The 52 Project, Week 15: Elegant, Electric, Ektar 100

 Like stated last week, this week is all about color, and boy is there ever color!

Released in 2009, Kodak Ektar 100 film was introduced with the promise of being the world’s sharpest 100 ASA color negative film. Though it seems like a pretty tall claim, as of 2010, there really aren’t that many color negative films that are new to the market. Some more information can be found on Kodak Ektar 100 here:

Kodak Ektar Data Sheet

Stockholmviews Review

Roger and Frances Review

Kodak Ektar Flickr Pool

My $.02, Ektar is vibrant, saturated, and sharp as hell! Let’s cut to the samples.

Color gives this game a very cool feel.

Scan 1: Riverside Park Shuffleboard

Yep, I'm using a subject from last week into this week's post. These old folks were also my first test for Kodak Ektar. They also gave me a chance to explore how it handles incredibly bright back-lighting. 

Nah nah na nah nah!

Scan 2: Scottie Puppy Tongue

Just on my way out of the park after finishing my B&W roll of Tri-X, I came across this adorable Scottie puppy. He was quite excitable and happy to see the camera so close and down on his level.

Their hotdogs are as cool as their stand.

 Scan 3: Jim's Hotdogs at BalloonFest

 Previously the owner of the Findlay famous Jim's Gym, Jim the fitness guru has now forayed into the world of hotdog vending. You should check them out if you get a chance.

Jimshotdogs.net

Jim's Hotdogs on Facebook

For some reason she thinks I'm photogenic.

 Scan 4: Lauren Bagley with Pentax K1000

 Thanks to a Photography 101 class and a lot of bad influence from me, Lauren has become a fellow film nut. Heck, she even just won a copy of Pat Sansone's "100 Polaroids" from the awesome guys at The Film Photography Podcast. Oh yeah, they also gave her a Polaroid camera loaded with Impossible Project Film. Yeah, I'm a bit jealous.

Something Good: Got daylight? Got something that needs to “pop”? Ektar 100 is your go-to!

Something Bad: Not bad so much as a coping point, but this fantastically sharp film needs to be made in a faster version. ASA 100 has a lot of uses, but not nearly as many as say 400. :p

Something Learned: Ektar 100 is interestingly pleasing on skin tones. It has a similar skin tonality of Portra NC with a magenta “kick” while maintaining beautiful yet controlled saturation of pretty much everything else.

Next Week: This blog will be featuring an absurd amount of wieners, that is all. ^_^

The 52 Project, Week 10: My Big Fat Jewish Wedding

About a month ago, I was carousing Craigslist for some last minute gigs to fill up my weekends (like the pro I am :p) for the end of July and early August. About ten minutes into my random browsing, a particular gig in the Columbus area struck me as a unique opportunity. "Photographer Seeking Assistant for Othodox Jewish Wedding" was the headliner. Considering I'd never even attended one of these ceremonies, experiencing one on the photographic side would be a real learning experience.  And oh boy was it an experience. A 9am to 9pm kind of experience. An I'm-not-sure-when-the-next-time-I'll-have-a-break-to-eat experience. But overall, much was learned, and there are a few interesting shots to commemorate that day. 

A short warning before going through these photos with a furrowed brow; I was a lighting assistant who wasn't supposed to be taking photos. Through a little sweet talking of my main, Abish, I convinced him that a few shots of film wouldn't hurt, *wink*.  Now onto the show, ^_^.

Pre-Ceremony Shots

 Abish shooting the bride. The big lighting setup.

The bride with niece and nephew.  A closeup of the bride.   

Kids with their Grandparents. Baby needs his Cheerios. The groom with rabbi minutes before ceremony.

The pre-ceremony shots aren't that varied for the simple fact that they all took place within the same 100 feet. We started setting up the lights at 10:00AM, moved to two different locations, and finally ended up at a large, sky-lit stairway, adorned with fake foliage. Awesome backdrop? Not really; but it beat the hell out of whatever white, green, and beige walls were lined up to begin with.

With a vast majority of all my previous weddings being Catholic, prior to this shoot I was used to only one hour before, and up to two hours after the ceremony for any kinds of group pictures. This day, however, had allotted two and a half hours before, and nearly two hours after for the group pictures. "Uh oh," I thought, "this is going to be a long one." Every possible combination of relative between both the bride and groom's sides were captured, no matter how irrelevant certain said combinations were.

Post Ceremony Shots

Blessing the bride & groom, and the meal. The bride's big happy family.

Rabbis in downtown Columbus.

Did I mention this day was long and still at a fast pace? Anyone who's familiar with the Hyatt Regency Columbus and Greater Columbus Convention Center knows they're HUGE. And amongst this huge complex, this wedding's party moved between not one, not two, but seven, that's right, SEVEN banquet rooms. So aside from sweating my butt off in full black suit and tie, I was also the kid responsible for juggling a four light strobe setup between five of these seven rooms. This didn't leave a lot of time for candids where I was expecting to get them, namely the ceremony and reception. I was lucky enough to manage a few post ceremony shots that give a unique feeling to the day's events

Something Good: I learned A TON about Jewish ceremonies. And even though I thought I took in a lot, all that knowledge is barely scratching the surface of what I'll need to know before claiming that "I also do Jewish weddings"

Something Bad: There's some pretty nasty flaring and loss of contrast throughout these shots. So what went wrong? I was using Fuji Pro 400H & 800Z; not that this is the entire issue, but these are Daylight balanced films that don't respond well to mixed lighting and/or uncoated lens flare.

Something Learned: I need some "Jewish terms" flash cards, seriously. Maybe after three or four more of these weddings will I feel comfortable enough to go through shooting a Jewish ceremony without embarrassing myself or offending anybody involved.

Next Week: I'm revisiting B&W in a big way. More work in Tmax 100 and 400, with better handling, processing, and scanning.

The 52 Project, Week 3

Wow, so the past week has been quite a bear. I've spent most of my time: hunting down a "lost" package of 120 film,  gearing up for a big wedding, and scrambling to finish a photobook for the Hancock Historical Society. Luckily for me, shooting film was just the prescription for a stressful week. The scans below represent some fun experiments with Kodak Tri-x 400 B&W, hand developed in D-76, scanned on an Epson V700.

Ruby giving a big "dumb guy" smile. ^_

Scan 1: Ruby the American Bulldog

If it's not already becoming apparent, I have an affinity for pets. I like them, they stay still, I take their picture, simple as that. Though I don't normally like medium/large sized dogs, the two you can see in this blogpost are dosile, happy young dogs. This particular pup is Ruby. She's just under two years old, and an American Bulldog mix. She reminds me a lot of Chance from "Homeward Bound".

Twiggy barely ever sits still, especially hard w/ manual focus.

 Scan 2: Twiggy, the Mutt

Oh Twiggy, such an innocent little wire-haird dog. She's just over a year old, and I have no idea what combinations of dog are in her, but they sure give her a distinct look. She lives with Ruby, seen above, and they couldn't get along better. 

Beehive or not, this is some BIG hair!

Scan 3: Big Sexy Hair

Having set the "great hair" bar a little high with last week's bearded beast, I had to find someone/thing with equally impressive hair. Then, while dining at the Panera Bread in Westlake, OH, I came past this lady with some truly original hair. Certainly if you lived during the '60's and earlier you've probably seen a "do" like this, but to me, this was a new thing that was truly awesome to behold in person.

Something good: I particularly like the "look" that Tri-X film gives when processed. There appears to be deeper blacks and more blown whites, especially so in higher contrast, outdoor areas. 

Something bad: Hand processing the film is going well, but my film is just curving way too much during drying to make for good scans. Note the horrid light "falloff" on the edges of scan 3. The negative does NOT look like this; if only I could get the hang of the Epson V700.

Something learned: Even though I'm working with significantly less data, 16 bit B&W vs. 48 big RGB, each film does really have its own unique look. And from what I've been reading thus far, each developer leaves its own unique "mark". I intend to exploit as many combinations as I can throughout this project, starting with all films in D-76, then working my way to other developers.

Next week:  The more I play with B&W films, the more I like them. There's just something about not having to sit in Lightroom for hours playing with the file to get it to look like it does out of the darkroom. Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights, simple as that. I'm going to keep shooting different B&W films and post their results.