know about that particular formula but SPLIT D-76 was popular for a while. In the early 70’s my coworker mixed up some split D-76 that we used with good success.

Here’s a formula I just found:

Split D-76, From Vestal's book, "The Art Of Photography".

Solution A. (Metric)
Water 3L
Metol 8g
Sulfite 200g
Hydro quinine 20g
Water to make 4L

Solution B
Water 3L
Sulfite 200g
Borax 8g
Water to make 4L

 

[chuckroast]

The carbon footprint contraction of taking over 2 old Leicas and four lenses is admirable CR. All my film Leicas are second hand, and all my Leica lenses. Better, is my second hand diesel hydropneumatic Citroen. It’s 3km to work. The car was three years old when I bought it. The purchase and use of a new Tesla by a friend, driving over 40km per day puts a lot more CO2 into the air than my car, in Victoria, where burning coal is the chief source of electricity.

On the repair front is the cost of servicing a Leica. The dollar amount is more than buying a second hand SLR. But some can do the repairs themselves. Paying top dollar for a good CLA puts the Leica jewel back in your hands, and possibly still ahead financially if your cheap SLR needs new light seals in the first year and the shutter plays up. My M2 last had a first class CLA in 2007. Repairable requires the item to warrant the expense. Same deal with replacing the soles of my Loake shoes for work. Someone told me there’s a lifestyle TV show on repairing stuff. Must hunt it out. I serviced our 30 year old Braun coffee grinder with the help of a YouTube video.

I do all my own light seal work as well as light camera maintenance on everything but my Leicas. Those go to DAG or YYE here in the US. Considering that my cameras had not been serviced since built - 1952, 1961, and 1974 - recent CLAs were warranted. I suspect they will not need them again in my lifetime.

 

[DownUnder]

Looking for empty film canisters to bulk load a 100ft roll, I found a roll of Kodachrome 25. I have one old roll of a Japanese BW film also, something like Neopan F.

Neopan was a good film in its time - not great, but good, in the time-frame mid-late 1990s-early 2000s. IRRC Fuji promoted it as an 'orthopanchromatic' emulsion and the reds were a tad pronounced, which spiffed up Asian landscapes I took with it way back then. A little grainy, so process with care. Also supposedly long-lived, so even now your roll may give you usable negatives. Also Neopan 400 which in many ways was better than the 100.

I may have one or two ancient rolls of both in my film fridge. A search will now be undertaken for those in the very near future.

Too bad about the Kodachrome 25. I feel like crying when I think back to tthose wonderful, deep, liquid-saturated colors. Those were truly the GODs of film photography!!