Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Maggie is in Lisbon, and she E-mailed me that she hit 200K followers. It was only April 30th when she first hit 100K.
Evidently she is hanging out with a group of Banksters that are talking up the economy and politics. Maggie says I would really fit in.
Lisbon is only a day trip and she wishes she had more time...
I'll be night shooting tonight armed with a F5 and Noct-Nikkor. I have Tri-X for 800 ISO and Delta 3200 that I will try at 1250. My idea with the Delta is to minimize agitation to attempt to get smaller grain.
If I get good results with the Delta I will then try 120 using leaf shutters. I figure with my own shooting I need to go alone, and trying to do work with Maggie in tow is not the same. Night photography is always a challenge.
Cal
Evidently she is hanging out with a group of Banksters that are talking up the economy and politics. Maggie says I would really fit in.
Lisbon is only a day trip and she wishes she had more time...
I'll be night shooting tonight armed with a F5 and Noct-Nikkor. I have Tri-X for 800 ISO and Delta 3200 that I will try at 1250. My idea with the Delta is to minimize agitation to attempt to get smaller grain.
If I get good results with the Delta I will then try 120 using leaf shutters. I figure with my own shooting I need to go alone, and trying to do work with Maggie in tow is not the same. Night photography is always a challenge.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
GEAR ALERT: My Pentax 67II has been repaired. Had to have the film transport overhauled as the film advance was loose. Also the shutter button was not working in steps like a Nikon, where the camera meter gets wakened by touching the button and depressing half way.
Oh-well.
Cal
Oh-well.
Cal
Prest_400
Multiformat
That's the bad side of business trips, get to be in a place, but not really free roaming.
Many European cities have their old world charm and do require a slow pace to see. Ironically with Barcelona so close, I don't travel that much to other cities.
Anyways most do share a part of annoyance and chaos.
Night shooting in NY Manhattan calls "noir" and gritty. Indeed it is Gotham. I really enjoyed the ambiance of night in the city.
I have to do more tripod night long exposure. But it's much more natural with the long nights of winter.
Shooting I like alone and with company. With someone else it gets entretaining but unless there is a shared rythm, it can be a bore. Then about meeting schedules.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Jorde,
The best for tripod night photography is Acros with Diafine. No reciprocy failure, and no grain. Bring out the big cameras. The larger the format the better.
Last night I was fondling the 2x3 Technika V with the 53 Biogon. At close to 8 pounds it is like half a bowling ball. The lens is only F4.5, but I think it has some great potential for night shooting because of the combination of heavy weight and the leaf shutter.
Funny thing is as socially evolved as I am, I kinda am proud of my antisocial behavior because I kinda am happiest alone.
I think doing my version of "Walden Pond" when I lived remotely in the Santa Fe National Forest in a two bedroom log cabin taught me a lot. I lived 47 miles outside of any real civilization and unlike Henry David Thourough I was not a short walk from my mother's house. Also know that "Walden Pond" compressed two years into one. In my book HDT was a poser.
Cal
JeffNYC
Well-known
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Jeff,
Glad you could join us.
I had some films from ESP I took with the 21 SEM. My best shot of that excursion was through this gate that had a cross framing another gate down a long hall of cells. What a great composition.
Do you still have my cell number?
Anyways Joe was correct. I miss the 21 SEM, but then again I have the Plaubel 69 W.
Cal
Too much of a big shot for the bus?
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
I agree - alone for getting into the zone, and with company for the social aspect; although in the latter situation, I tend to talk more and shoot less!
I should heed Tuco's advice: "When you gotta shoot, shoot; don't talk" (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Cal,
Given how happy you always seem when you're with the group, you must be positively euphoric when you're alone!!
You should definitely do your version of Walden - I think it would be very interesting as a photo essay.
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Cal,
This is good information - I've done little night shooting, and almost none on film. I need to do more this summer!
Do you know if the results from Acros developed with D76 or PyrocatHD are also good?
Thanks!
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Raj,
Both are good developers, although I have not used Pyro.
The thing with Diafine is that it is a two part compensating developer, so it was kinda invented to deal with extreme or very high contrast. Diafine moderates contrast which is not lacking in night shooting and this is what makes it great for night photography. I call this my "Slacker's Brew" because it gets reused, and also because it is "Panthermic" meaning temperature is not critical and has no effect on the chemical process. Understand that just last weekend I processed 9 two liter tanks of film, and I did not pour the Diafine down the drain as a "one-shot;" meanwhile if that was ID-11 I would be pouring money down the drain.
The compensating effect also has a "Stand Development" like effect where the highlights can't get blown, and the developer that initially got soaked in gets depleted and further development ceases to happen. The shadows get more fully developed and have more detail than solvent developers; and the tricky parts are exposure and developing for a wide midrange. The Diafine negatives have a HDR look and kinda resemble modern digital B&W prints due to their enhanced dynamic range, high resolution, and small grain.
D76 or Ilford ID-11 is a very fundamental "solvent" developer that almost everyone who went to art school back in the day and took a photography course first learned how to develop film with.
I find Acros to have deep contrast and fine grain (almost none). Some people say it looks like digital and don't like it, but these same people likely have no appreciation for large format photography.
If I were teaching someone how to develop I would tell them to just shoot Tri-X at box speed and use D76 or ID-11. Do this until you can do it in your sleep or until you get so consistent that you can get easily 36 exposures that are either easy to scan or easy to print. At a later date, after skill developes, perhaps add a slow speed film, maybe Acros if you like the look, but still use D76 or ID-11.
Basically gather (expose) as much information as possible, and then create (develop) the maximum amount of information chemically. This is a balancing act and highly interactive. This is where your style comes out. Also in art school I was taught to make negatives that have consistent contrast that basically I can more or less "straight print" without any burning, dodging or flashing.
If you want to be good stick with the fundamentals/basics and learn them like a deadly Kung-Fu move. With only one film and one developer some really great photographers built their careers. One is Jim Marshall who did all this band photography like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, or the Album covers for the Allman Brothers and the Rolling Stones.
Jim Marshall used Acufine and shot Tri-X at 800 ISO (5 3/4 minutes Acufine at 20 degrees C). I know of a Pulizer Prize winning photojournalist who kinda does something similar that I do with Diafine. His last name is Gay, but I forget his first name.
BTW the things here to learn by using only one film and one developer are : consistency; and control. In my book if you want to get good at something do it as much as you can and on a crazy scale.
One thing I learned from being a lazy slacker is that if you scale things up to using big tanks (I use 2 liter SS tanks) is the bigger capacity and volume aids in gaining consistency and temperature control. I see no benefit of doing small tanks. I think you would do yourself a disservice by advancing to and learning Diafine first. Basically you would not understand what you are doing, and it would inhibit learning the skills to build on.
Also there is economy of scale in buying chemicals in bulk or larger volumes and weight. IMHO many people don't develop their chops by sticking with one film and one developer. There is a lot to learn just doing that and that skill pays dividends if you move into another developer of film.
BTW I only have experience with D76, ID-11 (more or less the same thing), Ilford Microphen, Diafine, and a little experimenting with Rodinal with slow speed films only because Tung gifted me an unopened bottle. So more or less over 40 years I only know more or less three developers.
So it comes down to you working alone where you are the teacher as well as the student. There is great benefits of restricting oneself to B&W film: you can control costs; you can learn a lot; and you can shoot more because of lower costs.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Cal,
Given how happy you always seem when you're with the group, you must be positively euphoric when you're alone!!
You should definitely do your version of Walden - I think it would be very interesting as a photo essay.
Raj,
I have a wonderful 300B tube stereo: I turn it on.
I set up my apartment as a studio, get ready to return to the 1970's, and recreate and regress to where I was young and not a care.
And then I create not only my own safe place where I can make art without any interference, where I actually create an entire universe where the rest of the world gets left behind. In effect I am making sense in a world that makes no sense, and I find meaningful purpose in the most selfish manner.
I am then fully living in the moment for myself, by myself, and all the nonsense of everyday life all around me goes away. I do not know many people who have experienced this level of peace and satisfaction. Perhaps not sustainable, but at least I have experienced this bliss.
What do you really need to be happy? Also know there is Maggie to share my life. In fact I do not need other people. Never knew anyone with a complicated life that was happy.
Cal
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Cal,
Completely agree - there's much to be said for simplicity!
Thanks for the detailed post about film development - it gives me a starting point in these dark uncharted waters
Raj
Prest_400
Multiformat
Cal,
Completely agree - there's much to be said for simplicity!
Thanks for the detailed post about film development - it gives me a starting point in these dark uncharted waters
Raj
Thanks too Cal for the Post! I still have to go hardcore film but I wanted to after moving out of current home. Ain't happening soon.
I noticed that old threads get deleted, I'll paste the post into a word document somewhere. Curiously diafine is quite rare in Europe verses D76 or Rodinal just.
In a way hybrid B&W outsourced just seems wrong.
Having a happy life ends up on being simple. Agreed that things are stupid, nonsensical and artificial. The only complication (I may say too) is occasional GAS.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
A big complication! But if it adds to the happiness (and doesn't end in bankruptcy), I say go with the flow...
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Jorde,
As an aside from what I wrote: it seems Rodinal is a good choice to use as a developer to drill down on. I would limit its use to only slow speed films because on fast films it magnifies grain, but in my experience and others with certain slow speed films (retro style/old school/thick emulsion films) the grain does not get amplified.
The large format community still uses and loves Rodinal for its acutity (edge sharpness) and its long gradations. It seems they favor big dillutions with longer development times for the bonus of a compensating effect. I like 50:1 dilution. For large format I think I would use lots of slow speed films and Rodinal. Did I tell you it is cheap-cheap. Also minimizing agitation enhances the compensating effect.
Know that many use Rodinal for pushing film. If you like grain I say just make bigger prints. Rodinal is not the best for pushing films, for some it has a look, but not for me. Rodinal is as old school as it gets, it is a classic, and it is the oldest currently made developer. For slow speed films expect high IQ. Remember there is a good reason why large format shooters love Rodinal.
There is also a benefit of convenience due to being a liquid concentrate with a long shelf life. Mixing powdered developers is no fun.
I also forgot HC-110 which is a more flexible liquid developer that also offers long shelf life and convenience. It is also a developer that has legs and goes back. In art school I choose not to use/try HC-110 because it is a known mutigene and has been linked to Cancer. D76 to me is safer.
Diafine is poisonous on multiple levels, but I use it only because it does things other developers can't.
BTW Pyro is nasty, and Rodinal is not good for you either. I wear gloves and hygene is important. Be aware that after you learn how to develop you have a high propensity to become a cronic hand washer. LOL.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Maggie E-mailed me from London. Evidently she was interviewed by BBC World News this morning and some of my photography and my name will be part of a package/segment on my gal.
I don't know when this segment will be broadcast, but I know a package like this in broadcast news is called an "Evergreen" meaning that it is news, but not timely in a way that it has to be broadcast today and can be saved until needed.
Cal
I don't know when this segment will be broadcast, but I know a package like this in broadcast news is called an "Evergreen" meaning that it is news, but not timely in a way that it has to be broadcast today and can be saved until needed.
Cal
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Cal, when you find the segment-post it to Youtube?
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
I learned last night that the segment was not taped, it was a live broadcast.
Maggie showed me a cell phone picture last night of a Mango ad featuring her billboarded on the side of a double-decker bus in London.
The $3K a night hotel featured fresh flowers in every room, two bathrooms with one bathroom the size of a bedroom, and was larger than my claimed luxury 1 bedroom apartment here in NYC. Hair and Make-Up Artists came to her room for all the wardrobe changes, and the hotel suit was even used to tape an interview. A wardrobe was also delivered by a reknowned designer for her to select from.
The Luxury Symposium in Lisbon lasted a day and a half, and there was a black tie dinner where she was the guest of honor.
Anyways her itinerary was very busy, and she came home exhausted. Many things are being negociated. Everything is kinda sureal and dream like. Already some short listed possibilities... Some are unbelievable.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
There is a BBC video on the internet, but it is not the live broadcast I was shown last night.
I used Accidental Icon, BBC World News, as search parameters.
Yesterday's live broadcast is Maggie in the studio being interviewed for 3-4 minutes.
Cal
I used Accidental Icon, BBC World News, as search parameters.
Yesterday's live broadcast is Maggie in the studio being interviewed for 3-4 minutes.
Cal