The 52 Project, Week 30: All About Amherst

The large format adventures continue with more from my trip to Amherst, MA to visit my good and long-time friend Katie O'Neil. During the very brief visit, we had quite a few adventures, including but not limited to: (you can pm me for the entire scoop)

• Painting horses
• Bailing someone out of prison
• Visiting an insane asylum
• Meet Dr. Suess' nephew
• Losing cell phones and Polaroids deep in the woods

Fun times indeed. Now here are some scans:

Preceding the Halloween party on the Lone Birch Farm, this is my failed attempt at a group shot. Note the lack of people. >__<

This is Katie O'Neil. She loves horses, Ireland, good movies, and climbing trees. The first three are hard to photograph, so here she is.

Ah urban decay, you photograph on large format so nicely. Well, at least when there's a contrasty scene; here, not so much. >__<

 Just covering the bases again here, all of the above were VERY quick contact prints made onto Oriental RC VC paper, developed in generic Dektol replacement for 1:00 min. The prints were then scanned onto a trusty Epson V700 with some level tweaking in post.

Now a for this week's closing words.

Something Good: For my third overall batch of Pyrocat HD negatives, these guys all came out equally dense. Print times were all within 5 seconds of each other. When printing from a 20x24 equivalent height (for consistency's sake), that's actually pretty close.

Something Bad: These images as negatives were all equally over-processed. When over-processed negatives come out of a staining developer, the overall film base (usually clear) becomes stained/tanned itself. Not necessarily a bad thing, this side effect can be corrected by either reducing overall density in farmer's reducer or by printing longer...way longer. >__>

Something Learned: The more dense a Pyrocat stained negative becomes, the more filtration it will need to obtain proper contrast on VC papers. Remember, brownish-stain acts like a yellow SUPER-low contrast filter to VC paper, so this must be countered with yellow's compliment, purple light.

Next Week: Back to only one image, but a big one, with a great story and some great impact.

The 52 Project, Week 29: 8x10 around New York

During my brief time in New York before and after my guest spot on the early November 2010 episode of the Film Photography Podcast, I had some free time to roam around some other cool places in New York and play around with the 8x10. The same as last time, these are all scans of quick and dirty contact prints on Oriental RC VC paper with very little correction in post. Click the scans for a better view plus exposure data.

The deep downtown area of Newburg, NY, quite run down, but in a very photogenic way!

This image definitely took some "cojones" to take. I was in a VERY bad neighborhood for quite some time scoping out and setting up this image. Thankfully, I'm still around to share the urban decay of Newberg, NY with everyone. P.S. If it looks like a meth house, smells like a meth house, and has gunfire like a meth house, chances are its a meth house. >__<

Moving on.

A very unusual view from a scenic outlook of the Hudson River and Poughkeepsie, NY. Just ignore that little "squiggly" in the corner :p

So just when I thought things couldn't have gotten any hairer as they had earlier that day in downtown Newburg, I got hassled not once, but twice by Poughkeepsie police about shooting with my 8x10. Apparently, having anything on a tripod that looks more menacing than a point and shoot is "against city ordinance". After explaining that I wasn't Ansel Adams or planning to score big bucks of the above image, they were a little more relaxed with my shooting; they still followed me back to my car, however. >__>

This image helped to kick off my love affair with long exposures on the 8x10. For all you sports shooters out there, you just won't get it.

No real drama with this exposure, unless of course you considering a long exposure in a heavy downpour and 45 degree weather to be a problem. For large format? Not so much. ^__^

Keeping it short and sweet, onto this week's lessons...

Something Good: Each 8x10 sheet metered very differently, but with a little Zone System came out with even density in the negative with consistent print times for the contact prints. Yay!

Somehting Bad: Hair and dust are the bane of my scanning existence, nuff said.

Something Learned: Big cameras attract lots of attention (duh), both good and bad. Know your equipment, but know your photographic environment as well. If things get sketchy, ask yourself if getting the shot is really worth that extra risk.

Next Week: The big 'ole sheets of Tmax 400 keep on coming. And even though there's not going to be any new emulsions or processes, I guarantee the subject matter will keep things fresh!

The 52 Project, Week 28: Large Format from Westpoint

The large scans are starting to roll in and will be posted over the next few days. All of the following scans are made from 8x10 contact prints on Oriental RC VC paper. If you haven't had the chance to try this stuff, it's got a very predictable print time, that translates well over to Ilford Multigrade IV RC VC & FB VC papers. Oh yes, and it's also economically priced in 100 sheet boxes coming in just above Arista EDU products and well below Ilford. As always, click the scans for more specific exposure data. Anywho, onto today's scans:

A scenic from Westpoint Military Academy onto the river. Proof that the Zone System works!

A little bit of spot metering, a dash of the Scheimpflug Principle, and some patience on the subject matter, and you too can throw together a successful landscape, even in harsh early afternoon light. And if you're willing to go the extra mile, selective filtering and compensating in development will yeild even more favorable results in the final print. I wouldn't call the above "final" just a made for the internet scan. Still pretty nice.

Only about 300 yards away from the first image, this second was captured about a half hour later. From what little information I was given about the historic Westpoint campus, I was told this outdoor theatre serves many purposes from commencements to spring and summer concerts. The high contrast afternoon light provided some interesting tones from the brushed silver stadium seating. Those were metered as my Zone VIII highlights and the deeper brush on the middle left of the scan provided a usable Zone II/III shadow.

Something Good: The exposures are fairly even and have a wide tonal range. Turns out writing down exposure data and previsualizing the final image really does help in capturing a landscape.

Something Bad: I'm new to landscapes, hence the slightly boring nature of the compositions. Also, only after making these contact prints did I realize that my contact print frame needed some intense cleaning. Try to ignore the "crud" in the upper parts of both scans. >__<

Something Learned: Patience for landscapes is a virtue that I soon won't have. Some of the greats truly did wait a LONG time to get the image they were seeing in their heads. When given a very strict window of working time, try to document the surrounding area, not make an award-winning landscape.

Next Week: More large format scans! I did shoot a whole box of Tmax 400 (10 sheets) afterall. :P