Derelict train station

I’ve always had a fascination for derelict buildings and other traces of human civilization that is let aside and forgotten. Today, I brought out one of my good friends, the Olympus OM-1, to an old, derelict train station a short drive from where I live. I equipped the Olympus with a roll of Fomapan 100 and the razor sharp 50mm Zukio 1,8 lens. I brought with me a selection of colored filters to boost contrast and play with the light in the lifting sun and shifting blue skies.

The lovely Olympus OM-1 with an orange filter added. As you can see, the camera is set to rewind as this was taken after the roll og Fomapan 100 was empty.

Valdresbanen, the railway I worked by, was closed for passenger traffic in 1988. Some freight trains were ran there later, but the old station buildings have been untouched since this time. Quite sad to think about the number of shut down railways in Norway really. Nevertheless, the old buildings are still characteristic and beautiful in their own way.

Today, I went to Fall station which is very close to Hov in Søndre Land municipality. This was never a big and populous station, and the only building there is a little shed where people would wait for their train to arrive. The main station building was burned down in 1982 by the Norwegian railway company and the shed was built after that. I have shot portraits at and around this location multiple times, but I have never before gone there to explore the location as a subject of its own.

Reklamer

I have never tested out the filters I used today, so I did a lot of bracketing to understand how they work and see how to best compensate for their function. I only got to use the yellow and the orange filters, as they were what I found to match the lighting and location the best.

Playing with focus around an old signal light. Olympus OM-1, Zukio 50mm f1,8 – f5,6 – 1/125th. Fomapan 100, Xtol 1+0. Orange filter

I did some playing around with different items left aside by the old railway, and did heavy bracketing. I figured that the Orange filter needs two stops of compensation, while the yellow needs a bit more than one from how I interpret my negatives.

Working with dark colored filters can be a bit challenging due to the light loss, and hence difficulties to focus. With the Olympus, however, I found that working with colored filters were a dream. The viewfinder is wide and bright, and there was never any difficulties getting the focus where I wanted it with either the yellow or the orange filter.

*Working with the fog. Olympus OM-1, Zukio 50mm f1,8 – f5,6 – 1/125th and 1/60th . Fomapan 100, Xtol 1+0. Yellow filter*

The foggy train station lies up a steep hill, and at the bottom of this hill it was a hazy and relatively thick fog, removing pretty much all background scenery from many of my images. The station itself, however, was above the fog, and was shining for itself in the misty and cold morning light.

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I also shot an image of some crackled paint on the station building. I chose to shoot this with the yellow filter and I went all the way down to f2,8 to get a very shallow depth of field, but retain some sharpness. I haven’t tried this lens at f1,8, and even though I guess it would work very well, I did not want to risk a too shallow depth on this one. I forgot to note down my shutter speed for this image, so that information is not provided.

*Crackled paint – Olympus OM-1, Zukio 50mm f1,8 – f2.8. Fomapan 100, Xtol 1+0. yellow filter*

All in all, I enjoyed this little shoot, and I once again remembered why I love to shoot the Olympus. This is such a pleasant camera to use and its handy size and bright viewfinder makes it a great choice for all kinds of shoots.

All images are unedited scans from my Epson V600.

Vintage shoot with Frida and her old Ford

Analog photography is has the loveliest tones imaginable for vintage style photography. The special look an old lens gives is an exquisite vibe to your photo that no digital preset can really copy, and the feeling of doing this with vintage equipment adds an extra element. Photography is not just about the picture, but the way to get there and the feeling of the process.

Yesterday I went out to photograph my friend Frida and her lovely 1950 Ford Shoebox. To go with me for this shoot, I chose two cameras. The Weist SL-35 and my lovely TLR, the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex. Both these cameras are reasonably accurate and has sharp lenses that does really bring out that «vintage feel». I rolled up both cameras with Ilford FP4 Plus, A film that for me is my first choice when I want that «Vintage feel». This film has a really fine cubical grain structure, and has a more visible grain than other films around its speed, and I love how this grain structure affects the images.

My equipment for this shoot. Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex medium format TLR and the Weist SL-35, 35mm M42 SLR.

We met at a lovely location in Kapp just south of Gjøvik. This location used to be a condensed milk factory back in the days, but today it is used for cultural purposes among other things.

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We first set off with the Ikoflex. I shot as close to f4 as I could get, and did some bracketing with f5,6 to be sure not to overexpose too wildly. I shot the Ikoflex at its highest shutter speed around 1/300th of a second, but my guess is that this shutter speed is a bit slower. Probably around 1/250th which is still very good for a 70 year old camera like this.

Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex. Shot at f5,6 shutter speed around 1/250th of a second. Ilford FP4 Plus, developed in Xtol 1+1 for 10 minutes.

I refer to the Ikoflex as «the bird box» and this is one of my absolute favorite camera in use. When I bought it, it came from a Swedish Zeiss collectors house, and the seller did not believe that it worked. Probably because he didn’t really understand how it works. These cameras have their specific way of use, and you will not be able to shoot this camera if you don’t know how to load film in it and how to set it up.

When we were done with the film in the IKOFLEX, I changed it for some Kodak Portra 160, but these images are not included in this entry.

Reklamer

We then set off with the Weist and its exquisite Weistar 135mm lens. I also shot this one as close to F4 as I could to get that lovely bokeh you get from this lens. This is the first time I tried this camera and lens for a shoot with a model, and I am very happy with how it performed.

Weist SL-35 with Weistar 135mm M42 lens. Ilford FP4 Plus shot at box speed. Kodak Xtol 1+1 – 10 minutes.

These are just quick scans of the negatives. This shoot will be finished as Darkroom prints. Whether the prints and the process of making them will be entered in this blog is yet to be decided.

All in all, I am very happy with how both cameras performed during this shoot and I feel humble and lucky for being allowed to with with people like Frida, who is on board with the analog nerdity.

Photographs open doors into the past, but they also alloq a look into the future
Sally Mann

A Summer day adventure with a Voigtländer Vito B

A few days ago I got hold of an old Voigtländer Vito B in «unknown condition». I know from before that Voigtländers are relatively sound cameras, and took it for a test drive with a Kentmere 100 onboard.

The small viewfinder tells me that this is a camera from the earlier production years, between 1954 and 1957. The fucis is done buy measuring the distance manually and setting it manually to the camera. No rangefinder or markfinder.

It’s always fun to play around with an old camera like this, and I must say that despite it’s reputation for being «immensly grainy» I am very happy with the results the Kentmere 100 provides. My guess is that photographers complaining about the grain are either after a smooth as gold PAN-F like smoothness, or just overexposes the film and gets grain in the scanning process.

As previously with the Kentmere, I chose to develop in Xtol 1:2 and used 10 minutes in 24 degrees chemistry. The negatives came out fairly evenly exposed and I am happy with the results.

A cloudy-day with Kentmere 100

Analogue photography has this horrible reputation for being ridiculously expensive because of expensive films expensive equipment. One of my goals with this blog is to disprove this and show how great results you can get with cheap cameras, but also with budget films.

Today, I picked up a Kentmere 100, which i bought for very little money at my regular online store, and went for a little walk by a lake not far from where I live. I am normally a huge fan of the Ilford-films, and since Kentmere is made my Ilford, I assumed it to be a decent film.

I read a few blog entries and notes on Lomography before I embarked on this adventure, and I saw people complain about «immense grain» and «too grainy». I therefore chose to develop this film in Kodak Xtil 1:0, to have a limited development time to reduce grain.

Kentmere 100 shot at box speed, developed at 19,5 degrees in Xtol 1:0 for 8 minutes 15 seconds

At least in this development cycle, the Kentmere produced a really pleasant grain, and I like the soft, but vibrant range it gives. I will definitely shoot this film again, and use the same decelopment cycle which I find to give the results I want.

Furthermore, in 35mm film photography, grain is a part of the «game» and a force that makes your images interesting.

Also, I find the cheap Petri Racer so be one of my absolute favourite cameras. The little rangefinder has a fantastic lens and is truly reliable. More results are in the album beneath.

Analogue photography is not expensive, and with some skills and knowledge, you will appreciate this media. ‘