Tea tin pinhole camera

Took this using a pinhole camera made from a cylindrical tea tin. 913 series King’s Tea to be precise, a very nice blend of Oolong & Ginseng. I painted the inside black & made a tiny hole with the tip of a sewing needle. The interior is a good size for 4×5 film although I’ll also be on the lookout for some 5×7 to take advantage of the extra interior curve that format will use. This photo was a 40 minute exposure on Fuji Pro 160S colour neg 4×5 film. I put a small piece of Lee 1/2CTB (half colour temperature blue) over the pinhole to filter out some of the orange from the interior lighting. Hard to know what it really did without making a comparison shot without a filter, but I like the result so I’ll keep doing it this way with any incandescent lighting.

I have a sample book of Lee filters that was free from Panavision Sydney; the pinhole is small enough that I can cut pieces from the swatch & hold them in place with blu-tack on the tin. There are some more useful gels in the book that I’ll end up trying; 1/4 as well as full CTB, light magenta to correct fluoro lights as well as a range of neutral densities from 1 to 4 stops if I want to do longer exposures. Thanks to Lee Filters for that book. I’ve estimated that the size of the pinhole gives me an aperture of f/180. There’s no way to measure & confirm that but basing the exposures on it seems to work out well. I do know that at EV 5 I need a 40 minute exposure at 100 ISO.

Holga wide pinhole

I’ve been exploring pinhole cameras the last couple of months. I have one that I made from a cylindrical tea tin & recently bought a Holga WPC (wide pinhole camera). I’m using the 6×12 mask on 120 film. It also comes with a 6×9 mask but like most people I left that one in the box. This photo was taken using some long expired Fuji 400 H that I was given. I think the film is OK, it certainly exposed well. The slightly odd colour in the carpet might be the film or might be caused by the pinhole. I can’t find my notes but I think this was a 15 minute exposure. I like this camera; I’ve done a few test rolls with it & I’m starting to get some ideas on things it will be good for.

Glass Negs

A few years ago I started to explore glass plate photography. For those not sure what this means, they are basically the same as regular B&W film however the light sensitive emulsion is coated onto sheets of glass rather than celluloid. Glass negs, also known as glass plates and dry plate predate celluloid emulsions by several decades, being introduced around the 1870s. Although film dominated twentieth century photography for obvious reasons, glass negs were still widely used until the 1940s. After this time it became more of a niche product, used by diehards as well as having applications in science experiments and astrophotography due to the guaranteed flatness of the glass surface.

The two photos above were made using Agfa Isochrom plates that date from the 1930s. I found several unexposed packs (18 plates total) and after some testing established a working light sensitivity of EI 6. The size of the plates is 6.5 x 9 cm & they were exposed using a Voigtlander Avus 6.5×9 camera that was  manufactured in 1933 for the purpose of shooting glass negs.

The portait of Diego was made with Agfa plates that were designed to be used in electron microscopes & expired in 1985. This shot was made with an EI of 3 & processed in Rodinal 1:100 with some benzotriazole added to reduce the considerable age fog. This exposue worked out well but most I have shot since this one end up with either severe fog or else they are very thin and look as thought the highlights have been scrubbed awy with a scouring pad. I’m trying to find a workflow that gives consistent results, with no success so far. It could be that the plates have aged at different rates even within the same box.

These 3 prints are included in a group show at the Point Light gallery in Sydney from 13 June to 12 July. Saturdays & Sundays 11-5. 4/50 Reservoir St. An article about my work with glass negs was also included in the March 2009 glass plate photography edition of Creative Image Maker magazine, download here.

Retina IIIc + Neopan + Rodinal

Another quick example. The camera is a 1950s Kodak Retina IIIc with a fixed 50mm f/2 lens. This was shot around f/5.6 using Fuji Neopan 400 that was processed in Rodinal 1:50. It was a test roll for the camera, which I’d only just bought and the film/dev combination. I like the result, unfortunately the Retina seized up after 8 rolls. It will probably become my first camera repair attempt.

Olympus SPN + Neopan 400

I’ll write more about this camera later when I get around to it under the All My Cameras category, but in the meantime I just wanted to put up this example. The camera is a 1970s Olympus SPN, a simple rangefinder camera with a fixed 40mm f/1.7 lens. The film was Fuji Neopan 400 processed in Xtol 1:2. I’m very impressed with the results this camera is capable of. You can probably pick one up around the $100 range & it would be a good walk around rangefinder camera for anyone who doesn’t have the dollars for a Leica, or who wants to test the waters a bit before making a bigger commitment. This was shot around f/5.6

LTM 50mm Summitar & Fortepan 100

I bought my Leica M6 a few years ago along with a modern Summicron 35mm f/2 lens. That is my most used focal length so I was quite satisfied to only have the one lens for this camera. Having the one lens saves any complications that arise when trying to decide which lens to use. Also, if I was going to get a second one it would be hard to decide whether to go wider to a 28 or 24/25 or a bit longer to a 50. I was also aware of the price of modern M lenses; even second hand they are expensive enough that I’d want to be certain it was a lens I’d use a lot. There was also the possibility that a second lens might lead to the purchase of a second body, so I kept things minimal and simple with one lens and body.

Things changed a little when I started to learn about the older Leica lenses, generally referred to as LTM (Leica thread mount) or LSM (Leica screw mount). These were made for the rangefinder cameras that preceded the M models. I’m no historian but I believe the LTM lenses date from approx 1930s to mid 1950s. A few aspects got me interested in buying one of these older lenses. First they are quite cheap compared to the modern ones; the lens I bought cost approx $200. Secondly they have a different look to modern lenses due to the different coatings. Third, they are quite easy to fit to an M camera by using an adapter. I bought my LTM to M adapter from an ebay dealer in Hong Kong for around $20. It works fine, just make sure you get the right one to bring up the correct frame lines in the viewfinder.

The lens I bought is a 50mm collapsible Summicron f/2. Based on the serial number I dated it to the early 1950s. I’m pretty happy with it, certainly like the look it brings. The example above was shot around f/4 using Fortepan 100 ISO which was processed in Xtol. Unfortunately the Forte films are no longer available. The factory in Hungary closed a couple of years ago & the supply chain seems to be empty.

an chay

Flowers in the Sink

May ‘09, Crown Graphic with Optar 135mm, Fuji Provia 100

The Collection of a Gentleman

One of my art projects is being exhibited in Sydney until Sunday 24th May. The show consists of 44 portrait drawings of myself that I had made by street artists in 7 cities in 6 countries; Sydney, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

While observing two street portrait artists at work in Paris in September 2000 I had the idea that it might be interesting to have multiple realistic portraits made of myself in different parts of the world. My thought was that comparing the final results could reveal some of the complexity of what happens in a portrait.

From it’s beginning a portrait embodies uncertainty. The artist observes the sitter and then moves their eye to the paper and makes their mark using a combination of memory and technique. There are further  complications when a third party viewer looks at the finished work, as we experience portraits in a different way than we do landscape or still life. We see the portrait as a work of art but also as a person and will assess the face in the picture in the same way that we do when facing someone. There is the illusion that we are looking at them solely with our own subjectivity when in fact we are also looking through the eyes and memory of the artist who made the portrait.

The work is at the exhibition gallery inside the Sydney Antique Centre, 531 South Dowling St, Surry Hills. Open 7 days from 10-6.

Blue Suitcase

My mother was in the initial stages of packing for an Easter holiday. I liked the retro style of the suitcase and it’s baby blue colour. Also I liked the evidence of the thought process we probably all go through when packing for a trip. This was shot using a 4×5 Crown Graphic, Optar 135 lens (the only lens I have for this camera) & Kodak Portra 400 NC.