At the Botanic Garden

 

Adventures in Film Photography

 My repair of the meter coupling on the Nikon EM seemed a success, so time for a test.

 I mounted the 50/1.8 Series E lens and loaded the camera with a roll of Arista 200. As sometimes happens I did not get the tongue of the film into the take-up spool quite right, so I gave the rewind knob a couple turns back and opened the camera back to try again.  I then saw that I had rolled the film leader completely back into the cassette.  I threw the film with disgust into the trash -- only to retrieve it seconds later as I remembered that I had a reloadable cassette to which the film could be transferred.  I put everything into the dark bag, pried open the Arista cassette and had the reel and film in the reloadable cassette in  a couple minutes.

I carried the Nikon EM around for about a week to finish the test roll and the meter worked smoothly as expected under a variety of conditions.  I finished off the roll with a couple shots around the house and then proceeded to crank the rewind knob to get the film back in the cartridge.  The plastic rewind knob cracked in half on the first turn.
 

The whole thing went back into the black bag so I could fish out the exposed film and get it into the Paterson tank for processing.  As I expected, all the images looked to be properly exposed.

This through-the-window shot was made with a Vivitar 70-210 f/3.5 Macro Focusing Zoom

 
The prospects for repair of the rewind knob looked dim.  In a search on the web I found that a broken rewind knob on the EM is not an uncommon problem. Replacements are available on ebay, but they are generally priced higher than what I paid for the camera. The same knob is on several Nikon models, so perhaps something will turn up to get the camera back into operation. I hope so, as I like the light-weight and compact Nikon and its little Series E lens.

Back to Pinhole

 I found a shutter on ebay to replace the broken one on my pinhole camera.  It is a Vario like the old one and it works perfectly.  To celebrate I loaded a roll of Arista 100 and went to Tingley Beach to give the camera a trial run.

My sunlit exposures were in the four to seven second range, which seemed about right judging by the negative density.  Arista may be Fomapan by a different name and it requires rather extreme compensation for low light work because of reciprocity failure. Not a problem on this occasion however given the Spring-like weather we have been enjoying.

Shooting the pinhole was a good opportunity to refresh my ability to foresee what would actually end up on the film.  The endless depth of focus of the pinhole means focus is not an issue, but there is some guesswork in framing the subject given the ultra-wide view and the lack of a viewfinder with corresponding coverage.

Ready for the New Year

Both Arista and Fomapan yield pretty nice images, and the good contrast of the numerals on the backing paper is superior to about any other available 120 film.  The reciprocity failure issue needs careful attention, but there is a good chart available online to assist with that.

Update:

Some of the pictures from my second roll through the rebuilt camera had poor contrast and flare stripes right through the center.  It seemed likely that the cause was reflections off the interior of the threaded lens mount.  I've covered that surface with some black paint, so we'll see how that looks in the next roll.

Winter Walking

 I shot a roll of Kentmere 400 in my Argoflex Forty during two walks, one around my neighborhood and another at the UNM campus.

Part of my motivation to shoot the Argoflex was the desire to have something new to post in the PSEUDO TLR group on Flickr.  It is inspiring to see there what interesting work can come from such simple cameras.

2010

 

Perspectives

 I have mostly shot color in my little Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, but it handles black and white well too.  These are from a roll of Arista Edu Ultra 200 processed in HC-110e.

On The Street

 I periodically encounter conversations online about street photography.  Such exchanges are characterized mainly by listings of the reasons people do not do street photography.  Photographers fear confrontations with subjects who object to having their pictures made in such a fashion.  Occasionally people report actual such interactions which have made them forever forego further attempts at snapping candid shots in public places. I have some sympathy up to a point with those attitudes. I am neither particularly sociable or courageous. Nevertheless, I have done street photography over a period of many years, most intensively in the late 1960s when I was first getting serious about photography.

El Paso - Kiev IIa

A couple factors combined to push me beyond my initial anxieties about the undertaking.  An important one was the flowering in those days of street photography as practiced by some extraordinary photographers such as Gary Winogrand and Diane Arbus.  Those two deployed very different techniques in practice.  Arbus worked mostly with a cumbersome twin lens reflex camera usually equipped with a flash, and she tended to engage directly with her subjects.  Winogrand shot with a compact 35mm, moved very fast down the street and shot yards of film on every outing.

NYC - Nikon S

 

 The other big thing that got me started in street work was the opportunity presented by time and place.  I was living then In New York and attending a commercial photo school in the financial district at the south end of Manhattan. . The school taught a commercial style of photography, mostly practiced in studios; it held little real interest for me.  I did learn some important photographic basics in the course, but what really motivated me was capturing images on the fly by day and by night in Chinatown which was just a short distance from the school's location. I spent weeks walking the streets and making candid shots of the area's residents as they went about their lives.

 

Chinatown - NY - Nikon S

My photo technique resembled Winogrand's more than that of Arbus.  I moved fast, shot a lot and tried to capture expressions, postures and interactions without arousing the attention of my subjects. I shot Tri-X, a fast, wide-latitude film.  The focus of my Nikon S camera was usually pre-set to around ten feet; with the aperture at f-16 that gave me optimal depth of field, and a high shutter speed avoided camera shake even when I was in motion. 

 

Chinatown - NYC - Nikon S

 I typically had the camera on a strap and hanging at waist level.  With a little practice it is possible to accurately frame the subject and trip the shutter with a thumb without raising the camera to eye level.  That hip-shot technique probably accounted for half the pictures I made. Often, of course, when a subject's attention was away from me it was perfectly feasible to shoot by raising the camera to the normal shooting position, and having the exposure and focus pre-set enabled a very quick capture of the scene.

Rhodes, Greece - Voigtländer Vito II

I don't recall a single instance of anyone objecting to my street work in making that long series of pictures in Chinatown.  Shooting technique aside, I think the fact that the community was very accustomed to seeing large numbers of tourists with cameras in their midst was also helpful to avoiding any critical confrontations. Beyond that, I think my own frame of mind played an important role. My objective was not just avoiding objections; I was trying to create a visual narrative about the essential character of the community without interfering with the natural flow of life on the street. I have never intentionally tried to candidly capture subjects in situations that would be embarrassing or demeaning and I would certainly not use a picture of that type if it were accidentally recorded.

Las Cruces, NM - Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 35

It will be argued that times have changed and that the mood of the street has shifted toward paranoia and combativeness.  I don't disagree with that thought, but I think it can be overstated.  Regardless, there are still techniques available for making street photography possible.

UNM - Albuquerque - Ansco Panda

Film shooters have something of an advantage these days because the old cameras attract interest and are nice excuses to start conversations. My twin lens reflex cameras always elicit comments, and in use they don't arouse suspicion because looking down into the viewfinder does not produce the appearance of a fixed forward stare which can be interpreted as an aggressive posture.

From a recent stroll in Tiguex Park - Mamiya C330 tlr

The need for stealth in street work can be lessened by the choice of venues.  At places like amusement parks, street fairs and holiday celebrations there is an expectation of photography taking place, and often holiday events include people who are in costume and looking for attention. In Albuquerque the Day of the Dead celebrations offer many such opportunities in which subjects will become collaborators.

Day of the Dead - Ansco Panda

So, the street is still a viable venue for photography.  Some good examples of current work on the street can be found in ongoing conversations at the Rangefinder Forum:

• Our Street Photography . . . Post yours!
•  W/NW The Streets of Yokohama! 
• Recent Street Photos 

Update:

I was reminded in coming across a review in the New York Times by Arthur Lubow about an interesting, if enigmatic, practitioner of street photography, Vivian Maier.  She preceded the era of Arbus and Winograd, but had no influence on them or anyone else of that time because her work remained totally unknown to the world until 2007.  Lubow thinks Maier's best work is to be found in her self-portraits, and he calls her a talented photographer, but not a great artist.  What Lubow did not do was to identify or even speculate on any influence Maier may be having on the practice of street photography since 2007.  Her work has certainly had significant impact on the art appreciating public and critics.  I have seen a lot of comments by photographers who have expressed admiration for her work.  Whether that has translated to actual stylistic influence is hard to know.

And also:

Lisette Model