Printing in dark room vs film-to-digital workflow

I started in darkroom in my early teens, somewhere in 68 or 69. Back then, everything was simple: not too many graded papers available, one developer, water from the tap, fixer and free time, which I had aplenty. I did not use any advanced techniques. Masking with my fingers for dodging and burning was the farthest it went. Because of this, there were negatives I could print easily and some I did not know how to print, the negatives too dark or too contrasty...when I had one, I just skipped it. Here is one of the prints from the time: some TASMA film pushed to 500 ISO, some old paper my father gave me:


(View from my darkroom AKA attic room. Yelabuga, 1973)

"In Osaka" by Yamasaki Ko-Ji

Yamasaki Ko-Ji is a photographer from Kobe, Japan. Here is a dummy of his book I am working on right now. Printed on laser printer to check the layout, it became a real one the moment I attached the loose leafs of paper to each other with binder clips. Somehow the images survived a truly terrible print quality. If you familiar with Japanese photographers of PROVOKE era (Takuma Nakahira, Daido Moriyama, Yutaka Takanashi and others), you will recognize the style. The book will be on Amazon sometime this year (the release date still TBD). More images from the dummy book below. The site of the photographer: http://yamasaki.ko-ji.com/

Leica Store Miami Instagram Contest

From Leica Store Miami:

During the festival we will be running an Instagram contest. Share your best image that embodies the spirit of street photography via Instagram with the hashtag #mspf2014. One image will be selected at the end of the festival and the lucky winner will receive a Leica Akademie voucher (value of $199) to be used towards a future workshop. All submissions must be posted between 12:00 AM Thursday, December 4th and 11:59 PM on Sunday, December 7th.

To see what others have been posting visit our live Instagram streaming gallery!

Framing pictures for Miami Street Photography Festival

Miami Street Photography Festival is next week!

Testing Kodalith in Dektol

I always wanted to try the extreme, absolute contrast; so here finally comes (ta-daMM!!) a Kodalith.
Kodak Kodalith is a very high contrast film made for copy work, lithography and alike.
It use to come in many formats but had been discontinued a while ago, along with its special contrast developer bearing the same name.
I recently found a few hundred feet of it in 35mm format (6556), circa 2003.
This film is low sensitivity material and has to hold well, so I tested it on my morning walk with Sir Charles Darwin Zhewalsky:

Counting change in Rain...love the grain of expired EK5222

ORWO N74 Plus in TMax

ORWO is a trade name for a range of film products from Germany, from the company named Filmotec. I the 70s, I use to shoot ORWO slide film (UT 18). Recently, in my search for an affordable B&W 400 ISO film to replace Arista (aka cheap Tri-X) I came across ORWO NP74 plus, a movie stock said to be around 400 ISO. I bought one 100ft can of it from http://orwona.com and tried it in my daily shooting. Here are my findings:

Jesus 24

The Street Photographer's Manual by David Gibson

Received it yesterday, seems to be nice book...not a manual at all, more like non-stop obscure rumbling accompanied by pictures -- just what I needed. This is first impression after reading and leafing through while riding bus-train. $14 on amazon, amazing price for such a great book, by the way the quality of the print is top notch.Thumbs up!
http://www.amazon.com/Street-Photographers-Manual-David-Gibson

Overtown

Olympus XA, expired Kodak Double X cine film in HC-110.
It was hot as Hell.

Я-Стрит, или как фотографировать в Яндексе

конспективненько:

Я-Стрит это такое занятие вроде уличной фотографии, только вместо реальной улицы используется виртуальная, расположенная здесь: http://maps.yandex.ru/-/CVrka07W

Инструкцая по навигации, включению полноэкранного изображение и т.п.: http://help.yandex.ru/maps/photos/panoramas.xml

Как снимаются панорамы: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4oomL2Hp8o

Теперь о том как сохранить понравившееся изображение:
Если у вас обычный комп с полной кравиатурой, то сохраняется нажатием клавиши
Print Screen (или PrntScr). Предварительно изображение переключается в полноэкранный режим (см. выше). Если у вас два или три или четыре экрана (у меня два), то при нажатии клавиши Print Screen сохранятся все. Для того, чтобы сохранить только нужную картинку, вместо клавиши Print Screen нажмите Alt+Print Screen.Теперь как избавиться от стрелок навигации: просто уберите мыша на край экрана и подождите, не трогая мышь и клавиатуру. Стрелки исчезнут, и можно будет сохранить изображение без них. Если у вас два экрана, то можно при этом сдвинуть мышь на соседний экран, так мышиный курсор не будет мешаться с краю. Не кликайте при этом на соседнем экране, иначе фокус сместится на него и при нажатии alt+Print Screen вместо нашей картинки сохранится то, что торчит на другом экране.

Про размер:
Размер сохраняемого изображения соответствует разрешению экрана. У меня 1680x1050 точек, такая картинка и сохраняется. Если у вас разрешение другое, то и картинка будет меньше или больше моей.

Про формат:
У меня все скриншоты автоматом сохранятся в png. Это формат непакованый, соответственно файлы большие -- несколько мегабайт. Можно их перепаковать чем-нибудь в jpeg, на качестве это не скажется -- над ними и так jpeg-движок Яндекса уже по полной надругался. Я этим делом обычно не заморачиваюсь и храню и выкладываю прямо в png, как есть.

Интересные находки выкладывать здесь:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/YaStreet/

Streets of Russia in Yandex Panoramas

Yandex is the internet search engine Russians use. Yandex Street Panoramas, part of Yandex maps, is a close match to Goggle's street view. I like playing with it because people's faces are not blurred as in the (US part) of Goggle street view. Here is a small stash of shots I fished out of its murky waters. I looked at places I know, the places I had been passing by often during my life in Russia. The things are different now, time passed and many changed, but some stayed, like the stern look of woman's faces and the brown mud. Here are they, processed in PS to match the look of vintage duotones. Click the pictures for full res':

Current content

Rain and shine, night and day, June and May...

Some of my recent shots in no particular order. Downtown, Opa-Locka, South Beach...enjoy (:

35mm compact camera craze

Disclaimer 1: GAS or G(ear) A(cquisition) S(yndrome), originally known as Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. I went through all stages, including the original guitar version ages ago. Now its cameras. The disease is a contagious one, so consider yourself warned: if you are really into 35mm film cameras, stop reading now or it will be too late.
Disclaimer 2: Buying an old camera is buying a problem. Ask me how I know.
Disclaimer 3: This is not a review nor its a hidden ad for my shots. Its just a stupid GAS list I came up with after reading on a subject and shooting some of the recommended cameras. Models, images and links to reviews. That's it.

Leica Camera Russia blog on my Found Film project (Russian)

http://blog.leica-camera.ru/2014/05/15/19242/

How to get rid of stuff and stay sane in 5 easy steps

Things. Stuff. Junk. If you like me, i.e. the one who keeps things, you know what I am talking about. I had a small house and this problem had been bugging me for quite some time, until one day I solved it. Oh yes I did! It was easy, it was simple, there were some expenses and time/work involved but I enjoyed it immensely. If you'd like to know how to clean your house from junk and free if for...well, even more stuff :D -- go on reading!

Film advance lever

At the Houston's FotoFest a young photographer asks, pointing to my Bessa (above):
- you always push this little thing when you snap a shot, what it for?
Me:
- its a film advance lever. I have a film camera.
He:
- yeah...film camera...do you still have a screen in the back so the shot can be checked?


dixi

Walking Downtown again

+ some more Downtown shots I took last month:

My fellow Russians, the time is NOW!

Scholarship grant available for Alex&Rebecca Webb workshop in Miami, January 2014

here: http://goo.gl/cd5uIe
I have been through the workshop like this and can recommend it to anybody who is into human-interest photography.

Photograph above: © Alex Webb

Chinese demonstration in Miami

My friend Wenbo invited me to this brouhaha related to recent Jimmy Kimmel's stupid joke.

A Bigger Globe

Do you know that inside the Earth there's another, a much bigger globe? I leaned this long time ago from "The Good Soldier Švejk" by Jaroslav Hašek, the book I love dearly.
All the years since I've got this piece of knowledge in my head, I had been looking for the unknown world, and finally, I discovered it. It's happened in 2007. I found this world, this another Earth in the photographs taken but never brought to light, left in the darkness, photographs on the old films forgotten in the vintage cameras, cameras shoved into nameless darkness of countless attics or garages. And if you think this another world is small and unimportant one, if you think that the so called "present" is much bigger entity, think again, because neither one is actually exists in the place I am sharing with you. Both of them, the "present" you know as you personal instant history, and the latent flickering-smoldering-glowing in the darkness possibilities of images somewhere on the forgotten rolls, both are equally non-existent, and as such, they are zeros, nihils, nones. They are the same. And the one I am talking about here may be even bigger, much bigger;-)
At least, it has surely became bigger last week, when I decided to develop the old Brownie-type roll I received from ebay seller in Alabama.
Well, what could be on the old roll from Heavenwood, Alabama? Most likely its...let me guess...Heavenwood, Alabama! Old cameras and old undeveloped films rarely travel long distances. Treated as sentimental artifacts of little significance at best or as something very close to the junk cluttering living space, they usually thrown away in storage until the end of times.
But, something very different emerged from the wet darkness of my tiny darkroom. I developed the roll in cold concentrated Dektol developer and got several low contrast but otherwise legible images, five frames total:

Free professional inkjet prints on Ilford papers using Canon pro series printers

"...Exclusive to United States residents, Try My Photo gives you the opportunity to have one of your favorite images printed for free on either ILFORD GALERIE Prestige Gold Mono Silk 270gsm or Smooth Pearl 310gsm media using a Canon PIXMA Pro series printer. To take advantage of the program visit http://trymyphoto.com/ilford where you can find full details and instructions. Canon selected the two TIPA award winning papers from the ILFORD GALERIE Prestige range to demonstrate the professional-quality printing capabilities of its inkjet printers. Gold Mono Silk, designed for black and white printing, is an exciting new edition to the ILFORD range and has picked up a number of industry awards and accolades including Best Inkjet Photo Paper from TIPA. Smooth Pearl was the 2012 recipient of the TIPA award and is a professional standard media offering superb clarity, high sharpness and excellent colour gamut. To take advantage of this promotion, register online here and follow the instructions. The free 8.5”x11” print will be produced on your chosen Canon PIXMA Pro printer and media and the final print will be mailed directly to you. Offer is limited to one image per printer per paper brand per eligible U.S. household. Offer runs through September 30, 2013. Each Try My Photo print comes with information explaining exactly how the image was printed so you can easily replicate the results using your Canon printer and ILFORD media at home. To ensure accurate reproduction of images in home-printing, you can also download the free ICC profiles for Canon printers from ilford.com"

Shadows of shadows, shells of shells

Here they are, 116 format rolls I recently received from Oregon.
Agfa D6 rolls on the spools with wooden stem, bigger then the 120, nitrate-based (i.e. flammable).
All three -- exposed, and in dated boxes:

July: shine and rain, rain and shine

portion of July's work...mostly Bessa L with 25mm and red filter, some Bessa R3M with 28mm; all Tri-X at E.I.3200 in TMax.

Independence Day

Few frames from morning SoBe walk with Hector Isaac. Bessa L/25mm/Dark Red filter/Tri-X @ E.I.3200 in TMax developer.

Overtown

People Mover

Riding People Mover in Downtown Miami, taken with Olympus XA camera on Tri-X film at box speed.

Morning at Haulover Beach

Haulover is my favorite beach. In the morning it is usually deserted.

Memorial Day's Night at Ocean Drive

Leica M2, shooting TMax 3200 at E.I.12000, accompanied by Hector Issac and Wenbo Wang

South Beach in the morning

Leica M2/35mm Cosina lens/Tri-X

28:22

Yesterday I run in Downtown Miami in a company of 25000+ people. My time is 28:22, which is about the same as the last year (27:40) when the photograph was taken and at least 5 minutes better compared to 2004, first time I run the race. .

Of What Use Are Lens And Light To Those Who Lack In Mind And Sight?

Among many pieces of wisdom associated with photography this maxim is one of the oldest and most loved. It had been cited numerous times in many books and articles. I always wanted to know the origin of it, but never been able to get past the few clues available in the open sources: it is anonymous, it is translation from Latin and it is from the old coin of one of the medieval German states (Brunswick). The coin (thaler) presumably dated 1589. Here is the example of such a source:

Garry Winogrand's book

While I can imagine the version of my life where I do not buy this book, the question remains: would this imaginable life be complete and sound? Would it actually worth living?

Street Photographer In His Element

I rarely shoot digital/color, but yesterday at Leica Store Miami event I tried the new Leica M-E with 28mm lens and liked it since it has the same feeling and in many ways similar to my Leica M2 circa 1962. Unfortunately, the new camera died after few clicks; I put the lens on my M2 and continued shooting B&W film. I figured Buddha does not want me to shoot either digital or color. So be it.

Leica M Photo-Walk

Leica store in Coral Gables holding an open photo-walks this week to promote their M system. The official name of the event is "Discover the Leica M-System". They have new M along with older M Mono and M9 for participants to try. The first photo-walk will be Friday 10AM-12AM and the second (the one I am going to) is Saturday 3PM-5PM. RSVP to RSVP@leicacamerausa.com and do not forget to bring your own SD card.

Allessandra Sanguinetti and Bruce Gilden in Miami next week

Two events next week at Leica in Miami worth going: http://www.facebook.com/events/447465865327800/ (Bruce Gilden) http://www.facebook.com/events/497831660252912/ (Allessandra Sanguinetti)

Hammock park

This is from RRT gathering in Matheson Hammock park on Old Cutler road. RRT AKA "Russian Round Table South Florida" is a social club I am visiting sometimes; here we were celebrating the Soviet Army day Feb the 23rd. Nice weather, beautiful SF scenery and mother's tongue all around; the further in the event, the louder it was:) For this occasion I used something appropriate: FED 2 camera with 50mm Industar lens.

Don't fancy Leica!

This is a "quick and dirty" translation from Russian of the article I found in the old "Soviet photo" magazine, issue dated Jan 1934 with portrait of Stalin on its cover (of course, what else?):

Re-publishing today a photography article this old deserves at least an explanation, so here it is:
There was a time when 35mm film was rapidly gaining popularity while older types of larger format cameras and films, still in use at the time, were slowly becoming outdated. Most of the new 35mm cameras of the period were extremely expensive and out of reach of regular soviet citizen for the obvious reasons:

• the production of 35mm Leica copies (FEDs) just started, they were not yet available for order;
  
• there was no free trade with abroad;
  
• the cameras actually were expensive;
  
• the salaries were very low.

But still, part of the soviet elite and professionals who by nature of their work had to use photography were looking to acquire the latest equipment: it was fashionable, it was cool, it was better then the old, and in almost all cases it was (ta-dam) ... Leica! Few examples come to mind:

• ...poet Bulat Okudjava in his teenage years before WWII imagining himself in "...black pants, white Apache shirt and "Leica" hanging from the shoulder" (see his short story "Certain failures among continuous successes");
  
• ...writer Ilya Ilf buying "Leica" using money borrowed from Eugene Petrov, his co-author and friend; Eugene was joking that after this he had "no money no co-author", because Ilf was busy photographing and did not have time to work and earn salary; with this camera Ilf photographed the USA in mid-30s, which resulted in their illustrated book "One-Story America", published in USSR in 1936 and known to English readers as "Little Golden America".

The article below is written by soviet official, Semyon Evgenov, director of SOYUSPHOTO trust. SOYUSPHOTO was created in 1931 by decree of the ruling communist party as the country's main propaganda organization to produce and publish photo-illustrations for Soviet magazines, newspapers and other types of publications, so despite the fact the article was published in the widely distributed photography magazine, it was truly meant to be read and fully understood by the few elite readers, as it was usual for Soviet press of stalin's period. It is poorly written in crude soviet official language I tried to imitate in translation, where photography gear referred as "photography weapons" and photographers as "photo-workers". The author is following his absurd line of reasoning minding his own petty goals -- like saying something bad about some photographers and something good about others (by coincidence, the "others" work for the author in his SOYUSPHOTO trust), but at the same time it is interesting and funny to see the parallels to the 70s photography discussions "automatic vs manual", early 2000s topics "film vs digital" and so on. Well, enough said, here is the article:

Little Havana, backstage

This winter I started walking working class neighborhoods of Little Havana. I liked it better then the Calle Ocho. Yes, it is less iconic, never too crowded and there is nothing here to catch tourist's eye, but I'm not a tourist, more of a local already. Here are the few frames from the last week's wanderings:

Kill it before it lays eggs

I bought this can of Kodak 35mm cine version of Tri-X film from late 50s in a hope to find it exposed, but it turned out to be not. So I used the opportunity to check my old film development process on it. First, I put it in my FED-2 rangefinder camera and exposed at 50 E.I. (originally it was 320 ASA but 50 ASA is my best guess of what's left of it), I also bracketed with +1 and +2. Then, I used my standard process for developing fresh Tri-X (4.5 min @ 75F/24C in TMax 1:4) and it turned out to be heavily fogged, barely printable/scannable. Then I developed it in 10% HC-110 at 50F/10C for 2.5 minutes (the time had been calculated based on test). It came out ok. Here is how it looked after the development:

Lucas, I'm watching you

Again, Olympus XA/Tri-X

Walking Downtown

Olympus XA/Tri-X at box speed in TMax developer

In Wynwood

TOY WORLD by Victor Ginzburg

I published this book of photographs for my friend Victor Ginzburg.
He is an avid photographer; this is the book he was working on since 2005 and it is very unusual piece, at least for the modern photography book: all film, all square, all color. So, what is it, this book? Well, it has 82 pages and 72 photographs and almost no text in it, and it is clearly an art book, but can it be narrowed to more specific genre or school of photography? Asking myself this question, I had to admit that while I love this book immensely, I do not have the ready answer, at least not the verbal one. It is easier to limit the field by saying what this book is not: while many photographs in the book will qualify as a street photography, the book itself is not. Likewise, while author has traveled the world and many photographs where taken far from New England where he lives, is not about travel. Also it isn't a book about his family and friends despite the fact that many of the photographs are picturing his family and his friends.
So yes, I do not have the full and complete answer...still, I can point to the few clues:

- the color is very important for the book. As a black and white, it would not exist.
- the photography as art often has something of painting's legacy. This one has a lot of it.
- it is centered around humans and sure qualify as human-interest photography.

All in all, it is beautiful piece of art and I happy to have my copy.
The book is not expensive and can be had for ~$20 shipped to US location, see here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/502656

To help you decide, here are the few pages from the book:

Wynwood in January 2013

Wynwood, Leica M2/35mm Scopar/Tri-X @ E.I.400 in TMax developer
Few more photographs out of many I took in Wynwood recently:

Miami Street Photographer: a facebook page

I started the page for my photos at facebook. There will be more photographs than here, some of my older work, all of new. I'll post 2-3 pictures per day. Please "like" it if...if you like it :)

Night in Wynwood II

Again, Tri-X at E.I.1600 in Leica M2 but this time with Cosina's 35mm f/2.5 lens.
All on 1/15 and wide open.