Trooper #2 Day 31

Getting a feel for the blade.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Trooper #2 Day 30

"Lady, you're glowing!"

Macro shot taken on film and processed by me.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Trooper #2 Day 19

"Mommy?"

Better late than never! Clone melting pot.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Trooper #2 Day 18

"If I move my legs enough maybe I can turn this into butter and walk out."

Trooper has ended up in a bit of a jam...or pint!

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Film or Analog Macro Photography

Minolta X-570: $30, Zoom/Macro lens: $30, remote trigger: $5, industrial tripod: $5, expired color film: $0.70, home processing: $1, making my own macro shots from start to finish: priceless!

So I had the itch to process some black and white film yesterday evening but it was dark and very cold outside. Then it hit me that I had recently bought a zoom lens that also did macro. So I pulled out an expired generic 400 ISO color film (Yes, color film can be processed in black and white) from the freezer and went ahead.

The clock is ticking.

Vintage bobble head. This shot was taken without the hood around the lens. You can see how the light is more diffused than in the other shots.

The results are very good with 20 good shots out of a possible 24. I'm real happy with that. I've learned a few things along the way. That big 3 pound lens works better when it's pointing in a horizontal fashion. It's so heavy that if it's pointing down, the shot will be out of focus by the time you shoot. The depth of field is very very narrow, no room for error.

Nothing like a macro shot to make you realize that your stuff is dirty! There's a clue here about the 1/2 shutter speed.  :)

Once in a blue moon you take a shot that makes you go "Wow"! This is such a shot for me.

I was also very happy about that big tripod and shutter release cable. Any kind of vibration will show in the end result. The stable tripod and cable permitted me to keep my hands off the camera and thus avoiding any kind of vibration. I could have used the timer but the cable is so cool!

An appearance from Trooper #2 in an unrelated post for him. I've taken more than a few shots of the guy during that session that will be posted in his regular feature.

I shot the expired film at 200 ISO settings for the light meter and developed it with Ilfosol 3 at 20 degrees Celsius for 6 minutes. I then digitized the negatives with my Nikon S8100 camera on copy and macro mode. The negative was then inverted in Gimp.

All and all a nice way to spend an evening at home.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Performance art show

I was invited to a performance art show last Saturday and I found it was an interesting venue to try out flash photography.

Moving subjects in a low light environment was quite a challenge. I brought my G12 and my film camera. I didn't use the flash on the G12 but did with the film camera without any idea on how it would come out. Turns out that deflected flash works a lot better than a direct aim.

It was an intersting evening to say the least. This took place at the Xpression Gallery in the Mile end district of Montreal.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Trooper #2 Day 7

"Hey, you did well for an inexpensive full auto point and shoot."

Trooper #2 sends off the battered Nikon S8100 to light duty after a rough year of existence. Taken with the Minolta X-570 using Fuji 400 ISO film, no flash.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Recent Minolta SRT film roll

Nothing special about this roll. I went out with my regular 50mm lens and shot the roll just to shoot. Some came out better than others but in general it's not an awesome series.

One thing that I learned from shooting this one is to keep notes. At some point I thought I had measured half the exposures of the film with 400 ISO in mind when in reality it was a 200 ISO film. Turns out I was right from the beginning, it was a 400 inside the camera. Close call.

Taken at a bicycle art show. I used a tripod with no flash.

One thing about film is that every step is a commitment. So plan ahead and keep notes as you go. You can't open the camera to check and a shot can rarely be taken twice the exact same way. As mentionned in a prior post, film slows you down and that's not a bad thing.

Same art show. This was a borderline hand held shot with no flash. A tripod would have made it a lot sharper.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)