Winter is coming

Late autumn in Norway is always beautiful. Thin layers of snow and frost on the ground makes it nearly look like someone has decorated the landscape with some icing sugar. However, today I was not really thinking I would get any of this magic in my shots. When I woke up this morning, it was a foggy and grey morning, and I decided to go for some contrasty shots with fog and artificial lighting from street-lights and and shop windows. I brought with me a selection of films, but planning on using Japan Camera Hunter, Street-pan 400, to get the deep blacks and some find Rodinal grain.

When I got to my chosen location, I had to rethink my whole idea and plan. just next to where I parked my car, and five minutes away from a cup of coffee, appeared this wonderful little lake, and the weather cleared beautifully.

Instead of using JCH Streetpan 400, I went for a roll of Kodak Ektar100. Ideally I would have shot this location with Provia, but since I am nearly never using slide-films anymore, I did not bring any. I rolled the Ektar into the Bronica and quickly came back with some compositions.

The beautiful view I found. Shooting a location like this with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand has to be considered luxury. (Phone-photo)

Reklamer

I have never shot colour film with this camera before, since it is a fairly new addition to my collection. So a new experience for me there. Kodak Ektar 100 with its vibrant range has been my go-to film for colour landscape photography the last years. It gives me nearly the tones of a Slide-film, and the convenience of a negative film when working.

What I would have wanted for this shoot; however, would be a short telephoto lens or maybe just a 75mm. Currently I only own one lens for my Bronica ETR, a 50mm (35mm equivalent in 35mm). This lens becomes too wide for many of my shots, and does not give me the bokeh I want for closer shots.

Bronica ETR w 50mm Zenzanon f4 1/4sec. Kodak Ektar 100, developed in Tetenal C41. Slightly edited in photoshop

For the shot above I would have wanted a longer lens. I lived the way the snow made the colors soft around the tree stump, however, I got too much clarity in the background for my liking.

Reklamer

For the shots over the view of the lake. The 50mm was perfect. And for the last shot on the roll, I saw some beautiful grass that moved in the running water. I took a shot of those as well.

Bronica ETR w 50mm Zenzanon. Kodak Ektar 100, Tetenal C41

The late autumn in Norway is beautiful and can give you anything. Today it gave me these lovely shots (among others) next to a place where I could get a coffee. Tomorrow it might give me the foggy conditions I expected today.

Zeiss Nettar and color film?

One of my absolute favorite cameras is my Zeiss Ikon Nettar. A little German bellow-camera from very long ago. I am not sure about the real age of this camera, but I know that it is from the late 40’s early 50’s. Being a bellow-camera, the shutter is mounted in the lens, and you have no range-finder or any focus help other than your eyes or some clip-on range finder system if you want to use that. Personally, I don’t use this camera for any work that would require the most precise focus, and I usually go without measuring or using «safe» aperture settings.

My Zeiss Ikon Nettar, and a box of KODAK Ektar

Because of its age, the Novar Astigmat lens was probably never meant to deal with colour films, and especially not high saturation films like the Ektar. I was therefore curious to try it out and see how an old lens and an old camera would perform with a film like this.

To help the camera a bit, I used an UV-filter. The Nettar does not have a filter ring that can support any of my filters, so I used a cheap 52mm UV-filter and held it in place with my fingers while shooting.

The images are taken while waiting for a ferry at Forvik in Vevelstad, Northern Norway in the region Helgeland. It surprises me how well the Nettar deals with colour films, and I find the images to be really high quality.

Results from the roll. KODAK Ektar and Zeiss Ikon Nettar.

Images are developed at home with the Tetenal C41-home system using a Paterson tank and a cheap eBay reel. Since I do not own a medium format scanner, I used my Epson Perfection V370 and scanned them in sections and glued them together in Photoshop.

I have not done any colour corrections here, what you dee is what I got, but I have removed some dust and scratches.

Thanks for reading.

Playing with KODAK Ektar

This has been a special year for all of us. Covid 19 has turned everything upside down, and we are more home bound than we usually are. Because of this, I decided to go on holiday in Norway this year, and appreciate the Norwegian nature with some old, cheap equipment and some rolls of KODAK Ektar.

First up, was my Olympus OM-1 and the amazing Zukio 50mm lens. Not a very cheap camera you might say, but I managed to get my OM-1 shipped shipped to Norway for just around 70 euros. That is a real bargain considering the quality and value in use.

These shots are from the area around Brønnøysund in Northern Norway. Closer description as image text.

All images are developed with the Tetenal C41 home development Kit, and scanned with my PlusTek Opticfilm 8100.