The 52 Project, Week 11: Back in Black...and White

 This week, after an absurd three week hiatus/disconnect from the internet, I'm going to start by doing something different. Before seeing the scans, I'm going to go over what I learned, not about film, but about the digital workflow/lifestyle.

Something Good: I backup my data bi-weekly. In the event of a total system meltdown, I still have my bare necessities. Also, my film scans from Millers come on an archival DVD, so no worries on color film; oh, and it's film, not a digital file, I still really have it. :p

Something Bad: My laptop hard drive was fried, one of my backups failed, and reformatting the system and re-importing, installing, and setting up preferences was a bitch.

Something Learned: Though it may take only a few days to get a system up and running again, life tends to get in the way of the regular blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr posts.

Next Week: Though it's over two weeks behind, should be up tomorrow. The last week of July, I accompanied my grandfather to a Toledo Mud Hens game. We had a blast, and I got a few cool expired color film images.

Now let's see some B&W scans:

I honestly had no idea what it was...Scan 1: Abandoned Chair

If the following series of images looks familiar, it's for good reason. This is that exact same, creepy house. I had a spare hour to mess around, so I grabbed some Tmax 100 and made a trip back. It was about 4:00pm, and I probably could have benefitted from some higher speed film, but this along with the next three images turned out sharp (enough). Processing was pretty standard, D-76 @ 70F for 6.5 min, regular agitation. Oh, but this time my fixer wasn't exhausted, so the scans have some extra "kick" to them.

Shaky floor boards are shaky. >__>Scan 2: Abandoned Kitchen

I'm never walking deeper into this house again, period. The floors appear old, rotted through, and they are. While snagging this view of what looks to have been the kitchen, my right foot started to sink through some shaky floorboards.  I managed to recover from the near miss, but also managed to miss-wind the Hasselblad and mess up my next frame. It's alright though, you can squeeze a 13th frame out of a 120 spool if you're careful while loading.

Too much development, this image has it.Scan 3: Abandoned Hallway

Somewhere between Scan 2 and Scan 4 resides this image. There's some cool old wiring sinking down from the second floor, creating this stark contrast between it and the far window. Oh, and note the floor closer to the bottom of the frame, it's even more precarious with a few intact boards to walk across; looks like I got lucky with these ones.

The title should've included "abandoned", I know.Scan 4: Toilet Humor

Probably my favorite of this week's images, this scene of an abandoned bathroom is powerful and contrasty, but without being overly shocking or disgusting. What you see in the toilet bowl is nothing more than wood scraps, dust, mold, and dirt. Interesting what well over ten years of weathering and neglect can do to the room of the house dedicated to hygiene.

The 52 Project, Week 7: The Abandoned House

Closing in on the 2 month mark with The 52 Project, I still don't feel like I'm hunting around for things to shoot. If anything else, I'm growing more and more confident in finding a single subject to "spend" a roll of film on. This week's installment, the abandoned house, is something I've wanted to explore at a close distance for nearly 10 years.

Ever since moving to rural Deshler, OH in 2000, I've driven by this ominous looking house along State Route 235 nearly every day of my life. I'd always wondered what laid within, but not until I was driving by a few weeks ago did I consider just pulling over, going in, and making a shoot of it. And here it is. 

I like how the house has an "angry" face.

Scan 1: Angry House

I've never been much of a landscape guy, and in my photos, it has to show. The lines aren't quite there, nor are all the elements of the house. From a landscape point of view, it's not that hot a photo. But from a portrait photographer's point of view, the expression in this "portrait" is spot on.

And through the front door you can see...

Scan 2: Rooms Falling Apart

Like the caption states, as you walk through the front door, you're greeted with destruction. Three floors worth of neglected property are tumbling down around you. Certainly in its day, this was quite a house; right now though, I'm still pretty awestruck.

This doll is too creepy for words.

Scan 3: The Creepy Doll

While originally composing this shot, I was trying to focus on the unique forms displayed by the stripped stairs and falling ceiling. By the second frame, I was knocked back by the eerie little doll left at the foot of the stairs. Including the original idea with this terrifying toy was only natural.

Note to self, frame within a frame works.

Scan 4: Through Shattered Glass

You can see a bit of this image through Scan 2, but the framing conveys a completely different mood. Seeing as this whole roll was an experiment in "things I barely ever do", I thought "oh what the hell" and tried framing something within its own frame. The Hasselblad's ability to naturally vignette and soften the corners definitley helped.

 Something Good: I went outside the box this week, and in a few ways. I never usually trespass for the sake of photos, I never usually shoot landscapes, and I've never shot expired film. For the most part, it looks like going outside my comfort zone paid off.

Something Bad: The film was expired, and doesn't quite react like perfectly good film. Once a film has been sitting in your fridge for more than few years, there's no guarantee that the film will display its typical properties. The starting film was 160NC, and it largely acted as such, but there were a few exceptions. I typically overexpose by 1/3 stop just for good measure, but apparently a little overexposure in this expired stock from 2005/2006 just blows way, way out.

Something Learned: Intense care for your expired film is key. Looking a little more into my exposure problems, there are numerous precautions to take when shooting more "unstable" films. Live and learn; hopefully the latter, though, because I've got 29 more rolls of this stuff. x___x

Next Week: I just got back a batch of 5 rolls of film and have some major catching up to do. Not sure what it'll be from, but there's a good chance it'll be grainy film or expired film. No matter, they all look good.