8x10 Portraiture with the Gundlach Radar 300mm f/4.5

Here's a few 8x10 portraits I did in the last week, including the "normal" scan of the previous 8x10 post. Other than that one, all of these were done with my Gundlach Radar 300mm f/4.5, which at f/8 is simply fantastic and has a beautiful rendering of the subject. All of these are of course on my Fuji green-sensitive x-ray film rated at ISO 50, developed in Rodinal 1:100 for 7 minutes at 72F. I am currently re-evaluating my temperature control when working with x-ray film so the time/temps for this combo may change.

Fuji Sensia 35mm slides from Labor Day

I shot a roll of 35mm slides over Labor Day with my little Nikkormat EL. I wasn't expecting much but they came out really well! I love the look of this Fuji Sensia film. Here are a few shots, taken generally with a 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.8, or 105mm f/2.5:

Quick Portrait on 8x10 with a 300mm Symmar-S f/5.6

The sun was going down and I wanted to shoot something on my 8x10 since I had a sheet of x-ray film loaded. Our front porch was nicely back-lit so I got Meagan to pose for me.

I shot this sheet of Fuji Super HR-T x-ray film at ISO 50, with the 300mm wide-open at f/5.6 (for those interested, that's equivalent to approximately a 40mm f/0.75 on full-frame digital or 35mm. Anyway, I shot it at 1/125 and also used my Nikon SB-800 for fill-flash. I developed it in Rodinal at 68F for 6:30. Since my Agfa scanner is unable to connect to my new computer I had to "scan" it with my DSLR.

I usually put my 4x5 images on top of my enlarger's light head to "scan" them this way. Since I don't have an 8x10 enlarger I instead put it on a piece of foam board which I then placed on top of a studio hot light. It worked as a ghetto lightbox, but made the image textured. I kind of like the effect. I will still do a proper scan later.

Here is the result:

TORNADO! Well almost.

Today had quite a bit of excitement. Right outside of the building where I work a small tornado almost touched down - but while it wasn't a full-fledged twister (probably an F0), it did tear down many trees and made quite a mess of the power lines. We are lucky it wasn't worse!

I had my Polaroid 900 on-hand so I shot a pack of 100C film. Here are the results...

More Polaroids - casual portraits around the Fine Arts Building

I took some portraits for fun today of some friends during my break at the Fine Arts Building at VSU.

These are all handheld, rangefinder focused and composed, with a Nikon SB-800 flash on Fuji C100 film. They came out really well! Of course taken with my converted Polaroid 900 and Schneider Xenotar 135mm f/3.5.

I "scanned" them with my DSLR as my scanner is currently inoperative on my new computer. They are gorgeous in hand; these shots don't do them justice. Oh well.

Short trip to Reed Bingham with 4x5

I took some shots out at Reed Bingham last week but only finally tonight got around to developing them.

I'm having some trouble getting consistent 4x5 results because of problems with my plumbing here. I don't have running water in the darkroom right now, plus the water that I am bringing in from a spigot is too hot.

Only a couple of these sheets came out that great due to these problems but I'm still okay with that, as at least the palmetto photo came out really nice.

I used T-Max 100 and Rodinal 1:50 for these. Lenses used are as noted.

210mm Graphic Kowa:

Nikkor-T 500mm:

Nikkor-M 300mm:

Sunset Cemetery part 2

I shot another roll of film at Sunset Cemetery Thursday to try to improve a shot I had taken the day before. I also took another shot that I had seen the other day.

This is with Ilford FP4+ film, developed in Rodinal 1:50 at 68F for 6:30. I haven't decided which version I like better of the first photo:

Polaroid photos from Dragon*Con 2012

Now it's time for something completely different...

You might remember my posts about the Polaroid conversion I have with a Schneider Xenotar 135mm f/3.5 lens. It takes both 4x5 film and Polaroid holders, which I shoot with 3x4 Fujiroids, the 100C and 3000B varieties.

I went to Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend and had a ball shooting a bunch of these Fujiroids while roaming the convention. They were all basically wide-open and shot off the cuff. I love how they came out. Here's the best ones from the convention: