JorjDotOrg - picture of the day

2010-02-06 Snowy Wall

Acros 100. I'm not sure what the haze in the lower right is from... but that might be the right spot for the hole in the bellows. Perhaps it's time for more superglue. And to get started on the "have the bellows replaced" project.

This is also the first scan posted from an actual film scanner. The difference is, as expected, pretty amazing.

2010-02-03 Walking Right By

More from Bessa! You might think I'm obsessed. You'd be right.

Neopan 400, Reading Terminal Market.

2010-02-01 Bessa Lives!

I've got a few things that need addressing - like the dust on this scan, and apparently focus is important - but the Bessa 66 is functional!

This test shot was from Reading Terminal Market, in front of DiNic's last Friday. Not too shabby for a 1938-era camera.

I dropped off two more rolls today (this is Neopan 400; I also shot some Ilford HP5) and we'll see if I improved any over the weekend.

Some of the technical blunders I ran in to on this roll:

Focus estimation problem (this has no live focus; you focus-by-distance)
Double exposure (~~auto~~manual-wind, and apparently I didn't do that once)
Frame misalignment (Wound too far for one frame, causing two to overlap)
Dust on the scanner, picked up by the film immediately (waaaaaay more than I thought there could ever be)

Miraculously, over- and under- exposure weren't nearly as much of a problem as I thought they would be. I metered the first roll with an actual light meter and my 5D. The next two were done by the Sunny 16 rule (i.e. guesstimating). We'll see how well I did when I get them back tomorrow...

So I think this camera's a keeper. I'll be replacing its yellow filter, and sending it off for a CLA and bellows replacement. As soon as I'm done shooting "test" rolls. ;)

2010-01-31 Till Next Time

From Andi's going away brunch this afternoon at Dos Segundos. Jake came along (while Sue was home decorating cupcakes for a birthday party next week), and declared that "andipantz" was a really awesome name. Yup.

Two other pieces of photographic news:

I bought a cheap +10 77mm diopter and rebuilt the box camera. First results: not stellar; I botched the focus. I'm going to have to come up with a better focusing mechanism now that the optics have surpassed the rest of the tech. May fall back to some combination of the +4, +2 and +1 that came with this $13 el-cheapo set. So my cyanotype work hasn't stopped, and I might be posting something new in a few weeks. And while you're waiting, every box in my house appears to be gaining an extra 77mm hole in one side. :)
As of last Friday, I'm the proud new owner of a Bessa 66. She's older than the one pictured on camerapedia; their photo is of the third version (which has a rangefinder, where my 1938-1941 first generation does not). Baby Bessa's been out for a few test rolls. The first is due back from the lab tomorrow. Can't wait to see what Bessa can do...

2010-01-19 Sadness

One very sad boy. Some day he'll be telling his therapist all about his insensitive clod of a photographer dad.

2010-01-18 Cyanotype

Next week, I'll be teaching a room of 4 and 5 year olds a little bit about film photography. I'll be giving them disposable cameras to shoot with, and figured I'd build a Camera Obscura to show them what's going on inside the camera (and why they can't see the picture as soon as they snap the shutter). I had been thinking about how I could load it up with some sort of film that didn't require a toxic developer, when a co-worker reminded me about "Sun Print" paper. This stuff is some form of cyanotype, reasonably insensitive to light (and therefore easy to handle), and develops in water.

So this weekend, I've been building things and testing with Jake. We built a camera obscura (using a pair of drug-store +2.00 reading glasses to make the image brighter than a pinhole camera - focal length 20") and a quick test showed that there was no way I was going to get any cyanotype reactivity in a reasonable length of time; math shows it's about an f/22 camera, with the paper guesstimated somewhere around ISO 12.

So I found the biggest (cheap) lens I had in the house with the largest area: a Barnes and Noble 4x5 reading magnifier. Focal length, about 6". This is the result of a 1-hour exposure with the subject (our house) in full sun. I developed it in water with a little vinegar, scanned it, and pulled out a little more detail in Photoshop (would have done it all in Lightroom, but Lightroom 2 doesn't have an invert feature).

List of materials:

One cardboard box (a MacBook outer shipping box, 6" deep)
A 4x5 fresnel reading magnifier (mine was B&N several years ago, appears to be discontinued)
One pack of 4x6 "Sun Art" (got mine via Einstein's Toolbox)
Gaffer's tape
Utility knife

I used the acrylic holder from the Sun Art paper to hold the film flat on the back of the box. The hard line on the right edge of the photo is gaffer's tape, holding on the acrylic. The line across the bottom is the edge of the acrylic. And the spot in the lower-left is from the hemostats that I used to pull the film and hold it while dipping.

On the opposite flat side of the box, I cut the 4x5 hole for the lens. I actually cut about a half inch shy on each side, and folded the cardboard into the interior; the lens is mounted to the flaps and can be moved in and out a little bit to aid focusing. It's neither sturdy nor precise.

I taped an envelope over the front as a shutter, and another over the film. Took it outside loaded with film and both envelopes down - opened the box, opened the shutter, composed the shot (projected on the inside envelope). Closed the shutter, removed the inside envelope, taped the box shut. Then opened the shutter and waited an hour. All of this is, of course, overkill for this "film"; the results would probably have been identical without the precautions.

The developing took a little practice to rinse the cyano-whatever off effectively. I started with a flat plate, but found that it tended to pool on the opposite side, leaving streaks as I removed the paper from the water. Vinegar also helped pull the image out a bit better (perhaps 5% solution, and white vinegar). I found that a very tall container worked better with a dip process.

Some of the previous attempts, where you can see either streaks (from improper washing) or patterns (from paper towels - don't use paper towels to dry) are here, here, and here.

2010-01-16 Snowy Sunrise Over Wyncote