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.
Went to a new doc today. He had the coolest, laid-back, 1930s-style office I’ve ever seen. And it was peaceful and empty!
It was the best medical office I’ve ever been to. With that said, you don’t want to have to go here; it means you have a nodule on your thyroid. Ya, you can pass on that.
The Indigenous flag was designed by artist Curtis Wilson (d 2019).
The renowned artist was born and raised in the Ligwilda’xw territories, and he was a member of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation in Campbell River.
I probably shouldn’t write anything today.
I’m tired, didn’t get nearly enough sleep, and to top it off, I wasn’t happy with any of today’s photos. None of them.
My only bright spot was getting to futz around in my office all day, and my Ilford vintage tone film came in the mail. I’m excited to see what it produces. I promptly loaded it into the F3 and shot a few frames around the house. Maybe tomorrow, if it’s cool enough, I’ll take it out for a little outing after seeing the doc. I have to see a surgeon about whether he thinks it’s time to remove a thyroid nodule. Good times…
May you have good light!
Click for Stray Pixels
I wasn’t happy with any pictures today. I’m posting just because it’s what I shot today.
Curve-billed ThrasherCurve-billed ThrasherGila Woodpeckers, a male and his offspring from this year - I'm just amazed at the odd angle that they can hold on. How they push off and fly from such an awkward position is amazing to watch.Then, how they hang on to a vertical wall.
Ran out of time today due to errands and honey-dos. Made it out to the backyard before sunset and tried to get some good motion-blur shots of some palm trees, but I wasn’t happy with the results. I got what I got.
Off to work on a four-day trip tomorrow. It’s always hard to leave home…
Figuring out Darktable is in the queue. Reading this site gives me some hope. All I ever hear about Darktable is that it’s deep and complex, with a learning curve like a hockey stick. All that means is you need good instruction. The Darktable.info project looks like it breaks it down into bite-sized chunks. Hopefully, when I get back into town, I can spend some time with it.
You know what I’m missing these days? Photography road trips. I used to take five-to eight-day road trips and do nothing but shoot pictures and weave a story out of them. I used to post those stories on Exposure, but I got tired of their pricing and the lack of an easy way to download my stories intact. So I canceled everything. My goal was to remake those stories on my website, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s just so time-consuming. I’m itching for a long road trip just to explore and shoot pictures.
Well, if you couldn’t tell, I’m trying to write more under my pictures. Keeping it mostly in a photography vein. I really like it when I read other photo blogs that have a story/thoughts along with the photos.
Film Journey: I’ve been thinking a lot about photography class back in high school and our darkroom work. Made me research today what folks are doing for film developing at home these days. That was a rabbit hole! Found some good stuff, and boy, it hasn’t changed much. There are some nice kits out there, and for B&W film in particular, it’s pretty straightforward stuff. I’m blowing off the kits and may just get a super simple piecemeal setup and try a roll or two at home, what the heck. You can get everything you need for about $120 if you shop around. If you get good results, it wouldn’t take long to recoup your investment with the cost of developing. If you’re going to jump back into film, why not jump in with both feet? More on this foray later.
Bread-making day today. We have a small local bakery close to us that we really want to keep in business, so we purchase most of our bread and croissants from them, but we still make some bread at home. It’s fun and something that my wife and I can do together. I say together, but she does most of the work. My main job is Sourdough Maintainer. I’ve made and maintained a sourdough starter since I was in my early 20s. Not sure why, I just always thought it was cool. I keep a small batch healthy and happy to use in bread and pancakes. If you want a resource for sourdough, here is a good one.
Worked most of the day in the office on learning more about photo scanning, posting about having a Life Manifesto on Cliff538.com, and I wanted to make a dedicated page for my foray back into film before I got too deep into the weeds and started to forget things. Just a page to list out my posts and the resources I have found worthy in this journey for anyone interested in exploring film or film scanning. Plus, it’s for me to look back and reference things. You can see it here.
I also really enjoyed Jasper’s: Kent 1, Kent 2, and Kent 3? series. Great photos from a part of the world I haven’t spent that much time in. And this great YouTube video about the very last Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. I had no idea how complex it is. Great behind-the-scenes look. It will help you understand why film is so expensive. Haven’t looked at Polaroid recently? Check out their cameras, film and printers. The factory now employs about 150 people; in its heyday, it was 1200+. The film is still supported in cameras that are 50 years old, kudos to Polaroid for always supporting their legacy cameras. Blue pasta goop, pudding, roller pressure, aging, spread factors, it’s incredibly complex to maintain legacy cameras with the new film. You get to see the old 8x10 peel-apart machinery, which they only run from time to time, hence the perpetual shortage. They love 8x10 and say they have no plans to stop producing it. The machines are old and finicky and in desperate need of an overhaul.
It’s raining here. It’s 104°F/40°C and raining. Real nice.
Yesterday it was 113°F / 45°C, and it was miserable. From the news, it sounds like we’re not alone. The heat has settled in everywhere, and summer has arrived like a blowtorch.
This is a shot from yesterday that I just got around to editing in Lightroom.
Thanks for stopping by.
Click for Stray Pixels and a Film Journey Update
Film Journey:
Another update to home digital camera film scanning. I read the user manual for Negative Lab Pro and its scanning recommendations, and I tried a second batch of scans. I think they turned out much better. I’ll show a couple of shots from yesterday’s post, plus a few more, that show the difference between the lab scans and my scans. It surprised me and made me realize that the lab isn’t always the best.
I will say that color scans are the hardest. B&W is pretty darn easy; there is no white balance to deal with, and you’re basically just adjusting brightness, contrast, black clip, and white clip, unless you use toning.
I’m most surprised at the sunset pictures. The lab scans came out really dark, and I thought I had just screwed up my metering, which metering for that shot is tough with the bright sky and dark street, but I wasn’t even going to process those shots, and I’m glad I did. When I scanned them and used Negative Lab Pro with just standard settings, they were not that dark at all. It just shows me that whoever scans your pictures, they, or the software, is making a judgment call on your negative. I think I’d rather be making those decisions.
I’m rather enjoying the process and creative outlet. Looking forward to getting some good pictures to work with now.
Of note, I’ve been using Negative Lab Pro for negative conversions, but I just found another way from CineStill Film. They have LR, PS, and ACR presets that do the conversion. I downloaded them, but haven’t had a chance to play with them yet. You can watch a YouTube video on how to use them here.
The first seven shots are professional lab scans from my local lab. The next seven are my scans. Ignore the quality of the shots, I just wanted to shoot a couple of rolls of film to test the Rolleiflex and my metering. You can compare them yourself. I’m working on getting that cool image reveal slider on my blog, but it’s a bit more complex than I thought. It would be nice to have the slider and see the lab scan vs my scan in the same shot. Hopefully soon.
My second try with new knowledge and tweaks to the software and camera settings.
My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400
Sad day for taking photos, but a good day on the film scanning front!
More down in Stray Pixels about the film journey.
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Film Journey:
Today was mostly an office day to see if I could do my own scans of my negatives and get them close to the professional lab results.
I’m going to post the professional lab scans, then my camera scans. My goal is to be able to scan my own negatives and at least come close to lab-quality. I know labs vary widely, and I only have one lab to compare to right now, but I don’t think mine are that bad, especially for my first attempt. There is a pretty steep learning curve, and I’m sure I’ll get better as I learn more and practice. Please ignore the photo content; these were test shots to make sure my grandfather’s Rollei was still working, and my light metering technique was working. I was just shooting random stuff around the house. Oh, and ignore the dust! My word, the dust on my black-and-white negatives was horrible. I’m going to have to be way more careful in the future.
I’m also going to have to decide where I’m going to document my film journey. Here in Stray Pixels, or I should probably just make a proper page over on Cliff538.com. I will give this some thought.
The last photo is a Vlads Test Target. It’s a simple concept that works really well for testing sharpness, especially in the photo corners. Setting up your camera and film scanner so that everything is straight and parallel is really important. Then figure out which aperture setting on your lens gives you the best focus, especially in the corners. I was using f/8 on my lens, and there is some softness in the corners. This warrants some testing with other apertures.
I used my Nikon Z8 with an MC 105/2.8 lens and a Valoi 360 system. Processed with LightRoom Classic and Negative Lab Pro.
All shots taken with a Rolleiflex. The color film was Kodak Portra 400, and the B&W was Ilford HP5 400.
Professional Lab ScanProfessional Lab ScanProfessional Lab ScanMy First Attempt at ScanningMy First Attempt at ScanningMy First Attempt at ScanningMy First Attempt at ScanningVlad's Test Target
Four A.M. sharp is van time. I was out by the curb early with a cup of coffee, sitting in the dawn’s first light, all alone, listening as the birds slowly woke and began announcing the day. A peaceful little pocket of quiet before the hectic day ahead: airports, crowds, and full aluminum tubes streaking through the air at 500 miles per hour.
Four legs today. Only an hour late by the end of the day. Not too bad for Summer flying.
Pro Tip: If you are traveling by air, take the first few flights out in the morning. Morning flights always leave on time. These planes fly all day long, and by early afternoon, they are running hours late due to mechanicals, weather, and a hundred other reasons. Do yourself a favor, and fly out early. I know it’s hard to get up early, but it’s better than getting to the airport only to be 3+ hours delayed or canceled.
What a day. Full airplanes, lots of thunderstorms, delays, holding, waiting, plane changes, and more! Glad to be done. 10 hours' rest, and let’s go do it again. Let’s get people where they want to go!
Weak photo today, but it’s the only one from today.
Hope it was a great day, thank you for stopping by.
Not much time for photographs today. My mountain shot was, let’s just say, uninspiring. So, time to get creative and deepen the blacks and brighten the whites to create a mountain yin-yang opposing-forces idea.
Off to work tomorrow, let’s see what creativity that brings.
Nikon Z8 • 500mm • ƒ/13 • 1/500s
Nikon Z8 • 24mm • ƒ/4.0 • 1/400s • ISO 800
