The last 3 pieces of Soviet bromportrait paper 😦
Much wiser since my goodbye
Tag: ilfordhp5+
Living together
We got a COVID kitten.
Long time passing
The garden is in bloom!
Finally some new flowers around here
Kris finally got some new flowers–lilies. Shot them with my Diana set up on Ilford Hp5 pushed to 3200. Looking forward to printing some of these!
That’s a knife
I’m pretty sure I’ve owned some type of Swiss Army knife since I was a teenager. I got my current knife sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. So almost 30 years. That means countless boxes opened, a bunch of IKEA furniture assembled, some light switch plates screws tightened, a few bottles of wine uncorked, and dozens of beer bottles uncapped. I don’t think I’ve used the awl tool that much. I know I used the long blade for something I shouldn’t have since the tip is broken off. The toothpick is long gone but the tweezers stuck around.
I was looking at it and thinking it might be time to get a new one. Then I got sentimental. There’s really no point in getting a new one. With all its issues, it still works. With a little luck, I will die owning this knife. Of course then it will probably end up in the trash. I can’t see my kids keeping it around.
I shot these pictures of the knife with an even older Nikon fm2 loaded with Ilford HP5 plus pushed to iso 3200 and developed in HC-110 dilution B
f6.3
With a rubber washer and a little black tape, I made the opera glass lens f6.3. It’s not quite the f8 or f11 I was hoping for, but it’s a significant jump from f3. This really helped with the depth of field.
Around the Globes
I bought a pair of globes at the Resource Exchange. They aren’t earth globes. Not sure what they are. But, they make a fun still life.
Every Day Is World Toy Camera Day
Yesterday was World Toy Camera day and I spent it in bed sick. But I’m shooting toy cameras every day, so there’s that.
Here are a few of my latest shots with the Stellar (Diana clone) and the close-up filters.
The Joy of Not Knowing What You Are Doing
I like the way this Stuff project is pushing me. Using diopters on the Diana means I am shooting blind. The Diana’s viewfinder–already suspect–is useless. And, focusing is pretty haphazard. I think my focus range is about 7 inches. But the depth of field is small. The happy result of these constraints is that I am taking pictures I never would have without them.
For example, when I started, I thought I would be shooting something like this.
I took this picture with the Graflex 4X5. It’s not a bad picture. A simple full-image of an object with it fairly centered. It’s object as icon. And it’s pretty much what I shoot when I shoot street scenes or buildings.
Now, I am getting pictures like this.
It’s much more evocative, with just a bit of focus at the top of the image and the subject off-center and cropped.
Here are some shots from my latest round.
Let’s get small
I’ve got this vague idea for a project that involves grainy, up-close images of stuff using the Stellar (Diana clone). Not sure exactly what I’m trying to say with these images. But maybe that will come to me.
I’m my precious post, I realized I would need to get closer for the look I wanted. These shots of one of my Kodak DuaflexIV cameras feel like the right intimacy. I can definitely see some parallels to buildings I’ve shot.
I shot these on Ilford HP5+, pushed (as much as I can in a toy camera) to 1600 and developed in D-76H. There may not be enough grain for me so I might have to go back to the Delta 3200.
I got the macro effect by stacking a +3 and +2 diopter over the lens. This gave me about a 7 inch focus. Tim at filterfind was extremely helpful in figuring out this solution. If you shoot with older cameras and need filters this place is the best! I used a Kodak Series 6 system which fit well on the Diana’s lens. It’s still a bit of a crap shoot with depth of field. I will stop the lens down to help with that.
Ed Keer 