Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

OK Chris I have a few questions: what film cameras and film do you use do you use? Do you ever use transparency film or do use only digital for all your color work? As I said before, your work is inspiring. Eager to hear from you.

The cameras I use for film aren't important. I have owned a number of different cameras over the years. Nikons, Canons, Olympus OM, Hasselblad, Mamiya C330, Mamiya 645, Mamiya 6, Rolleiflex. I got great results with all of them. Vision and technical skill are both more important than gear.

I have had to sell all of the film cameras except the Mamiya 6. I suffered a stroke and lost my job as a teacher because I just couldn't take the stress after that. I loved teaching and I miss my students, but they weren't worth dying for. My son needed me even more than they did. I am tired all the time, and the right side of my body is weakened now. I earn my living selling prints and teaching photo lessons, and from donations people send because they like my tutorials on my photo lessons website. When I don't have enough money, I sell a camera or lens. I'm helping my son get through college; he is studying computer science at Purdue. I raised him by myself, he hasn't seen or heard from his mother in years. Its just him and I.

I like shooting black and white in square format, so I am trying to hold on to the Mamiya 6. For color, I shoot all digital now, but shot transparency film in the past.

I actually stopped shooting transparency before I lost my job because of my experience with the last big project I shot on transparency. I took a trip to New Mexico in 2011 and spent a few weeks with a Hasselblad and 40 rolls of Fuji Provia 100F. There were no longer any pro quality E-6 labs left in Indiana by that time, so I had to send the film to Chicago, where it cost me over $400 for the processing, and a lot of the film came back with scratches.

That was the last straw for me. I bought a Canon 5DmkII and have not looked back. The quality is incredible, I have full control over the image, and I don't have to pay a crappy lab huge money I cannot afford, only to get crap quality.

For film, I have shot Kodak, Ilford, Fuji, Agfa, and Foma. Today, I mostly shoot Ilford and Kodak. I keep four developers on hand, choosing based on the look I want. D-76, Tmax Developer, Rodinal, and PMK.

If you look on my Crawford Photo School site, I have examples of photos shot on different film and developer combinations along with my tested developing times.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Some photographs that I made of the sky on the morning of December 20th.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A few days ago, I was saddened to discover that one of my favorite objects to photograph is gone. This big concrete bench sat for decades in the front yard of a house on Dalman Road in rural Allen County, Indiana. I made this photograph of it eight years ago.

 

[css9450]

There were no longer any pro quality E-6 labs left in Indiana by that time, so I had to send the film to Chicago, where it cost me over $400 for the processing, and a lot of the film came back with scratches.

Sounds like Helix Camera's Color Service lab on Racine Street...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These tiny metal birdhouses hang on a trellis on the fence between my parents' house and their neighbor's house. One is shaped like a ladybug, two are flowers, and one looks like a normal birdhouse.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The giant "Christmas Star" mounted above the front porch on this house is actually a sign from a Hardee's fast food restaurant. The man who lives there is a construction worker who recently worked on the demolition of a closed Hardee's location, and he was allowed to keep the star from the sign.​

The house is on Ardmore Avenue, across the street from Elmhurst High School, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.​

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Santa Claus has traded in his old obsolete sleigh for a modern aircraft! I caught him on camera landing his helicopter in front of a house on Christmas Eve night.​

The house is on Broadway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This inflatable Christmas decoration even has spinning rotors on the helicopter!​

 

[Pfreddee]

Chris,

I'm always fascinated by and enjoy all of your work, and I look forward to seeing what new photos you've made in your area. I admired what you are doing, and I've been doing something similar in my area, Buckingham county, Virginia. No photos to post so far; all of the B/W work is printed out by a local pro lab, and I don't feel like paying the extra for scans. But maybe, some day, I'll get something uploaded. (Just as soon as I learn how to do it!)

All my best wishes for you,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris,

I'm always fascinated by and enjoy all of your work, and I look forward to seeing what new photos you've made in your area. I admired what you are doing, and I've been doing something similar in my area, Buckingham county, Virginia. No photos to post so far; all of the B/W work is printed out by a local pro lab, and I don't feel like paying the extra for scans. But maybe, some day, I'll get something uploaded. (Just as soon as I learn how to do it!)

All my best wishes for you,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

Thanks, Stephen. You should pick some of your best photos and have them scanned so you can post them. Would love to see them!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Footprints in the snow form a path to a white bench in my parents' front yard in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it on Christmas Day while waiting for dinner.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The dawn of a new year. This was my first photograph of 2017, made at sunrise on New Year's Day.​

I made this photograph looking northeast from the north side of US-33/US-6, just west of East County Line Road in Elkhart County, Indiana. It is a few miles west of the Noble County town of Ligonier.​

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This field is on the east side of Branstrator Road, between Ferguson Road and Winters Road, in the southwest corner of Allen County, Indiana.​

The early morning fog was so thick that the patches of snow and ice in the foreground, which were about ten feet in front of me, were all that I could see.​

I made this photograph last Tuesday morning.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I liked the beautiful abstract shapes formed by the clouds in the sky on the evening of December 30, 2016. This is the first of three photographs that I made of the sky as sunset approached.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

 

[FujiLove]

Hi Chris - Just a quick 'hello' to say how much I'm enjoying reading this thread. I only discovered it a couple of days ago, so I have a heck of a lot to look through.

We should be moving house in a month or so, after living in this village for a decade. I'm not sad to be going, but your thread reminds me that I really should have documented where I live a little better. Anyway, I have a few rolls of film defrosting and intend to make up for it over the few weeks we have left here.

Thanks for the inspiration and all the best.

J

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Hi Chris - Just a quick 'hello' to say how much I'm enjoying reading this thread. I only discovered it a couple of days ago, so I have a heck of a lot to look through.

We should be moving house in a month or so, after living in this village for a decade. I'm not sad to be going, but your thread reminds me that I really should have documented where I live a little better. Anyway, I have a few rolls of film defrosting and intend to make up for it over the few weeks we have left here.

Thanks for the inspiration and all the best.

J

Thanks, Fujilove. I just went back to the first page to see what I posted back then. I didn't realize that this thread has been going for almost 5 years now!

Where do you live now? I try to carry a camera everywhere I go, but I have regrets about a lot of things I should have photographed in years past before I began to take a camera everywhere.

 

[FujiLove]

Thanks, Fujilove. I just went back to the first page to see what I posted back then. I didn't realize that this thread has been going for almost 5 years now!

Where do you live now? I try to carry a camera everywhere I go, but I have regrets about a lot of things I should have photographed in years past before I began to take a camera everywhere.

Yes, time flies and all that. I think you should have a 5 year celebration on Feb 22nd 🙂

I'm near St Albans in the UK, and hopefully moving to Suffolk (if the legal guys finally get their act together). So it will be a move from the urban/suburban environment of a large, busy village to an extremely small rural hamlet (pub, church and about 30 houses). I'm looking forward to the quiet and space, but already worrying there will be a lot fewer photo opportunities. I suppose there will just be different ones and I'll need to put more effort into finding them.

I'm trying to always carry a camera now, and have my little XA3 permanently zipped in my coat pocket. I've gone through half a roll in the last couple of weeks, which doesn't sound like much, but is quite a lot of shots for me. I'm thinking that if I can get enough decent images over the next few weeks I'm going to print the best ones cropped square on 12x16 paper, with the aim of binding them into a book. Maybe 20 to 30 sheets. It will keep me out of trouble for a while!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A lot of people in Indiana were thrilled to see the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series. It was the team's first World Series win in more than a century!​

A lot of people in Indiana posted "Hillary For Prison" signs during the incredibly nasty 2016 presidential election that sent Donald Trump to the White House.​

Only in Fort Wayne could someone conclude that it would be great to make a sign that would show his delight at the Cubs' victory and his belief that Hillary Clinton should be sent to prison; all on one small crudely lettered piece of brown cardboard stapled to the side of an abandoned building!​

This weatherbeaten little building stands on the corner of Hadley Road and Bass Road, just outside the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it last week.
​

 

[summar]

Hi Chris, I've been following your thread with great appreciation. Love the lighting in the shot of the helicopter Santa.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Hi Chris, I've been following your thread with great appreciation. Love the lighting in the shot of the helicopter Santa.

Thanks. I like that one too. I shot it just after the sun went down, but before the sky went totally dark. Best time to photograph lighted Christmas decorations! The warm light on the house was from the street lamps.