An interesting antique...

I picked up this very old lens for a song.  It's in beautiful shape, and considered to be an excellent lens still today.  It will be extremely sharp, but will impart a slightly ethereal feel to the photo being taken.  It has no shutter, and four aperture settings by a combination of levers.

Once I get it fitted to a lens board for my view camera, I'll be able to use a relatively slow film and cover the lens with something like a hat to use as a shutter; or I have a mechanical Packard shutter I can hang on the front and shoot roughly between 1/25th of a second and forever...

Always another challenge down the road!

http://www.davidaimone.com/p68515664
Darlot Hemispherical Rectilinear Lens circa 1869
Paris, France

More 4x5 Film

Talcott Falls Monochrome
Originally uploaded by DKAIOG http://www.davidaimone.com

Talcott Falls Monochrome

I've been shooting some 4x5 film with a view camera, and slowly getting tuned to the process. This one I developed myself and then scanned the negative into photoshop. This was a black and white negative, and just toned it a bit on the computer.

Here are some more large format film shots.

Monhegan Part 2

I've been back for a while and have processed quite a few digital and will also have additional film shots soon.  Here's one on film from Monhegan:

Soon it will be time for Quebec City!

Monhegan

Well, it's been a while since my last post.  I don't know if anyone is reading these, so I should view it more as a journal.

I've been on Monhegan Island for almost a week now.  The weather changes minute by minute.  This place is not the real world, yet it's very real and earthy.  I have taken 100's of photos, and have shared a few initial edits on Flicker.

The large format 4x5 film shots number more in the 10's, but it's been enjoyable.  Hopefully, they will come out well and over the next weeks and months, as they are developed, I will post them on my site and in this blog.

In the meantime, below is an abstract of one of the cliffs/rocks on monhegan.

Learning a lot -- brain feels like a sponge!

It's been quiet for me recently with photos...no show at the moment.  And I've been learning the craft of large format film.  Very enlightening.  It's changing the way I look at taking photos, and makes me even more conscious when using digital cameras as well.  I've made lots of mistakes in this process.  The first batch of 4x5 film was loaded backwards--I was essentially exposing the back of the film!  That "first" photo below, the one with the flower, candle and box was one of these.  WAY under exposed negative, so I had to over compensate in printing.  Not really sharp and weak contrasts.

The slight downside is that I have to be patient.  I have taken what I think will be some nice film photos, but I have to go into the darkroom again and develop, then print.  This all takes time.  When I do color, or have a lot of film exposed, I will consider sending to the lab at least for developing the film.  After that, I can either print myself (black and white) or scan the negatives and send out for printing.

It feels like I've gone through an entire college curriculum over the last year. But the foundations are important, and enable me to take a more instinctive/intuitive approach now (as it becomes more second nature).

Firsts!

First photo from my Chamonix 045n-2 large format view camera with 4x5 black and white film. First time developing my own negatives. First time printing my own prints. New to the view camera and process.

Not a great photo, but it's a start. High contrast lighting here. Shallow depth of field on this one focuses on the box and the wooden figure.

This whole process was very elemental and educational, from determining exposure levels and focusing and composing upside down and reverse; to loading and unloading the sheet film holders; processing the negatives with a sequence of chemicals that had to be mixed and brought to proper temperature; to projecting the image onto photo paper and determining print times; to burnishing; and finally to processing the print though numerous chemical baths--and so on.

There was a bit of a problem with the developing tank (see dark area on right). Next time will use a Jobo.

Fomapan 100 4x5 sheet film

Scanned on a cheapo scanner...

New Camera — Large Format Film!

Handcrafted in China, this camera takes 4x5 sheets of film, and can do things with perspective and focus that ordinary film and digital cameras (and even photoshop) cannot!

I'll be doing a crash course in the entire process, and really put it through the paces during a week stranded on Monhegan Island, Maine, in early June.