July 2017—Rolls 1 & 2

It takes me entirely too long to upload these photos and write these things. Anyway, this summer I moved away from my usual Tri-X to try a few different black and white films. One of them was Ilford Pan F, a slow technical film with high sharpness and low grain. I shot two rolls in 35mm, which is where these photos come from. As usual, these are snapshots that capture my day to day life—the things I see and want to remember. The one photo in all of this that I really like is of the mailbox, which is in front of an old stockyard not far from my apartment. I guess I also like the first photo in this collection, which is of a car that looks awfully like the design for the first Batmobile.

june 2017—roll 10

Alright, it's the only roll of slides I shot in June. I mentioned in an earlier post that, with the right light and exposure, slides provide a level of vibrancy and tone that you can't get with negative film. There are two photos here—of debris in an alley—that demonstrate the truth of that. 

For those curious about the locations, I shot these either in and around Union Market or in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington D.C. Part of my last bit of photographic exploration before we moved from the area.

june 2017—roll 9

Looks like we're back to color! This is another roll that I shot while on a walk; I was visiting my in-laws in Charlottesville and decided to take advantage of the lovely light. You'll notice these are square format photos—I took these on my vintage folding camera, which I love. My favorite shot of the bunch is of the old Lucky 7 sign. The convenient store is still there, although with the recent burst of development in C'ville, I'm sure for how long.

june 2017—rolls 7 & 8

Depending on the exact negative size (6x4.5, 6x6, etc.) you'll get between 8 and 15 exposures for a roll of medium format film, which makes it pretty expensive relative to 35mm! That tends to be why I tend to shoot medium format on weekends, at events, where I can treat each roll as a record of a particular day, shot with a particular purpose. (I'm still figuring out where my recent foray into large format fits into this, but more on that later.)

I shot these rolls during D.C's Pride Weekend, part of my attempt to capture all the activity in the city those days. This batch has just a few keepers—I wasn't feeling as bold as I usually am when photographing big crowds, and it shows. But I had good time shooting, and that's ultimately what counts.

june 2017—roll 6

I was bored one Sunday morning (I think it was Sunday) and decided to take my bike and my camera for a little ride. I went down to U Street and took photos of anything that seemed interesting. I say this a lot, but it's definitely true in this instance: I'm not sure this is particularly *strong* work. But I had a good time shooting these photos and I cam back to my apartment with my mind a little more active, and ready for the day.

I believe this is Kodak Tri-X, and it was shot on a Fuji 6x7 rangefinder. I made a print from one of these negatives, and it looks *great*.

june 2017—roll 5

I shot a lot of color in June! More than usual. This fifth roll is of Kodak Ektar in medium format, shot on a Fuji 6x7 rangefinder. A quick word about the film: It's a negative film, meaning it has to be reversed to get an image. Color negative was developed for darkroom printing, and it is much easier to use compared to transparency (or slide) film. But I'm just not that *in* to it. Slide film is hard to meter, yes, but it captures a kind of vibrancy that I don't think you can replicate with negative film or even digital for that matter. I'm happy with how these shots turned out, but I think I'm going to start phasing color negative film out of my inventory.

june 2017—roll 4

A little while ago I bought an Olympus XA camera to keep in my pocket. After a few months, I sold it. But I put a few rolls through—mostly old transparency film that was then cross-processed. This is the final roll I shot before I got rid of the camera. There are some decent shots in here, but nothing I would write home about. I think the film is expired Kodak Ektachrome, a gift from an old friend.

June 2017—roll 3

Most of the film I shoot in a given month is medium format. When looking at quality for cost, it provides the most bang for you buck, and I happen to really enjoy the medium format cameras that I have on hand. But I still shoot plenty of 35mm, and lately I've been asking myself "why"? Quality-wise, digital has surpassed small format film. If the advantage of 35mm over other film formats is speed and versatility, digital has that beat many times over. And in any case, I use my 35mm camera as something of a daily diary—a way to record the things I see and observe on the day to day. There's no reason you can't do that with digital.

After thinking about this a lot, the answer I have is just that I like the physicality of film, in all of its forms. I like inserting a cartridge, unwrapping a roll, or loading a sheet; I like the anticipation that builds when you advance the next exposure and the decisive sound of a shutter closing; and I like knowing that regardless of what I ultimately do with them, my photos are physical objects in the world.

That's all to say that this was my third roll of 35mm for the  month o fJune. These 7 photos are the shots I thought worked best. I especially like the one of the young man in the stylish outfit. It was kind of him to let me take his photo. The film itself is Cinestill 50D, a cinematic film adapted for still photography. I think it looks pretty cool, like Kodak Ektar with softer colors. 

june 2017—roll 2

This is my second set of photos from the Tri-X I developed myself. You'll notice that the perspective is somewhat different than the previous set, which is a function of the lens. For these, I used a 50mm prime instead of a 35mm. In the last few months, I've come to realize that I do better with the 50mm perspective; I'm much more adept at removing elements from a frame than including them, which makes wider lenses a little more difficult for me, composition wise. I think I'll still work with wide angles on occasion, but for the foreseeable future (read: beginning with August), I think I will stick with the 40mm to 50mm range.

june 2017—roll 1

There was a time in my life when it was easy to punch out a few hundred words on virtually anything. These days, I have a hard time putting together a hundred words to describe some photos, as demonstrated by the fact that I shot this roll a month ago and am only now—at the end of July—writing about it. 

Anyway.

The film here is Kodak Tri-X that I developed and scanned myself. I shot it as normal, exposing for moderate shadow detail when I metered the scene. As is usual with my 35mm stuff, this is a collection of snapshots from my various travel/exploration/daily movement. I think there a few photos from Austin, Texas in the bunch, but they are mostly from around D.C. Not much else to add, other than I tweaked my development routine a little bit and liked the results a lot.