infra-ready (already!)

Finally. After spending the whole summer prepping for this event (perhaps I exaggerate? could it have only been 1/2 of the summer?), I finally got to take some Holga infrared shots! My plans were delayed by my inability to find and successfully purchase a Holga camera that was compatible with the cable/shutter release I had. [Long story short, I ended up buying a new Holga and a new cable release attachment.]

So yesterday, I reviewed my print out of this handy Holga/IR guide once again, loaded up the Holga with a roll of Efke IR 820 (non-aura version), my Visico IR 720 filter and headed to the park. As an aside: I am deeply bummed to learn that B & H has discontinued this film. They still carry the aura at 10 bucks a roll, but I liked the regular 820--it could be had when it could be had for about 6-7 bucks a roll if I recall. I had been tempted to develop these images with PMK Pyro but decided that I'd rather not confuse things. In other words, as this would be my first time using this film, using the Holga for infrared shots, etc. I wanted a kind of base-line for things. (Of course this was all before I realized that the film had been discontinued.) Instead, I used Diafine, using these guidelines for developing infrared--see entry to posting from eye of wally. The last (or first or only other) time I shot infrared, I did a Rodinal stand.

I was pretty pleased with the results--a sampling of which appears below. [I was super-duper pleased that the trip resulted in my finding a portion of the park I'd not visited before--yeah!]

As anyone will tell you, determining exposure times for infrared can be tough, so for most of these I went about 4 seconds, 2 seconds if the sun happened to be directly shining on the scene. (In so doing, I counted "1-2-3-4" and not "1-one thousand, 2-one thousand," etc. so my exposures might not have been true 4 second ones.) Generally speaking, the sky was bright with direct sun appearing only occasionally. Again, overall, I was pretty pleased with the results. I was very, very pleased, on the other hand, that I was finally able to get out and take IR images with the Holga before the summer ended. The only kinda quirky-annoying thing that happened--and it happened with most of the images on the roll--was that a light band appeared at the top left of each image. This band of lightness can be seen in the first image below. In some cases, the band didn't bother me, in other cases (as with the second image below), I felt the image was much improved when the section of the image was cropped out. Not sure what caused this, but it doesn't strike me as a typical Holga light leak--the banding seems to consistent and uniform for that. I had the camera taped pretty well but forgot to remove the 6x6 mask inside. I mention the mask, not because I think it played a role in this, but because I prefer to use the Holga without the mask--I like the rougher edges.

I've currently got the Canon AE1 Program loaded with Ilford SFX 200 film (I'm metering it at 25--might be too high?) and after seeing these results on flickr, I'm thinking that maybe I'll try a PMK Pyro dev on the Ilford. I'm eager to see what the fall light has in store for my new, infrared-dedicated Holga. I'm also eager to try the efke aura film. I just can't decide whether I want to try that first in a 35mm camera or buy some 120 to test in the Holga.

resolved. (holga puzzler cont'd)

The new shutter release kit for the Holga arrived today and it seems the mystery of incompatibility has been solved. It seems the shutter releases they are selling now have an oblong- shaped cut out (as opposed to a circular one) at the bottom of the attachment which should, I believe, be able to accommodate both kinds of Holga tripod mounts! Yeah! That said, I can finally start thinking about and planning for doing some Holga infrared.

at issue (holga puzzler cont'd)

My Holga ("Twilight Zone" version) arrived yesterday and unlike the picture of the item featured on the website (and unlike the last yellow Holgawood Holga I purchased), this one has its tripod mount positioned directly beneath the middle of the lens barrel. ARGH! This means that my old shutter release adapter, made for Holgas with decentered tripod mounts, will not work on this new camera. Having grown tired of trying to find a camera with a decentered tripod mount, I decided last night to spring for a new shutter release. Here's hoping that they've redesigned that for Holgas with the centered tripod mount. If this is, in fact, the case, good luck to anyone with an older Holga (or one with the decentered tripod mount) as it doesn't seem that issues of compatibility (or redesign) are foregrounded with these cameras. It would be immensely helpful, for instance, if the ones with the centered tripod mount were named Holga 120NR or something to indicate the redesigned tripod mount. [Perhaps images of items for sale online could also be updated to reflect more accurately which version one is buying.]

Or perhaps more simply, the online descriptions for the cameras and shutter releases might be described specficially as having (or fitting) the centered vs. decentered tripod mount. Holgas aren't expensive, per se, but they ain't cheap. Ditto for the shutter release adapter. Add to the costs, the frustration of receiving an incompatible item and the wait time (and perhaps extra costs for return shipping for items). Blah. Really frustrating. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting to experiment with infrared film in the Holga. To think that I placed the order for the first Holga on July 12th. And I'm still waiting for the issue to be resolved. Maybe my goal should be to shoot Holga infrared in fall?

Anyhoot--the images below more concretely illustrate (or illustrate visually) the incompatibility of the new tripod mount and the old shutter release:

holga puzzler

After waiting (get this) ten frigging days for my new Holga 120N to arrive (from NY, I might add--wtf?), I see that the shutter release adapter I ordered with my first Holga will not fit on this camera. My plan was (and still is) to have a Holga that I will only use for shooting infrared film, hence the reason I was counting on the shutter release adapter to fit this new camera.

The problem seems to be with the Holga's newly repositioned tripod mount. Two of my Holgas ( a yellow 120N and a black CFN) have a tripod mount that is NOT centered beneath the lens barrel, making them compatible with the shutter release adapter I bought a few years ago. The camera that arrived today (again the 120N) has a tripod mount that is centered directly under the lens barrel, so the adapter will not fit. (My purple Holga TLR also has the centered tripod mount.)

I just got off the phone with B&H (by the by, this was not the NY place from which I ordered the Holga that just arrived--B&H's delivery rocks) to find out if the 120N they have for sale there has the centered tripod mount and/or to find out if the shutter release they are currently selling there is compatible with the centered tripod mount. Unfortunately, the call didn't result in a clear answer either way and the description for the adapter didn't help much. (although based on what I could glean from the image of the shutter release adapter housed there, it appears to be like the one I already have--one that fits over the non-centered tripod mount.)

so yeah: sigh.

So here's my work around. Not wanting to spend the 16 bucks to see if the shutter release adapter has been redesigned (i.e., if it has not been and I want to return the piece, I have to pay for the return shipping), I decided to return the 120N that arrived today (I don't have to pay return shipping for this) and ordered another Holgawood version of the 120N as the Holgawoods all appear (again, based on the online images there) to have the decentered tripod mount. I know my yellow one does anyway. So fingers crossed that the images don't lie.

As an aside, I did try, however briefly, researching this incompatibility problem online. I did a google search and then searched within flickr specifically. Nothing. Which is odd. Normally if I'm experiencing some photo oddity, there are at least 2-3 others experiencing the same or something very similar. I mean, I think back now to my problem with the dead spider in the practika viewfinder. Though it didn't help resolve my problem (the dead spider is still there), I felt less alone when another person reported having the same problem.

So Holga-people, what gives?

holgaversary

may 16th, 2009 marked my one-year holgaversary. i ordered my first holga (my first "as-adult" film camera) on may 16th, 2008.

i missed my one year flickr anniversary (april 26th, i think) and the one year anniversary marking my mom buying me, as an early b-day present, the canon powershot s5 (maybe early feb, 2008?), so i was glad to actually remember and mark the holgaversary by going out and taking a few shots with the holga.

i'm frankly amazed that the canon powershot led to the events and the enjoyment i've experienced over the past year. and i recall so vividly, when my mom offered to buy me the powershot, i felt it would be a fairly ridiculous expense. I aleady had a decent digital camera--not one that i ever really liked using--but it served well for research purposes. and the only photos i took at that point were images of student work. but my mom had bought herself another canon digital camera and i was testing it out to teach her how to use it. it was such a hoot to work with, i couldn't stop using it and trying new things. she kept saying, "okay--do you want that one and i'll get myself another?" i really didn't. her camera was fun to use but i already had one and it served me well for my research and scholarship. she offered to buy me my own camera a few more times that weekend. like i said, it was hard to stop taking pics with it once i started. i knew i wanted something with more manual controls, so we ended up going out and looking around and i settled on the powershot s5.

once i started taking pics with the powershot--and i was quickly-addicted, sometimes taking 300 shots a day just to experiment, to play around--i put off joining flickr, thinking it would be way too daunting and overwhelming. shortly after i joined, i realized flickr's teaching potential. i'm not sure how or where i came across the first holga photograph i had seen, but i was transfixed. i started researching holgas, looking at other photographs and then i got one of my own. it was a couple months before i started developing my own b/w film, another month till i started developing color at home, so there was a lot of time spent waiting for film to come back from the place i sent it for developing. speaking of diy color developing, i guess i'd say hands-down that this is the thing i was most scared to do and the thing that i'm most glad i tried given how much money it's saved me over the past 8 months or so. again, if not for the advice and generosity of folks on flickr, well, i definitely probably wouldn't have known you could do diy color developing. as for other of the years' high points, low points, regrets, finds, misses, challenges, etc.:

so about diana+. wow. what a rough time this has been. when things work between us, they are amazing. the panda photo from the san diego conference trip is still one of my all-time favs. problem is, most of the time we don't work or play well together. ah, diana.


as for favorite films: hands down, for b/w it has got to be adox chs art (120 or 35mm) and efke kb 400 (35mm). the holga train station image above was taken with adox chs art 100.

what i'm not digging: surprisingly, higher speed films. ilford delta 3200, even the fuji 800 speed films. i thought i'd really like working with the higher speed films--color especially--but i've just not been feeling it.

some 60-70 cameras (yikes) later, i have to say that the camera i am most glad that i bought (and i say this only because i was going to pass on it) was the ultronic panoramic. i actually picked up two at resale shops when i went home for easter. that the camera was only a buck is pretty amazing. i was incredibly amazed though when i saw the images it was capable of taking. wow. i'm really, really glad i didn't pass on this one thinking that because it looked like junk the images would be junk--and not the interesting kind of junky i really love.

what i imagined i'd be doing more of at this point in time: most definitely, pinhole photography. i picked up a 35mm zeroimage and i really, really liked working with it. my plans were to spend this spring and summer getting into 4x5 pinhole photography. i figured that i'd go with another zeroimage as soon as i saved money for that and for the 4x5 tank, film, etc. that i agreed to start volunteering my time taking pics of rescued animals, animals needing homes and of so many, many pitbulls, kind of put the brakes on the pinhole plans.

what i've most enjoyed doing: most definitely, buying cameras and seeing if i'll be able to flip the lenses on them without breaking the cameras or shutters or lenses and without hurting myself. thanks again to folks on flickr and the incredible resources to be found there, my first flip was with the brownie hawkeye flash. --along with the ultronic, holga, and zenit em, this has definitely been one of my favorite cameras with which to take photographs of llamas in the springtime.

missing this day

given the extreme cold and the dearth of new, cool, and colorful
things to photograph, i was thinking i was experiencing spring fever. that i keep thinking about this day suggests what i'm really experiencing is a late summer kind of fever.

but i loved this particular day and am missing it now: august 16th, 2008. the semester was just weeks away from beginning and having had the spring term off, i was eager to get back to business as usual but sad to see the summer (and all the time i had for photo play) end. i learned about the car show on campus earlier that morning. never having attended one, i came home, checked it out online--mainly to see if there was an entrance fee (i think at the time, i had nine dollars and change on my person), and then headed up to campus around noon.

the weather was amazing and the sky was crazy blue and white. just perfect. and the music was loud and good. for my first trip up to campus, i brought with me the smena (loaded with color film), and the bhf, holga and agfa ansco plenax, each of which was loaded with b/w film. at the time, i had just begun developing my own b/w at home and was beginning to experiment with coffee developing. it would be some time (a month and a day, in fact) before i started doing my own color developing at home, so the images i took with the smena (see first two images below) would sit on the shelf for a while.

for my second trip up, i brought with me my canon powershot s5 (see image above). it occured to me that what i'd coffee develop later that day wouldn't do justice to the mad colors of the cars and sky and who knew when or if i'd get the roll from the smena developed. (at this time, with the semester about to start, it hadn't really occured to me to get into color diy developing right away.)

i recall feeling kind of silly walking around shooting images with the folder (see images below with the sprocket holes). i wasn't used to taking photos with people around (. . .i'm still not). i recall passing--a number of times, actually--a guy taking pictures with a really hooked up digital camera. and here i am with the folder and my bhf feeling pretty foolish. at one point, another guy stops me to ask if the folder is really old or if it was a new (i.e., perhaps digital?) camera made to look old. good question.

my favorite shot of the day (perhaps ironically) didn't contain evidence that it was taken at the car show. in fact, it might have been taken (almost) anywhere. i was sitting on the side of the hill, preparing to go home to get the canon when i saw this hatted woman standing there with her back to me. i knew i had another shot or two left in the folder and figured that if she didn't see me, well, it would be okay to take the shot. right before i was about to take it, she turned around and saw me seeing her. as soon as i took the shot, i recall thinking, "please, please let this turn out--don't let the film break, don't let me find that the camera has crazy light leaks--don't let me mess up the processing or fixing. i really need to see this one--i really need it to turn out." the first (and only other) time i've felt that way about an image was when i took this one. the way the vendor was positioned, the way the light was falling on her--just amazing, to the eye anyway. in that case, i hadn't begun developing at home and the wait to see if or how the image came out was really long and difficult. added to that, my luck with shooting 35mm in the holga hadn't been that great.

in retrospect

i'm feeling a little guilty about crabbing so much about my lack of access to new and exciting content. it's not that campus is a bad place to take photos (same goes for my yard, the woods, stuff inside the house, etc.). it's more a matter of wanting to add more variety to the mix.

and actually, the vistaquest shot of the sondheim statue (above) is still one of my favorites. and i've actually been pretty surprised by how. . .i don't know, surreal or fairy-tale some of the shots i've taken on/around campus can look, especially those taken around the library pond area. at this point, i guess i'm also given the occasion to rethink the comments i've made about the lomo x-film, since the first shot below (taken with the smena) was taken with that film. the one below that--of the walking path leading to the library--was taken with the holga and that stretch of path is one of my favorite places on campus to take photos.
































two more recent campus holgas:








































and then there were these double (maybe even triple?) exposures taken on/around campus this summer with the non-spidered praktica mtl3:

. . .and now for something completely positive

Shortly after I took this picture, my heart started pounding and I was thinking, “please, please, let this turn out—don’t let the film get jammed or torn, exposed to light (or whatever) when I take it out and start the process of getting it back in the canister!” [Again, I rarely experience this with digital since there’s no dark room involved, not waiting as I can tell right away if it looks okay or if I need to try again.]

The pic, titled "for sale," represents a number of “firsts” for me which is one of the reasons why it’s currently one of my favorites—at least of those I’ve taken. It was the first time I was attempting to shoot 35mm in the holga, so I was worried that something had gone wrong (i.e., that the film wasn’t spooling correctly) and I was also crazy-worried about the process of taking the film out of the camera and rewinding it by hand in the dark. What’s more, since I’m never quite sure where I’m at on a roll when shooting 35mm on the Holga (i.e., I knew that this wasn’t among the first couple shots I had taken), I was afraid that when I started the 34 click cycle I’d find that I was already at the end of the roll.

I had walked past this woman selling produce on the side of the road and I really, really wanted a picture of her and the truck or at least the truck. But I was afraid to ask. I walked on. On my way back home (this involved passing her again), I noted that the light falling on her was amazing. She was talking on the phone and I remember thinking, “just take the shot—maybe she won’t mind.” I also remember thinking, “boy I wish I had the brownie hawkeye flash with me as using that makes it look less like I’m taking a picture.” I pretended that I was waiting to cross the street, to see if she would look up and notice me. She didn’t. I ended up taking the shot--the first I'd taken of someone I didn't know--and well. . .that takes us to the point where this posting began.

This shot was taken during my yellow-tape phase and when I saw the first of the green negatives, I remember thinking, “please, please let that one shot be the exception.” It wasn’t. (There was one though that was notably un-green but that was taken inside the house, so I reasoned that the brighter the surroundings were, the greener the negatives became.) It wasn’t quite as green as green had proven to be, but still. Thankfully, it was salvageable.

Beyond representing these “firsts” (again, first time I ran 35mm through the holga, first time I took a picture of a stranger) this was the first time I really played around with cropping tools. With most of my digital pics, I post or print them as they are. That is to say, save for resizing them, doing a little level-tweaking, sharpening, or maybe converting color to black and white, they are usually posted without being cropped or filtered. The uncropped version was okay but it was easy to overlook (or I thought so anyway) what I loved most about the pic and what I had hoped would be captured on film—the way the light was falling on the woman as she sat in the chair, talking on the phone. So I played around with the cropping tool a bit. The mostly tightly cropped version gets a little too grainy and you lose the sprocket holes (the whole point of using 35mm in the Holga) but I also think it looks most Holga-like. Here is the full version followed by the others I tried.

negativity

The last batch of negatives I had developed was really disappointing—and I’ll admit now that this was all me, having nothing to do with the place I have the film developed. Of the five rolls I sent in, only one came back with decent (read: properly exposed) images on it. No surprise that this roll was shot with the Nikon n50—as long as I pay attention to what the camera tells me about shutter speed and aperture, the images look okay. Don’t get me wrong, I love shooting film but the waiting part (i.e., having the film sent out to be developed and waiting for it to be sent back) is hard. Over the past year, I’ve gotten used to the immediate feedback you get from shooting digital—I can see what’s working, what’s not and adjust my behavior (and the camera’s shutter speed and aperture) accordingly. The lessons are immediate and so seem to stick.

When the box of negatives arrived, I looked first at the rolls of 120 I ran through the Holga and the Diana. I wasn’t expecting much as I had kind of suspected that I was keeping the shutter open for too long. Seeing the negatives confirmed that. Feeling far more hopeful, I looked at the two rolls of 35mm I ran through the Holga. I had been feeling optimistic at this point because the modification part seemed to go well and that had been my biggest concern. But then I notice that almost every negative was green—not entirely green but most were mostly green. While this seemed to signal a slight improvement over the last batch of negatives (I could actually see what I had photographed), I’m thinking the green is definitely not a good thing. I scan the first couple of images and come to see that green means red. And then I start trying to figure out where and why things went so horribly wrong. So I’m thinking it’s mainly about my yellow tape mistake which—in turn—has to do with my being too cheap and too impatient to send away for the black gaffer’s tape like my copy of Plastic Cameras recommended Holga owners do. Not wanting to use duct tape inside the camera (i.e., to keep the batteries for the flash in place, to buffer the areas over which the 35mm film is pulled, to mask the red window on the back of the camera), and not having any gaffer’s tape to hand, I decide to use the yellow tape I recently purchased at a teacher’s store. No bueno.

At this point, I'm angry at myself for being so stupid (and cheap)--though I'm still not sure that the yellow tape was/is the whole problem or only problem that I'm having here--and I was just going to file away that batch of negatives, revamp the holga (using black electrical tape this time) and try again. I decided instead to see what, if anything, photoshop could help me do to salvage any of these images. With the help of the channel mixer and gradient map, I was able to come up with images I could live with:

the learning curve

So I decided to try some fuji 160 iso film (I had been using 400) in my holga and diana and to compensate for the difference in speed/light sensitivity, I went bulb-setting crazy. and I mean crazy, holding the shutter open for 15-45 seconds, maybe longer. And this--entitled "hmmm"--was the result. You know a shot is really bad when you can’t even determine where you were or what you were shooting. I am assuming I was in the woods, but I’m not sure. I’m also not sure if I had an extra fun filter on the holga or not. Bottom line, I’ve lost my rights to use the bulb setting. It doesn’t matter if I’m shooting in the pitch dark, no more bulb setting for me, at least for awhile.