We live and work in a fast paced world of digital photography. Shooting film cameras allows us to slow down and see the image before we press the shutter, instead of checking the LCD. Manual film cameras take this one step further, putting us back in touch with the light in the frame, instead of letting the camera make most of the decisions.
My favorite film is black and white, low ISO (ASA for us old Kodak folks) film. Kodak Tmax 100 and Ilford 50 print films are two of my favorites as they provide a very fine grain and large yet subtle range between the very bright and dark areas of the image.
The number of labs that process black and white film is shrinking. I send my film to a lab in Southern California. They develop the film then scan the images to high resolution .JPG or TIFF files. I can have a CD mailed to me, or download images from an FTP site.
NCPS
North Coast Photo, Imaging and Frame, Carlsbad California
760-931-9840 http://www.northcoastphoto.com/
(thanks to Ken Rockwell www.kenrockwell.com for the suggestion of NCPS)
Working in a world of fast paced digital photography, shooting these old cameras and film ground me to where I began in photography, and provide a great amount of joy in the process!
Why "Back Door Photography" Is photography a hobby, a passion, a career? Yes, yes and yes. You don't have to have the best equipment, or travel to exotic lands to experience the passion all photographers have for the art.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
60230005
I love film. I love old manual cameras.
Technical reasons; film has a much deeper range of dynamic light response than our small digital cameras. Forget the exact tech specs; this black and white image has much more detail in the very light and very dark areas than it would if I took this withy my full or crop frame digital sensors.
Non-Technical reasons; I love shooting black and white, and shooting film absolutely forces me to slow down and think about each shot. I try and see most shots before I take them, but with a digital camere I shoot then chimp (bend over like a monkey and stare at my screen.) With film I stare at the scene, then through the viewfinder. I work hard on manual focus, then move the camera about watching the analog light meter move up and down, gauging the exposure. Exposing for the light areas, I let the shadows fall where they may.
I shoot an old 1970's vintage Pentax K1000 first made in 1976. I have two lense; both Asahi, 50mm f1.4 and 28mm f2.8.
EXIF (ha!) Pentax K1000, Asahi 50mm f1.4, TMAX 100 print film shot at f2.8 and a fast 1/500 shutter to meter for sky +1 stop over mid grey. Sun is camera right.
ps; this is a photo of my father, taken in April 2012. 82 years old and still buiding homes for Habitat for Humanity. You go Dad!
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