Winter Tale

     The bitterness of the winter wind whips my face. The temperature is five degrees above zero. I'm outside thinking, "What the hell am I doing out here?"  But I have this idea, one that I think is unique and interesting and I want to create it through this wonderful photographic process.  I hold the camera steady framing my composition all the while hoping that I've loaded the film properly into the magazine.  I'm fiddling with the f-stop and and shutter speed until it's just perfect and that's when I decide to press the button...and nothing happens.  I realize while my fingers are feeling bloated, that I forgot to pull the dark slide from the filmback of my Hasselblad camera.  With my frozen fingers pulling the dark slide is more difficult, but I manage. Placing it into the pocket of my hoodie, I recalibrate again while getting colder hoping the light doesn't change because it's just perfect right now or it was a minute ago. Now I press the button once more to hear that wonderful "thwacking" sound that my Hasselblad makes.  "It's a perfect image" I think until the doubt starts creeping into my mind a second or two later. 

     The sun is setting fast, so I quickly  advance to the next frame and restart the process once again.  Taking another photo like the last one, then changing the compositions until I've reached the end of the film roll.  I'm thinking to myself as I hurriedly jump back into the car, setting my camera down in the seat next to me, that "I have twelve perfect negatives."  Or at least that's the hope.

     As it turned out, there was two good negatives on that roll of twelve or at least ones I find interesting.  Of those photographs, the one at the top of this rambling, was a creation of that day.  The silhouette of the tree in the coldness of winter backlit by the sun saying, "I'll see you tomorrow",  the coldness of it all; this is my metaphor of winter.  This is how I see and feel it.  It's how I live it.

     I made this photograph using a Hasselbald 503CX camera with the Hasselblad 50MM CF FLE lens.  By adding a red filter, I was able to create a darker image with more contrast.  You can see there are some mid-tones that were also captured in the image.  I used Ilford's Delta 400 film developed in Kodak HC-110 dilution B. 

 

Rollei RPX 25 - Mottling issue

      One of my favorite films of all time was Agfa's APX 25.  The film was produced by Agfa from 1989 to 2000. Although it had the slow film speed of ASA/ISO 25, the film offered fine grain, spectacular detail and fantastic contrast.  At the time, I was printing 16x20 black and white silver gelatin prints and my negatives held up without any substantial grain visible.

     During the great digital rise in the early 2000's Agfa itself fell into bankruptcy and many of its products were picked up by Maco Photo.  Most of the old Agfa films are now branded under the Rollei label which now include Rollei RPX 25.

     I recently purchased two bricks of RPX 120MM film (20 rolls) for my Hasselblad cameras with high expectations.  However, the first roll of film I used had a strange looking defect to it once it was processed and scanned (image below)

     As you can see in the image, there's a strange texture that's visible on the image itself.  This strange pattern appeared on every negative from that roll of film.  At first I thought my developer was bad but after doing some research into the defect, I discovered that other photographers had experienced the same issue.

     Digging around some more showed that the backing paper on the RPX roll of film was the issue.  Photographers were replying to posts saying that heat and humidity was the defining factor causing backing paper to be copied onto the negative during exposure. My own experiments seem to confirm this.  Keeping the film in the refrigerator until use, exposing the film and then placing back into the refrigerator until development time seemed to do the trick.

     After contacting @hellorolleianalog support, I received the following message:  "It is very difficult to give a general cause. There are various factors that can influence the image result. The shooting conditions (temperature and humidity), the storage and the development of the film together have a great influence on the image result.

      We have already been able to confirm the phenomenon of such "spots" on the emulsion in very few cases. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to conclusively determine the cause. It is not always possible to speak of a faulty batch, as the effect does not occur uniformly. Over the last few years, we have been able to further improve the production quality. It is therefore all the more regrettable that your film is affected."

     The mention of the "heat and humidity" leads me to think that the roll of film that I received and used was effected by the conditions of the brutal midwest summer.

     With that information in mind, I tested out a second roll of the film within a controlled environment.  The below abstract image was photographed with Rollei RPX 25 film which was taken directly from the refrigerator, exposed and developed within a matter of two hours.  This image reflects the beauty of this film and what it's capable of.

     Currently most of my photography is indoor still life images so I have a certain amount of control I can employ over with use and development.  However as I write this, here in the midwest it's nearly 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity so to use the film outside in a landscape scene is problematic.  Maybe once fall settles with less heat and humidity the film might be okay for landscapes but until then it's best used inside.

     Finally, if you're using 35MM or 4x5 cameras with RPX 25 film, there is no mottling issue as no backing paper is used for these films.  However medium format users beware. 

The Beauty of Kodak's Tri-X

   

     Do you remember the first photographic film that you ever put into your camera? I'm guessing that many of you may have also used this film when first learning photography.  For me, even though the years have have come and gone that memory stands out like it was just yesterday, Kodak Tri-X 400.  

     Because of the film's great exposure latitude range, Tri-X is often suggested by photographers (both educators and professionals) as the go to film for those just beginning their analog journey.  Kodak's panchromatic offering is also one of it's fastest films with an ISO of 400.  You can easily push this film to 800 or 1600 ISO to give it a gritty grainy look that is most pleasing to the eye.  Perhaps the overall texture and feel of the film has made it one of Kodak's most famous film over years.

     Although the film was re-engineered in 2007, you still have the "classic Tri-X look" which was accomplished even while reducing the amount of silver in the film. On close examination of the photograph of the rose above, you can see that classic look along with the finer grain emanating throughout the photograph.

     Tri-X also gives a beautiful range of tones and punchy contrast.  With that said, personally I've found it a bit difficult to control this film.  The negatives I'm producing are a little flat to my eye.  

  Historically speaking, sometime around 1940, Kodak introduced Tri-X as a sheet film onto the market.  Its initial speed was that of 200 ASA (ISO in today's term).  How film speeds were determined at that time is most likely for the lower rating of the film.  An adjustment to 400 ASA was made somewhere around 1960 more accurately representing its speed.  

     The popularity of Leica's newly introduced M System rangefinder camera helped raise this film fame in the mid 1950's when it was released in 35MM and 120MM.  In an interesting side note, Leica's current film camera, the M-A includes a box of Tri-X in the box with the camera.  What a wonderful touch by 

Leica. 

     Many famous photographers made the switch to Tri-X including Henri Cartier-Bresson during that time.  Modern day photographer Michael Kenna uses Tri-X as his go to film along with his Hasselblad cameras.  Many of Kenna's most iconic photographs have been done using this combination.  I think his book "Forms of Japan" has some of the most beautiful photographs that I've ever seen. Posthumously famous photographer Vivian Maier is said to have also used Tri-X for a lot of her own work also. 

Galaxy Apple

 

　　  I'm quite fond of this image. In it's simplest and purist form, we recognize it as an apple. But when looking at this photograph, it often reminds me of a distant galaxy with stars sparkling in the darkness. The top where the stem resides, descends into a what reminds me of a black hole. White specs of the apple's skin are dancing in the vastness of space. I often imagine what magic or horror would await me if I was alone in my spaceship traveling amongst those glittering specs of light.     　

　　　The image is in itself a homage to the photographer John Caponigro's Apple, New York City, 1964. This image is sometimes referred to as "The Galaxy Apple." Caponigro's work has really captured me over the past year. His image, Scottish Thistle, Rochester, NY 1958 is another one my favorites. He is one of three photographers that are influencing my own work currently.   　

　　　In technical terms, it's somewhat of a failed photograph. When looking closely you can see the softness of the lines which is irritating to me, being one who like the sharpest of sharp images that can be produced with my Hasselblad camera. There's a thinness to the negatives also. I think if I gave my film processing a N+1 development the negatives would have come out slightly denser making for a better darkroom print. For this particular image I used Kodak's T-Max 100 which along with Fuji Acros II, are my favorite films. It was developed in HC-110 dilution B. The print itself was printed on 11X14 Fomabrom VC III paper.