The derelict hut

Over the last year, I have noticed an old wooden hut, standing on its own in a chopping-field a short distance from Gjøvik. The hut in itself is not really that beautiful to look at anymore. The roof has fallen down and the wood looks withered and dry. It would need significantly more than a lick of paint to make it shine once again. All the times I have driven past it or seen it when out walking, it has not worked because of the weather. I have pictured it to work well on a overcast and preferably misty day on black and white film. Today was the day that I would finally go for it and try this old hut, that I for my own amusement has named «Jabba». It is a bit amusing to tell yourself to go out shooting Jabba the Hut.

I rolled up the Hasselblad 500C with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 and brought with me a selection of filters, including yellow, orange and red, and I set off into the misty and drizzly morning. I found the hut in its usual condition, rather tatty and derelict, but this time, there was some mist in the background, creating a more interesting atmosphere around it. The scene itself is a bit messy and overgrown after a very lush summer, but the mist made it work.

My first frame of the day – Hasselblad 500C – Kodak Tri-X – No filters – Ilfotec ID-11 1+1

I decided to try the compositions in different ways with different filters, partly just to see what they would do to a scene like this. Especially, I was curious to what the red filter would do in conditions like these, and hence, I tried different approaches to learn a bit more about my filters. My pack of filters is rather inexpensive and are just plastic filters. At some point, I will upgrade my collection of filters, but not for this trip.

Trying again at Jabba – Hasselblad 500C – Kodak Tri-X – Orange filter – Ilfotec ID-11 1+1

Based on my rather limited access to the hut, as it stands in a rather difficult area to move around, I only made two different compositions this time. One straight on and one from the side. I did the latter without filter and with all three colors I brought – Yellow, Orange and red – and I must say that the results were a bit different than I thought. I expected that the red filter would give me deeper contrasts than the yellow, but actually, my results pointed in the different direction. That the yellow filter actually gave me much punchier images than the red, and the one without any filters gave me the best results.

What I see that the red filter does, and also to some extent the orange, is brightening up the greens and making the trees in the background brighter. For future reference, I will probably leave the two darkest filters at home for these days, but I do think it was worth the try.

Yellow – Orange – Red – No filter – Hasselblad 500C – Kodak Tri-X – Ilfotec ID-11 1+1

Another reflection I have after this shoot is that I remember why I have stopped using Tri-X and other Kodak-films for my images. At least to some extent. Their tendency to curl when trying after development is very annoying and makes it very difficult tu both scan and print them in the darkroom. I have not had this issue with ILFORD-films and since I really do not see any difference between Tri-X and HP5 at box speed, I usually save the Tri-X for the difficult lighting conditions where I have to push the film, as I see Tri-X to be a better push-film.

Morning shooting at Næra

One of the most photogenic lakes around my area is bu far the lovely little lake named Næra. Situated a bit east of Moelv, it is the main bathing-water for places like Næroset, Åsmarka, Lismarka and Moelv and it is also an important area for leisure boating. A few weeks ago, as I was pondering around Åsmarka looking for an infrared-view of Næra, I came in contact with some locals. They told me about what was allegedly a much better viewing point over the lake, and I decided to take their word and go there in an early morning quest.

Armed with the Hasselblad and two rolls of film, Ektar and HP5 plus, my friend Cameron and I went for a morning stroll to the viewing point, and indeed, what a view.

The lake Næra – Hasselblad 500C – Ilford HP5 plus @ 200 Yellow filter – Ilford ID-11

Realizing that I had misread the lighting conditions on this scene, I soon decided that the HP5 would most likely be the best film for the job. My total range within the scene pushed 9 stops, and I was afraid to blow out the skies or the water with the Ektar as I didn’t bring a polariser filter because I broke it a few days prior. I then settled for a yellow filter instead, and chose the approach of pull-processing to give me a flatter negative.

Along the path – Hasselblad 500C – Ilford HP5 plus @ 200 Yellow filter – Ilford ID-11

Our path went through some really lovely forest areas, and at one point, we had a row of telegraph-poles making their way towards the farm I believe is named Harabakken. I like the way that the poles made their way towards the farm and decided to attempt a composition with the HP5+. I would probably have gotten more out of this shot using an orange filter, but I decided to travel light, and only brought the yellow.

As we stopped to have out coffee, I spotted a really lovely trail of light coming through the forest, illuminating the path and some grass around. I decided to make an attempt with the Ektar-back, attempting to make a square- image.

Light on the path – Hasselblad 500C – Kodak Ektar – Tetenal C41

Our day concluded with a nice stop by another little pond that I am not going to name because it is more secluded and has a very fragile road going to it. We enjoyed another sip of coffee and had an absolutely lovely time out in nature this warm summers day.

I’ll include some more images in a gallery at the end, please enjoy

Frames of Norway pt3 – Redoing pt2

A few weeks ago, I went out to create a second episode of my new series «Frames of Norway», a series where I explore the landscapes of Norway with my analog cameras. I also dive somewhat into the history of the location and other interesting aspects of landscape and the characteristics of the area.

For this second part, I visited Amlisberget close to Moelv to enjoy the beautiful views over lake Mjøsa from high up. At the time, I was very excited about being out for that trip. It was my first real walk in nature for a while, and I got too trigger-happy and blew through a roll of FP4plus far too quickly. I think parts of my problem this day, was that I had the Canon T70 and shot aperture-priority, This made me not think well enough about my compositions to make proper photographs. I went into what I call the «digital trap» and just rattles off the shots and ended up with something that I am not happy with. At the time, when I looked at the images after development, I was very excited and felt they were nice, but after a while, I am not happy at all. So unhappy actually, that I decided to redo the trip.

For this round, I chose to go with medium format, I rolled up the Hasselblad with a roll of Kodak Ektar 100. I figured that most of my compositions in the last attempt were actually dependent on colour, and the weather was rather nice, and Ektar looks good when there is some light around. Also, the fact that I only have 12 shots and have to set them up manually using a light-meter, helps med focus and things closer about what I am doing.

Parts of the path – Hasselblad 500C w 80mm Planar – F11 1sec – Kodak Ektar 100

One of the greatest things about doing landscape-photography in Norway, is the culture of «friend associations». People sign up as «friends of the area» and spend their time and knowledge preparing and tidying good paths for everyone to use. These people work as volunteers and they are not even always reimbursed for their expenses. This path that I am following this time is marked and maintained by members of two different associations. The local sports-team and Moelvmarkas Venner. I don’t think we can measure the value of their work in money. Access to nature has been very important for the Norwegians during the difficult Pandemic-times.

Parts of the path – Hasselblad 500C w 80mm Planar – F5.6 1/8sec – Kodak Ektar 100

Much of the path towards Amlisberget goes through woodland, parts of it through copse-areas and some through your typical forest area. Most of the trees are spruces, as it is the most commonly grown tree in this area of Norway. One thing I learned very quickly at this path was to watch my steps. Not even a kilometer into my trip, I saw the first adder. Not that this snake possesses any threat to me at all, it is lightly venomous and not in any way aggressive. Most bites happen on hands and fingers when people try to pick them up or on feet when people step on them.But at the same time, I don’t want to upset my «host» when I am visiting their home. In all, I saw two adders (Vipera Berus) on this trip, and I heard the sound of five others creeping away in the grass as I was following the path. Sorry that I am not giving you any images of them here, I did not have the lens to photograph these images this time.

I walked out around noon this day because I wanted to have the mid-day lights and to use the blue sky and white clouds to my advantage. This gave me relatively short exposure times for most of my images that were not taken in the forest.

Lonely spruces in the view – Hasselblad 500C w 80mm Planar – F16 1/125sec – Kodak Ektar 100

As you can see in these coming images, this is one of the most important forestry-areas in Norway, and it is located on the outskirts of the huge Taiga – the boreal forest area that goes across the whole Northern part of the globe. It is said to start for real a few kilometers further east, but you can still see the same kind of landscape as you would see throughout the Taiga, from Løten to Vladivostok.

Much of the industry in this area is also based on forestry and wood-work, and in Norway the name «Moelven» is widely known to mean quality lumber. The lumber-industry in this area is still one of the strongest in Norway.

The View – Hasselblad 500C w 80mm Planar – F16 1/125sec – Kodak Ektar 100

The trip up to Amlisberget is recommended for everyone by me, the last 900 meters are quite steep and you should make sure to have enough water for this part when you are walking. There is also no guess-work where you need to go, as the path is well marked and easy to follow. If you walk in the morning or around noon, you will most likely have the place to yourself. The only person I met on my way up, was a local fireman who was out, putting up warning signs for forest fires. On my way back; however, I met more people. The trip is worth it, the view is magnificent.

The View – Hasselblad 500C w 80mm Planar – F16 1/125sec – Kodak Ektar 100 (The colours are a bit off in this one for some reason)

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.

A Bladventure

For the sake of balance, and because I happen to have some nice images, I am going to deviate slightly from the line of «cheap cameras» in this entry, and show some images taken with my, not by any means cheap, Hasselblad. Or in my case, some times a hassle-blad. The first thing my Hasselblad did to me after I bought it, was jamming up. And not the cute little sweet jam that can easily be mended, but the proper jammedy-jam-jam that has to be sent off for a very expensive repair abroad.

I recently got it back from repair, and I have brought it along for a few outings lately, and I really find myself to love using it. Not that it really makes any big difference to anyone an image is taken with an expensive or a cheap camera, but to me it has to do with inspiration. Some cameras inspire me to go out shooting and some do not. That’s why i often feature the Olympus, the Konica, Ikoflex and the Bronica ETR. For different reasons, these cameras make me «get out there» and «get the shutter finger active».

Reklamer

Here are some shots I did recently with my Hasselblad, that I find to inspire me a lot. The colour ones are taken with Kodak Ektar, and the BW ones are done with Ilford Pan F plus, that I pulled a stop. The Pan F is developed in Adox Atomal 49 stock for six minutes, which is 20% off the time for box speed. After having used Atomal 49 for a while, I have found this to be a developer I am very happy with, and it might replace Xtol as my number one developer.

A persistent winter fighting an inevitable spring at Kremmerodden – Hasselblad 500CM – Planar 80 – Kodak Ektar

Hasselblad 500 CM – Planar 80mm – Ilford Pan F plus @25 – Ados Atomal 49 Stock

Capturing bleak winter colours

As I have previously written on my blog, I like shooting Kodak ProImage 100 in the winter. There is something about the colours and the subtlety of it, that I find to be exactly the right media for my style of winter-shooting. Some days ago, I gave the Konica a roll of ProImage and went for a little outing to some different locations where I could access the lake. The day were one of those days where it was clearing up after some dull and grey days, and there were very bleak, oranges and purples in the landscape.

Lith Print feel – Konica Autoreflex TC – Hexanon 50mm f1,8 – Kodak ProImage 100

I have also found myself to be very fond of the little Konica camera. Yes, it has a bit fewer shutter speeds than the OM-1 that inspired me to buy it, and indeed it hates cold weather. But the camera, and its lens is in mint conditions and takes beautiful images. The lens is very sharp and produces beautiful bokeh. It also feels very sturdy in the hand. From what I gather this is because mine is an early model where the whole body is a metal construction. It does not produce any light leaks at this point and I guess the light meter would work if I gave it a battery.

*Tree root in snow – Konica Autoreflex TC – Hexanon 50mm f1,8 – Kodak ProImage 100*

Based on the fact that this was marketed as an «entry level» SLR camera in its time, I must say that its performance is incredible. If I was to recommend an entry level SLR to anyone at this point, I would be very tempted to say Konica Autoreflex TC and just smile. I am very happy that I purchased this camera and I will probably keep it as one of my regular users over some time, along side with the Olympus OM-1.

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.

Testing a Konica Autoreflex TC (Part 2)

This entry is a sequel of a previous entry where I shot a roll of Ilford FP4 plus trying out my new Konica Autoreflex TC camera, and where I, somewhat irrelevantly compared it to the Olympus OM-1 because I saw a video about it on Youtube. In retrospect, I regret that comparison because I find the cameras to be very different and not too comparable. I therefore cleared my mind, and I rolled the Konica up with a roll of Kodak ProImage 100, which is my preferred colour film for 35mm winter photography, and I went for a little walk.

My car needed to visit the garage that morning, and I had some time to walk around shooting the Konica handheld to get a good feeling about how it performed. Since the morning weather (The lovely thing about Winter-Norway around 10.00) was bright, colourful and vibrant I chose to go with Colour Shooting

A short time-lapse of the beautiful weather conditions this day.

Even though the Konica really dislikes the cold weather and can start to play up in different ways, I learnt from this last time, and this time, I chose to consider where it had issues last time before I started working. Fist of all, when the shutter gets cold, it tends to stick a little bit, therefore I tried to keep the cameras as close to my body, under my jacket, most of the time. This probably looked a bit strange, but it worked. I also avoided the lens fogging up due to this.

Another issue I found last time, was that the rewind button under the camera sticked and would not operate properly outside and the film ripped. I tried this button on multiple occasions indoors later, and it always worked. So this time, I did not rewind the film before I came home, and I did not have any issues with ripped film. That said, though. The take-up spool did in fact cut off the tip of the film leader in some weird way.

Konica Autoreflex TC w 50mm Hexanon f1,8 lens – f11 1/60th Kodak ProImage 100. Tetenal C41

Reklamer

I shot without filters this time, but I would probably have chosen to use a two stop polarizer if I had one for the ø55 filter tread. But when looking at the images, that was not really necessary after all. Working with the Konica camera is very pleasant, and it lies very well in the hand and has easy controls to operate. It also seems to be quite accurate in the normal shutter speeds that I have tried out, but then again, it doesn’t have shutter speeds between 1/8th and B.

What I really like, is that lovely Hexanon-lens. It has a very nice sharpness and it helps me render really vibrant colours and grey tones very well. I am looking forward to trying this one out with some Bokeh-shots with wide apertures at some stage. Stay tuned.

*Konica Autoreflex TC w 50mm Hexanon f1,8 lens Kodak ProImage 100. Tetenal C41*

More Christmas decorations

This entry is a sequel of the FP4 shoot with the Advent decorations. If you haven’t seen that entry, please scroll down and find it. In this entry, I have once again done like a cat, playing with the Christmas decorations. This time, I played with the Christmas tree and a roll of Kodak ProImage 100 and I used the Olympus OM-1 with the same 50mm lens that I often use it with. Originally my plan was to shoot this with the Praktica MTL5 B and the Helios 44-2 lens, but it turned out that the lovely Praktica didn’t really appreciate being hooked up with the shutter release cable, and it therefore decided to jam. Not the kind of jammed that you can easily fix yourself, the properly jammed jam. Therefore, I had to restart the shoot with the Olympus, which handled the cable just fine.

I shot the Zuiko Lens fully open at its maximum aperture of f1,8, but I chose to let the Christmas tree lights be my only light source and ended up using longer shutter speeds, such as 1/2, 1/4 and even one and three seconds.

Christmas tree angel – Olympus OM-1 w 50mm Zuiko f1,8 lens. f1,8 shutter 1/2 seconds. Kodak Proimage 100

I know that there are many opinions on the Kodak ProImage 100 out and about. For my style and preference of photography, I find the ProImage to be brilliant for capturing winter colours where I often find Ektar too vibrant. Also, for indoor photography like this, I find this film to work perfectly, as I would often have to de-saturate Ektar in these situations. But again, this is personal preference. Personally, I like the «level between» Ektar and Portra as I see this film to be.

Reklamer

These images are slightly colour corrected in Photoshop after scanning, there were no colour shifts, but I found that the images got scanned with slightly different white balance. Not a big deal though, as it was easily correctable with Photoshop. The film was developed using the Tetenal Colortec C41 kit, which I find to work very well and be easily controllable. When using this kit, I cannot understand why it took me so long before I dared to try developing colour myself.

*Shooting around the Christmas tree – Olympus OM-1 w 50mm Zuiko f1,8 lens. f1,8 shutter 1/2 seconds.*
*Kodak Proimage 100*

Thank you for reading and following me through 2020. Let us all hope for a better and less troublesome and pandemic 2021.