F Zero photography blog
Yea I missed this year's Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day . It was at April 26. I found out at about April 27, facepalm. Reminder set up. Is there any official Personal Pinhole Photography Day designated? Can it be today? Sure? Oh thank you very much. Working in the spring sun . Isn't that a song? I don't know. There is People of the sun, that I know. Good title, I take it. People of the sun My…
All right, this was fun ride. Previously on the show I wanted to make myself an arduino darkroom timer. A simple, intentionally primitive device with few physical buttons, display and one purpose - autoplay times of developing papers for me so I know how long to develop, stop and fix. I had working breadboard prototype, was happy and said Next step is to somehow tranfer this prototype from…
So, time has come to make myself a printing darkroom timer. It has been more than a year I wrote about android darkroom timer app I use . It is very helpful app and I can only recommend it. But I also wrote about how I hate touchscreens and that is still true. What I often dream about is one physical device, with one purpose and big physical buttons that I can smash and stuff happens right away…
Long time since last post, but fear not - I'm not dead yet, just kinda busy. Nice part of that busyness consists of making pinhole cameras by Nick's Dvoracek designs. I made two of them (or more?) in last month or so and took a few rolls with them. First I made 6x6 30mm Populist and than slightly panoramic 135 film Populist . 6x6 30mm Populist The 6x6 Populist took me quite a few tries to build…
MO - that is Modus Operandi. I got that from the Heat movie. Yeah, I'm still dialing that in. It will always be like that, right? Digital Most recently I catched irresistible urge to make color pictures with my Canon 5D, so I did. I took it to my artist date trip to near towns. Which brings me to the digital print. Yeah, I think I'll have to do that. I have so many digital pictures and no way to…
Another pieces that did't make it to it's own post. Adox 50 I wanted to try this film because I really liked what I saw other people online do with it. I developed it with ADOX FX-39 II and it seems to me I somehow managed to overcook highlights a little bit. Not sure how. I expected this film to shine in scenes with very strong light and this was not the case for me this time. Opposite happened -…
tl;dr: if you want to try to make prints in the darkroom, absolutely go for it. Let not anything stop you - experience. But be also aware, that it might not all be just fun and magic. Actual work and things associated with work - like frustration, fatique and failures might also be part of the experience. Find your own way, your own balance. And if you realize you don't want to make darkroom…
So we cleaned my grandmothers apartment. She is still with us, but lives somewhere else now. She is 95! One of the things I kept is Fed 3, which her brother bought in Russia. I don't know when, but think it had to be somewhere in 1960s or 1970s. I wanted one of these soviet cameras, Zorki or Fed, or maybe Kiev 4, for a long time, but never pulled the trigger, mainly because I don't really believe…
Your line is you Draw in whatever way comes naturally. Every artist has something like a "natural line" that he or she was practically born with. Once you learn to accept yours, you'll have taken a big step forward. Don't look at others' lines and do not attempt to imitate other artist's "better" or "more modern" styles of drawing. Anyone can learn tricks and gimmicks but you must learn to accept…
It kinda looks like printed on fabric or something.
Sometimes I shoot digital. Mainly when I want to shoot color. Color film can be absolutely beatiful, but shooting color on film is too unreasonable for me personally. Color film is relatively expensive, developing it at home is slightly more uncomfortable and printing color in darkroom is more complicated, than black and white. Maybe one day, who knows. So I shoot color on digital. Why not. Don't…
Today I'm in the mood to spit out my recent pinhole pictures as they are - almost entirely unedited. Mostly because I like them that way today and think they just don't need edit. So that's exactly what I'll do. Theme seems to be something about slowly but surely parting with inside - winter - and patiently waiting and preparing for outside - spring. It is inevitably coming.
For someone, photography can be a way to transform ephemeral to eternal. For someone else, it can be a way to appear smart and knowledgeable. For someone else, it can be a way to just have fun. It can be a way to gain popularity. To find a way closer to true yourself. To gain followers and likes. To get people tell you how amazing you are. To make someone else happier. To make money. To venture to…
Winter rest (from the German term Winterruhe) is a state of reduced activity of plants and warm-blooded animals living in extratropical regions of the world during the more hostile environmental conditions of winter. In this state, they save energy during cold weather while they have limited access to food sources. - Wikipedia It is winter here. Not freezing, not very snowy, but cold and dark…
Fewer words, more pictures. Testing Olympus XA1, the cheapest and the simplest one of them. Works fine and is fantastically small and light. Everytime I stick it to my face to take a picture I'm staring at nothing, because I'm so used to viewfinder to the left side of the camera, not the center. Fun times With 100 ISO film I managed to get some blurred shots. Next time I plan to try Ilford Pan…
I bought bunch of old cameras for peanuts. I was not really sure why at the time. Let's say they are backup of my current cameras, if/when they brake. Also I wanted a camera for summer, to fit in my shorts pocket. My Konica C35 doesn't fit that description - it fits in the jacket pocket fine, but for short or pants it is too big and too heavy. So one of bought cameras is Olympus XA1, the simplest…
Yesterday darkroom did not went that well. Of total 11 papers used I got only 2 prints that I consider good enough. And that seems too wasteful for me. I don't know what is usual dial-in prints/done prints ratio, but five papers for one final print just feels too much.Too much wasted material and time. 2 out of 11 - not happy So, I was not happy. Which is great! That's how I got lot of info about…
So I took a few days trip and naturally took some pictures, about three or four rolls. By the time everybody else was already having fun browsing through each other pictures on their phones, I had developing and scanning and post-processing still long ahead of me. That got me thinking – everybody is already full of pictures from the trip that is still going on. Will anybody be interested in my…
Today I was testing Helios 44-2 lens on my enlarger and it seems to work fine. I still have to carefully inspect the prints, but I’m pretty sure they are much much sharper. One problem is that red filter holder, that i removed red glass from and use it as contrast filters holder, doesn’t fit under the lens anymore. It seems that easy fix is to just slap the contrast filter right on the condenser…
Before I got nasty sick for at least a week I had some weekend fun with my new fancy enlarger and through those two days I tried fiber paper (it is great) for the first time, did some dodging and burning for the first time (it is even better) and realized, that the lens that came with enlarger is slightly worse than I even expected. I mean, only real prior experience I have is with my diy junk…
Welcome to a totally irregular “what is boiling” report service. I decided I need a traditional enlarger for my medium format pictures that I made and will make. My thinking was that I believe I can make myself another junk enlarger , but I would need a medium format lens of some sort (i shoot with TLR so cannot use camera lens) and if I would buy that, I can buy an enlarger anyway. I take it as a…
This summer is hot. Really hot. I remember a few hot weeks in last years, but I don’t really remember this many in row. It is a little bit difficult for me to go outside in this weather and take pictures. Which would make me a little upset, but the heat sucks the energy necessary to be upset out of me. Despite that I took a little walk to a car race. Little walk turned out to be about 20 km long,…
Enlarger came in, so that’s a good news. I gave it complete deep clean, because it needed it and also I really enjoyed that. I really love how sturdy and simple these things are. I mean, they are basically just lamps, I know, but not really. There is some complexity to it – adjusting system, condenser lens, bellows and stuff. And all of this is put together in very clear and simple way, with…
In last pinhole adventures I was pleasantly surprised, that I got (relatively) contrasty negatives and no bromide drag. Mainly sprockets drag was annoying me, but I got none and was pretty happy about that. This time I repeated the process – Adox Adonal (rodinal) developer, 1 hour development time with 1+100 dilution. 30 seconds inversion in the beginning and 3 inversions every 15 minutes. And I’m…
Good five hours spent on about ten prints – is it too much? Feels kinda like a proper work shift, maybe in the kitchen – legs and back hurt, little bit sweaty, good music and there’s something cooking in the pot. Good chunk of time took preparing. From the start I found out developer has spilled all over my bottles of other chemicals, so I had to do some cleaning first. Then mix fresh chemicals…
I usually semi-stand develop my pinhole pictures in Foma Fomadon R09 , which is as far as I know, basically rodinal. Results I got with this combination are low contrast and most of the time pretty heavy bromide drag, especially from sprocket holes. This is typical result I get this way. No contrast added just inverted colors. For my “final” picture I add a relatively lot of contrast at least.…
In the post about my pinhole camera I told you I think, that it has film advance system I consider superior to all others I so far encountered and that I think every camera should have it. And today I’ll tell you why. First, let’s see how it looks like again. The box on the right has two canisters inside. Film goes from one canister to another. And that is the genius of it. Such a design has…
Maybe, just maybe, I have located where my interest in photo books is. At least right now. I am not really interested in popular, traditional ones, the industry ones , that everybody talks about, that are printed on best paper and bound in “green hardcover” and that are more expensive every month on the “second hand” market after they are immediately sold out. Of course I would like to flip…
Do you know any better way to celebrate Friday afternoon? Well, maybe you do, but darkroom printing counts as very good one in my book. Finally time to close the door to outside world, put on some music, dive into dark and watch moments from your past materialize right before you. Magic. Not easy magic, let me tell you. After about three hours my legs and back hurts! I am hungry and thirsty and a…
Pentax really made and sells a brand new film camera, right? Feels like a great news. I’m sure the internet will be very soon flooded with reviews and I look forward to read and view some . I haven’t read any yet, but it looks very nice . I also hope and think, that it will be out of stock very fast, because I’m not buying one – it is too absurdly expensive for me. In any case – happy shooting and…
Nothing is ever perfect, right? In last post I thought about velcro zip tie my camera to things, to minimize camera shake when I operate the shutter and so far I can declare success on this front. One could say my camera is going places. Or , there is at least one more option – if you already go through the hassle of creating yourself fancy super-light and super-small camera, you can as well take…
So I was dialing in taking pictures with my pinhole Populist model camera and I have to tell you I like it more and more. Something about the process of taking those pictures, finding the spot where to put the camera, trying to hold it steady, trying to estimate exposure time and angle, is making me feel something good. And pictures themselves tends to surprise me and have dreamy quality I’m very…
I have a good time watching videos about which setup is the best and testing which lens is the best. I enjoy reading about why flatbed scanning is just fine or why camera scans are better. I really do. But for the time being I do not try to painfully and expensively decide which method to choose, because I have already chosen the simplest method – what I have around me that I can scan my negatives…
Alright, I was looking forward this one. Today I’ll show you my homemade negative enlarger that I made from junk and tools and materials I had laying around. Let’s get the why? out the way first. Why on earth would I spend time trying to make photo enlarger when I can just simply buy one? Well, there are many reasons, I personally decided to do it mainly because it is fun, creative, pulls me into…
Let me tell you what software I currently use to edit and organize my photos. First – I am not professional photographer, I don’t do commissions, I don’t need to present my work to client, I don’t need sophisticated search in my galleries and so on. My usage is very simple and I currently like to keep it that way – I just want to view and edit my pictures in some organized and reasonably pleasant…
So I was interested in pinhole cameras and diy cameras for quite some time and when I saw Joe Van Cleave’s video about Nick Dvoracek designed and handmade cardboard camera with hilarious name Evil Cube I thought to myself “this might be it”. You know, I thought I will eventually make some type of camera from plywood and I even bought myself some of that, but camera made from packaging cardboard…
Let me tell you a little story. I was preparing (mostly mentally I think, like – can I even do that ?) for this moment for quite a long time and between gathering information and materials I was dreaming about how my first print is magically slowly materializing in developer solution and how it will look like in the end. At one point I realized that I should probably correct myself a little bit to…
I saw it again and said “that’s it, I’m gonna type it down!” to myself. What did you saw you ask. I saw another youtube thumbnail promising a “mind-blowing photography!”. Do I have to tell you I didn’t click? Is it ok, that I don’t want the photography to blow my mind (why would I want my mind to be blown anyway)? Not to say I never wanted to make “mind-blowing” picture to amaze people, to make…
It takes pictures. If you want and can, get it, try it. The end. But seriously guys – I don’t think I’ll ever do reviews, don’t hold your breath please. In my limited experience, one needs to go hands-on, touch the thing, try a few (or many) rolls, give it time. Review gives nice info, that’s great, but nothing beats personal experience and there are things that review cannot tell. Only with…
… or like to work on in very near future: modify my DIY junk enlarger (more on that later) so it can take contrast filters modify the same enlarger so it can take medium format film modify my pinhole 35mm film paper camera (more on that later too!) so it has opaque shutter (it is not really opaque right now sigh) and improve its frame counter (yes, it has frame counter, seriously it’s genius).…
Bulk loading film has important advantages: it’ hands on and therefore fun you can make yourself film of any length, for experiments, for impatient folks like myself it’s cheaper Update: this article reminded me that it is also more ecological, less wasteful It has also some disadvantages: you just have to do it if you want to have film loaded (and sometimes – laziness you know) reusable film…
So the other day (my favourite hockey team have just tragically lost the game so I had to do something!) I finally decided to do my first darkroom photo print. I wanted to do this like last two years I think, but postponed and procrastinated on it because of some weird reasons. Of course there was many things to learn about and many questions to answer for myself, before I actually kinda had any…