620 Day

As the name states, it's 620 day!  What that is, really simple...  On June 20th, you take one of your wonderful 620 cameras out for a spin.
I did so with my Kodak Brownie Bullseye 6x9 620 Box camera with a Twindar Lens.

This is a fun camera to use, sports a very surprisingly sharp Twindar lens, a curved film-plane to help increase the sharpness in the corners, a simple design, multi-exposure protection, LONG exposure option, focuses from 4 feet to infinity, which is adjustable for a finer touch focus.

As for the day.. It was an uneventful day, as I spent most of it working.  But I did manage to get away for a little over an hour, which was the most wonderful time of the day. 
Besides that it got me out of work for an hour, it took my mind off the horrid nonsense of a horrible job, and place to work.
The day started out great.  I took the camera out of the Cabinet, opened my freezer and took out a roll of Allied Photo Pan 620 film.  This film expired in 1970, was stored in a cupboard at best, or... who knows where at worst!

Needless to say, I got the film loaded, and prepared the camera for a wonderful day of shooting, or at least an hour or so.

After my film was finished, it became the hardest part of the whole experience.  I had to figure out how to develop this film.  So, I asked in the ISF forum to try to figure out how to develop this film. 
The first reply was the most direct, and informative direction to how to even begin to develop the film.  This, it turns out, is a very easy thing to do.  I took a small section of the film, the tail end, clipped off a 2cm wide piece across the entire width of the film.  In daylight I dunked it into the developer from about 1cm at a time, and 1 minute at a time.  By the time it was done, it had gone across the entire film width, 1cm and 1 minute at a time and gave me an optimal developing time of 6 minutes for this film in my choice of developer, which happened to be HC-110 dilution B.

The results are nothing less than fantastic....  They may not be mind-blowing images, but the fact of the matter is, I didn't intend them to be, because I didn't have any clue how the film would behave, or how the images would come out.

Sure enough.... 

Oakville Lighthouse

Oakville, a small sprawling city located just 30KM from the bustling city of Toronto.  A quick jaunt across the QEW will bring you to this little city full of history, and tradition, and culture.  It really is a beautiful and remarkable little city.
Although I haven't been there often, I did make sure to bring my big camera the last time I was there.

Taking a quick stroll down Navy Street, which is just west of Trafalgar Road and Lakeshore Blvd, you will get to the shores of Lake Ontario, and Oakville Harbour & Marina.  Guarding this point is a little Lighthouse that really stands out and makes a wonderful subject.

Needless to say, I just had to take a shot with my big camera.. And using a film like Fuji Provia 100F, I just couldn't go wrong...

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Calumet CC400 Monorail 4x5 Camera - Linholf-Schneider 210mm ƒ/5.6 Lens @ ƒ/32 - Compur Shutter - 15s - ND8 Filter + CPL

Thank you Toronto Image Works for the excellent work with the film.

Infrared Film - A First Look Into Another World

It's been a while since my last post, but I must say that I have become enthralled with Infrared film.  It opens up a whole new venue into shooting.. From greenery that turns to a bright white, to wood that stands out beyond what you'd normally see with a panchromatic film.
It's just an amazing look!

Buildings seem to come into a whole new life of their own, while the world goes dark and light around it.  Skies blacken, and the Earth brightens into a beautiful light beyond the normal spectrum.

Although I have only used it a few times, I just am amazed at the amount of detail that is pulled out of it.

Zenza Bronica ETRs - 75mm ƒ/2.8 Zenzanon Lens - Ilford SFX200

Zenza Bronica ETRs - 75mm ƒ/2.8 Zenzanon Lens - Ilford SFX200

Canadian Patriots

Fed 2 Rangefinder - Industar 26m 52mm ƒ/2.8 - Fuji Sensia 100

What an interesting turn of events.  I was heading off to pick up my wife from work, after I had just finished work, when I just happened to see this flag on the front porch of someones house.
This is the first time that I'm giving the Fed 2 a real workout and so I wanted to try something a little unconventional with this camera.  I threw in a roll of Sensia 100 slide film, and spent the day shooting it.
Although there is a bit of a light leak through the shutter curtain, it seems to have performed quite well through the day.
This, shot here, was later on in the evening, around 5:00PM, although the sun was still very strong in the sky.. pretty much NOON type sun during the winter.
Once I got the roll back from the LAB, I looked it over, and really really liked what I was seeing.  Although there is some minor issues DoC of each image where the light was sneaking onto the film, this image seems to have been spared that terrible blow..   It's strong, contrasty, and full of detail.

I really like it, and hope you do too!

Until next time...