Some new 8x10 photos with Wista (Tachihara) camera

I went for almost 10 months without touching my 8x10 camera. The reason? I never quite got along with my Kodak Century Universal. Sometimes I just don't click with a camera. When I really enjoy a camera, I always get better images because I am more at ease using it. For example, I owned a Hasselblad 500c/m for about a month before reselling it because I really did not like it. To each his own.

Anyway, I am rekindling my interest in 8x10 as I picked up a Wista 8x10 field camera (made by Tachihara) on a lark. I really like this camera - it is much more intuitive for me than the Kodak. It also has better movement control, though it unfortunately does not have any shift, which is slightly disappointing (though you can "force" it to shift slightly by using both front and rear swing).

It also came with a Technika adapter, so it works right out of the box with all my lens boards.

Anyway, I shot a few sheets of my typical Fuji HR-T x-ray film to test out the camera and try developing with Pyrocat HD. Here's a few images:

Strickland Mill Documentary Update

I've been exceedingly busy with various things and sadly a death in my girlfriend's family, so I haven't had time to update in a while. But I thought I'd take a moment to mention that a little while ago my friend and partner in documenting the Strickland Mill Sally and I got word that the show highlighting our work is officially going to happen. It is scheduled for November 2014, which gives us plenty of time to make more images of both the mill and hopefully some of the people who worked there.

Here is a photo taken only a couple of days ago as the sun set. 47mm XL, T-max 100, Pyrocat HD, cropped to a panoramic view:

A couple of Portraits with the Schneider 150mm f/2.8 Xenotar

The legendary Schneider 150mm f/2.8 Xenotar, especially the "Linhof Select" variant, has been a cult-classic lens, boasting the widest aperture of almost any lens in shutter that has 4x5 coverage. This massive piece of glass is fairly rare.

I was lucky enough to find one at a relative "bargain" price. It needed a good CLA but that ended up not costing terribly much. Finally had a chance to use it this evening to take two quick snapshots of my girlfriend's niece, who is staying with us this week.

The first image was taken at about f/3.5, 1/5 of a second shutter speed, on T-Max 100 rated at 80 and developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 12 minutes:

I knew in the waning light that her dress would really pop against the dark leaves under the trellis. Next I did a more low-contrast portrait. This time at f/5.6 with a bit of fill-flash bounced off of the ceiling of our deck:

I'm sure there will be more this week!

4x5 Images from the Boneyard

Here's some 4x5 images from Big Talbot. I definitely learned a lot from these and the 35mm ones. These aren't the best photos - despite some nice clouds and good locations the light just wasn't quite right. That's the trouble with driving 2.5 hours to a location - to get the BEST light of the day, I need to leave at 4am to get there at 6:30 or so. It was also rough dodging tourists, being a holiday weekend.

Anyway, here are some of the better photos. All were taken on either T-Max 100, developed in Rodinal, or T-Max 400, developed in Pyrocat HD.

47mm:

90mm, 47mm:

 
210mm, 150mm:

90mm:

Nonchalant Deer at Grand Bay

Over the weekend I was hiking a little bit at Grand Bay. Every so often I'll see a deer there, but only briefly before getting spooked and running away. This time though, I was able to watch and photograph a yearling for the better part of an hour as he nonchalantly ate some leaves barely 20 feet from the boardwalk.

I had nothing but my 4x5 camera, but luckily brought my 300mm f/9 Nikkor-M. But f/9 is pretty slow and it was getting dark as the sun was setting. I was persistent though and nailed two shots of him! I was pretty lucky, as I more or less guessed where to focus as he was constantly on the move:

The second shot was even better, and luckier. He was very close, and not staying still at all. But then another hiker showed up with a dog, which he reacted to and stood stock-still long enough for me to shoot this:

I shot both of these wide-open on the 300mm. Even that wasn't really fast enough, but instead of attempting a 1/8 of a second exposure, I just shot it at 1/30. I then developed it in Acufine, stock, for 4:30 at 70F. This developer gave me a bit of a speed boost - just enough to get really nice shadow detail at an effective ISO of 800. Normally for T-Max 400 I rate it at about 200 for development in Pyrocat HD. But it worked out, and I also now know how to get some extreme speed from my TMY if I need it!