DIG’s last party

I have something really special in my group of college friends from Ohio State (excuse me, THE Ohio State University).  A few years back we started getting together on a semi-annual basis and it’s like we’ve never been separated, even though a lot of us live outside Ohio now.  Unfortunately this time the gathering came about because one of our number has fallen.  The last time I saw him was nearly a year previous, the last time we got together (I flew in from Colorado) and not long after that he told us all that he was diagnosed with cancer.  All I knew from then were the Facebook updates posted by him or his family.  He leaves behind a son and a wife who is 8 months pregnant.

It wasn’t the best occasion ever, but it was good to hang out with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a decade.  For this trip all I took was a roll of Tri-X loaded in the Olympus Trip 35.  I didn’t even worry about the x-ray machine, I figured that I’d test out the assumption that the film would survive just 2 airplane trips, and it seems to be alright.  I haven’t looked too hard at the negatives yet, but for my purposes it came out alright (except that with my scanner in storage I couldn’t really work with them as much as I’d have liked).  Though my focusing could have been better, the Trip 35 performed well inside and out (and fit in my suit jacket pocket), especially shooting the astoundingly versatile Tri-X.

It’s been hard finding a time that works for all of us, but I think that after this we’ll all make time, because the future is promised to no man, and each get-together could be someone’s last.
2016, Cincinnati, OH (Pt.II)
2016, Cincinnati, OH (Pt.I)
2014, Lake Cumberland, KY

RIP Dave DiSilvestro, 1984-2017.

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On the festival circuit: Colorado Short Circuit

April 22, 2017.  After Wales, Overwhelming Majority got one more chance to screen in the Springs, at a brand new iteration of the Indie Spirit Film Festival.  Colorado Short Circuit showcases the work of Colorado filmmakers working in short films.  I think for this version most of the featured films were made by people living on the front range, primarily Denver and Colorado Springs.

As always, a great time was had, and I certainly knew lots of people already.  As a bonus, I shot a few rolls of super 8 for my experimental/avant-garde cinema class.  I will be finalizing that project sometime in the Fall and then it’s back to submitting to festivals.

Home movies

Home Movie Day, October 2016 at the Southern Colorado Film Festival.  I saw Kodachrome projected for the first time and have to say that I was totally blown away with the colors.  The more I see the more I understand how big a hole it left, which the new Ektachrome will probably not be able to fill.

Filmmaker Eric Stewart was our projectionist and film enthusiast extraordinaire.  I also included a picture of some of his optical film printers that he’s working on restoring in his garage.

What is Kodak ColorPlus 200?

I found this at one of the stores in the Springs a few months back, and originally thought it might be something new, but it seems it’s something mainly for the overseas market.  I have no idea why the cartridge says Kodacolor and the box says ColorPlus.  I think Kodacolor was something that was sold back in the ’90s, had no idea it had come back.  Or has it?

 

As an all-around consumer film it does alright, especially with the blues.  It doesn’t seem to pull detail out of the shadows as well as some of the others, and I really hope this isn’t being brought in as a substitute for Gold 200, because I think Gold beats this by a significant margin.  Like with Gold 200, I shot it at ASA100.

Now the bad stuff: the first few shots were of wind generators in Eastern Colorado.  I don’t know what was up with the film, but there was some strange mottling that’s most apparent during those frames, plus reduced contrast, almost looks like it’s expired.  I suppose it has its uses as an effect, but I would have expected better from Kodak.

Unfortunately it wasn’t just that roll either.  I took my second roll to Durango with me and had the same problem with that one.

I spent $8.00 a roll on this.  Never again.

Penarth Pier

I stayed in the little town of Penarth (just a short train ride south of Cardiff) for a few days before flying out, and it’s a lovely town.

Evidently this is one of the last Victorian piers left in existence.  I believe it’s been recently renovated/restored but there’s some stink about the mishandling of the money they had, but thankfully I was just able to enjoy myself while I was there.  It doesn’t look like it from the pictures, but the place was crowded.

Trip 35 and color slides

Some of these go back to last fall, when I thought I’d try doing the tourist thing in my own town, but really just by snapping pics when I was supposed to be giving the tour.

I used an expired roll of AGFAPhoto Precisa CT 100 (aka Fuji Provia 100F) giving the Trip 35 the ultimate exposure test and I’m quite pleased that the selenium-powered autoexposure works perfectly fine, even after a period of 40-50 years.  I’m now starting to see that the Trip 35’s lens isn’t the most contrasty ever, especially when the sun sneaks behind the clouds, so I’m happy that I’ll be able to shoot slide film in here.

Armed with that knowledge I took the Trip 35 to Wales with me to shoot a few rolls of Velvia 100 and am very happy with the results (I’ve been posting them for the last few weeks).  The more I use this camera the more I love it.  At $8.00 from a thrift store it was a real bargain too, and one that I’m happy I sprung for.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised that it did so well with slide film since that’s what people were shooting back when the camera was being made, but it’s nice to know that after such a period of time it still has what it takes.

Old stone

Some brick and stone work around South Wales.  Some of it is old, some of it is newer but made to look old.

Talking to Britons, one of the things that came up is architecture and how they feel so tired of everything being made to match Victorian architecture, and wished for more modern-looking buildings.  And of course, being American, I’m sick to death of modern architecture and love seeing buildings, houses, churches, that might only be 200 years old (or younger), but look like they’ve been there for a millennium.