I am doing something potentially brilliant, or I fall flat on my face. I am finishing up my public relations certificate this fall and I have to do a "project" for the PR project course, in this case a 20 page article on a topic of my choosing relating to what I have learned. I chose the topic relating both my professional passion which is PR and communciations and my hobby/artistic outlet of photography. So, my topic for this course will be the roll of photography in the realm of public relations and communications. I don't think it gets quite the care and respect it deserves, we put our energies into the key messages and the visuals become window dressing. Reality is, a well chosen set of photographs will re-enforce key messaging in the article, on the website or in social media. A poorly chosen photography could at best draw attention away from key messaging and at worst potentially offending a public you are trying to reach. I also want to cover off ethical issues reg...
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Sorry for the silence, but I have been quite busy with work and I am enjoying my project a lot. So I picked up a couple of toys, which you do when positive cashflow presents itself, in this case a Minolta SRT-202. I already had a set of MC Rokkor lenses with the XE-7 and I kept to my rule as long as the new aquisition fell into present camera systems I own, it's ok. I love the retro brick that is the SRT 202. The meter is spot on, the results are below in black and white (Kodak Tri-X) and colour (Fuji Superia 400) and I am impressed. Oh yeah, the 202 was a steal too at $50 at Halton Camera Exchange.
Did two things try out a new lens for my Minolta XE-7, a MD Rokkor 45 f2 Pancake design which is nice and sharp. The other thing is play around with Superia 400 @200 ISO. Oh boy rating C-41 film half the box speed is an eye opener. The day shots look just as great as the night work I did a few weeks ago. I think the film companies rate colour negative film at the maximum speed it can go while still looking presentable. Doing what I do, I get finer grain, more saturated colour and sharper images. I shot this roll around Oakville last night.
I had an "aha" moment over the past few days in an urban night photography workshop I helped out with, John Callow was the facilitator and it was done through Elevator Labs. I figured out colour imaging, first box speeds on colour c-41 negative film is wildly optimistic, rate it in half, two long exposures rule at night. Well I know the second part to be true from prior night adventures. I also learned to meter properly and understand the weaknesses and strenghs of both the film and digital media. I gave my Olympus OM-1 a good workout and used Fuji Pro 160s as my film of choice. I had no idea what I was going to get and I was blown away at the results. I am still trying to wrap my brain around the 3-d feel of the one hour photo prints.
I went back to Forks of the Credit last weekend and had a blast despite the mosquitos. I packed my Nikkormat Ftn with Life brand 400 ISO C-41 film and in my F2 Photomic with Fomapan 200 Creative black and white film. For the most part I am very happy with what I got especially the long exposures with the drug store special film and a neutral density filters. A lot of people associate me with black and white but I do love shooting colour (especially slide)and I am getting a handle on how expose it. One thing I want to do at some point is learn how to make traditional optical colour prints.
I am always trying things out for size. I mixed up a five litre batch of Kodak Xtol film developer and tried it out with a roll of Plus X. I took the photos around Oakville with my Minolta XE-7 on a bike ride this morning. I tried developing with 1+1 dilution with water but I think in the future I will go with stock solution. Xtol does have the reputation of crapping out on you when you least expect it. Most likely with an important roll of film. What I like about it, smooth tonality, very low grain, easy to mix up with room tempreture water. What I don't like,I don't know I will have to get back to you on it. I think the fear of stock solution failure is overblown but I will have to wait and see. I think I prefer the D76 gallon size and cost and I have a high comfort level with everyone's standby developer. I do plan to try Xtol out with Kodak Tri-x at 400 ISO. This developer also has really good pushing properties. I am experimenting in the near future.
I was gifted a full box of 10 year old Agfa MCC111 paper at a recent Flickr Toronto gathering from a fellow photographer who went over to the dark side (digital). Challenge, Agfa paper has a short lifespan and even though this box of paper lived in the fridge, it still fogged hence the results of the bottom print of Webster Falls. Now to solve this requires some Benzotriazapole solution or if you don't want to play mad doctor, Edwal Orthathite will do the trick too if you can find it. A fellow film photographer gave me a mason jar of BZT solution and I used of that 25cc in one litre Dektol stock solution. I had to lengthen out the exposure time and step up to a #3 enlarger filter. The results are the top print, much better. My favourite paper is still Kentmere but the Scotsman in me is not going to say no to a free box of photo paper.
Surprise, a colour shot. I do like shooting colour once in a while, Alex and Charlotte came out to visit last Saturday morning. I can't believe how much my niece has changed. I think she is starting to be a bit of a ham like her older brother Marcus. I used my Nikkormat Ftn with a Nikkor 50/2 lens and Fuji Superia 400 C-41 film.
I love neutral density filters, there is no way I can take the below photographs with out them. I was using my Nikon F Photomic Tn with my latest favourite combo Kodak Tri-x@ ISO 200 and processed in Rodinal 1+50. I can slow things down even in bright sunlight and get great results with the water. I took both waterfall shots at Spencer Gorge last Sunday on an Oakville Camera Club outing.
The last two from the weekend printing session. Printed on Kentmere VC Select Finelustre RC paper with Dektol 1+3 with a Devere 504 enlarger with Nikkor 50/2.8 lens. The photos are along the Trimble branch of the Bruce Trail which takes you from Forks of the Credit Road to the Befountain Conservation Area. I used my Nikkormat Ftn and Kodak Tri-X with these two photos.
Results from a printing session last weekend, all these photographs were taken along Oakville's waterfront in the past two weeks. The top photo printed from a negative that was my last roll of Classicpan 400 I shot in my Nikon F3HP. The bottom two photos were printed from Tri-x pulled to 200 ISO and processed in Rodinal 1+50. Prints were made on Kentmere paper developed in Dektol 1+3.
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So Tri-x being a very versatile film, you can get different looks with different developers. In the previous post I showed a couple of examples of Tri-x processed in ID-11/D76 1+1. This post I show what happens when you process Kodak Tri-x pulled to 200 ISO and processed in Rodinal at 1:50 (one part Rodinal and 50 parts water). I used an Asahi Pentax SV with Super Takumar lens system. Again if I was truly anal I would be running this through one camera but regardless if it's Rokkor, Takumar, Zuiko or Nikkor you are going to get some really nice results. I printed on Kentmere RC Fine lustre paper with a Devere 504 enalarger with a 50/2.8 enlarging lens. I like this look, I would not use it all the time, I think this developer/film combination has it's applications and lends itself to the right subject matter. The shots below were taken around Oakville.