Pinhole Day & Beyond

On Sunday I loaded my pinhole camera with Kentmere 100 and went to the Albuquerque Veteran's Memorial where I met up  with three other New Mexico film photographers.  We got off to a good start with coffee and donuts thanks to Joe Van Cleave.  I managed to. document breakfast,  but the rest of my pictures there did not amount to anything worth sharing.  That was not surprising as I never seem to perform well with the cameras when there are other photographers in the immediate vicinity

As I told Joe,  I was reminded of the Optimist's Creed which I recalled from my childhood:

Since I only used half the film roll at the Veteran's Memorial site I took the camera a few days later to Old Town to finish up the roll, and I had a bit better luck with the pictures.

I usually process Kentmere in PMK Pyro,  but I decided to develop this time with Rodinal at 1:50 dilution.  I thought it turned out pretty well, so I may try the same combination again.

A Bentzin Folder

I had just one roll of 120 Kentmere in my refrigerator so I dicided to use it in my Bentzin Primar folding camera which I had used only once before since its acquisition in 2018.  I bought the camera on ebay because I had been very impressed with the quality construction of my Benzin plate camera.  The camera's features are an interesting pre- and post-war mix.  The Compur shutter and the uncoated Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan lens definitely look  to be from the 1930s.  

 On the other hand the self-erecting feature and the plastic advance knob are typically found on folding cameras made after 1945.  This camera also has two ruby windows on the back, indicating an option of getting sixteen frames from a roll of 120 film.  However, my camera did not come with the half-frame mask which would enable that choice.  The Bentzin looks like it was little used, including a faultless bellows and no Zeiss bumps in the covering.

 Being a Friday morning, the old guys and their restored classic cars were available in the Plaza Vieja to help with camera testing.   

 

 

 One of the old guys had come for his last ride.

 

For a three-element lens, the Meyer Gorlitz Triplan lens delivers impressive performance.  I have the same lens on one of my KW Patent Etui plate cameras and on my Certo Dolly SuperSport, and they make images as sharp and undistorted as the four-element Tessars.

I remembered that the Rada rollfilm adapter for my  Bentzin plate camera came to me with a thin cardboard mask for half-frame images.  It does not quite fit in the Bentzin folder, but it would be just a few moments work to cut one to fit.

A Kodak Mystery

I went late one recent morning to the nearby Tiguex Park with my Kodak No.1 Autographic Special.     After 10 o'clock the New Mexico sun is often an impediment to getting pictures I like, but on this day there was a helpful slight overcast.  As I worked my way through the eight frames of the Kentmere 400 film I listened to the persistent complaints of a critic up in the cottonwoods, a Coopers Hawk.

I am a bit out of practice at using the camera, but as always, the uncoated Tessar lens yielded images with a unique look. 

 

From when I first acquired this old Kodak in 2007 I have always regarded it as the most interesting camera in what has now become a rather large collection.  The camera's design, materials and construction were all state-of-the-art a hundred years ago, and it still remains a practical and competent performer.  

What prompted the rescue of the No.1 Special from the display cabinet on this occasion was an email from Scott Rust:

" Hey Mike - I'm curious to see what you think about this one! Early model? Late model? Special order? Is the back a transplant from a different camera?

It's been fun trying to figure it out, but I've hit a wall on any additional information.

I found this on Craigslist probably 7 years ago - seller left it on their front porch and I put $10 under the mat - very clandestine now that I think about it. Maybe it's some sort of geeky nerd illegal photography syndicate fencing unauthorized modded cameras.

At any rate, that mask was a big surprise when I looked at it earlier this week. It'd been there the whole time but I didn't notice it and assumed the camera was a 6x6. 

LMK if you want any additional shots. 

Scott "

 Scott included some photos of his camera which looked much like my 1915 model, but it had a number of different features, the most significant being two ruby windows on the back, and a 6x6 mask to enable the option of getting twelve square images from a roll of 120 film.

 

 

Scott, in a subsequent message, also gave me a link to Pacific Rim's collection of yearly-issued Kodak catalogs which included the twelve years during which the No.1 Autographic Special was offered by the company.  None of the catalog illustrations or descriptions show or discuss the unique dual-format features of Scott's camera.

 

So, we would both be interested in finding additional information about this interesting variation of the Kodak No.1 Autographic Special.  Scott can be found at the Bluesky site were he posts about his camera adventures, and there is also a link there to his photographic work. 

 

1915

Santa Fe

 After our visit to the Obscura Gallery we drove to the center of town and took a brief walk near the Art Museum.  I snapped a few shots with the Olympus Infinity Stylus on the way as I wanted some more images made in good outdoor light to subject to iPhone scanning.

 

I was happy with the cellphone scans, but am still struggling a bit with the GIMP photo editor to get consistent results.  I'll work on that and also try to come up with some kind of support for the camera to smooth the work flow.

Scanning a roll of film with the old flatbed was a half day process, so the time saved with the cellphone scanning seems like a real gift. 

Virtuosos

 We drove up to Santa Fe to see an exhibition of the works of Ansel Adams and Paul Caponigro at the Obscura Gallery.  Our map app drove us around in circles for a while to find the place, but it was easily recognized with its small herd of horse sculptures in the yard.

The gallery is a small adobe with two rooms devoted to prints.  There were quite a few by both Adams and Caponigro and some other well known photographers; all were originals produced and signed by the artists.  Print prices ranged from about $3000 and $10,000.  Among the prints in the back room there was a big photogravure I had not seen before by Edward Curtis.  The gallery owner was busy on her computer and her phone during our visit, but she was welcoming and willing to discuss the photographers and their work.

 I had only seen Caponigro's work before in books and online, so I enjoyed seeing some actual prints.  I can't say, though, that the prints produced an impression that seemed greatly superior to what one can find in good reproductions in print.  In fact, Caponigro seems to have produced his pictures with the intention of presenting them primarily in book form.  I only have the small Aperture book of Caponigro's phtographs, so I will look for some of the bigger books such as Master Works from Forty Years or The Wise Silence.

Those eye-watering prices made me conscious of the fact that I really know very little about the economics of galleries.  It seems that nearly every other building in Santa Fe is an art gallery; the competition must be fierce.  I imagine that walk-in sales must represent a tiny portion of the total.

 After visiting the gallery we drove across town to get lunch at a breakfast/lunch place called Cafecito.  We had some good empanadas with a pot of mate and an excellent slice of baclava for desert.  So, a nice day in Santa Fe which I hope to repeat in the near future.

Cellphone Scanning

The real craftsmen among my film shooting friends have been digitizing their images using digital cameras for long time.  I have been using an Epson 2450 flatbed scanner for about twenty years to make images I can share online.  

Having recently acquired a newish iMac computer I was faced with having to upgrade some software to continue using my old flatbed.  It seemed like putting money into keeping my old scanning technology going was not the wisest course.

Spending hundreds on a digital camera was also not very appealing, so I decided to see what I might be able to do with my iPhone 14 as a scanner replacement.  The only additional piece of equipment  I decided to get was a cheap LED light pad. 

To use the setup I put negative strips into the negative carriers I had been using with the old Epson scanner.  I covered the exposed light pad surface to avoid light on the phone camera lens.  In making the exposure I just handheld the phone and zoomed in from about five inches to fill camera screen with the image.  Here for comparison are the images from the Epson  flatbed and the same images from the cellphone:

Yashica-Mat     Flatbed

 

Yashica-Mat     iPhone 14

Leica IIIa     Flatbed 

Leica IIIa     iPhone 14

I'm pleased with the outcome of my little experiment.  It seems to me that the quality of the iPhone scans is equal to what I can get from the old flatbed, and the time required to make the cellphone scans is an order of magnitude better.

Black & White

  I always look forward to visiting the yearly Black & White exhibition at the New Mexico Art League gallery.  As the announcement says, it features black & white drawings and black & white photographs.  About half of the pieces are photographs, and both the digital and analog offerings are generally of very good quality.  All of the art is available to view online.

I am always a little surprised to find new to me analog talent given my years in the city.  In this show it is Kirk Conrad, who has a considerable body of work including two nice film-based pieces in the current exhibit and much more on his website. I was impressed by his style, and his compositional and technical skills.
 

Dan Shaffer is a regular at the B&W shows and he also turns up at most of the other exhibition opportunities in Albuquerque.  I thought his pieces on this occasion featuring some shadow pattern work were particularly nice.

Among the digital photographers I was particularly impressed by the work of Dallas Pottinger, Lisa McBride, Thomas Fore and Virginia Mahan.  I liked Radka Toscova-Tenigan's Dragonfly, but I thought he went a bit too far with digital enhancement in his Five Goats which produced some unpleasant background textures; perhaps over-sharpening?

I'm looking forward to returning to the gallery for the Meet the Artists reception, March 21, 3 PM to 6 PM.  Being able to view the actual prints is a much more satisfying experience than looking at the online reproductions.

 Perhaps I'll try to drag along some of my camera-toting friends.

New Mexico Art League - 3409 Juan Tabo Boulevard NE