Took some photos with my late mother-in-law’s Yashica 44LM, using Bluefire 160 film.
This camera uses 127 sized film (smaller than 120 and larger than 35mm). It’s tough to find, and oftentimes people resort to making their own out of 120 film instead. I get two or three rolls per year.
What I discovered this year was that, after 50-plus years, the 44 had developed some light leaks.
Still the color and the focus were beautiful, so the next time around I’ll cover all the seams with blue painter’s tape – which is the same thing I do with my Holga.
Chris Colwell of Second Sting / A Scorpions tribute band.
Shooting photography at concerts can be hit and miss for lighting.
Each venue is different. Some stages are bathed in stage lighting, but others suffer and cause a photographer to dig deep both for light and usable shutter speeds. Often I am setting my DSLRs at the absolute extent of their ISO settings, just to get an image. In many cases, it’s shear luck that gets me out of some venues with any shots at all. So why on earth would I stick my fist in the air and bring a Canon Rebel G SLR to a show loaded with the Magic Ribbon of film?
Because I can 🙂
Last weekend I shot two rolls of black and white film at two different music venues. Both rolls were Kodak TX400 pushed three stops, meaning they were shot at ISO 3200. I used the best lenses I had for my old film Rebel – a 50mm f1.8 and 100mm f2.0. I over-compensated on white balance and kicked it slightly above standard, in the hopes that it would bring out more of the light in the scene. Mostly it worked, but the the settings need more tweaking.
Out of the 50-or-so shots I took, this one of Chris Colwell had the best detail and contrast.
Chris plays in Second Sting, a Scorpions tribute band from the Pacific Northwest. This band plays songs from the Scorps’ classic era, from 1974 to 1989, with period-correct attire and instruments. None of the band members stand still, and capturing them without blur even on a DSLR is a challenge. That I was able to capture Chris in this pose felt like a miracle. But who knows? Maybe, if I shoot more film at concerts, I’ll be able to improve on what I’m able to do already – regardles of how much lighting I have at the show.
This roll of undeveloped Kodak Verichrome V film was inside a Kodak box camera given to me recently. It appeared to be from the 1930s, and the camera was manufactured between 1926 and 1934. I looked up Verichrome; best I could tell is that it developed as black & white. I took it to Omega Photo in Bellevue WA – where I have all my black & white processed, and was told that Verichrome used a chemical formula they didn’t have. But they were able to send it out to another lab.
The five images that came back to appear to be 75 years old.
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My best guess is that the above photo has at least three exposures, and that the photographer rotated the camera between each one. The pictures below are of an unidentified family at home. From the clothing it would seem the photos were taken around 1940.
Because nothing says Swanky Poolside Splendor more than plastic furniture and an Interstate girder bridge running behind the property. This photo was taken by David Falconer as part of the Documerica project.
A fishing boat is anchored quietly in the straight between Popof and Unga Islands, in the Eastern Aleutians of Alaska. Taken sometime in the mid 1960s by my father when we lived in Sand Point.
This is what happens when the developing machine doesn’t want to let go!
My roll of Kodak TX400 shot at ISO 3200 as an experiment, partly because I was going to a poorly-lit concert venue. The camera: a Canon AE-1 with a 24mm f2.8 lens. When I arrived at the lab to pick up the negatives, the man brought them out of the back room looking crumpled.
“The roll was going through the machine fine, but halfway through something happened and it got jammed up.”
The jam left residue on the medium, ghost imaging, and severe creases in the last half of the roll. I’m not complaining, because most pictures on this this roll were also captured on my DSLR. The rest were fillers to use up the roll. It was an experiment, now with an added “feature” that turned filler photos into weird works of art. The lab made good on the problem and we are still friends. So what do I do with a half-trashed roll of TX400?
I scan it anyway 🙂
The results were crazy, spooky, enlightening, and absolutely like nothing else.
The Rusty Camera 