Home for my 365 photo challenge, where I attempt to take and post a photo every day for the year.
Click on Photos to see all the photos on one page, or scroll down and look at each post. You can find more pictures and some not-very-good blogging at Cliff538.
Curious about my journey back into film shooting, you can find all those posts here. There is also a dedicated page to the journey and resources that I have personally used and can recommend.
I hope these pictures bring a smile and inspire you to go take some pictures.
My little Rivy-Bear is finally on film. Ilford Ilfocolor Vintage Tone 400 film, to be exact. It’s not a shot from today, but, hey, it’s film! Hopefully down the road the speed of my workflow will allow for a “film” shot of the day.
A Film Journey update down in Stray Pixels, along with the rest of the shots from my first roll of Ilford Vintage Tone.
Click for a Film Journey Update
On Monday, I figured I’d done enough research, studying, and practicing, and that I just needed to jump in. I developed my first roll of B&W film since 1987, and it went really well, except I didn’t have some cooled rinse water ready… I was rushing around while the fixer did its thing, mixing tap water with some refrigerated water. Ugh. (My cold tap water is way too hot and needs to be mixed with cooled water from the fridge; life in the desert).
You can see the results of that roll (Kodak Tri-X) and a Kodak Portra 400 roll taken with the Kodak Snapic here.
On Wednesday, I had two rolls of color film staring at me on my desk and figured, why not? The cold tap water is too hot for B&W; why not just do some C-41 processing, which requires 38°C? I had wanted to do a few more rolls of B&W first, but what the heck, I’ve done my research, and I had two rolls of film that were not important, test rolls if you will, in case I screwed it up.
I set up my sous vide, mixed up the chemicals from the Bellini C-41 kit, and got them in the water to preheat while I wrote out a task card. Temperature control is very important with color, so you want your steps down pat. I haven’t had any trouble with putting my film on reels; I practiced a half dozen times, and so far, everything has gone smoothly in the dark bag. I did have my dev temperature drop by 1 °C in the Paterson tank, so I think next time I’ll raise the sous vide temp to 40°C.
Preheat, Dev, Bleach, Fix, Wash, and Stabilizer all went well. After each step, I poured the chemical back into its bottle. Bellini says you can get 16 rolls out of one kit. I hung the film up in my shower with weighted clips and let it dry for about two hours while I cleaned up and prepped for scanning.
Scanning is getting better. I’m using a Valoi system to scan with my Nikon Z8 and using Negative Lab Pro to convert the negatives in Lightroom Classic. I spent a good while figuring out how to do batch conversions because if I have to crop, convert, and process each picture individually, I’d pull my hair out. I also experimented with using CineStill Convert Tools with the B&W negatives and was very happy with the results. I need further testing and experience to make a judgment call.
The learning curve is steep but fun. I have glimmers of my process streamlining and becoming more efficient.
I have an up-to-date resource page here. If you are interested in doing any of this and have questions, please feel free to email, comment below, or reach out on Mastodon. If there is any way I can help, please let me know.
The shots below are nothing special, but it’s all about testing my process and learning.
Camera: Nikon F3, Lens: Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.4
Film: Ilford Ilfocolor Vintage Tone 400 Plus
Developer: Bellini C-41 kit
Film borders: I did not take the time to crop; you get the real film border with these shots, no fake film borders put on in post with these! I intentionally used generic Frontier scanner settings and did very little tweaking to the photos so you can get a good feel for this film.
*Click the first picture to open a full-size viewer, then use the arrow keys to navigate through the whole set
No chance of the Kodak Snapic review today; I’m just too tired. Today was a good 1000-yard swim at the gym, then I dove in with both feet and developed two rolls of color film (C-41): a roll of Kodak Portra 400 and a roll of Ilford Vintage Tone 400 Plus. It went very well. I learned a bunch and will be much more efficient next time. Scanned both rolls and just used generic settings so you can get a good feel for the “look” of each film type. I had to take the time to learn how to batch-process my film scans with Negative Lab Pro because processing each one individually is not realistic. If I’m going to keep this film experiment going, I’m going to have to be more efficient. Yesterday, I did the B&W conversions one by one, and it took forever.
It was a ton of fun, but man, I’m exhausted. The learning curve is steep!
Hopefully those pictures and a write-up about it tomorrow. I’m also delaying the Snapic review so I can show you both color and B&W shots from it. Sneak Peek: The Snapic is staying in my flight bag for sure; I’m just not sure which film to keep in it yet.
This was such a quick shot; I regret not framing it better. In Silvertone, it looks pretty good.
Had a doc appointment for my bi-annual FAA physical today. Then spent the rest of the day developing a roll of Tri-X, scanning it, and converting it.
Hopefully, I can get a post up about it tomorrow. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and am stunned at the old-school grainy beauty of Tri-X even shot through a cheapo Kodak Snapic camera. My wife had no idea what I was doing, and she came into the office while I was converting photos, looked at the monitor, and said, “What is that? It’s beautiful, just so classic. It reminds me of photos from my childhood.” (She is 59).
Have you ever had those days? Feel like you’ve walked a mile, only to find out ⤴️.
Click for Stray Pixels & a Film Journey Update
Spent some time today setting things up in the spare bathroom, making a “task card” of the process, and dry-running it to make sure I haven’t missed something. It’s always worth taking the extra time; I learn something each time.
The crazy problem I have right now in the Summer is my water temp. My cold running water is at 34° C, and I need my chemicals and wash water around 20° C. So, I’ve put a 3-gallon jug of water in the fridge and will mix it with warm water to get my desired temp. Kind of crazy.
It’s all kind of exciting. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the first roll done.
Crater Lake last erupted 6,600 years ago but is still considered dormant and may remind us who’s boss whenever it chooses. It’s the deepest lake in the U.S., at 1,949 ft (594 m) deep.
Shot and processed on iPhone.
I hope today brought you a little laughter and lots of smiles.
Good day on the photography front. All the shots today were shot and processed on the iPhone. Had a nice 4-mile walk around Boise today and was able to shoot two rolls of film, as I need some “test” rolls to make sure my developing process is sound. Hopefully next week I’ll get my first black & white rolls developed.
Today was my first day walking around with the Kodak Snapic. I liked it. It’s very small and light, fits nicely in your pocket, and certainly small enough not to cause attention while shooting pictures. I’ll post the pics when I get them developed and scanned.
Two hours before sunset, I loaded up two bags of gear: three cameras, 5 lenses, two tripods, a big jug of water, and a very large towel to wipe sweat off with, and headed up the trail, trying to find a nice high vantage point for sunset. One backpack on your back and the other one worn on your front works pretty well. The hardest part of the evening was keeping sweat off the gear.
Sunset was a bust, just hardly any colors, and very few clouds in the Western skies. My saving grace was this big thunderstorm starting to brew off in the distance, which gave me a nice subject to focus on. It ended up petering out, leaving me with just about nothing, but by that time it was getting too dark, and it was time to head down. I wanted a bit of light because the area is rife with rattlesnakes. The last thing I need is to be out there alone and trying to deal with a rattlesnake bite.
I know there is a weather app out there that is focused on photographers and alerts you to good sunsets, fog, the Milky Way, and things of the sort. I would like to read some reports on how it’s working for people. All sunsets are beautiful, but only some are worth lugging gear up a hill in 100°F/38°C heat.
135 frames with the Z8 and I came away with about 7 that I like. Hopefully some good film shots as well.
The daily shot and the others in Stray Pixels are from the Nikon Z8. I also used the Rollei and the Nikon F3, but of course those will come later. I’m very interested to see how I did with my exposure settings; sunsets can be challenging.
Struggling with adding more film photography to my allotted time, which reduces my daily photo stock. The past few days I’ve been shooting with my Rollei and the Nikon F3, but that doesn’t give me anything for my daily post. I still haven’t started developing my own film yet, and I haven’t been to the lab. This is a problem I need to sort out. Hopefully, when I get a good developing routine down, I’ll have more photos to work with.
When I go out for dedicated photography time, I’ve been carrying one digital and one film camera, which increases complexity and weight. Not sure if I should keep doing that or just make dedicated time for one style. All good problems but ones that need tweaking.
Click for Film Journey Update
Film Journey Update: Getting really close to trying my first few rolls of B&W developing. My nature makes me read and study far too much before I do something, so that is slowing me down but should minimize errors.
You can go super simple and use a developer/fixer combo (Cinestill DF96) and just be done, but I want to understand some of the chemistry and the pros and cons of different developers with the film I’m using: Ilford DDX, Rodinal, Bellini RDL, Pyro, Cinestill DF96… which Stop to use, which Fixer to use. Pros and Cons of using a WashAid or PhotoFlow. How hard is my water, etc. You don’t need to know any of that, but I want to. I’ve been watching YouTube videos, reading Darkroom books, reading blog posts, and mostly reading film and developer documentation. That has been the best source of factual information.
I’m getting closer and will probably start with a Paterson tank, AP reels, and Ilford DDX developer, Stop and Fixer. Next, I’ll try Adox Rodinal developer, then the Cinestill DF96 Developer/Fix combo, which seems to have mixed results, so I’ll use a roll of film with nothing too important on it.
I’ve had three sessions of practise in the dark bag transferring film onto the different reels. Which I will say is mandatory. You will find problems, I promise. Use gloves? Which reels do you like? What happens when the film binds on the reel? What are your options if you can’t do it and need to take a break? How sweaty do your hands get? Which scissors work best for you? 35mm and 120 are two different animals; you need to practice with both. Just bite the bullet and sacrifice two rolls of film and practice with them. Trust me, it will pay dividends.
I’m happy with my film scanning setup, so no issues there for now. Just need to shoot more film and start developing.
I’ve shot these three palms many times before. They never disappoint.
Got a long overdue haircut today. I’ll never get over how good you can feel after a haircut. You take off grams of weight, but you just feel good; you feel as though things are back in place. Ready to go back to work tomorrow.
Hope it was a great day wherever you are, and I wish that after a haircut, “everything is right again” feeling on you!
I love big gate numbers. Maybe I’m just getting old, but some jetways have really small numbers, are hard to see, or have no markings at all. Boise does it right. Big and Bold!
