february 2017—roll 10

My final roll of February was a roll of "redscaled" color film I put through an Olympus OM-1 I used to own (since sent to a good home). The red color comes from the fact that you are shooting through the red layer of the emulsion. It's a cool effect, and as I think I've mentioned before, it also means that you are capturing a mirror image of what you see, which is also pretty neat. These photos were more or less taken on a stretch of D.C around Union Station and the Capitol Building. I can't say I'm thrilled about them all, but I figured I would share them nonetheless.

february 2017—roll 9

I try to shoot at least one roll of slides each month, and this is that roll! Why shoot slides? Despite their expense and the general hassle of metering them well, slides offer a level of clarity and color that you can't quite get from color negative film (or digital, IMHO). This slide film is Fuji Provia, which offers moderate levels of contrast and saturation, making it a good general purpose film. The best photo in this batch, I think, is the street portrait of the middle-aged gentleman. It showcases the clarity and sharpness of both the film and the lens, an older (circa 1960) Canon screwmount lens for Leica rangefinders.

february 2017—rolls 7 & 8

These photos are from a short trip to Baltimore, which we took as an excuse to have dinner at Woodberry Kitchen (you should get on that, if you haven't). My favorite photo from this batch, as you may have gathered if you follow me on Twitter, is of the spiral staircase. It was a happy accident; I had taken the photo on my digital camera, and used the metering settings to take a shot on the 6x9 camera I brought. But I forgot to account for the ISO on the digital camera—it was 1600, versus the 400 speed film I was using. (Kodak T-MAX.) Despite this, the photo came out well and easy to print! Like I said. A happy accident. 

february 2017—roll 6

I have no actual idea when I started or finished this roll, but I know it happened sometime in the middle of the month, which makes it roll 6. This is the second of my self-developed rolls, Ilford HP5 Plus, rated at 200, shot using a Leica M5, developed in D76 for 6 minutes 45 seconds. Like most of my 35mm work, these photos were taken around D.C, snapshots of daily life in the city and anything that catches my eye.

february 2017—rolls 4 & 5

I paired these rolls together because I took them on the same day. One, during a walk around the National Gallery of Art's east wing, and the other while walking home from that event. I used a Fuji 6x9 rangefinder—which just means the negatives were very large—and two kinds of film, Ilford Delta 3200 and Lomography Redscale (regular color film that's been loaded backwards to create an unusual red effect). I'm meh on the redscale stuff, but I like the black and white work; the straight lines and open space of the east wing works very well with monochrome photography.

february 2017—roll 3

I shot this roll during a trip out to Bluemount, Virginia with a good friend of mine. It's in the hills and mountains of the state, and we were hanging out at a house perched on one of those hills. Beautiful scenery, and great subjects for landscapes and still lifes. I used a Fuji GSW690 camera and Kodak T-MAX 400 for film. Lab developed. 

february 2017—roll 1

So, I'm cheating a bit here. This isn't the first roll of February as much as its the last roll of January, taken at another protest against the Trump administration's travel (read: Muslim) ban. But I sent it to the lab with the February film, so it counts. I shot this on a 6x7 camera, which gives you 10 exposures per roll of film. My goal, with this session, was to capture as many faces as possible. I think I did well, with a series of portraits and crowd shots where faces predominate. The only exception is a photo of an especially creative sign that I couldn't resist.

Of the batch, I'm not sure there's anything in there I'm interested in taking to the darkroom to print. But if you see something you like, leave a note, and I'll get back to you. 

Camera: Fuji GW670II. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400. Lab developed. 

library weekend

Last weekend, I visited two unusually fancy libraries. The first was the Peabody Library in Baltimore. The second was the Library of Congress, here in D.C. The Peabody is absolutely beautiful and one day I will convince someone to let me bring a large camera rig in and do some proper photos. Until then, there's this, which I still like.

As for the Library of Congress, it was an open house day, where the public could visit every wing of the building, including the reading room, for which you otherwise need permission. The grayscale mural is from that room.

Camera: Fuji X100T with wide-angle conversion lens. Processed using VSCO for iOS.

the open path

This is the main path to the Albany Bulb park mentioned in an earlier post. I waited here for about 10 minutes as people passed by to take this photo, and about 10 seconds after I hit the shutter release, a gaggle of dogs came walking by (they had owners, don't worry).

Camera: Fuji GSW690III. Film: Kodak T-Max 400, lab developed.