Beautiful spring day in the city.
Soviet made LOMO Lubitel-166
A Lubitel-166 Universal made in the USSR in the 80’s - I bought this camera from an Amazon seller from Ukraine in 2022, it took months to get it delivered after transit delays (due to the war in Ukraine). Once I received the unit, didn’t shoot with it until now. I had put a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 in it many months ago to get my father-in-law into analog photography but he couldn’t find time to shoot. After kicking off my home film developing workflow I was hungry for exposed film to put in the tank to develop therefore, I finally took the TLR camera out.
There are no light leaks, I am particularly impressed with the sharpness of the images, especially since I was guessing focus over a somewhat broken focussing system.
HP5 home-brew
When I rebooted analog photography in December of 2022, it was inevitable I would get down to developing film at home, at some point. Today. I finally got to that point…
I ordered the Ars Imago lab box and CineStill DF96 monobath that came in earlier today. The first roll to go into the daylight operable lab box was a Fujifilm Neopan ACROS 100-II. But unfortunately, it came out not that great - the developed negatives strip had purple stains. But it added an effect I loved on certain shot, like the one below.
I was unsatisfied with the result, had to shoot some more to test and give it another shot. So in the afternoon I ventured out with my trusty Pentax 6x7 loaded with a roll of HP5. Few hours later I had shot through the roll, and it was ready to go into the lab box. This time I agitated the film in the soup for 9 minutes (instead of 6 in the previous attempt), followed by vigorous rinsing under tap water for a much longer duration. The result was very satisfactory: although there are purple stains on the film edge (that I believe was due to the film edge in contact with the spool), the images came out clean.
There are “some” stains in the following images but not as bad as what I got in the first round. Once I run out of the monobath I’m going to invest in individual developer and blix/fixer to have more control on the process.
The second roll of CineStill 800T (35mm)
Snohomish in Spring Sun
It’s really beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest when it is not raining.
Shot on Kentmere Pan 100 film.
Thin line between love and hate
Graffiti is not always art, it can be the result of vandalism.
Shot on Kodak Portra 160.
Seattle in the Sun
Marseille in film
Kodak Gold 200 film
Shot on Fujica GM670
1/15 sec at f/8
1/8 sec at f/8
1/8 sec at f/8
1/2 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/80 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
The Funeral
I cannot articulate in words the feeling that brewed inside me as I was setting up this shot. First, there was no sun until the last few seconds when it peeked through the clouds and lit up the trees in the background. Then it was a difficult composition with the “Wide” lens.
It appeared to me as if the trees were mourning the death of the fallen one.
Fujica GS645W | Ektar 100
Tungsten experiments (feat. CineStill 800T)
Shooting with film at night has never been this much fun.
Long exposures with CineStill 400D
Seattle and Port Townsend
10 sec at f/5.6, CineStill 400D
10 sec at f/5.6, CineStill 400D
30 sec at f/16, CineStill 400D
10 sec at f/5.6, CineStill 400D
36 documented photographs (Lomography 400 Color Negative)
Nikon FM2 | Lomography Color Negative ISO 400
The edge of Fidalgo island with a new analog camera
I have been shooting 120 film for a while but did not have a 135 film camera until now. Well, I started photography with a K1000 but that was long time ago - a period I would like to erase if I can.
To fill the 135 format gap I bought a Canon AE-1 Program and shot two rolls (few photographs here) with it. It’s a really nice camera that featured a “point and shoot” mode as well. Then I found a Nikon FM2N in excellent condition - I had to get it. Paired with a 50mm f/1.8 AIS pancake lens and a roll of Kodak Portra 400, drove to Washington Park in Anacortes to test it out.
Startled
I waited very patiently for them to take to their wings, as I stared through the viewfinder of my (new) Nikon FM2. The wait was probably a minute but it felt longer.
They finally flew off…
CineStill 400D - Nova Era
Yellow streetcar (Seattle)
Issaquah historic downtown in CineStill 800T
CineStill 800T | Kowa Six
Port Townsend (Kentmere 400)
I took these photographs on the same day as my previous blog post with images taken with the Hasselblad X2D but took a while to send the roll to the lab. Got the negatives back today and scanned with V600.
Very happy with the deep contrast - this was the first time I used Kentmere 400 film stock.
Shot with Fuji GS645W
Old trees
Yoshino cherry trees (December, 2022)
Kowa Six | Ilford HP5