A few film photographers had asked me, "Why don't you give 35mm a try?" And I had been repeatedly shelving the idea.
Perhaps I just needed a gateway to something other than 120.
After a period of some fairly cheap camera acquisitions, and a feeling of overwhelming contentedness with the 120 format, I'd begun a new period of complacency. I'd felt that my stable of oddball medium format film equipment was pretty much more than I'd ever need, and really didn't feel the need to expand upon it any further by acquiring any more cameras of any format. As well, I didn't see where most of the offerings in 35mm allowed me anything new in the way of shooting experience that I did not already have either in 120 or in digital. However, I was open to the idea of trying 35mm if I were to find a very affordable camera that offered something interesting in its shooting experience.
Interestingly enough, I found such a camera, and it was right in the curio cabinet in my living room.
Say "Hello" to the Praktica FX3:
"So, um, how do you like that restaurant down the street?"
"I don't care for it?"
"Really?!? How many times have you been there?"
"I never have."
"Um.... Alrighty then!"
Such could very well be akin to the narrative defining my feelings on cross processing of slide film using C-41 chemistry. I'd never tried it, and never really intended to do so either, as the idea seemed little "hipster gimmicky" to me, and I'd considered myself a photographic purist. In an almost defiant move to the notion of the idea, I'd even happily developed two rolls of Agfa Crossbird, a film that readily promotes use as a cross processing medium, in conventional E-6 chemistry.
In early April, while reading one of my favorite photo blogs, the Casual Photophile, I happened upon a post detailing the basics of X-Pro. In short, by the time I finished reading the article, the engaging Photophile managed to break it all down to the point where the idea of shooting a roll of film and then cross processing it actually sounded like FUN. That is, after all, a big part of why I like to shoot film. After posting my comments on the excellent article, he encouraged me to give it a try, hence the post that you are reading now.
I had a few rolls of recently expired Velvia 100F 120 slide film lying about whose color rendition (when processed in E6) about which I wasn't exactly over the moon, so this seemed the obvious choice for a film medium. I also certainly had a few dormant medium format cameras sitting about waiting for their next assignment. I elected to choose the most "Lo-Fi" of them all, the humble Agfa Billy Record I, one of the very first folding cameras that I ever picked up. With a slow and modest f/6.3 lens and only 3 shutter speeds, it seemed to be the ideal conduit for this part of the experiment.
Since this was a project centered on experimentation, it seemed like this would be a nice opportunity to broaden my experimental horizons in the process. Since my Olympus PEN E-PM2 offered a "Cross Process" creative filter, I figured I would shoot comparable images on it using this mode to compare to the film results. Finally, since I was going "Lo-Fi" with my look on the analog side, it seemed only natural to use an adapted manual focus lens on the digital body instead of an AF lens. To closely match the composition of the focal length of the film shots, my most suitable choice was the widest of these in my possession, a 24mm f/2.8 Promaster lens that I've rarely used.
Therefore, this one experiment actually wound up consisting of four experiments rolled into one!
- Cross Processing Slide film, which I've never done before.
- Using the previously unused Cross Processing filter on my Olympus Pen.
- Shooting with the under-utilized Agfa Billy
- Shooting with the under-utilized Pro Master 24mm lens.
\
Ever ordered an appetizer sampler primarily for one thing only to discover that you liked something else on that same plate even more?
This sort of feeling would likely be the best way to describe my story with the Konica 85mm f/1.8 lens which I acquired back in early June.
Bokeh is a lot like music, in one could say "there is no good or bad bokeh, just bokeh you like and bokeh you don't like."
But, I'm getting ahead of myself, as most people are not even familiar with the term. In fact, Chrome's built in spell checker is flagging every instance of me typing the term "bokeh."
Bokeh is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus parts of an image. In many cases, such areas will often simply appear blurry or soft, but, as been found with certain lenses, these areas will often exhibit their own characteristics that will, based upon the tastes of the viewer, either add or detract from an image. Adjectives often used to describe the bokeh of an image range may include "creamy" or "swirly," "smooth" or "busy," or may even describe shapes evident such as "oblong" or "doughnut."
I for one tend to like to play around with a little lively bokeh, so when I heard about a certain popular Russian made lens being described as a "bokeh monster," I was quite intrigued.
This is titled "A quirky guy and his camera," right?
As I sputter to get going, it has at times felt more like "A quirky guy and his scanner."
As it was going, I was finding less and less time to actually TAKE photos, and so photo taking related posts were few and far between. Today, I was very glad to be able to have an enjoyable ramble that allowed me to focus upon taking some photos instead of scanning photos taken by others decades earlier. Below are results of this "ramble."
I started off with a brief stopover in the Folly Quarter area to take a starter shot to be featured in a future post, then off to Ellicott City I went. In my arsenal was my Olympus E-PM2 as well as the following lenses:
A logic puzzle:
I am the proud owner of a pair of Olympus PEN mirrorless Cameras using the Micro 4/3 Lens Mounts.
I have used over a dozen different lenses on these cameras.
I currently only own TWO Micro 4/3 lenses.
Did I sell the rest off? Did I borrow or rent lenses?
Nope, instead I have taken advantage of a clever method of fusing manual focus lenses of decades past with my mirrorless modern day camera body by means of some various lens-mount to camera adapters to make this possible. Call it my blossoming "May-December equipment Romance" of the photographic world.
Interestingly, I stumbled onto this practice as an alternative to buying native mount lenses only AFTER I purchased the camera kit, and haven't looked back since. As a result, I have acquired a pretty nice collection of numerous various lenses for only somewhat more than the cost of a single Autofocus Micro 4/3 Lens!
I've had a resurgence of love for Kodachrome Slide film lately.
I've had a fondness for this now (sadly) discontinued emulsion for more than 20 years, but it has really surged lately in a new way. I am missing my Kodachrome.
I came across some slides taken by my Grandfather. Many of these were from the 1970's and 1980's, but among these, there were a handful of much older ones, mounted in grey sleeves with red borders. I scanned a few of them, and they were absolutely stunning with vividness. A sample:
