Blue Eyes

M3 / 50mm.
I did the usual "take shots of things with small letters" to test the new lens (it is perfect) and then I was walking around with the M3 and a guy stopped me to say he hadn't seen one of those old Leicas in a long time. While he and I were talking, the homeless guy that wanders around our block and sometimes sleeps in the lobby approached for money. He has startling blue eyes.

The guy I was talking with had his wallet out because he was giving me his business card. So it is his dollar this guy is holding. Just as he was handing the dollar - I whipped the camera around, focused and snapped as he looked up from the dollar to me.

50mm summicron

Other business: I traded in the 40mm Nokton Voigtlander lens + n amount of money for a used 50mm Leica f2.0 - which is the lens that I used to have (just shoot me) and always liked so much. Nothing drastically wrong with the 40mm, but it is a little harsh compared to the Leica 50 f/2.0; thankfully the C/V 28mm f1/9 is a great lens.

Also found a replacement takeup spool for the M3 at Tamarkin ($50).

Don't Cross

Church on 104th street.

Iraq Constitution

The Iraqi Constitution (full version)
Here are snippets from the Iraqi Constitution:

Article (2):

1st — Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation:

(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.

(b) No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy.

[It's two - two - two mints in one. Conflict between these two doctrines? Then I guess it goes to the Supreme Ruling Council (see below for membership requirements). ]

From the preamble:

"We the sons of Mesopotamia, land of the (messengers), prophets, resting place of the holy imams, the leaders of civilization and the creators of the alphabet, the cradle of arithmetic: on our land, the first law put in place by mankind was written; in our nation, the most noble era of justice in the politics of nations was laid down; on our soil, the followers of the prophet and the saints prayed, the philosophers and the scientists theorized and the writers and poets created."

[Okay, I'm fine with some boasting in the preamble, but subtle it's not].

Italics are mine.

* * *

YOUR RIGHTS: Article (17):

1st — Each person has the right to personal privacy as long as it does not violate the rights of others or general morality.

[The general morality phrase - that's like the Sanity Clause in Night at the Opera; and I'm fairly certain it will exclude me from the process].

* * *

Article (36): The state guarantees, as long as it does not violate public order and morality:

1st — the freedom of expressing opinion by all means.

* * *

5th — The accused is innocent until his guilt is proven in a just, legal court. The accused cannot be tried for the same accusation again after he has been freed unless new evidence appears.

* * *

7th — Court sessions will be open unless the court decides to make them secret.


* * *

10th — Punitive law shall not be applied retroactively unless it is best for the defendant.
[Father knows best]

* * *
ON BEING PRESIDENT:

3rd — have a good reputation and political experience and be known for his integrity, rectitude, justice and devotion to the homeland.

4th — not have been convicted of a crime that violates honor.


ON THE SUPREME COURT:

2nd — The Supreme Federal Court will be made up of a number of judges and experts in (Islamic Jurisprudence) and law, whose number and manner of selection (work) will be defined by a law that should be passed by two-thirds of the parliament members.

* * *
Do you think there are any loopholes in this? I had the feeling I was reading something from a Marx Brothers movie.

But remember, I am free to say this in Iraq unless they decide otherwise. And you are free to comment on this unless I decide to forbid it.

Bloomberg Bldg.

The Bloomberg Building - I didn't know what it was when I first walked by it - is a tremendous sweep of glass and steel which almost whips around a wide space like a wave. I walked into the curl and was about to point el camera up when two guards approached waving their hands at me from about fifty yards away.

I put the camera back down and waited for them.

I know - no pictures, I was thinking to myself. But I wanted to hear them say it. So I just stood there like a confused tourist.

"No pictures! No pictures!" Both of them shouted.

Now they were near me.

"Beautiful building," I replied. "When was it built?"

And they told me it was finished in 2004. While I was chatting with them two other guards appeared - off to my left. These were higher level guys, with those wires going into their ears, and although it was night - they were wearing dark glasses and talking into their hands.

"Well, thank you very much for your time..." And I began to walk away past the two secret service looking guys. One of them had what looked like a PDA and was writing in it.

Oh well, would have made a nice picture. I'm sure I could go on the web and find one just as good as anything I was going to take.

M3 Date

I looked up the date (approximate) of the M3. It was towards the end of a particular run of this version (of the M3) during 1955.

In other words, this camera is 50 years old. Well that certainly must have been a different sort of world that made things like this. Will the future archeologist dig up through technological layers and find that the last strata before the digital age was the mechanical / atomic age?

How long did the mechanical age last? A few hundred years? I wonder how long the digital age will last. And what will come after it in the technology stratum.

Crossing

Oh - the search for images looks like idleness on the outside. Standing on the corner, watching the shadows go by. How long should I do this for? Why am I doing it? What do I expect? I don't know. I hadn't tried shadows in water before. Well, why should I care about shadows in water? But the tone is different. There's some texture in the water. And besides - that shadow on the left - looks like "the missing link." But really. How can you explain the reason for it all?

The same goes for any obsession I guess. You can't really explain it.

Yes, yes - but why does that guy wanna take pictures of our feet?

Tiffany & Co.

From last night... Everytime I stepped back off the sidewalk (5th Avenue) I nearly got hit by a cab. I did lot's of shots with people walking by - but I like this one best. I am going, with the next roll I shoot - to experiment with shooting the tri-x at 800 so I can stop motion better at night.

Leica M3 Spools

Man... I do love this camera (except for the loading). Anyone know where I can get additional takeup spools for this baby? I know there is also a quick load kit, but from what I've read it's actually faster to keep a couple of pre-threaded rolls in your bag.

You would have all had a good laugh if you could have seen me sitting on a bench in Central Park tonight loading the camera. I was tempted to call this post: TO THE VICTOR GO THE SPOOLS but if the title is too long it messes up the blog layout.

Summer of '05

- The Mets are in the hunt for the wildcard. Today they are only 1.5 games out.

- Started but didn't finish several projects:
adding other photographers to the site
The 11th Man Book (text and images). AG has supplied the text which needs some editing.

Seven Chapters of Photographs (I designed the template for the book with InDesign) but haven't put the images in yet.

Same for the Bronx Book - perpetually unfinished.

Didn't raise the prices on prints or add as many as I wanted for sale.

I got involved in the switch away from digital which was unexpected and not on the list as the summer began.

Didn't send out the CD with images from relatives' party. Some sort of mental block going on here that

On the done side:
- upgraded to the Epson 4800.

- got to a good point with my film / developer combination

- made the switch back to film without any excessive expense. Sold off several items privately and the rest to B&H. Went through the camera testing phase and emerged with the R2A and the M3 double-stroke. (The M3 is actually easier to focus than the R2A, though it is a minor difference). Did some low-light tests in the house with focusing and the R2A and M3 agreed on the distance - exactly. It's just that it was quicker to focus with the M3, maybe because of the longer Effective Base Length.

- cleaned out the bathroom and organized it nicely for film development; ie. lots of room for storing the various gadgets.

- Finally, after many years, got a quick response thermometer

- Totally did away with the notecard option which was a pure money loser

- Began vacuuming almost everyday - which gets rid of most of the cat hair.

- Switched blog formats from RadioLand to Blogger which I think has some benefits.

- Solved the USB problem with One Touch drives by switching to firewire and installed a second 250 GB One Touch Drive. The whole freakin' system is stable.

- Sales were much higher in August than any other previous August. All but two orders are shipped.

- Did two complete laundries. Time for another one.

- Answered lots and lots of e-mails. Ah, where is the form letter I need for when people write that I've inspired them. Something along the lines of what you get when you write your congressman / woman / person / idiot. On the plus side - lots of good advice from blog readers. Maybe it evens out.

- Didn't post much about my politics and stuck to photography.

- After many years in this business - didn't make a business plan. All the books I read about starting a business insisted that the business plan was critical to success.

- Made inkjet business cards which weren't very impressive. Yesterday ordered more professional looking cards.

- Learned a tremendous amount about Photoshop (nobody ever knows everything they need to know since it is a bottomless program; but I know what I need to).

- Designed website for another photographer.

- Made a couple of good images.

Yiddish Proverb

Cleaning Sewer

The M3 / 40mm Nokton. The M3 appears to be in perfect working condition. And you know what - fun to use. I took a couple of readings with a pocket light meter before I started and then never looked at it again.

* * *

You know, in these days of ultra-suspicion - the virtually silent camera might make a dramatic comeback. And yes, believe it or not - a passerby asked why I was taking pictures of the sewer. So maybe the ultra-silence can't win against the ultra-suspicion. In the olden days, I was often asked why I was taking a certain picture - even of sewer covers - but the questioning was just curious and well-meaning. Now there is almost always an edge to the inquisition.

So given my prediction that this current war will last at least a hundred years - might as well get used to it. Unless you want to go out to the hinterland (hi Bill) and photograph cows. What is it like photographing outside the city anyway?

How does the scenic photographer get into trouble.

Hey, that's a pretty big rig you've got there. What are you doing taking that picture of Mt. Rainier? Did you know that was government property?

Now that I think about it - everything is someone's property. I think even the moon has been claimed.

Maybe there's some utopia where everything belongs to everybody. Instead of one store owner coming out to stop you - a mob of owners approach... Hey - wait a second, I yell. Part of that storefront belongs to me - me the people.

But then they'd want to see my party card - and since I was just a lowly artist (with a bad record) someone authority would step from the mob.

Next thing you know - off to the photographic gulag to be taught some useful job, like sweeping gutters.

No - I guess I'll stick with this system for now.

Closing Shop

This was the one that I thought last night was "so good." And you know what - still like it. But it isn't like I remember it - when I was shooting it, the girl on the ladder looked completely silhouetted, and I thought I was closer. What I did remember: her shape, the bright bands on the arms, and the woman next to her. Yes, shot with the 28mm.

Maybe just a male thing, but I don't usually see such good torsos lit that well on my nightly journeys.

Rangefinders Redeux

I returned the CV R3A, and stopped by the used dept. at B&H. I looked at several nice Leica M6's but they were a touch expensive. The sales guy - who I know for many years - showed me a very clean double-stroke M3. I bought it. $850. I know I could probably find an M6 on the web for the same price or close to it, but I like (as I've said before) - doing these transactions in person.

What a strange summer. Backwards through time. Next thing you know I'll be using a camera obscura.

* * *

"When you make an equipment purchase do you look at in terms of how many typical orders or prints that you need to sell to pay for it?" JBee

The short answer: No.

The longer answer: I'm driven by necessity. What is going to get me further along with my prints (which doesn't mean that I'm right). I agonize about the money. I just try to keep it all as even as possible in terms of money outlay. It is a rough estimate. With the trade-in of the old equipment - and switching to Rangefinder equipment and neg. development - I'm probably out about $500. That doesn't include film / developer and wasted testing time.

When I had "a real job" money was of very little concern and I just bought whatever I wanted at the time and had much more expensive equipment than I do now.

More Film

Hooked up the 2nd 250 GB One Touch via firewire without any problems and did a load of copying to it.

::

Last night, I took what may be one of my best shots ever. But it is at the beginning of a roll of film. I was so tempted to just put that roll with four shots into the soup... but won't. That is the major difference between film and digital - and it may be a good thing as you are sort of in the lottery - waiting to see if you won or not. And you have all that time to dream about what you'll do if you do hold the winning ticket.

I won't say what the shot is - because that would surely jinx it, but for walking around stuff at night - real potential if I didn't screw it up. The reason I went out was just testing my theory that the R2A was really easier to focus than the R3A, which is now sitting in it's box waiting to return to the great recycle bin of B&H Photo.

Tri-X

So has the Tri-x emulsion changed so much since I last used it 35 years ago? The old Tri-X negs I still have - have a more pronounced grain. I was using D-76 at that time. The new ones are in Ilfotec DD-X and have much less pronounced grain. I did several 11 x 14's from the Tri-X / Ilfotec and was surprised that you had to look pretty close to see the grain. Or it could be I still had my contact lens in. Oh, there are always variables - even in the film world.

CV R3A v. R2A

After a while with both cameras and this may be specific to the two I have since I'm not in a position (yet) to test every production camera:

- The viewfinder in the R3A is less contrasty and not as bright as the one in the R2A.

- It is actually easier to focus the R2A than the R3A. Although I have discovered that if you move your shooting eye a bit off the viewfinder, focusing is better, though still not as easy as the R2A.

- With a 40mm lens on the R3A, it is difficult to get a sense of the framing, since your eye moves all over the place; i.e. you can't really see the whole frame at the same time. However, I think that with longer lenses it should be better... maybe... but I think I'm going to return the R3A tomorrow while I still can and stick with the R2A.

- Oh, one other thing: the vertical gaps between negatives weren't even with the R3A. One thin gap, then a large gap, then a thin gap ... Made cutting some of the negs. difficult.

Problem not present with the R2A.

Couple, Museum

Museum Scene

On the Cross

Subway Cams

New York Times (Today)

Officials unveiled the high-tech future of transit security in New York City today: an ambitious plan to saturate the subways with 1,000 video cameras and 3,000 motion sensors and to enable cellphone service in 277 underground stations - but not in moving cars - for the first time.


Two scenarios are presented in the article:

In the first, a person tries to enter a secure facility using an expired electronic access card; a computer detects and signals the security breach on an aerial photograph of the area. Officials would pinpoint the site, watch the attempted entry on a video monitor and send a security officer to check out the situation.

So they publish in the New York Times that expired security cards will be detected. Isn't it odd that expired cards weren't being detected up to now. And while we're at it let's publish this and make sure the terrorists know how the system works.

In the second, a briefcase is left on a busy Midtown subway platform. As a camera beams live images, software can differentiate the moving people from the motionless package, sending off an alert about an unattended, suspicious object. Police officers with bomb-sniffing dogs would be sent to the platform.

If the criterion is not-moving, they'd better get the sleeping homeless out of the area or they're going to be visited by bomb-sniffing dogs all day and that isn't going to be pleasant for the homeless or the dogs.

Seriously - how can they tell the difference between a package and a bench that's been replaced. How could they possibly detect a package placed under a bench, or in a garbage can...

And oh, haven't the bad guys been putting the bombs in cars, not on platforms?

This falls under the category of "anything is better than nothing."

But one note of interest: they will have cameras in the darkest of subway tunnels. I expect to see footage from these cameras used on the Discovery Channel in their latest study of rodent life.

I'm not going to go off down the "Big Brother Is Here" tract because I don't care if the State photographs me going on and off the subway if it would help prevent an attack. But I doubt that this melange of video feeds would prevent anything.

However, this will - for sure - be useful after an attack in identifying who the bad guys were. And I would sell it as such.

My only advice is that if you are short and look like a large unwieldly duffel bag, take care not to nod off on a subway bench unless you want to wake to yapping bloodhounds and a SWAT Team.

Today

My plan for today: more printing (will do some of the new stuff), matting and packaging. Then a nap. And then out to stalk the streets again tonight.

I hit the trifecta last night: three separate orders came in within an hour. That's a first.

Also, an e-mail arrived saying that my site was difficult to navigate and that it was impossible to figure out how to order prints.

* * *

I'm still on the first set of 110 ml cartridges for the 4800. It looks like "light magenta" will go first, then the set of 3 black / gray / light light gray cartridges. Given that 99% of what I've done is b&w - where is that light magenta going?

Girl on Corner

Canon 5D

Wow. I think my timing was perfect in terms of getting rid of the 20D. The next model was just announced: the Canon 5D, with all the features you've been waiting for and which I've given up on.

My first reaction was - it is so nice not to have to go through the next generation of digital lust. I have a roll of film that I think has some good stuff on it - and instead of concentrating on the features of the new 'wow' thing; I can imagine what something I shot last night will look like.

In other words, instead of feeling: oh my God. I should have kept the Canon lenses and used the 20D as a backup - my first thought was how the prices of used 20D are now going to drop.

Of course - cameras (sans Leica) have always had their upgrade cycle - but the digital cycle is going at warp speed. "Captain - I can't hold her together much longer!" Scottie in every episode of the original Star Trek.

Doorway, Night

I just walked around last night until I found a hallway with lighting that I liked. I was switching lenses when a guy in his underwear with an empty pizza box appeared in the hallway. "Are you paparazzi?" he asked. "Yeah. I'm waiting for Woody Allen."

At that point all I could do is ask if I could take his picture - to which he of course said: Absolutely not. Turned and hurried back.

Two seconds later, as I was about to take this shot, a young woman entered the building, but as she did so, she put a big pocketbook up to shield her from the camera.

"Sorry," I said.

"What is there - someone famous in here?"

"No - it was just the light..."

Turns and goes.

Current Developer

"So what is the magical film/developer/development time for film? Just might try it." - Craig

I'm afraid there's no magic involved, just following Ilford's guidelines:

TRI-X / ILFOTEC DD-X (1:4) / 8 minutes / 5 inversions per minute / 68F. I've been using a cold water bath as well given the weather. The temperature going in was 67F, coming out 69F. I've gotten more pleasing results with this combination than doing it up at 75F for 6 minutes.

Swinging Kid

Lilly Pond

Film

Lots of surprise by the switch to film: e-mails, as well as shocked friends just returned from vacation who voiced some worry about my mental state. (Man - are you nuts?)

Let me try and offer a summary:

Dear Reader (to take the Victorian voice),

I was just talking with someone about this yesterday, and the more I talked, the more items I listed in the move back to film. Here are the points I remember.

One day, I had a large batch of prints to do on the 4800. Both digital captures and prints from film. I was getting to see a lot of my own work side by side. Now the first factor - was the new printer. It was fast enough so that I was holding and looking at several prints at the same time. Not to mention that the prints from the 4800 were better able to hold the blacks better - in fact able to reproduce the negative / digital capture better.

Something was rotten in the state of digital. Or was it something that was present: a sort of smoothness that I should have liked, but didn't. After all, didn't we all go up to medium and large format for smoothness? But there was something too smooth in the prints from digital. What exactly it was I still can't say, but the prints via film felt like they had character (for want of a better word).

That character (which I can't describe) but which probably comes from the b&w era that I grew up in - is actually important. Oh I know. You grew up around the same time and you love digital prints. So it can't be that alone. So I can't explain it very well. But the practical considerations are easier:

The digitals had been seriously worked over in Photoshop. In some cases, you might have four or five or more layers; masks; various plug-ins used; all to try and recreate a feeling I got from film.

I had to make a print of Night Bus (an old 35mm film shot). The gray streaks as the bus pulled out were still magical to me. The blackness of the night - it looked like it should. And the print was made without any work in Photoshop. Straight out of the negative scanner.

Sort of scary. I had invested a lot of time, money and effort moving through the digital cycle.

Obviously I was happy with it - at first - or I wouldn't have moved on to the 20D. The whole digital adventure took me almost exactly one year. I picked up the Canon A75 one day after the July 4th fireworks.

I began wondering about all this - this July.

And I still like the 20D. I would wish it a brighter and bigger viewfinder, but it was the best viewfinder of any of the low- to middle Canon autofocus SLRs. I guess with the advent of autofocus it wasn't that important to see what you were shooting anymore. Or maybe there's a technical reason for the dimmer viewfinders - though I doubt it since you can get a very good one if you go to the top of the Canon film line.

But there were other factors sneaking in as well:

- It's nice to have a negative as your "archival" backup. Disk after disk was filling with images. Then offloaded to DVDs. Sometimes to dupe DVDs just to be extra careful. Yes, I could buy more hard drives. Maybe invest in RAID. It was getting more and more expensive - especially since the next digital camera in my sights would produce even larger files.

- With digital, at some point you are going to dump every file - good and bad - to media of some kind. Film: you contact sheet or look on a lightbox - if you're lucky you may have one or two on a roll worth scanning.

- In short the storage / archival issues with digital are much more demanding than with film.

- The film shots have a greater dynamic range (once you get your exposure and processing down).

- I like my lenses - uncropped by the medium. With the current crop of Canon lenses, you are simply cropping off a big part of the "image circle." You can compensate by using shorter lenses, but then you are also changing the character again - more depth of field in a narrower field.

I had the whole Canon rig: from flash to a multitude of prime lenses. If I was going to jump to film - first choice would have Canon. I bought their Canon 7. Quiet. Dim viewfinder. Felt like plastic. Returned it.

The top-of-the-line Canons (as mentioned): noisy and imposing.

So if Canon was out. Might as go from scratch. Best viewfinders in current production cameras: rangefinders. They had to be since they were manual focus. Quiet, at least compared to the big motor-driven behemoths. Which eventually led to the Voigtlanders...

More factors that came up in our conversation:

If you are shooting b&w, you're still originally doing the capture in color when you use digital - so you are dealing with an additional factor: white balance which effects the b&w conversion.

Digital for commercial work or reportage - you need the speed of transmission. You don't need it for my usual strolling around waiting and hoping strategy.

Some points can be argued but I'm just writing how the decision was made - and that it is ultimately based on something akin to - dare I say it - an emotional feeling towards the look of film - and the fact that film is something you can touch, and hold up to the light and take a gander at.

Best --

Dave

Rain Delivery

Man, Flag

Two More Rolls

Shot two rolls with the R3A and mostly with the 28 f1.9. They're washing. A couple of thoughts: it is always nice to have the extra f-stop. No, not the 1.9 as opposed to f2.0 but the f2.0 instead of f2.8.

The 28mm external viewfinder is so bright that it makes my own sight seem dim. It's a tiny little thing, rectangular. I forgot I even had it with me at first - it was in my pocket. I shot with it a lot as it got darker - and it was very handy.

The 28mm certainly feels well constructed, and after getting used to SLR lenses, even this lens seemed small. And it does have a tab thing that you can turn. I always find this useful for focus without looking. The little "red mark" on the screw mount adapter is hard to see. I'll probably correct this at some point.

The 1:1 frame on the R3A, as I thought - is pretty darned wide with the 40mm to see everything at once. But it will be perfect for the 75mm.

One other thing about film. It is still exciting to remember certain shots - and then see if I got them or not.

B&W Rambling...

I have the Ultron 28mm f1.9, a 28mm viewfinder as well as the R3A.

* * *

I fell asleep last night wondering what the first images were that I could remember. Of course I once told my mother that I remembered little blue birds and butterflys when I was crib-bound.. She told me there was one of those circling mobile things over my crib with birds and butterflys but she tried to convince me that I must have seen it on my younger sister's crib.

Oh no - hers were pink - I insisted.

After that, it must be a jump of a few years - and I remembered the labels on the 78 rpm records they used to play to put me to sleep: mostly the lives of famous musicians: Chopin, Franz Liszt, Beethovan. There were black paper cutouts portraits of the musicians...

Oh - it was all black and white alright. I dream in color, but I see in black and white.

Newspapers - obviously hadn't discovered how to print those smeary mis-aligned color shots.

Color television - just around the corner.

Manual typewriters. Black on white. No screens. White paper. Carbon paper. White-out.

The world may have been in color, but the information tunnel came through in black and white.

The movies - there were already color movies - but most were still black and white.

I can't remember any color on the streets where I grew up. You had concrete; gray-looking buildings. Whether there was a tree or a bush anywhere - I can't recall any.

The world was rectangular, with sharp edges; mostly gray - with daubs of black and white.

The men wore gray hats with dark suits over white shirts. Gray hats to top them off.

Color only arrived with women, food and the occassional sports car which spun down the boulevard.

Sure, there was some color. My bedroom walls were blue, but a thin watery blue painted over chalky white.

And there was the tropical fish tank. Neon fish. Vivid orange guys who kept losing their tails to the zebra fish. This was our home entertainment center. But every few months they'd all die off of some mysterious disease. The tropical fish must have sensed that they had landed in the wrong black and white world.

Colorful creatures always died off ahead of their time: the rabbit with the pink eyes; the brilliant green turtles never lived through a winter. My loud neighbors - flashes of color you met in the hallway - I think they were from New Orleans - they moved after two years.

My father - I have some pictures of him age 30 and my mother - wore severe black rimmed glasses...

It was - at best - a desaturated world I grew up in: popping flash bulbs creating harsh shadows. Burning your fingertips as you popped them from the dish. Later, blue cube flashes for the instamatic.

That spinning cube flash was a tremendous leap since you could fire it off four times and it would revolve to a fresh bulb for each shot. Though you did have to remember how many times you had used it.

And, if I'm not mistaken, you stuck a cartridge in the instamatic. I don't think you had to actually touch any film.

I always took the family pictures. I was deemed to be technical because I knew how to load the film and advance it. There are the pictures of my parents and sisters in Washington on the steps of the Capitol. I'm nowhere to be found. I was seven when we went. The pictures from that trip are hanging on my sister's wall...

Mailman

Legality

Hi Dave,

What are the legalities involved with selling your prints (or publishing a book for that matter) that prominently feature people in the images you create - are release forms or something to that effect required? (B.G. Oregon)

- - -

I get asked this a lot. My understanding - and it might be wrong is that if you take pictures of people for "editorial" use (i.e. not for an advertisement) and you are on public property, and you aren't defaming them -- you can display them on the web or print them and sell them without a release. If they aren't identifiable - then for editorial they are definitely not a problem. And I imagine the laws are different by country, possibly by state.

(Am I anywhere near correct?) Probably not. But for sure it is not practical to get model releases for street work.

Black Stairs

A Little Romance

worm returns

Zotab.x is the latest worm/virus to make its' way around the world.

Don't the attachments have to be in the form of something executable? Couldn't you simply prevent anything like .scr, .exe, .com, .bat .doc from being saved or run from an e-mail.

If someone had a jpg with the worm, and they opened the jpg - the worm couldn't start executing, could it? I don't think so.

Somebody told me that it was possible for an attachment to infect your PC without actually opening it. What do you think? Is that true?

To Do List

- Package and figure out postage for two Canon pieces to England
- One print of Eiffel tower
- Finish second roll of tri-x (go and and shoot) so I can get into habit of developing two rolls at same time
- Keep reading reviews of lenses: right now I'm leaning towards the CV 75 2.5 and the CV 28mm 1.9; have read good things about both lenses. The 90mm is supposed to be very sharp as well but it's long and even if I end up with the second 1:1 R3A (which I will) - I've never been crazy about the 90mm on the rangefinder
- Pack up the rest of the Canon lenses for B&H (to bring tomorrow)
20mm f2.8, 24mm f2.8, 28mm f2.8, 35mm f2.0, 100mm f2.0, 70-200 f4, 1.4x converter, 550ex flash
- Buy a truckload of Tri-x and Ilfotec dd-x as well as a better thermometer. I have the cheap Kodak thermometer and it takes forever to react; would like a more instant reading
- Read the completed 11th Man text
- Hook up the One Touch 250 gb drive that's been sitting here for a week
- Get my clothes cleaned
- Get myself cleaned
- Put lightbulb in the kitchen (it's only been out for about three months)
- Read story GR sent
- Fill out forms for sales tax (I'm behind with payment)
- Buy cat litter (sorry Buddy, I've been negligent)
- Send print to AG
- Two prints to mat for J.
- Bring in cat psychologist to find out why cat is waking me at 4 a.m.
- Write something interesting in blog

Finished
- Package for England ready to drop off
- Bulb changed in the hallway and the kitchen!
- This will have to count as interesting blog material
- Wasn't on the list but I vacuumed. The amount of cat hair - I wonder if there's any market for cat hair? Maybe stick it on some of those bald cats?
- Told the mailman to stop delivering me those super-sized dermatology magazines. About a year ago I ended up on their list and they seem to think I'm a doctor. I've even had two calls asking for rates for some procedures. Don't know what that's about. If you want a shave, I might be able to manage that. And one of my ex-girlfriends showed me how to open your pores by draping a towel over your head and holding your face over a pot of boiling water. That's as far as my dermatology expertise goes.
- - -

Yesterday, Barrett stopped by and was going to loan me one of his Hexars with the 28mm to test out. I took a couple of shots with the 28mm on my camera etc. But I'm going to stick with the Bessa because a) I get confused if I have to switch cameras b) the Voigtlander 28mm is faster and c) well, I don't know if you can buy these things new... I like the idea of popping down to B&H to return a camera if something ain't right during the first week.

But the Hexar viewfinder is contrasty and bright. It's quiet - but in a different way than the Bessa. With the Bessa you probably have a louder shutter noise, but no high-pitched whir afterwards as film is advanced - and even that ain't so bad. No, I've decided that as long as I'm going RF - I'll go for the fastest lenses I can find.

today

was a very busy day - packaging and matting (which is the most time consuming part of this business). Just about caught up - and two more orders arrived. But somehow, on my way to and from the Fedex drop-off I found time to finish off another roll of tri-x. This time - not test shots - just shooting when something looked interesting.

The more I use the new RF the more I like it. I don't have this "obsession" with anything else that I can think of: t.v. is old; stereo is old; fridge looks like it's from about 1950; clothes - just wear them until they shred; air-conditioner: old; still have the same three lamps I bought when I moved in here 12 years ago; only new furniture - a $10 folding chair for people who would like to sit when they come by.

Even the cat's frugal: one brand of dry cat food and that's it. I've offered him luxury foods but he just makes a funny face, licks his lips and backs off. Low maintenance....

Trigger Winder

You know, the trigger winder for the R2A / R3A ain't bad. Can you shoot faster with it? I'm not sure, but it is stealthier since you don't see the film being advanced. I'm practicing pulling the lever and being able to focus with the same hand, ie. without removing my left hand from the winder. That is a challenge but it is possible. The main thing is to make sure you don't poke yourself in the stomach with the lever.

My Canon lenses are migrating back into the used market. I don't expect I'll use it until the next turn of the cycle - probably in two or three years. I don't actually think that I'll revert - but I have a bad history of spinning through various equipment.

Perhaps there is a group called Camera Sellers Anonymous that I can join.

"Hi. My name is Dave Beckerman. I am a compulsive camera recycler."
"Hi Dave"
"I guess it began about fifty years ago when my mom gave me a brownie. After a few months I read about the Instamatic and I wanted one... rom there I went to the harder stuff: Pentax Spotmatic; Canon AE1... and so on and so on. I admit that I am helpless and call on a higher power to release me from this compulsive behavior..."

Chutes and Ladders

My father (now in his 80's) has been sending me stories about his childhood in Cleveland. This is one of them. Oh, and in case you grew up in the city like me - a grannary is one of those tall silos that are used to store grain in.

I was about 10 years of age. We were living in Cleveland, Ohio near a railroad station and an abandoned six story granary. I decided to climb over a fence and enter the tall, grey building. It was an adventure and a challenge. There was a lock on the wooden moldy door. I pulled on it as hard as I could and it came off in my hand. I opened the cracked door slowly, very slowly and peered in: pitch black. Strange smelly odors, maybe dead mice or worse. The windows were covered with spider webs, some of dangling down from the ceiling to the floor.

Once inside my eyes got used to darkness, I could see the outline of a steel ladder. I took a few short steps over the creaky floor, and reached to touch the frame of the ladder. Without looking up or down, I climbed the ladder, one step at time, feeling my way to the next step and finally came to the top step of steel ladder and the second floor of the building.

A shaft of light came through one of the shuttered windows and to my horror; I recognized that there were huge circular holes in the floor three feet to the right of the ladder!

I decided to climb to the next floor of the building and there again were these huge circular holes in the floor, only three feet from the ladder. .

I realized that these huge circular holes were on every floor. One false step, and I would fall through the holes on the different floors until I hit the ground floor. This was scary because once at the top of the steep ladder, I needed to take two steps to my right to climb the next ladder.

I took tiny steps, testing the floor ahead of me. One wrong step and I was a goner. I stopped counting the floors. I only knew one thing: I had to keep going. Although terrified, it never occurred to me turn back and go down the ladders.

After an eternity, I reached the roof of the building. Looking over the edge, I could see the park and the neighborhood playground, and just up the block, I could see my house. I had a wild idea: take off my shirt, flutter it in the air, and then throw it over the edge. Someone would see it flutter to the ground, realize where it came from, and perhaps come up and save me, or call the police but all I did was to sit there shivering in the sun, holding back tears.

At that moment, contemplating the danger of climbing down to the bottom of the building, floor by floor, I froze. I could see myself hurtling through the open holes to my death.

I found the first ladder and descended slowly, step by step. I needed to stop at the bottom of each ladder and wipe my hands because I was sweating profusely. On one floor, I lay down on my back, with my head toward the ladder and swept the floor around me with my feet touching the rim of the chute. This was still not enough to me. I then got on my knees and reached in the direction of the ladder. This worked on all of the floors except on one floor which instead of the ladder, I felt the rim of the open chute. I faced in the opposite direction, and ended up touching the tip of the ladder from the floor below.

By the time I had climbed down four or five ladders, I didn't trust my judgment. I crawled slowly toward what I thought was the direction of the ladder, reached into my pocket, found a marble, and dropped it into the space which turned out to be a chute, rather the ladder. What floor was I on? How many more floors were there?

If I stayed there, maybe someone would come looking for me? Should I try hollering? I really wasn't that far from the play ground. I hollered once or twice. The sound of my own voice scared me!

I heard a train go by. I knew that I must be near the bottom of granary. I crawled slowly on my knees, hands slowly sweeping the floor in front of, until I came to an opening in floor. I felt the rim of the opening and the steel bar. Ever so slowly, I lowered myself down, and realized that I was on the ground floor of the granary. For a moment I sat down, overjoyed at being on the ground but impressed with myself that I undertaken this adventure and was home safe. I climbed back over the fence, jumped to the ground, turned around and looked to the enormous abandoned stone building.

For years, given the slightest pretext, I would tell the story of granary experience. At a young age, it would provide me with an opportunity to impress friends and strangers with my bravery. Later on in life, I would reflect on the experience, and would realize the danger and risk involved in the experience and wonder what I was trying prove? 70 years later I ponder that question.

One Umbrella

When I first began using rangefinders - years ago - I got myself to wear one-contact lens in my shooting eye. I've been doing that ever since. But last night when I went out to buy cat food and got caught in the downpour - no contact lens. I was shooting at f1.4 at 1/15th of a second.

So these were done by manually setting the focus on the lens - guestimating distance with the 40mm.

Couple, Storm

Tattoo Reflection

I've gotten the look that I'm after. This was done in bright sunlight: Tri-x, dd-x, 6 minutes, 75F. The shots I took in deep shade look fine as well. Au revoir to le testing. BTW, the light meter on the R2A has been very consistent. Luke sent me a note about it being "bottom-weighted" which is definitely true. It doesn't care much about the sky which is nice since I don't either.

Hot

Hot. Very hot... Sidewalks melting... Streets deserted...

Since I got the R2A I've developed 20 rolls of film - one at a time for testing purposes. I'm going to develop one more roll of Tri-x in Ilfotec DD-X and then call it a week.

The rapid winder: now that is an odd contraption. Yet I'm sort of getting used to it. Adds a bit of heft and a small grip to the camera.

Can you use a "real" motorized drive with the R2a? If you can, that's probably a better bet.

Cuts

This was underdeveloped by accident - I read the times wrong - but still not bad (Tri-x / DD-X; I did it for 6.5 minutes instead of 8 minutes).

And always remember - the one group of New York denizens that love to be photographed: hair stylists. If you come to New York and want to find relaxed people who are thrilled to have a camera pointed at them - stop by any of the hair salons on the Upper East Side. I don't know if this generosity extends to the West Side.

On the Corner

of 86th and Lex.

Tri-x in Ilfotec DDX.

tri-x

Cat on Pipe

I'm getting closer... These were done with Tri-x and TMAX developer. I've seen different times for this film. Inside of the box says, 6.5 minutes; TMAX developer says, 6.0 minutes. I did it at 6 minutes / 400 ASA / 6 minutes / a bit less agitation then the recommend.

More Film

Dispite the heat - I've been out shooting a lot. The odd thing is that I picked up a roll of PLUS-X and a roll of TRI-X of all things. I also shot a roll of TMY @ 200. And Fujifilm Neopan 400 has been recommended by a few but I can't buy it in the neighborhood. Maybe on Sunday.

This could be some sort of multi- mid-life film crisis. Ah, I remember the beautiful gray tones I got from Plus-X. And - on top of all that - I actually got some good shots:

- Water main broke and they dyed the water red. So lots of people stopping on the corner with puzzled expressions as if this was some sort of conceptional art exhibit - which in a way it became. Can't say there were a bunch of HCB type of jumping over the puddle - New Yorkers mostly walk around it. But there were lots of puzzled expressions - everyone asking me if I knew what it was all about.

And then I found a stray cat wandering around through these sort of underground passages created by steps and garbage bins - and followed the cat around for about a half hour.

Even found the source of the water main break and took some welding shots. All in all - a good morning.

I think I should at least keep some variables constant - so it's either HC110B or TMAX Developer for all of them...

Oh and speaking of Tri-x and Plus-x there seems to be three types of each:
For example:
Plus-X Pan (what's that the old version from HCB days?)
Plus-X Pan Professional (Ah - you've graduated to a professional, congrats?)
And what I got: Professional Plus-X 125 (shortest development times)

I'm using time / temp. from the box it came in. The times for using HC110B are way to short for either the Tri-x of the new and improved (I hope) Plus-X.


News at noon (tomorrow).

Homeless Corner

Stair Pattern

Eye Patch

I've been standing on the corner of 2nd and 83rd photographing passersby, or high contrast scenes - experimenting again with the film. This fellow was unloading produce for a nearby Italian restaurant and agreed to let me photograph him and yes - the experiments are over.

This was with TMY @ 300 ASA; 5 minutes @ 75F with TMAX developer (1:4) Hopefully that will be my new "standard." It seems to work fine in bright sunlight/shadow and, so long as I expose for shadow areas - works well in flatter scenes. This is from a straight neg. scan without any adjustments. More to follow...

blogger spam

So since I started using the blogger comments, I'm beginning to get automated spam for the usual crap in the comments. I may have to turn on the "login" if you want to comment - or else go back to haloscan if this continues. So far I'm just getting one or two a day which I've been manually deleting.

I'll have to see if their are any other settings that can control this automated junk.

Development / Film

As I mentioned in previous post - I'm leaning towards TMY again. I shot with it a lot in the past - and somewhere along the line switched to HP5 in HC110B. Possibly my tastes have changed since then - but the TMY seems to be a bit smoother. Anyway - right now I'm using TMY @ 400 ASA - in TMAX developer 1:4 at recommended times. But I'm going to experiment with a bit of underdevelopment and making sure I'm still picking up shadow detail. I might take it down about 20%, i.e. the highlights in bright contrasty scenes are still a bit high for my taste. But after a couple of days of experimenting - I'm pretty close.

Cup, Manual & Hangers

Out of Time

I'm getting a better feel for the rangefinder. Basically, I've just been standing on my corner and taking practice shots. Some of it is to get the feel of the camera, the other is that I'm still fooling around with different film / dev. combinations. For some reason I've been leaning back to TMY. But I couldn't offer any explanation. (This is a pretty serious crop - maybe 1/2 the frame).

Notes Found

Sort of exciting (only to me). I had been keeping notes in a hardcover journal about various developing times / temps / combinations. I've been hunting for it since I went back to film and finally found it this morning.

This morning I went out and shot two more rolls of HP5 - this time in various lighting conditions from bright sunlight with shadows, to pure shadow.

Now I've got one more decision - which freakin' wider angle lens (about 28mm) to get from Voigtlander. I think there are MTF charts on the Cosina site (Japanese only). I'll try and find them later.

Almost got into a little scrape with the new pizza guy when I took a shot of his store... Oh my God - what do they think I'm after? I walked in and spoke with him for about five minutes - explaining that I was interested in the reflection in the window... No dice. No smile. Totally grim faced was he.

I finally noticed the Yankee cap on his head.

Are you a Yankee fan?

He takes off his hat and looks at it. No smile. Just suspicion.

-Why you ask that?

Yes sir. I'm working undercover for the Mets. My real mission: photograph Yankee fans and turn the photographs over to the Committee on Baseball Hats.

So with no progress made - I walked out and continued on my merry way. I think I should have some cards made: The holder of this card has been authorized to photograph anybody at anytime. Signed, The Global Photography Committee. Dave Beckerman is further authorized to use either film or digital as he sees fit. He is an officer, grade 7.04 - in the GPC.

Preserve Your Memories

Butch: What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful.
Guard: People kept robbing it.
Butch: Small price to pay for beauty.

There's an often overlooked scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - where a local political candidate is try to gather a crowd. Once he does - and the poeple are bored - a salesman takes over and introduces the crowd to the latest technology: a bicycle.

There are still bicycles but I'm seeing more and more of those gyroscopic stand as you travel gizmos (ferget the name of that contraption).

"Dixons, the UK's leading high street retailer of consumer technology, today announces that it will no longer sell 35mm film-based cameras." - Dpreview (Today)

It's true. We're living in on of those "cusp of technology" edges. The new always usurps the old. Whether the new product is better or worse - it usually wins.

Of course - those sticking with the old may grow poor while they're around this paradise - but in fifty years - those "old things" become priceless. Rarities.

Early century bicycle in mint condition: $150,000.

Something physical and sometimes beautiful - from the past. That old Remington typewriter. Your old comic books. How about that old bankbook that was stamped by a machine as you made withdrawals or deposits. That stupid machine once made a big error, adding a bunch of zeros to my balance. I was ten years old. I was debating for several weeks whether I could take say, $1000 from the bank. Would they know I only had ten dollars?

Finally, not wanting to be greedy, I wrote out a withdrawal slip for $50. The old woman behind the gate took one look at my passbook and said, "Oh dear. That's one of those where the bank made an error..."

Crestfallen. About $10,000 poorer.

We toss away the old to make room for the new - and then - when we can't find the "old" we pay large fees just to have one around us again.

More Equipment Notes

Ordered a few items from CameraQuest.com

- Lens hood for the 40 f1.4 (B&H didn't have any
- Soft shutter release (I had read about this little gizmo a while back) but it wasn't until I tried it on Matt's camera that I saw the potential
- RapidWinder ($150) - comes with a built-in grip as well which I'm sorely missing (mechanical)

I've been matting and packaging most of the day so I haven't had time to do any more shooting but will tonight. (I'm going to shoot with Tmax at 800 and do some more testing).

(Other notes:) got some banding with the 4800 for first time. One cleaning. Problem gone.

AG finished the text for The 11th Man. Now the ball is in my court. I turned down two jobs because I'm trying to stay focused with what I want to finish by end of summer:

1) Get the damned book put together
2) Offer some of Matt's prints from my site
3) Raise print prices
4) Add another ten prints to the site

Of less importance - take some good photographs.

More tests

Not a completely fair test since it wasn't on a tripod with cable release, but if you look under the "Newport pleasure" I put a black box. Below is a crop from that at full resolution:



Shot at f4 with the R2A and Bessa 40 f1.4

Film: TMAX 400. Developed in TMAX Developer.

The cab below was shot at f1.4 with the Bessa lens:





Not too shoddy for an informal handheld test at f1.4 / 250th sec. (as I remember it). One other point - the negatives actually look sharper viewed with my loupe on a lightbox, which is to say that they do need some sharpening after the scan. These got "very little sharpening" - just enough for the web - not for printing. One other point, the box on the left side of the cab by the edge of the car is as sharp as anything off to the right, which is also a good sign.

nokton 40mm f1.4

Just did an interesting test: shot half a roll of some test material with the R2A with the bessa 40 mm f1.4 (at f1.4) 2 - and then rewound the film, stuck it in Matt's m6 with the Leica 35 f1.4 , did ten more shots of the same test material, then put the bessa 40mm on the Leica and shot the same stuff with it. All one roll. Same processing. Tmax 400 / tmax developer.

The subjective feel of the two cameras is different. Of course Matt had a winder and a hand grip; but besides that the focusing knob was a bit bigger, and the lens was smoother to focus (though that might just be because the 40mm is new and still stiff); but it also seemed like it was a touch easier to focus with the M6 - though I'm not exactly sure why.

But with the right accesories - I'm sure that I would be very happy with the R2A (though as Markus notes, I should look at the R3A as well). It's mostly the lens quality I'm interested in comparing right now.

****

Honestly - as Matt suspected, I couldn't really see a difference in resolving power between the Leica and the Voigtlander lens - wide open. In fact, the biggest difference in real life is probably how good your focus is when shooting wide open. There were some shots from the Leica lens that looked tack sharp, and some from the Bessa that looked right on. When either was focused properly - there is no difference.

I did two prints, one with each lens of the same subject from the same place. Both lenses go beyond what the grain of the film can manage. The Leica lens print was more contrasty - but that's about it.

So it's a keeper.

Pojo Kneeling

As I was walking around (at night) shooting the second roll with the R2A - looking for places to use the 40mm at f1.4 - this plastered guy who was standing nearby approached speaking a language I couldn't understand - though somehow he made it known that he wanted me to take his picture and that he had a specific pose in mind - this one.

He made various flourishes - such as you might make to a King - and then kneeled. Possibly this had something to do with being presented to the Queen of England.

Afterwards - he thanked me - again in an unknown tongue - bowing and scraping and sometimes sputtering "thank you."

[Most of my time is going into getting my development times right - and I'm still futzing with various developers. This was in TMAX. You know, the appearance / sharpness etc. of the film grain is different with different developers. ]


Untouched crop. F1.4, 1/30 sec. Light was from the storefront that was behind me.

It's a bit soft - though certainly printable. It is also not a fair test - or at least not a scientifc test - since it was a fairly slow shutter speed, was pretty dark, and who knows if my focus was 100% on target.

I went out this morning and shot another roll - all at f5.6 which should be pretty close to the meat of the lens - and all of shots that had very small lettering somewhere that I focused on. Things that I know from experience that with the Hexar or the M lenses should be readable with a 16x loupe.

And of course I've made one of the oldest scientific mistakes - using several different developers - which effect appearance of sharpness. For this last roll with the tiny lettering, I went back to my old HC110B formula. News at 5.

Bessa R2a

I just returned the Elan 7n and sold the 20D.

I looked at the Bessa R2A at B&H. Then I bought one. The model I got had some sort of stuck advance lever.

I returned it and got another one.

Shot one roll on the way home.

As soon as I looked through the viewfinder of the demo, I knew I wanted it. Got it with the 40 f1.4 multi-coated lens (I read the article on CameraQuest but was unimpressed with the big deal about single coated lenses).

YES! IT IS LOUDER than a Leica M6.

But it ain't terrible.

After a few minutes with it on the street - Herald Square - I felt very much at home with it, and I like having Ap. Priority. The camera opens on the back, like a semi-modern camera, with a crank you pull up to release the door. And there's even (gasp) aperture Lock.

Well - to put it in "emotional' terms - it does feel a bit like returning home after a long absence.

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

(Well, I'm not going to say I took this yesterday - but I've been fooling around with this negative for a while.)

More Camera Turmoil

Wait - wait! Let me defend myself before you call me fickle. I've called myself the same thing.

But really! The viewfinder on the N7 stinks. It does I tell you. And it is going back to B&H tomorrow. The viewfinder on my old (bought-used) Elan III is better! Much better. How odd is that?

So what's going to become of me? I'll end up with two systems: SLR and Rangefinder. That's just the way it has to be. The SLR will be heavier and I'll use it mostly with longer lenses, probably quite often on a tripod - and like that. And the RF will be the general walking around camera.

As far as the Rangefinder goes - lots of choices to wade through - not to mention the Ikon which is floating over on ships right now. For now, the Hexar Classic will be the walking around camera. Great viewfinder and lens. Only drawback is that you can't "lock" autofocus. You need to re-focus after each shot but at least I can see what I'm shooting at!

The Bessa 3A - the one with 1:1 magnification is not good for me given the wider lenses I generally use.

The 2A would be better. But you can buy a used M6 body in good condition for around $900. But the lenses... Oh the prices! The horror! The horror! Not to mention the fact that this would be my third go-around with the Leica! (Shoot me and put me out of my misery).

Yes, I was trying to find the camera that would "do it all." I think for some people they can find that mythical beast. But I don't seem to be able to.

Anway, I have sworn a sacred vow to the camera-money god that I will not buy anything tomorrow. To paraphrase:

"I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one photographer doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kids."

curb and glare

This is an old film shot I just scanned. As I start developing film, I'm comparing density with my old negs. I'm still off a bit with the new rolls. The funniest thing - after going back to film, is this powerful desire to click a button on the back of the camera and see the image. Where is that button? On the other hand, I don't find myself trying to change film speeds... or white balance...

Podcast

My neighbor keeps insisting that Podcasting is the "wave of the future" and that I should start a Podcast. I can just imagine it:

Podcast: Today we're going to discuss film development. There are two important factors in film development: temperature, agitation, and timing -

Three things that are important --

Okay - that's Monty Python adapted to Film Development.

What I could do is Podcast the blog. Find something that translates text into a voice and put it up for you to download and enjoy while you're stuck in traffic.

Are there machines yet that can pronounce (without sounding computerish) text? What do they do when they run into words that aren't in their database? Change them to what they suggest?

"Dear Listeners,
Today we're going to talk about Poe Casings. Poe Casings began a few years ago with the popularity of the eye pod.. "

Or does it stop and ask what word you meant? How does it pronounce "tomato?"

35mm film to 4800 output

"Would you consider sharing your film-to-digital workflow with us? I am keen to understand your process of scanning from b&w negs."

Very straightfoward.

Film: HP5. Developed in HC110B according to manufacturers instructions. Usually shot at ASA 400. I may want to try it in TMAX developer. I generally do two rolls at a time in a plastic patterson tank.

HC110, if you pour it into a couple of dark small air-tight bottles lasts forever (not diluted). If you are not using it as a "stock" solution, you are dealing with very small amounts: two rolls takes about 20 ml of the concentrate. I like it this way. I'm always using fresh concentrate.

I have a nice "Gravity Works" film washer. The whole thing is very low tech. I sit in the bathroom, in the dark - the various pieces are setup next to me on the edge of the bathtub. A couple of minutes loading film and then lights back on.

This is the only difficult part because the cat wants to come in and check things out so sometimes I need to spritz some water on Buddy to keep him out of my hair.

Cut into strips. I can make a very quick contact sheet for the screen, i.e. at 96 dpi with my Epson 1600 flatbed and go through them on the PC in Photoshop marking the ones that look interesting.

Scanned with the Dimage 5400 at 16-bit, 2x passes, auto-focus on, resolution for output is 240 dpi.

If the negative has been developed / exposed properly, there isn't much post-processing in PS at all. Maybe a levels adjustment or maybe a touch of soft-blending. Any retouching is done on the full-sized image.

Sized down to print size. (As Markus suggests, it's best to do this in steps).

If the negative is thin or there's some effect I'm looking for - then I may sit and work it over in Photoshop. My guess is that is about 10% of the time with a difficult negative. These are usually the same negatives that I had trouble printing in the darkroom. When I say trouble, I just mean there was a substantial amount of dodging and burning. This is of course much easier in Photoshop and once you have the file saved away - you don't need to do it for each print.

The finished "production" files are saved in one or two places.

It really isn't very complicated so long as you are starting with a "good" negative.

Digital Rebel sold

I do think the 20D will go next. I know this seems drastic - and it might be useful for certain projects - but how often do they come along? Once a year? No, I think it's going to go. Lenses all stay. I still want to be able to shoot with the Canon SLR.

Other than that - continues to be busy for me (good!). Haven't been able to work on the book layout during the last two days. Still matting and packaging.

Kids on Corner (film)

First two rolls of HP5 developed last night - and I may have messed up a little because I didn't have the right graduate for measuring the small amount of HC110.

That being said - I have no doubt (as of this writing) that negative b&w film gives me something I haven't been getting (at least not very often) with digital capture.

This is a small example where the street was in bright sunlight, and these guys were in the shade. (As I say, most probably the film was under-developed a bit). I also did a touch of sharpening for the web image. But with digital - the left corner which is in direct sunlight would have been completely blown out. And if you had underexposed, you would have lost the kids in the shade.

So that's part of it. What else is it about b&w film? I am tempted to say something like - digital capture is lacking soul - or something poetic like that. But that may just be age-related and what we were brought up on. After all - I was around when the first b&w t.v.s were becoming popular. How does that effect my taste?

The current generation will hopefully find great expressive digital every bit as "soulful" as those from our generation find negative film. Maybe.

And maybe the so called mythical average person wouldn't know the difference. That doesn't matter to me at all. You don't shoot for that mythical audience out there - you shoot for yourself. (Careful not to hit your foot when you do that).

The camera does matter - but not as much as you think.

This was with the 7N.

I shot a roll with the stealthy Hexar Classic and honestly - was just as noticed taking pictures on the street as with the 7N.

Big difference between the two of them: the viewfinder on the Hexar is beautiful. The one on the 7N is just okay.

Another thing - this was shot with the 28mm lens. It looks like a 28mm lens. I don't have the cropping effect that I'd have on the 20D.

Oh - and the camera cost $350.

Digital and Film

I'm writing this after doing about 20 prints (today and yesterday). And I have to tell you - I have to confess - that as much as I hate to say it - the majority of the film shots have a better presence - oh - let's just say it out loud - look better than the prints from digital capture.

I'm not able to explain it - in any scientific way. I could say things like: the dynamic range is greater with film, but that can be countered with sandwiching techniques with RAW images.

You could say it's the smoothness of digital - but I've pushed some of the captures through GrainSurgery with sampled grain - and it just ain't the same.

There is absolutely no doubt - digital is much more convenient, and I won't count the ways. You know that.

But honestly, I can see myself beginning to work in both worlds again. I wouldn't give up digital for what I'll call "assignments" which come along once in a while. I would probably use it for "events" where I'm going to be shooting a lot.

But I may just go back to film for my usual walking around no direction known work. Most probably the Canon Elan 7N.

Don't start some big flame over this - because it is just my personal (what else could it be) opinion (after a year plus of digital capture). Plus - I'm only talking about for b&w. If I do get the urge for color - once in a blue moon - that would still be digital.

Barrett - do you have any of my HP5 left?

Publishing 2

Yeah. I would not expect to see any new images in here for a while. I'm deep into the publishing thing now - trying to get the bricks together for the building. The last piece of this puzzle right now is trying to get the output to look right in the PDF and fooling around with what exactly the Acrobat Distiller is doing to my images - i.e. it seems to be pixilating them right now.... some setting somewhere...keeping the size of the PDF down... and like that...

The layout, in terms of creating "master pages" is pretty much complete for the picture part of the book. The size is set: it is going to be a square 7.5 x 7.5

I like the way that both vertical and horizontal shots fit in this format.

The gutters have been cleaned. The bleeds have been staunched.

And on top of that - orders are continuing to drop by for a visit. Summer is a good time to do all this since I rarely get anything shooting in this heat /light / humidity anyway.

I notice in the Gibson interview that he sold 22,000 books the first year. I hope to exceed that.

Publishing a Book

What a headache. Literally. I plunged into InDesign. Great program, but of course I had to keep looking up lots of stuff. But I've got the basics down.

As I may have mentioned, I'm starting off with the simplest layout you can imagine - and I'm going to call the book and organize it into 7 "chapters." Each chapter will have a roman numeral to separate it from the others. What the 7 chapters mean - what these groupings mean - I'm not sure yet. It is like tossing down Tarot cards at this point.

The name: VII Photography Groupings

That is as obscure as you can get without leaving the title blank. I wonder whether there has ever been a book called, "untitled." Sort of like the "white album."

I've been reading as much of the Lulu.com stuff as I can. Some of the usual "my book looks horrible" in the discussions; and others very happy with the results. Talk about "what color space" is Lulu using with their printers etc. That seems a mystery.

I've already created a couple of test PDFs with sample pages - and of course they look great with the inkjet - but what they're going to look like from Lulu - time will tell. I decided that it doesn't make sense to order someone else's b&w book from Lulu because whether it looks good or bad, I won't know who to blame. I'm just going to have to take the plunge myself. And there is a proof mechanism (I'm pretty sure) where they send you a copy before you really print up a batch.

And even if I'm not happy with the result - I will have a hardcopy at the end of all this - man - I'm pessimistic. I do have a way of anticipating all the things that might go wrong. I suspect that is leftover from my computer days... No - can't blame it on computers - it began when I was about eight years old... Lot's of responsibility as a kid - that's what did it.

Lulu (On Demand Printing)

Okay. I have my work cut out for me. I began to design The 11th MAN (photography by me, story by A.G.) with InDesign yesterday. At the same time - started to look at print on demand sites. You don't (as far as I can tell) give up any rights to your work, and frankly - the process looks straightfoward. I can sell them from my site, from their site, and depending on which plan you have - there is a chance to get them into some distribution channels.

Lulu looks like it may do the trick - at least to get me started. Sizes, prices, workflow - all look clear and there really is no money up front - just my labor (what else is new).

I will do the book (yes all black and white) with four color process (which is much more expensive than grayscale) but the paper is better, as well as image reproduction of black and white.

I'm seriously thinking of doing a simpler book than the 11th MAN first with them - to get a feel for the quality and the whole process. Maybe: 50 IMAGES - VOLUME 1. I still have the Bronx Book on the backburners (3 years plus) but that I also seeing as having a lot of text.

Anyway - the more pages, the more expensive, and for me, something without a lot of text editing will be a simpler layout. I'll just model it after some photography book that I like - say Apres Paris by HCB and see how it goes.

That will get me up-to-speed with InDesign and help me determine whether Lulu is the way to go for the 11th Man which I can see will be a much more complex / creative endeavor.

If anyone out there has used Lulu for a b&w photography book - well - let me know how it came out.