Wet Plate Collodion Workshop @ VSU

One of our VSU Alums gave a workshop on Wet Plate Collodion and Tintypes a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time and had a ton of local and regional photographers join us to learn and shoot both wet and dry plates.

I took a bunch of documentary photographs with my Leica III, Bessa II, and Pentax 67:

 

8x20, almost

Last year I bought an interesting camera, a custom job that was assembled with various parts from a few different cameras but was fairly well put together - an 8x20 banquet camera.

If you've ever seen a really old wedding photo in an antique shop of the whole wedding party and family stretched out into a panorama, it was likely a 7x17, 8x20, or 12x20 image, often made directly with a huge camera. The camera I bought is built off of an old Korona with various parts mixed in.

The camera was not without faults. I found light-leaks and had major problems with the film holder. Right now the holder and back is out getting modified to work together properly.

I did test the camera a few times before and for the most part was completely dissatisfied with the results - but this was due to the film holder issue, not the format.

Anyway, I took one image last month to test the film holder out, and it was a complete disaster - there was a huge light-leak around the front standard. I taped up the edges though with Gorilla tape and now it's good to go. This was the terrible result, wasting a precious sheet of Efke PL 100:

Not to be dissuaded, I really wanted to shoot this image properly before this flooded area dried up. So I returned the next day with my 8x10 camera. I put the same lens on, composed the shot, and took two images back-to-back with some 8x10 x-ray film, with the lens first shifted all the way to the left and then all the way to the right. I also panned the camera right for the second shot to get a bit more coverage.

I then processed, bleached, and scanned the negatives, then finally stitched them together in Microsoft's Image Composite Editor. This gave me a "virtual" 8x20 shot (well technically it was closer to 7x17).

Here is the result:

The lens I used was a 305mm f/9 G-Claron - an older version known to be a copy of the "Dagor" design. This design throws a huge image circle at small stops and covers 8x20 with ease. It's quite a fantastic lens and I got it at a bargain price.

For fun, here's a tiny 100% crop of the dark dirt and roots sticking out of the water on the left:

Pretty good for less than $1 cost of film and a $150 lens that has some haze on the rear element!

I am looking forward to shooting real 8x20 sheets soon once I get my film holder back though!

I also took a few images while setting up the 8x20 camera with my F5, and Meagan shot some of me too:

Finally here is one more of me with the camera that Meagan took with her phone:

Sunset at Grand Bay

I needed some outdoor time so I went to the hunting area at Grand Bay to hike a couple of miles at sunset. Here's some shots I took with my Nikon F4 or F5 and a variety of lenses. I shot a roll of Agfa Optima II 100, a roll of T-Max 100, and a roll of Ektar 100.

Continual flooding along the Withlacoochee Part 2

I posted all color images last time, but here's some additional b&w images from Grand Bay and Langdale Park:

First is my favorite image from this outing, again testing out my new Voigtlander 21cm f/4.5 APO Lanthar lens. This was taken with T-Max 100 and developed in Acufine:

Here are the other images, taken with the Voigtlander or my Schneider 90mm XL or 72mm XL:

Here's a bonus color image. This one was taken with the 90mm XL:

Continual flooding along the Withlacoochee Part 1

I haven't posted in a while so I figured I should add some photos. I've been shooting down at the river a lot lately as we've had several weeks of intermittent storms/rainfall that have caused the Withlacoochee to get back up to levels I haven't seen since last summer.

I went today and the Langdale Park area is flooded all the way up past the pavilion, to the point of being impassable even with a really large truck I think.

Here's some images from around the park and also Grand Bay. I will have more later. I also tried out a new lens. First here are some images made with my Nikkor 90mm f/8, all on Portra 160NC:

 

And here are a few images taken with a new lens I was trying out - a Voigtlander 21cm f/4.5 APO Lanthar. Interestingly, I'm not sure if anyone else out there is actually shooting with one of these. I couldn't find a single image made with one. They are highly collectible. Here are the images:

 

I just wanted to shoot a few images to see the color and clarity of the lens. This lens has some serious "mojo." I love Voigtlander lenses and this is certainly a prime example of why. Voigtlander was a premium lens maker - another German brand - and I don't know why they were overshadowed by Zeiss and Leica. The colors are gorgeous and the micro-contrast of this lens is really something. I have the 15cm version as well. This will be a great addition to my stable of interesting and cult lenses.