Bill Smith's Photography

Spring is just around the corner, ok its down the hall as well. A Print to remind you it will get warmer. I shot this last July in downtown Oakville first thing in the morning enjoying my coffee on the patio of the Green Bean. I shot with a Nikon F with Agfa APX 100 film and I printed on Zone VI DW Multigrade Glossy 8x10 fibre paper using a #3 filter. This is also the first photo I did a little burning in. The upper left corner was overexposed due to the bright morning sun. I lengthened the exposure by 5 extra seconds to fill things in a bit. While warm weather will be returning, I am enjoying what's left of winter on the ski slopes.

I have a huge pile of 8x10 fibre paper in a variety of finishes some of which upwards of 20 years old. I printed both of these photos on Semi Lustre paper from Ilford,it's a grade two which is middle of the road for contrast. I think prefer either a glossier or a more matte finish. At last night's Oakville Camera Club meeting we had a guest speaker working in corporate/wedding photography business giving a talk on how to value your work. Since I have control of the whole process from start to finish, I have to give it some thought. I am toying of putting some prints available for sale.

When I was given my Enlarger (a Durst M300) I was also given some old photopaper Ilford Bromide Fibre paper in 8x10 and 5x7. I did some printing on the 5x7 grade 3 matt finish and I got results that best be described as retro. I shot the photos with my OM-1 Zuiko lenses and Forte 400 film rated at 200 ISO up on the way to the Caledon Ski Club last Saturday.

I did it! I printed my first Fibre print and the scan you see below does not compare to seeing the print in person. One of my Public Relations instructors, Dave Turnbull who is an avid photographer in his own right, gave up his darkroom due to time constraints. He gave me boxes of old Fibre paper, most of it glossy multi grade double weight, I would say the average age is about seven to ten years old per box. I had to adjust my times in the developer and fix. The big difference is the wash procedure, I have to wash the prints for about an hour to get the fix out. For now I am decanting the trays every ten minutes, what I really need is a print washer. For now I am content and I got a workflow procedure figured out.