'Film Image Appreciation Thread (For Us Lovers Of Dinosaurs)

Oh brother, now you just made me decide to get a film rangefinder sooner! Where's that year end bonus when I need it...

 

Haha... we had the same idea!

https://www.talkemount.com/f26/film-photography-nostalgia-renaissance-photo-samples-1841/

 

Boy it's surprising how what we thought was great back then - looks soooo grainy now!

Here's one fossil I dug up (1990s)... I'm sure it's Fujichrome Velvia but I can't remember if it was ISO 50 or ISO 100. This one was professionally 'drum-scanned' for use as a front cover of a DLE brochure. What I don't miss about film is not only the grain but the speck-flaws as well. If you look closely at the top right you'll see streaky transparency damage that occurred when the film was pulled out of the canister and loaded into the developing tank spools. Irreparable damage done by one of the top professional developing outfits back then.




"Communion"
Canon A-1, Tamron 24mm, Fujicrome

 

The "Pass in Reiew" and the "Communion" are my favorite, incredibly strong and present pictures. The stern look of the military gentleman holding his (D) SLR is also great. One thing that jumps at you is the perfect perspective and subject isolation due to the full 24x36 film area. FF is what I grew up on and my brain is formatted for it, for me FF tells a story like a crop sensor never can (not even mentioning smaller chips like m4/3). That's why, even if I'm perfectly peach with APS-C after over ten years of shooting digital, I'll run and by whatever FF mirrorless with decent AF (Sony, Fuji, can you hear me ??) that comes out. It goes beyond pretty blurred bagrounds in portraits, it's a real "layer" and perspective thing. Thos film pictures convey a real foreground, middle ground and background in a subtle yet inevitable way that I can't quite explain. Film images have "meat" and body to them, while digital by default look almost transparent.

 

Ouch, can't get over that Pass in Review, what a STUNNING photograph !!

 

Okay, I'll play... (starting with Tri-X)

My first couple years in college, I took a 35mm SLR everywhere, shot lots of Tri-X and printed 8x10s on the closet floor of my basement apartment. I do miss those days...


My father with his 4x5 Graflex, 1990


Colorado River, Grand Canyon, 1990


Art School Concrete Floor, 1989


Calgary, 1988

You can still buy this stuff so I suppose there's nothing stopping me form buying some and going back at it if I really wanted to. (I still have the enlarger I used to use...)

 

Kodachrome

The Kodachrome I can never revisit. It would be terrible for most of what I do these days, but the vibe is undeniable. Definitely used to be my thing...


Ascending my fire tower, 199?


Steens Mountain, 2001


My Steed, France 1992


Fes, Morocco, 1992

 

"Pass in Review", "Pool at the Bottom of the Falls", "Communion", and Jeffenator's Tri-X photos. Great stuff, guys.

 

Hmmm.. I don't lust for the X, but certainly for the XE !! It is, indeed, the ideal camera system for me, except AF is even worse than that of my NEX6, AND worse yet, Fuji doesn't offer focus peaking. If it had, I would have be TRULY tempted, especially since it does offer some excellent native fast primes. One of my close photog friend has the original X (I think he pretty much parted with a kidney to buy it...) and loves it to death. I just don't fall in love with the 6, but it's nonetheless a fantastic camera, that delivers extremely high IQ. I did a portrait shoot this morning (see related post) and have NOTHING to say against the camera.

 

Grain, grain, grain...

These next two shots were taken in the late 1980's, pre-computer, pre-photoshop, and most of all... pre-OSH! (Occupational Safety and Health Service). Back in those days, I can (kindly) ask security if I could enter and wander around the middle of a race-track and take pictures. "Yeah, sure mate... just stay inside the hay bales and wait in between races before you cross the track." LOL!

Ilford FP5 film was used (rated ASA 400 film), but chemically pushed to ASA 800 during negative developing.





Canon AE-1 Program, Tamron 80-210 Zoom, 1/125 sec
I was about 4-5 meters away from the car, zoom set to about 90mm and twisting my body around my waist to 'pan' the shot. My goal was to get motion blur on the background and the wheels but not the car itself, hence the moderate shutter speed. I stood at the centre of a hair pin corner so after studying their racing lines and pre-focusing, the cars would scream past me always in focus. Nothing but knee-high hay bales between me and the cars... the engine noise was insane at that distance! There's just no way that anyone (including the press) would be allowed to be that close these days - and for good reason.







Canon AE-1 Program, Tamron 80-210 Zoom plus x1.5 converter = 315mm, 1/1000 sec
Yes, it's as scary as it looks but hey - I was behind a hay bale, lol! Timing the shutter was the most difficult thing in this shot and not the manual focus. I knew where the VW off-road buggys reach the crest of their jumps, so I would pre-focus on a rock or some grass in between the earthen ramps and the wheel marks where they landed. In order to get a frontal jump shot, I had to be at the end of a long straight which leads to a right hand corner. Tripod set at the lowest position but I was ready to scoot away if something went amiss (yeah right!). The danger wasn't from the car I'm shooting, but from the ones that came before which are now drifting sideways not far from me. I was shooting with both eyes open!