Saturday, March 31, 2018

then this happened...


Yes, this was made while driving down I-40. I wasn't driving, so everything is cool.

This was made with a Zenit E and an Industar  50-2 lens. The camera and the lens are Russian made and quite industrial as has been written before in other blogs.
The thing is I like them both. They are each no nonsense and just get the job done in a no frills way that I rather like. 

The camera came from a fellow filmwasting friend in the UK, and the lens came from Kiev, via the online auction site we all use.

I bought the lens March 9 and it finally arrived yesterday...seems it sat in the Customs bin in Los Angels for two weeks....?
It's a very small lens, that some refer to as pancake...yeah, it's that petite...kinda like a little Disney princess. 

The film was Ilfrod Fp4, which is a dream to use because it is fine grained, develops easy in caffenol, dries, then lays flat in the scanner.  Truly a girls best friend!

The only hiccup with this camera is it has a knuckle busting rewind knob, and if you don't totally disengage the film for rewinding, the camera is notorious for breaking the film.

I only split mine in one place while rewinding so I feel pretty good...and to think this was not my first time using the camera. I'll just have to be more cautious in the future.
 
 

Friday, March 30, 2018

Out and About


This is a literal cut and pasted together photo made with three vertical shots from my Ansco Pix panorama camera and Kodak Portra 160.

It's a viewpoint made from Elena Gallegos Open Space just north of Albuquerque. This is looking southwest toward the city. It's a lovely area and one I had never been to before.


 As you can see the day was quite nice with crystal blue skies and ribbons of contrails streaming overhead.


Here's a vertical landscape of the same scene just for fun!


 Finally, a photo with the Sandias in the background. I think this place is well suited to return visits throughout the seasons as the colors will be nice as spring and summer, then fall progress.
Next time I'll use some Kodak Gold or maybe some Ektar as I think that will show a truer color.
I like Portra, but maybe not so much for landscapes...

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Think Spring...


Here we are in Springtime.
I should have used a bit more saturated color film, but since I was testing a new to me Zenit 122, Kodak Gold 200 was handy, so that's what this is.

The Zenit came from a friend in the UK along with a Pentacon  f/1.8  50mm lens.


The lens doesn't get rave reviews online, but I'm not one to put much stock in reviews because everyone has different ideas of performance and styles of shooting.
For me, if the lens works, has mostly clear, unscratched and anti-fungal glass, I am a happy camper.

I'm going to go out again tomorrow with this setup and try some more intense color....maybe even some cross process slide film for extra pizzazzness. 

No, that's not a real word...but it could be one day.
At least if will have more of a chance once I get the pizzazz color I'm hoping for.

Monday, March 26, 2018

My, what big grain you have.....




I like a bit of grain in my diet.....
This is what I'd call "whole grain".

Kidding aside, this is from a Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera 
(which I like a lot) using a roll of Lucky 120 film that a friend sent me to try out.
Mercy!  She warned me about the grain, but wow.

This was dunked in the Delta caffenol recipe for 7.5 minutes. I'm not sure if conventional developer would have tamed the grain or made it even more "wholesome".

I have a few more shots from the roll to share in a day or so.

Did I mention the emulsion is curlier than Shirley Temple's hair....
It was quite a challenge to get this stuff to behave on the scanner....curling lengthwise and side to side. 
Not fun. I may have said a few curse words...

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Winter to Spring


A pinhole solargraph set out for the three months between Winter solstice and Spring Equinox.

The streaks on the left side of the frame were left behind by the daily Sun tracks.

The mottling and speckles are water marks and bits of debris left by condensation inside the little pinhole camera from being outside for so long. 

Every time I look at this, I see something different.. 
What do you see?

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

other distractions....

You may have noticed I changed the title of this blog, and added "other distractions" to it.

While I do have a big heart for all things pinhole, I also have a lot of love for many other cameras, especially the Vivitar Wide and slim.
It's a small unpretentious thing and it's usually with me on road trips or just in the truck riding around, just in case. 

With all that, here's another wide and slim photo of an old state boundary line marker.
This one is up in the far northeastern corner of New Mexico where it meets with Oklahoma and Colorado.

Delta 100 film sloshed in home-brew caffenol.
Thanks for stopping by! 


 

Monday, March 12, 2018

something different....not pinhole


The Railyard in Albuquerque is not open to the public, except for market days on weekends.
It's often used as a movie set and has been used in the Terminator franchise. 
The light is amazing, yet a challenge to get on film with a simple little camera like the Vivitar Wide and Slim that I used for this photo.
The joy of using a simple camera is no one really pays much attention to it, so I was somewhat free to wander about to make a few snaps during my last visit there. 
I want to do pinhole here, but hauling a tripod around draws attention and that's not what I want to do...at any cost.
Perhaps later this summer, I will figure out a way to do pinhole using available things already there to offer a stable "tripod" of sorts for the minutes long exposures needed.
In the meantime, if you happen to be in Albuquerque and have a chance to visit the old Railyards during market days I highly recommend it. 
You will find home baked goods, fresh farm raised produce, hand crafts, art and a Goose that tells fortunes! 

P.S. this was done with Delta 100 film, sloshed about in caffenol.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

something newish...


Yes, it's been a few days since I posted.
I've had an ear thing, ache, infection...but that's no excuse.
Here's a pinhole, made when my ear felt better.