Expired Kodak BW400CN

This film was on sale at my local camera store, expired between 2006 and 2008.  I decided to give it a try, I mean why not?  So this is about the last week in November and first week and a half or so in December.

It’s not bad stuff.  I shot it sometimes at ASA200 and sometimes ASA100, and think it works well outside: shadow detail can be a bit lacking otherwise.  Also for some reason the film scans always came back really dirty, lots of stuff like dust, etc, on the negatives.  I shot a lot of Ilford XP2 last year and I will say that it’s nice having at least that chromogenic film stock available but I wish that Kodak would bring this back at some point…and also Plus-X.  Shooting the expired stuff is fine for a bit of a change but all my reflexes at this point are for shooting ASA400 film and I don’t really want to change that up too much.  I think I had 6 rolls total and they’re all gone; I don’t plan on getting more.

COVID diaries 2

This was how I found my mom’s house when I arrived the day after she died; she’d been in the hospital for about a week and a half at that point.

It still gets me how differently people can be affected by the virus.  I currently have it myself and am almost back to normal already after just a week.  But because of that there will definitely be a Part 3…

COVID Diaries 1

Scorpion Cowboy: selected headshots

This is the guy (along with his wife, a good friend of my mom’s), that got me into driving jeep tours.  I’ve developed a reputation within the company as the resident photographer.  A few of our drivers are actors or would like to be, and I suppose headshots would be a good first step.

Some taken using the legendary Nikkor-PC 105mm f/2.5, and then I went a bit wider with the AI-Nikkor 85mm f/2.  They’re not all technically perfect as I did often refocus and sometimes didn’t quite hit it, but I’m still pretty proud of how they turned out.  Of course I used movie film to give these a certain cinematic look, and I have to say that Eastman Double-X is just stunning.  I took less formal portraits using Tri-X and it’s fun to compare the different characteristics; honestly I think Double-X will have to be my go-to black & white film for portraits.  Whether it’s the differing amount of silver in the emulsion, the fact that it’s remained virtually unchanged since Kodak introduced it in 1959, or just that it’s formulated for motion pictures instead of stills I’m not sure, but whatever it is this film just has that look and I love it.

Behind the scenes–portraits on Tri-X

Successful adventures in self-portraiture

Back around 2016 I was making quite a lot of self-portraits, as part of the first iteration of Advanced Photo, and again in 2020 during the start of the COVID pandemic.  Recently reviewing those photos for the first time has inspired me to start again, I think due to the death of my mother.  It’s always a yardstick for me to measure where I’m at mentally and as this has been a trying time since December started; that’s what seems to bring it back up again.  Just recently Kodak’s Instagram account started a trend with #photographersonfilm which has included quite a few mirror selfies so at least I can say I was ahead of the curve there, but then again I haven’t really put any out there til now.

Ilford HP5+, Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford XP2 Super

These are different from the self-portraiture exhibited in this post.  It’s a completely different project and older.  Except for the ones with the cowboy hat.  But most of these are taken in the mirror, I’ve been doing that since 2016 at least, and always enjoy when I can get my camera in the shot as well.  There are occasions when I’ll ask someone to take a picture for me and how it usually works is they take a photo of me with their phone and I’d like one of myself with my own camera, or I just straight up ask them first.  Either way my rule is “My camera, my picture/Your camera, your picture.”  It’s sort of the movie director argument of having “creative vision.”  That though, has resulted in quite a few mishaps because even if I give my camera to someone older that should absolutely know how to use a film camera, they can usually figure out a way to screw it up:

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