Old Wood

One of my favorite subjects for my photography is driftwood and other types of old wood, such as dry tree-roots or fallen branches that has been lying around for a while and gotten touched and greyed by the elements. To me, this represents a strength and a a token of persistence shown by nature. Yesterday, I was out very early in the morning, before sunrise with just the colours trying to capture them with my Hasselblad. Once my roll of KODAK Ektar was filled, I broke out my Olympus OM-1 with its incredible 50mm Zuiko lens and a roll of Kodak Tri-X in search of some driftwood.

Just a little sneak-in from the Hasselblad because I absolutely love this image – Hasselblad 500C – Planar 80mm f2,8 – KODAK Ektar

My location for the morning was Husodden in Søndre Land. A secluded little headland in the lake Randsfjorden, home to amazing sunrise-light and a wide selection of birds and forest colours in the summer. It is also the home of a little air-strip used by the local flying enthusiasts. I didn’t meet any of them this morning, but I made sure not to be in their way if they were coming.

Reklamer

After sunrise, but when the light was still rather bleak, I got soft and nice contrasts, but seeing the conditions become more and more contrasty, I decided to shoot tie Tri-X at 200 instead of 400. The only filter on the lens was a Hoya UV-filter, that I find to be helpful on this lens. Although it is supposed to be Multi-coated, I have found it to react somewhat with haze if used without. (Could be anything else as well, I am no lens expert)

Details in the old bark – Olympus OM-1 – 50mm Zuiko f1,8 – Kodak Tri-X @ 200 – Adox Atomal 49 1+1

It never ceases to fascinate me how incredibly nice the textures in old wood can be. The image above here was taken of a very small detail on a bigger log, but really shows the worn details in that old bark and how incredibly beautiful that is if you isolate it like this. I also thin that pulling the film a stop was the correct choice for this occasion, as it gave me the opportunities to shoot wider apertures such as this f2,8 with the shutter speed 1/250th. I don’t trust the Olympus at 1/1000th after having some uneven exposures with that shutter-speed. Also, I do appreciate the extra shadow detail, but I don’t think that would have been an issue with Tri-X at this shot anyway.

For development, I chose to go with Adox Atomal 49. A developer I have used a lot the last months. I bought it after having some «bad» experiences with my usual Kodak X-tol where it didn’t mix properly (two batches) and I was curious about trying something new. Ive found Atomal to be a brilliant match with many of the films I use, especially Tri-X and FP4 plus, but also HP5 plus and Fomapan 100. It gives me very fine grain and seems to give very nice grey-tones and full film speed. Trouble is, it is somewhat cumbersome to mix and consists of three bags of powder rather than two. It has also «coloured» my 5L-container red and I will have to get a new jug for the next batch.

This old log – Olympus OM-1 – 50mm Zuiko f1,8 – Kodak Tri-X @ 200 – Adox Atomal 49 1+1

The image above is taken at f 5,6 and shutter speed 1/125. I just love the lines and how it almost seems charred in the dark-area to the right bottom. The balance in this image is very soothing I find, and it really shows why I find the Olympus to be my favorite 35mm Camera.

Since I was at an airfield – Olympus OM-1 – 50mm Zuiko f1,8 – Kodak Tri-X @ 200 – Adox Atomal 49 1+1

I shot 36 images of drift-wood in different ways and I only included my top-picks here. However, on my way back to the car, I spotted the wind-indicatorthingie (whatever it is called) and decided that I would attempt a 37th frame. I find that the «last image» don’t always come out, but I figured it was worth giving it a shot. I think this was f8, but it did not take any notes about this shot.

Scouting a location and shooting slow film

Today I was out and about with one of my lovely analog cameras again looking for locations for some early-morning sunrise photo trips. I came across this lovely location called «Husodden» not too far away from where I live. Being sensible and staying local is an important part of the world we currently live in. While I was walking around Husodden to shout for possible locations, I did some photographs with the Olympus OM-1 and a roll of Rollei RPX25. I metered it at around ISO 18 (My light meter goes to ISO25, so I opened the aperture slightly more) and shot with an orange filter to get the popping effect in the sky and boost the contrasts a bit.

Randsfjorden, the lake, was still frozen and it became a white carpet in many of my images, and gave some extra contrast as well.

Sky-pop over Randsfjorden – Olympus OM-1 Rollei RPX25@18 Kodak HC110 Dil-B

I tried to use the remainders of the snow as a lead-in line in many of my images, and I aimed for a very large separation between snow and sky. In retrospect, some of these images would have benefited more from being shot with a graduated filter rather than a fill orange one.

Reklamer

I decided to develop the film with «an old friend». Kodak HC110. I have not used this developer for a very long time, but there was something about the shots I took today, that made me bring out the golden syrup and mix Dilution B. HC110 used to be my favorite developer and, it is very economical and gives really nice greys. Also, there is something about it that I just like. I don’t really know what it is, but there is something about using that thick concentrate and stirring it properly that really wakes the «geek» in me.

A quick and pleasant day out for me today, and I am really looking forward to visiting this location again at some point in the near future. Both for woodland detail work and for early morning sunrise-shots.

Eight frames of Retro 400s

On a foggy, snowy day a short while ago, I shot about half a roll of Rollei Retro 400s with my Olympus OM-1, aiming at capturing the hard contrasts of the really nasty weathered day. I cut the outing short because it got very difficult and nasty to work in the wet and snowy gale. I cut the film out of the camera, and saved the rest for another day. That day came, and I put it into my Canon T70 and went to a local church that I find very interesting to shoot.

Because of the conditions on this particular day, I chose to overexpose the film by one stop to 200, and shave off 20% of the development time. Basically a one stop pull. This would give me more shadow-detail and give me more to play on with the apertures on a bright afternoon in the snow. I never got to use that last point, as it turned out that the total number of frames left on the film was EIGHT.

Aas church on a bright afternoon – Canon T70 – Rollei Retro 400s – Foma Fomadon Excel 1+0 7m30s

My negatives were more contrasty than I thought they would be, so I am very happy that I pulled the film one stop for this shoot. I mainly shot at f11 and f8 for this outing, and I have to say that I think the little 50mm Canon Lens performs rather well. For a standard kit-lens it is decently sharp and helps me capture the moods I want. I have, however, seen some diffraction on f22, and I avoid that aperture when using this camera.

Reklamer

The aperture-priority setting on the Canon seems to work very well. Even on these shots, where the sky was very bright, I managed to retain decent detail in the sky, showing the cloud-formations etc, without using any filters.

A naked graveyard tree – Canon T70 – Rollei Retro 400s – Foma Fomadon Excel 1+0 7m30s

I also have a hard time walking past an interesting looking trees, and I saw one at this grave yard by the fence by some graves. Because of the deep snow, I was not able to study the tree and identify what type of tree it was, but it made for a really lovely composition. I shot it from two different distances because I was uncertain which one that would be the most efficient. I will include both here.

The same tree further away – Canon T70 – Rollei Retro 400s – Foma Fomadon Excel 1+0 7m30s

I also attempted a cool shot of the entry area of the church, but I am not very pleased with how it turned out. I find that it is a rather «bland» composition and that it does not either emphasis the contrast nor the shapes of the church in the way I imagined it would. This would probably have worked better if shot at box-speed.

Not very pleased with this one – Canon T70 – Rollei Retro 400s – Foma Fomadon Excel 1+0 7m30s

Capturing snow and fog

Yet again, the persistent winter of 2021 struck back at us with all its wreath. After a few weeks of impeccable weather and a really pleasant spring mood, we were once again confronted with the face of King Winter. When I went out yesterday, it was blowing a gale and the snow flew thick in the air. Thicker than horse-flies at a swamp in the summer. The weather was bland and uninspiring and being out there was nasty and uncomfortable. Yet, I had something in mind.

I wanted to capture the foggy and snowy day with a gritty and grainy mood. I chose to go for a BW film. The Rollei Retro 400s, which is a film I have used a bit before and that I find to suit my way of shooting very well. My thinking was that the 400 ISO film would give me just the right amount of grain and contrast, as well as giving me the opportunity to shoot hand-held, which is very handy in windy conditions, where camera-shake due to wind is a real danger, even with a sturdy tripod.

A fallen branch – Olympus OM-1 w 50mm Zuiko f1,8 – Rollei Retro 400s – Rodinal 1+100

I shot about half a roll of film, focussing on making quick compositions around branches that, over the winter with heavy snow, has broken off bigger trees. The foggy and snowy conditions makes these branches stand out as interesting shapes, and shows them for the beauty they are. WIth the added grain from the film and the additional grain and contrast from the use of Rodinal 1+100 Semi-Stand gave that somewhat “raw” look I was going for.

Reklamer

The camera I chose to use, was my brilliant Olympus OM-1. This is a camera I trust at all shutter-speeds and that I know will work regardless of conditions. However, I noticed two issues on this particular outing. first and foremost, there was a little piece of dust that obstructed my view through the viewfinder. I used it as it was when out shooting, because I did not want to take the lens off in the middle of the show-storm. When I took the lens off, there was a little piece of dust on the focussing glass. How this ended up there is unknown to me, I have not taken the lens off this camera for months, and it has not been there before.

It also seems to give uneven exposures at the highest shutter-speed 1/1000th, I even got a blank frame that I know was shot with this shutter-speed. This has also never happened to me before, and I will keep an eye on this in better conditions.

All in all, I got the images I wanted, and all in the matter of around 15 minutes in the snowy gale. Thank you for following and reading, I hope you enjoy my images.

*Olympus OM-1 w 50mm Zuiko f1,8 – Rollei Retro 400s – Rodinal 1+100*

The scent of spring

Nothing fills me with such joy and happiness as the day when I for the first time see grass being liberated from the firm fist of the winter-snow. Today was that day, and I immediately decided to go shooting. I loaded the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex with a roll of Ilford FP4 plus, and went down to Kråkvika by Hov. A location where spring is often present early. And sure enough, there were a lot of spots and spaces where the snow was melted away, leaving the lifeless brownish colour of grass that has been buried for a while under the snowy carpet. The colours weren’t really spectacular, hence the choice of black and white-film.

To me, the Ikoflex is maybe one of the cameras that inspires me the most. There is something about the sensation of using something so brilliantly engineered and with a lens that sharp in a very light and beautiful box that appeals to me. I haven’t used it for a while because the winter was exceptionally cold this year, and I don’t think the Ikoflex would be too fond of the cold weather. Also, my Ikoflex has developed misfiring on lower shutter speeds, so I tend to keep it at 1/100th or 1/300th, which could be too short shutter speeds for winter-time. Whether I will have it repaired remains to be decided, but for my current use, the Ikoflex works well.

Spring landscape with melting snow – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Ilford FP4plus – Adox Atomal 49

I find that filling the roll and finding the right compositions, is a very easy task with the Ikoflex. The inspiration comes naturally when using it, unlike the Zeiss Ikon Nettar, which I find that I can get bored when using. I have heard a lot said in negative ways about the Ikoflex and it being like an «over protective mother» or «insanely difficult and complicated to load», but I cannot understand how any of these can be true. If you read the manual, which I know is a very uncommon thing for people to do today, you will very easily understand that the advance wheel will turn freely when it reaches frame nr 12, and that you have to manually reset it for frame 1. Not at all difficult. I have a video on Youtube showing how it is done.

Reklamer

*I am a rock – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Ilford FP4plus – Adox Atomal 49*

Walking around on a day where the snow is melting and the landscape comes back into sight, makes you notice objects or shapes that would normally either be removed or invisible in the greens and lush landscapes. There is something «rough and contrasty» about these snow-melting days that really appeals to my way of composing.

*An object – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Ilford FP4plus – Adox Atomal 49*

All in all, I had a very joyful little day out in the sun and I enjoyed every minute of shooting with the Ikoflex again. It is such an amazing little camera and the images really speak for themselves.

*Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Ilford FP4plus – Adox Atomal 49*

Going Panoramic in the fog

I have never worked with any kind of panoramic equipment before. I have held a Hasselblad X-pan in my hand at one point, but I never tried shooting it. Even so, panorama photography is interesting, and I have wanted to give it a proper try. Not that I will really try it properly in this entry, but I recently bought some very cheap 3D-printed (I guess) plastic parts off eBay. Specifically, the small plastic parts that you use for using 35mm film in your medium format cameras. To be honest, I didn’t really expect much results from this. My anticipation was the following:

The film will not be kept dark enough after exposure and will be fogged.
The film might not be kept flat enough in the camera.
Composing the image will be difficult not having a proper viewfinder for it.
Unknown amount of images pr film and difficult to know how far to wind.

The plastic-stuff and a canister of film. Not the one I used for this test.

I decided to give it a try in my Zeiss Ikon Nettar. This because it is the only MF camera I have where the film is inserted in the horisontal direction, allowing me to easily shoot landscape without turning my camera into portrait. I decided to go for a roll of Ilford Delta 400 and go for a little walk while the fog was lifting over the lake. I was looking for wide compositions, which was a new experience for me, and I felt that I often reverted back to looking for squares or normal rectangles rather than the super wide compositions that this line-up would allow for.

Didn’t quite nail it with this one. See the light leaks that I got for most of the shots on the roll. Luckily not too bad in this shot.

First of all, I can confirm the first part of my assumption. Using this system, with the 3D-printed parts, will give you severe light leaks between the shots. I know for a fact that it is not the light seals acting up, because I used black tape to ensure no light-leaks would come from that area.

Reklamer

For the most part, I think that the film stayed flat in the camera, and that the adapter kept it reasonably well aligned throughout the roll. I did; however, notice that the film was not as «in the middle» of the viewfinder as I had thought, and I shot a few of the frames «too high» losing parts of my intended compositions.

Over the rocks – Zeiss Ikon Nettar, Ilford Delta 400 Adox Atomal 49 Stock

Even though I like some of these images and the way they look and how they turned out, I am not certain I would use this adaptor system a lot. I will very likely do some more experiments with it and try it out at different occasions, and maybe I am luckier with my next rounds and avoid some light leaks. I find the system to be functional for shooting only one frame at a time. This would mean a lot of «cutting the film out of the camera» and «developing fragments of a roll». Not that I mind doing that, but it is a hassle.

*Lifting fog – Zeiss Ikon Nettar, Ilford Delta 400 Adox Atomal 49 Stock*

The Nikon-guy using a Canon.

The endless debate.. The friend-breaker. The source of family feud and potentially divorces. Canon or Nikon. People tend to be very sworn to one of them and show some (somewhat humorous) hatred for the other. Personally, I usually shoot Nikon Cameras. I own a fair amount of them both digital and analog, and the main reason for my choice of Nikon over Canon, is that I find their ergonomics to suit my hands and style more than the Canons. If shown images or specs, I am not able to tell any difference between the two brands, and I see them as equally brilliant manufacturers.

Even so, I have never before very recently owned a Canon camera. A little while back, I came across a Canon T70, and its extremely complex nature sparked my interest. Its incredible «inboard» 8 bit chip and how it was sort of the bridge between Canons older generation of very manual cameras, to the soon-to-follow EOS systems was, I found, intriguing and I started my search to get one for CC-adventures money – less than 100 Euros. I got lucky, and found one way cheaper with 50mm lens included. As a very happy man, I was now the owner of my first Canon camera, a T70.

My very clean and nice Canon T70 from the mid 80s.

Operating a new camera is always interesting, and the T70 has a very interesting button based menu system. It does not read DX-coding, but you set the ISO by pressing the ISO-button and one of the two buttons on the top over the LCD-screen named «Up» and «Down». It is programmed to go 1/3 steps and setting the ISO is very easy and the buttons are big enough to be operated with gloves in winter time.

Reklamer

Another lovely feature with this camera, that I notices straight away, was the fact that it takes AA batteries instead of the CR123A batteries. Both these types are readily available and can be picked up cheaply in most shops, but you more often tend to have AA batteries lying around than CR123A, and hence you are less likely te find yourself in a Cannot Shoot Situation with the T70.

I also like the different safety features it has. You need to press a button to unlock the release mechanism for the film loading door, preventing you from accidentally opening it «mid roll». It has an extra slider beside the rewind button, preventing you from accidentally rewinding the film too early, and it has a little button to unlock the «Power ON» button. A feature that helps you save battery. On the downside, mine has clearly a tiny light-leak, but nothing that in any way affects the images.

Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1,8 FD lens – Fomapan200@160 – Adox Atomal 49 Stock

Using the camera is a real treat. It is very easy to focus and set, and the main setting is an aperture priority where you set your aperture and the camera will find the suiting shutter speed to go with it based on your entered ISO-speed. You also have settings for full Program-mode and you have two additional settings, one called «wide» where the camera will bias towards a higher f-stop to get deeper depth of field, and one called «TELE» where it will bias towards higher shutter speeds and shallower depth of field. I did not try out these fully automatic modes in my first tryout, but based on the function of the rest of this camera, it would surprise me if it wasn’t spotless.

Holding the T70 is an interesting sensation. The plastic body feels very cheap in you hand, but it is as heavy as a brick and has the noise-level of a helicopter. Even so, this camera feels like what it is, a quality piece of kit, with that feel of «80s science fiction» over its design and the «buttonyness» of an old Volvo dashboard.

This is a very nice camera to use, and clearly one I will use again many times.

An image from a forgotten roll

Sometimes, you shoot a roll of film, and you just put it in a drawer. Either you forget about it or you wait until you have shot more of them before you develop. The other day, I found a roll of Ilford Delta 100 35mm, that I couldn’t remember what I used for. I developed it in Adox Atomal 49, and it turned out to be a film I used at a trip during the summer of 2019 at a landscape photography trip to Veståsen in Nordre Land.

What camera I used, is completely blank to me, but based on the time the roll was exposed, and the quality of the exposures, I would imagine it was either done with my Nikon F80 or the Minolta Dynax SPXi. Here; a beautiful view over the little lake «Akksjøen»:

Summer mood at Akksjøen in Nordre Land – Ilford Delta 100 – Adox Atomal 49

This is one of my first rolls that I have developed with the Adox Atomal 49 developer, and I must say that I am very happy with how this developer makes the images look. The grain is very fine and I get the full film-speed without any issues. In comparison with my other Veryfinegraindeveloper Ilfotec Perceptol, where you have to shave off some of your film speed.

Reklamer

I just quickly wanted to share this picture with you, from a distant past without any Covid-regulations nor fear of a world pandemic.

A DDR Rangefinder camera

We all have our weak-spots as photography enthusiasts. I certainly have a weak spot for the lovely Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens. I will not in any way claim that I am even close to a lens and optics expert, but this lens, with its four elements in three groups, gives a sharpness and tone to the images I just love. I had one of these lenses for my M42 cameras, but this lens would benefit from some servicing as the aperture blades keeps jamming when stopping down further than f8, and the focusing ring is very heavy to operate.

A little while back, I read about a little rangefinder camera from East Germany that was said to be magnificent value for money and deliver splendid image quality and sharpness. The camera was called «Welta Belmira» and was, believe it or not, equipped with a lovely Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2,8 lens. I started looking for one of these cameras to try out, and it was not difficult to find them. However, they were often in very varying condition and it was clear that getting the right and good one would take a while. And so sure it did, but after some months of searching and looking, I found one in decent condition. Yes, it was a bit dusty, and yes it had a dim rangefinder, but the camera in itself seemed to work really well.

My lineup for this test – a Welta Belmira and a roll of Kodak Tri-X400. I also used an external rangefinder unit, because the inbuilt one is very dim and only usable if the light is bright.

I went out to a location where there is a lovely artistic installation close to the lake, and I have thought for a while to experiment with some photography around this location. The origin of this artwork is unknown to me, but it is only accessible in the winter and spring time, as it will be submerged by the lake most of the summer time.

Welta Belmira – Kodak Tri-X 400 Adox Atomal 49 1+1

Reklamer

I also with this outing, made my first test of the Adox Atomal 49 developer. I read a bit about it online and saw some images developed in it, and I got curious to try it out myself. Atomal 49 is a very fine grain developer that gives you full film speed unlike Perceptol that will eat some of your speed. For that reason alone, I bought a 5L package of it and decided to give it a try. And based on these results with Tri-X at 35mm, I am very happy with what it looks like. This might well become a developer of preference to me, but I will obviously have to make more tests before deciding.

Back to the camera. I really enjoyed using the camera. It has a very special and differently engineered slider instead of the usual advance lever. It is a bit fiddly to use and has a tendency to stick at different points, but it works faultlessly. The dim rangefinder is not really an issue as long as you have an external one, and the focus ring seems to be pretty much accurate. However, I believe the camera «drags» the shutter speeds a little bit, but slight overexposure is not any issue with any negative film really.

Trying out a Konica Autoreflex TC (Part3)

As you have seen through my previous posts, I have been playing around with a Konica Autoreflex TC lately, doing different styles and types of photography with it and different films. Some days ago, I took it out once again with a roll of Fomapan 100and a yellow and a graded orange filter. I went for subtle snowy shapes in nature to test out both the sharpness of the lens, and to once again try the Fomapan 100. Over 2020, I shot many rolls of Fomapan 100 to test it out and get familiar with that film, and I must say that Fomapan 100 is a film I really like shooting, and that I find to give very fine grain when developed in Kodak X-tol at stock level, and that I get very nice results with it for most of my photography. However, this is my first test of this in snowy conditions.

Konica Autoreflex TC w 50mm Hexanon f1,8 lens w yellow filter. f11 1/125th Fomapan 100@100 Fomadon Excel 1+0

I did not have Kodak Xtol at this moment, because I’ve recently had two batches that split. I initially thought this was my mistake and that I hadn’t mixed it properly or made some other mistake with it; however, after some research online, I got leads about a bad batch of Xtol that had this issues. The date I bought the two bags of powder correlated well with the production and estimated sell-dates of the problem batch. Even though the two batches didn’t cause me any issues, I have not bought Xtol for a while. I will, however buy another batch some time soon. But I had a few bags of Fomadon Excel left, which is basically Foma’s take on the Kodak Xtol.

Reklamer

Previously, I used to have Xtol in the spring, summer and autumn-time, when I shoot most film, and Fomadon Excel in wintertime, when I shoot less. When handeled properly, I cannot see difference between negatives developed with Excel and Xtol. One difference though, is that Fomadon Excel can be slightly more challenging to mix. I have found that mixing it as you wold mix Ilford Chemistry, with warmer water, makes the powder dissolve better and easier, and that is how I mix Fomadon Excel. For this particular process, I also used Foma Fixer and Foma Stop bath as well. So this is a all around Fomapan Process.

*Konica Autoreflex TC w 50mm Hexanon f1,8 lens Fomapan 100@100 Fomadon Excel 1+0*

All in all, I am very happy with these images. They were taken very quickly whenever I saw something that I found worthy of shooting, and I find that they make the sky come forward in a very pleasant way.