tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81687756598882477822024-03-05T11:00:50.599-08:00Through A Glass, DarklyPhotos, techniques, minutiae, etc.James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-63039060344239176982020-12-23T08:49:00.000-08:002020-12-23T08:49:02.688-08:00Shoot Like Your GrandpaThis shotgun belonged to my great grandfather Roy Harr. It is a 2-round German Mauser bolt action Geha shotgun in 12ga. Now there's a lot to unpack there, but let me start by tying this back in to one of my previous "Like Your Grandpa" posts. In the first post in the series "Shave Like Your Grandpa" I talked about rituals and how we (mostly men) thrive on them. That was in the context of the James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-68196993819250005962020-12-05T22:59:00.001-08:002020-12-05T22:59:05.443-08:00Smoke Like Your GrandpaThere are five men that I called Grandpa at one time or another. A few of them smoked cigarettes and one smoked a pipe. I find cigarettes unpalatable and generally offensive to the senses. I have never smoked a complete cigarette. But I remember my grandpa's pipe and the smell of the tobacco. Even as a child, it smelled good to me. I was too young to really know anything about anything but I James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-65966120333246197372020-11-22T21:41:00.003-08:002020-11-22T21:41:26.836-08:00Dress Like Your GrandpaThe second photo in the series is of a few of my clothing items. Now keep in mind that I am not a 'hipster', nor am I trying intentionally to be an oddball attention seeker by dressing weird. But I do strive to have some style. I think in this age when you can show up at an upscale restaurant in torn jeans, a t-shirt with some snarky slogan and a pair of flip-flops that it shows some dignity and James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-60130424601151278072020-11-06T17:19:00.000-08:002020-11-06T17:19:04.648-08:00Shave Like Your GrandpaI am starting a series of posts that center around the things that I do that are anachronistic. They belong to a previous time; that of my grandfather. These are not necessarily things he did or used personally, but are of his generation (give or take a generation). The photos will be taken on film, of course, but the posts will only have the minimum of detail around the actual photo. The contentJames Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-12169257147491052032019-08-03T19:36:00.001-07:002019-08-03T19:36:51.252-07:00Controlling Weird FilmSometimes I buy 'weird' film on a whim. I was recently noticing that my supply of 8x10 Kodak Clinic Select Green x-ray film was running low. I bought 100 sheets of it a few years ago and for the most part I cut it down to 4x5 sheets and shot it in my Graflex Speed Graphic. I had good luck developing it in various developers using the Mod-54 device. The emulsion is very thin and on both sides of James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-6341908272843218272019-06-08T13:10:00.001-07:002019-06-08T13:10:29.746-07:00To 85B, Or Not to 85B...I have a box of 4x5 Kodak 4325 Commercial Internegative Film that expired in 2004. I got it cheap, as I do most of the film I shoot. Internegative film was used to make a negative from a color corrected positive that would then be used to make positive copies for distribution. Normally you see this in the motion picture industry using 35mm stocks, but I suppose magazines and such could use the James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-86727413402699136202019-03-17T19:13:00.000-07:002019-03-17T19:13:11.669-07:00To Bleach Or Not To BleachBleach bypass is a process that has intrigued me for a while. Recently, while listening to Matt Melcher's podcast Box of Cameras, he mentioned using this process in an upcoming project. I had tried this before and not really liked the results, but this prompted me to try again since he specifically mentioned Fujicolor film and I happen to have some of that in the fridge. It is Expired (2010) James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-90094004429962913202018-10-14T16:55:00.000-07:002018-10-14T16:55:29.516-07:00Worthy of RedundancyUltrafine Xtreme! It seems a little silly to brand something with "Ultra" and "Extreme" in the title. In Latin, the prefix 'ultra' means 'extremely' or 'beyond'. So they are trying to send a message here. They want us to know that this film is fine grained. Now if you've shot enough film, you know that these claims are largely created by the marketing department of the film company and don't James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-37154679162756596762018-04-20T11:12:00.000-07:002018-04-20T11:12:03.825-07:00This Argus is SuperThanks to Madmen, midcentury modern is the bee's knees. Generally people are looking for furniture and design elements for their homes. Me? I love 50's cameras. Give me bakelite over titanium any day. The classic "faux TLR" is the Brownie Hawkeye Flash. I have two of those and they are genuinely fun to shoot. Taking a (small) step up in control brings me to another favorite, the Argus Super James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-22637916581792227622018-04-06T13:39:00.000-07:002018-04-06T13:39:53.956-07:00Reversal - The FinaleWell, it took a while to get this all together and done, but I finally finished the project that I initially had in mind when I bought the Ansco 3A 122 'Postcard format' camera. I wanted to shoot paper in the camera and reversal process it to positive images and send them to friends as postcards. And that is what I did. I made 20 individual exposures on 20 pieces of Arista Grade 2 paper. I had toJames Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-17725079183216632692018-01-08T13:54:00.000-08:002018-01-08T13:56:08.315-08:00Reversal RevisitedIf you remember this post about reversal processing images taken on photo paper (enlarging paper) in-camera, then this might be of some interest. I have done some more experimenting. At first, I made the terrible mistake of changing too many variables at once. I was trying different papers and rushing through the processing procedure and the results were all bad. In order to understand a process James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-27613136035350876712017-12-11T12:09:00.000-08:002017-12-11T12:09:47.404-08:00Film Hack - Fuji EternaI like shooting movie film. It is cheap and plentiful and with my new DIY ECN2 chems, it is super cheap to develop at home with accurate color. The one and only down-side is the remjet. For the uninitiated, remjet is a powder-coat on the back of movie film that serves as the anti-halation layer as well as an anti-static agent for films that travel at high speed through a movie camera. There are James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-86040787901110463222017-10-14T19:13:00.000-07:002017-10-15T09:21:59.186-07:00DIY Color Dev ComparisonIf you have by chance read any of the other posts on this blog, you might have gotten the impression that I am into do-it-yourself (DIY) film developing and historic (aka 'alt') processes printing. That is really only half true. The other half of this blog is that I'm really cheap and am always looking for ways to economize with my photography hobby. The third half is that I just like taking James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-45888043807943842462017-09-13T16:13:00.000-07:002017-09-13T16:13:16.858-07:00An Unexpected LeakThat's like a chapter title from a bad spy novel (or maybe a bad plumber's manual). Anyway, I just thought I would make a brief post to show the dangers of using thin base films. Generally we think of film as just emulsion layered onto a sheet of flexible thin plastic that is then cut, perforated (optionally) and rolled. I realized when I started developing my own film that the 'base' support is James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-41918737697653640072017-07-23T19:53:00.002-07:002017-07-29T11:50:32.926-07:00Moving Forward in ReverseIf you read my article on lumen printing, this is sort of an addendum or appendix or epilogue or sequel. I had the paper cut, but for the lumen prints, I had cut it in sort of dim diffuse room light, so those pieces are really only good for lumen printing since they are a bit exposed already. So I went and cut some more 8x10 Agfa Multicontrast paper under my red led headlamp (hung about 30" aboveJames Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-23616301915334997852017-07-19T20:19:00.002-07:002017-07-19T20:19:52.339-07:00Lumen-osityI have not been a fan of the lumen print. Let's just get that out there. If you are, then keep reading (spoiler alert: I am now). Recently, over on Filmwasters, there was a discussion of the 'Lumenbox' which is a box camera designed with lumen printing in mind. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What is a lumen print? For that matter what is a lumen??
lu•men
/'lōōmən/
noun physics
theJames Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-76758715836215950562017-06-30T15:36:00.000-07:002017-06-30T15:36:32.069-07:00Robot Camera - Kodak 35RFI like "robot cameras". By that I mean cameras that have exposed machinery like gears and levers. There is something to be said for the sleek, plastic-shrouded black boxes like the Contax T2 or the Konica Hexar with their clean lines and mysterious lack of 'machinery'. They take fine photos to be sure, but (for me) they don't hit my "that's so cool!" button. That button is actuated by dials and James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-21414456417657922072017-06-11T19:04:00.000-07:002017-06-11T19:21:11.283-07:0070 + 35I finished off two rolls of color film. Nothing exciting there. One of them was 35mm. Still nothing. The other was 70mm (616 format). That's a little more interesting, since I don't have a developing tank with a spool that holds 70mm film. Standard Patterson spools will take 35mm, 127 (46mm) and 120 (60mm). So I improvise... I take apart a standard spool.
The bottom half is the 'outer' piece James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-76119687869631128402017-06-04T17:38:00.000-07:002017-06-04T17:38:17.994-07:00Gone Microfiche-ingUsing expired film can be a bit of a challenge. There is usually some loss in speed, so the apparent iso (or the effective EI, if you like) is lower and it is up to you as the film adventurer to determine by how much. The rule of thumb says one stop for each decade past its expiration date. So assuming you know the expiration date and didn't just come across a random roll of film, you can use James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-75102402354147566542017-02-05T13:44:00.002-08:002017-02-05T13:44:53.824-08:00The Return of the Slide DupeAlmost a year ago, I posted "The Last of the Dupe" as I shot, developed and scanned the last roll of my beloved Ektachrome Slide Duplicating Film. What is so lovable? I suppose it is really subjective, but I just like the way the grain and colors combine. Note: I always cross-process this film in Unicolor C-41 and scan. I do the normal things for scanning film like make sure my stupid scanner (James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-20075007009596274792017-01-29T15:27:00.001-08:002017-01-29T20:38:36.820-08:00Russian FogI took a drive up to Oceanside, CA this morning. With me I had my Speed Graphic and my Isolette III. I haven't shot the Isolette in a while which is tragic because I really like the camera. However, I had loaded it with my least favorite film ever, Svema FN64. I shouldn't say that it is my least favorite film because there are films I have shot that gave no image whatsoever and those top the listJames Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-61223294621884219842016-12-13T20:53:00.000-08:002016-12-13T20:53:18.575-08:00Strange New DevelopmentI am unafraid of getting chemicals on my hands (figuratively) and mixing up concoctions. I have spent my share of time in the lab and have even blown a couple of things up, so mixing up photochemistry is not a problem. Additionally, I am comfortable with a certain amount of uncertainty in my photographic outcomes. I don't shoot weddings anymore, so no world is going to end if I totally screw up James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-73057414809026083272016-12-06T14:17:00.002-08:002016-12-06T14:17:31.575-08:00Like I Need Another Alt ProcessI have a project in mind. That usually means I will be spending more than I have of two different things... time and money. I have toyed with the idea for a while of getting into wet plate photography. It is all the rage apparently. I love the look. I love the 'one of a kind' aspect. I don't like the 'wetness'. Having to pour, sensitize, focus, compose, expose, develop and fix all within 10 James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-44283347018856877652016-11-05T17:19:00.000-07:002016-11-05T17:19:16.951-07:00Where'd the Numbers Go!?I just loaded a roll of Kodak Ektar 120 into my 1939 Voigtländer Bessa 6x9. I started winding, looking for the 1 to appear in the ruby window. I wound and wound, but the 1 never appeared, neither did the 2! I was certain that I had wound far enough, but no numbers! I must have done something wrong with the loading or the turning of that little winder thing. It seems simple and I've done it many James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168775659888247782.post-63670569062333634232016-10-30T09:58:00.000-07:002016-10-30T09:58:23.450-07:00Book Review - Beauty In Photography by Robert AdamsRobert Adams is a photographer. He is best known for his landscapes of the American West and the development of the wild places therein. He is also a writer, and not just a writer, but a former English teacher. If you are looking for a "bathroom book" with a little blurb written in language familiar to the average 4th grader next to each picture, look elsewhere. The essays in this book are James Harrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04115005148651311733noreply@blogger.com0