4×5 Film: The First Linhof Negatives

My first 4×5 negatives came back from Northern Artists lab today, and much to my surprise they were in relative focus and perfectly exposed. In fact, they were exactly as I had imagined the photographs in my mind. The challenge had stemmed from my inability to press the standards close enough with the Schneider-Keruznach 90mm f.8 lens; only after coming in from the blistering cold did I think to switch both standards to the same side of the mount.

The next questions are what do I see here and how did I achieve these photographs? I see the selective focus that draws me deeply to this format. Yes, I can create similar bokeh with a Lensbaby lens or even the 50mm 1.2 lens, but the overall quality is not there in the same way. I do not have perspective control built into the dslr lenses, and though few movements were available with the standards so tightly pressed, there was room for minor adjustments.

In the first photograph the focus is on the clock tower and creating a tilt backwards for the tower in relation to the building’s foundations.  At f.16 and 1/15th exposure on Ilford Delta 100 film the details are extraordinary given how far out of my desired focus (infinity) I was.

The second photograph is an attempt to get at least something in focus from the shoot. I had spent my lunch hour focusing and freezing with the feeling that it was an absolute failure from a final product viewpoint. I aimed my focus at the closest window and hoped for the best. Again, the sweep is clean and the tones are consistent throughout the negative. I am uncertain as to whether either of these photographs could grace the cover of the yearbook I am producing for school, but I hope that the first photograph will hit the mark. The result is much, much closer than I had ever expected after the session.

What do I think of shooting 4×5 sheet film? The process is Zen. The challenges make it exciting to even load film in the bathroom in total darkness. The negatives are large and crisp with tonnes of dynamic range. The cost is about $8 an image [not for machine gunners]. You are limited to how many film holders you own [I own two for a total of 4 photographs]. Development time is about 2-3 days, and few labs do this type of work. C-41 is harder to find processing for than BW film.  Still, I feel portraiture would be spectacular within a studio set-up wherein you proofed with a digital camera to ensure the lighting was accurate and then shot when with the 4×5 when the subject was at his or her best. If this is what can be achieved on my first attempt using the sheet film, then I can only imagine what V. and I can do after the next weeks ahead.

On The Beard, Pikto Gallery Submissions, and a Healthier Lifestyle

Best to begin at the beginning…so let us start with a PhotoBooth shot of me today. I have spent the past 19 days working on rebuilding my body’s health. I suppose that I have spent a week on top of that growing my first full beard. While I would be the first to admit that I have a long way to go before I could claim world supremacy, I would assert that I am doing a not-too-bad-job. V. thought that it might be fun if I at least took a few photos with the beard as it grows, and frankly there is no easier way than to just snap in PhotoBooth.

What have I been up to since my last P90X workout? I have been resting a bit from the P90X, because frankly I was not getting near as much sleep as I should be. I went for 30 minutes of cardio running downstairs, and that felt pretty good. While school is always hectic at this time of year, I am finding that a little more sleep goes a long, long way to getting me through the day without coffee. The new diet is focusing more on raw foods, macrobiotic Japanese-based foods and my juicer juices [tonight is an interesting apple, celery and ginger juice]. I am consistently losing weight, lowering my blood pressure and feeling like the old me.

On the photography front, I have just submitted fifteen landscape photographs from my past three years of travels to be considered for an exhibition at Pikto Gallery. The competition is stiff and it is quite difficult to find 15 images that work coherently for an exhibition contest. Last night, V. and I collected 15 images from her six months in southern Africa, and those should be uploaded later in the week. It’s interesting to see those two collections in contrast, because hers are vibrantly colourful and teeming with amazing wildlife portraits while mine focus on a ghostly, nostalgic landscape series in black and white. You can check out my collection – and kindly vote for me – at the Pikto Online Gallery:

http://www.pikto.com/cad/gallery/top-pick-2011.html?gallery_q=chandler

Cairo: Beyond the Pyramids and Mummies

The situation in Cairo is critical, yet misunderstood by anyone who has not walked this ancient city’s streets. BBC reports one viewpoint while The Globe and Mail featured nine pages of news on the rioting and unrest. Still, the situation on the ground is so far from the freedom chants that Americans imagine in their minds; this is rioting for food and basic living conditions. If the world is not careful, then Egypt will fall under the sway of extremist groups just as Germany, Italy, Iran and China did when their revolutions took them to dark places.

I traveled through Egypt and Jordan for three weeks in 2009. Actually, that is where I met V., and Cairo will always remain the reformative place where I found myself. I woke up in Cairo more than a few times,with bats flying across the swimming pool at midnight, and the airport is straight out of an apocalyptic novel with hulking jetliner bodies off the runway filled with sand. I even spent my final night at the luxurious Oberoi Hotel in a double suite overlooking the pyramids.  I did the tourist traps. The Egyptian museum is the worst museum in the world; it is like a high school from the Silent Hill video game series. Dark, hollow, and void of any reverence, the museum is a tomb for Egyptology. The pyramids are littered with Coke cans and camel rides. Cairo is not a place for the faint of heart or the delicate hygiene that requires clean money or water. No…I do not want to ride your camel!

In Cairo, I spent an afternoon away from the tour group in search of the real city. Eventually, I followed a small herd of sheep into the market place where I was the only Westerner to be found. It was a ghetto area. Frankly, had I not been slightly off-kilter at the time from the collapse of my marriage and a violent illness on the Nile, I would never have imagined walking through the area, let alone taking three rolls of film. It was a National Geographic moment, wherein I felt like a part of moments greater than me. I was eventually chased by two younger men in a truck who swore at me, metal wrenches in hand,  for taking photos of women. The market was the only place I had even seen Egyptian women, so I could only hazard a guess that it was not acceptable to take photographs. Frankly, most Egyptians paid me no notice as my EOS 3 with the 70-200mm lens must have seemed like anything but a camera to them. My death-defying retreat left me without any idea how to get back to the hotel, and walking through tense neighbourhoods until I spied a main thoroughfare. Truthfully, I did my best to get into trouble there. I ate the food, drank water from the sink, walked the streets at night alone, and took pictures of things I probably should not have, but in the end Cairo let me do as I wished, like an indulgent soldier dealing with a child.

When you line up for bread that may run out, then you know the value of food. Until the world addresses Egypt’s need for financial support and reform, it sits upon a powder keg of desperation. Cairo dreams just as we do, but when it wakes up the city may be on fire.