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"Wherever there is light, one can photograph."  Alfred Stieglitz

Portfolio of the Week: Jochen Abitz

Dear Readers,

there's no completeness without the other half, right? So it's my pleasure to introduce 4Spo's »partner in crime«, Jochen Abitz, from Germany as well. Jochen started his photographic journey about a decade ago, with digital gear. Then, as it often happens, he got »infected« with film photography and with medium format (also thanks to 4Spo), and stuck with it (oh, how I like to tell such stories!).  Similarly, he also likes fine cameras,  many different films, mostly BW, developed by himself. Besides sharing a common website, Jochen also performs some photo projects, editorials etc., together with 4Spo. As he states, they have quite a similar taste when it comes to photography. And obviously, they are quite a tandem! You just cannot find every day photos with such a masterful lighting as in their work (besides other aspects)! I urge to reinvite you to visit their site, there are many analog goodies to be found there! Jochen's work can also be found on Flickr. Enjoy the photos!

Mitja

 All photos copyright: Jochen Abitz

Monday Column: What is an Analogue Photography?

Simply, it is not a digital one. Right? But at its core a ccd or a cmos is an analogue device, transforming photons into electrical charge and only afterwards its converted in digital file. But we all agree that this kind of photography is so called “digital photography” and not analogue (or analog in American English) photography. But large amount of analogue photographs after all is converted into digital files by scanning negatives. At least for on line presentation.  It’s a little bit complicated.

 

But leave philosophical matter about analogue vs. digital for another column in the future. Analogue photography it’s whole universe of diversity at itself. But what it is real analogue photography? Some would say that real analogue photography is when it is taken on some light sensitized material and that aperture and time this material is exposed to light is manually controlled. Other would say give me some film and any camera it would take it. Then it will take film to develop and printing to the local Quick lab. This is also an analogue photography. But what would you say about alternative processes? There it’s not already prepared film in advance, but you must prepare your own light sensitive material, you must do developing and also printing (if it’s needed) at your own. Are those processes more analogue than previous one? What do you think about? What’s your way to be analogue?

 

Matjaž

p.s.: About last column and which camera I took to the hike. I chose Altix. More about this matter in the next column.

Film Matter: Clearing Out Old Film Stock and the Right Soup

Dear Readers,

You probably expected another part of the sequel Building a small exposure meter, right? Unfortunately, I had a major headache with the purchased digital panel voltmeter as the display for the meter. It looks like a shitty electronic component, with a weird output, so I need first to find out where the problem is, or another voltmeter....But at least, the circuit (with some minor modifications) performs well, with an even lower error as I calculated. So expect to see the final part of the build next week (or a week after). 

The "breadboard" version of the exposure meter works well, but I am still in search of a usable panel meter.

And these are my very last outdated films from the "old good days".

While shuffling my photo stuff, I came across a bunch of films I put out of the freezer a few months ago with the intention to shoot these films at last...trouble is, all 4 films are more or less of the »specialty« type-very high or very low sensitivity, and one is for tungsten light as well. But all of them were venerable emulsions back in the day. So I'll need to pay some respect to them when shooting. The EPT 160T (slide film) will be most likely used when I find some nice happening, like a concert, same for the Tmax P3200. As for the APX25 and the »holy« TechnicalPan, I am not really sure when, but they'll be used probably for some landscape stuff. Ok, this is my business what I should do with these films, but when it comes to develop these BW films, we all have the same problem - in which soup we shall develop the old outdated stuff. For the TechPan and the APX25, I'll probably just use Rodinal or its »clone«, the R09 developer (quite similar, but closer to the original pre-WWII formula), except that for the TechPan I shall use a highly diluted solution. Rodinal is quite a flexible chemical, since you can mix it with a buffer (the plain formula is highly alkaline, but it's not buffered), most often with borax, giving a more gentle development. If you haven't tried Rodinal (or R09) yet, give it a go, especially for low- or medium-sensitivity films. Here you can also find the link to the legendary Unblinkingeye article (written by Ed Buffaloe) on Rodinal and its flexibility.

As for the P3200 (very prone to fog), I am not quite sure how to »soup« it, but most likely I will mix up the post-WWII developer formula, reportedly invented by the Czechoslovak ing.Koblic (a great photographic inventor BTW). After the war, there wasn't any fresh film stock available in Europe (and we had other greater problems then), but only old, mostly highly outdated film stock. So ing.Koblic came out with the formula to preserve film's sharpness and keeping down film fog (to be expected otherwise with old film).  Here is the formula: 

Metol - 4 g
Sodium sulfite (anh.) - 16 g
Disodium phosphate (.12H2O) - 4 g
Borax (sodium tetraborate) - 8 g
water to make - 1000 ml (pH around 8.5)

Here disodium phosphate acts as an antifog agent, in contrast to other developers where potasium bromide is usually used. As for the developing time, one should find him/herself the most appropriate time, but reportedly up to 15 min should do the job, and the developing time shouldn't be so critical (in case of a too long devlopment). Here is also a link to APUG where this developer has been discussed a bit, but not too much unfortunately.

My bottom line above all this is: I am always fascinated how many developer formulas have been invented over the decades, some simple and some (many) very complex. In the end, we often come back to the simplest ones, since they work so well (and Rodinal is just one example). It never stops to fascinate me how can such a (relatively) simple black-and-white chemistry produce such outstanding results, over and over again.

Mitja

Random Quote

"My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain"  Helmut Newton

Portfolio of the Week: Niccolò Barone

Dear Readers,

This week we feature another Italian photographer, Niccolò Barone. He is an autodidact photographer. He works essentially in medium format (Hasselblad 503/500, Rolleiflex 2.8f, Pentax 67, Minolta Autocord, Mamiya 645 and some others) and 35mm (Leica M2, M4, M5, M6, Contax II, Nikon fm and some others) as well as with polaroid and Holga cameras, with available natural light as his favorite lighting source. His preferred films are Kodak Tmax 400, 100 and 3200. He develops BW films by himself, usually with Xtol (Kodak) or Gradual (Ornano) when he shoots at low film speeds, and HC110 or R09 when exposing film at high ISO. Yes, noise and graininess is a matter of choice for him.

Niccolò’s photography really focuses on many diffrent things, but essentially on the female form, most images are solitary and the most part is in black and white. When you look upon the photographs you get the feeling as the portrayed women have all endured some kind of hurt, not the physical kind though. All seem lost in their thoughts, gazing out toward distant lands, even those gazing right through the camera lens, are not really seeing, expressions are vacant and glazed.
Most of his inspiration comes from the classics, and some from the web where there's a great number of talented photographers and beautiful photographs. He has already been featured in a number of publications, including Vanity Fair. His work is certainly one of the most accomplished you can find on the web. Niccolò’s work can be found on Flickr on his first and second photostream and on his website. Enjoy his photos!

 All photos copyright: Niccolò Barone

Monday Column: The Right Tool for a Hill Walking Hike

This Friday my brother, I and our uncle will go hiking in the beautiful Slovenian Julian Alps. More accurate: We want to get to the highest mountain in Slovenia. This is Mt.  Triglav, 2,864 metres (9,396 ft) high. It’s a two day hike, first day up, sleeping in the Kredarica hut and the next day down. It’s a 2200 meters (7,218.2 ft) rise and then descent.

First mountain hut "Triglav temple" at opening 1871

source:http://www.gore-ljudje.net/novosti/52045/

Now, I’m a photographer. So I want to take a photographic camera with me on the hike. But it’s will not be an photographic excursion, As a contributor to this blog, would be inappropriate to take with me a digital camera (I admit I will be using a small P&S for snapshots... I’m guilty). So my dilemma is which camera to take with me to the hike? Why dilemma? Take your best camera you own or camera that you could give you the best performance, or the camera you prefer the most and enjoy shooting with? Hm... Probably the best camera, none the less of its simplicity, is my Russian large format camera FKD 18x24 cm or 7x9.5 in, with its wooden tripod. It would require a Sherpa to take it to the mountain top, but they are scarce in those mountains (satire alert!). Probably the second best quality would give me (loan from my friend) Kowa 66. This is a medium format 6x6 cm camera. Here is no need for help from Himalayas but it is large and heavy and bulky. Remember the rise? Much lighter and also with enough quality would be my Canon EOS 100 and some lenses. Lightweight would be with 24 2.8 and 50 1.8 lenses. But is also too much bulk, and I already explained in the last column what’s for me analogue shooting. I have only a small backpack and must take with me all necessary for two day trip and this season in mountains has already fell first snow... 

  Secovlje Saltpans shot with Agfa Isola 1

The most lightweight option would be my Agfa Isola 1 and Altix-n. First is a medium format P&S from late fifties and early sixties. It weight’s only 300 g. Problem is that the number of exposures is limited to only 12. And it has only one shutter speed (1/30 s) and only two aperture values: cloudy f11 and sunny f16, and quality of the lens is in the lomographic territory (I like it). The other option is a 35 mm fully manual “guess the distance rangefinder” with nice 50 mm f2.9 lens. But it lacks the mf look and it’s heavier.  

 Secovlje Saltpans shot with Altix-n

I must decide by myself but I want to hear your opinion. What do you think about my options and what would you bring to that kind of hiking from your arsenal?