Friday, June 18. 20102010.06.05: Slide film sucks . . .. . . for wedding photography. Or so I thought until I received two rolls of Fuji Astia 100 non-F back from my pro lab of choice, ABC Photocolour, after Dong Kim and I shot a wedding for a black couple (with mostly black wedding party) a couple Saturdays ago. I don't usually blog wedding photos nor do I advertise myself as a wedding photographer but I feel that I need to share these images with a larger audience because I regularly express my feelings of aversion towards positive film for existing light photography because of its narrower exposure latitude, lower maximum speeds available, and inconvenience since the closest good lab being in Vancouver. Up until recently, I would shoot almost exclusively Fuji NPZ/Pro-Z ISO 800 negative print film rating it at ISO 640 and Ilford HP5+ or Delta 400 at anywhere from ISO 100 to 3200 and processed in Kodak HC-110 or Kodak XTOL. I would then shoot formal portrait photos on a dSLR like the Nikon D300 or D3 because of the flexibility of shooting at a low base ISO, higher maximum shutter speed than my Leica M7 or Zeiss Ikon, and the often superior colour output with satisfactory black and white conversions. These two rolls of Astia 100 make film rangefinder photography outdoors for formal wedding portraiture totally feasible with my shooting style. Positive frame borders deliberately retained when scanning with the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED. All but the first frame selected from a roll of thirty eight exposures. And a huge thank you to Yvette and Alvin for selecting Dong and I as your photographers. I couldn't have hope for a better start to the wedding season. The baring of unfiltered emotions, the love shared by all of the wedding party and guests which have been cultivated, in some cases, for a period longer than I have been alive, the dozen high school aged female total strangers that you allowed to join your dance, and even the hour and a half of beautifully composed, delivered, and thoroughly entertaining toasts during the reception made shooting this wedding one of the most fun wedding shooting experiences I have ever had.
 I shot this image last of the set being posted but it makes more sense to see this image first. It just happened that we shot the formal photos before the wedding ceremony. Shot with the Leica M7 at 1/1000s and F/2 through the Zeiss Biogon ZM 35mm F/2. It's also important to note that all of my M-mount equipment is in chrome/silver colour because the colour of the camera equipment has a huge impact on the images it creates.
 One of the few shots with "real" wind blowing Yvette's veil. Leica 90mm F/2.8 Elmarit, first generation in chrome.
 In retrospect, the photographic challenges imposed by very dark-skinned person in very white clothing without artificial light control in a slightly backlit scene should have turned any more risk-averse photographer away as inexperienced as I from trying film technology which is known to have less exposure latitude than professional negative films and modern professional digital still capture devices on a production shoot but I am glad that I took the risk. Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 @ F/2 and 1/1000s. Strangely, the bride's face turned out noticeably darker than the rest of her exposed skin. In the final deliverable photos I will likely lighten her face to be a bit more consistent with the rest of her body.
 Alvin had an irremovable grin on his face the entire day. I struggled with it at first as I tried to create more dramatic and serious photos but as a photographer trying to take a contemporary approach to wedding photography I think it is more important to act as channel for the day's emotions than to try to create something untrue; Alvin really is the happiest groom that I have ever seen.
  The problem with having only one roll of film loaded at a time is that you are stuck using whatever film you have loaded even when the situation changes. I originally wanted to shoot some HP5+ and let it overexpose a little by using it at rated speed and then processing in Ilfosol S as part of the non-formal coverage of the formal portrait session to allow for some noticeable grain structure but I had a few frames of Astia left loaded in the camera so that's what I used. Same settings as previous frame. I noticed that Astia 100's
anti-halation measures may be weaker than with other films thus
resulting in more "glow". The glow is further amplified by the dirt on
my lenses that I refuse to clean off.
 The graduating high school classes and the handful of other photographers with wedding parties at the Alberta Legislature were very co-operative keeping out of our field of views and giving us time to work. Which is good or else the bridesmaids were ready to muscle us through the crowds and maintain a perimeter. Still, I think someone's elbow is just into the frame near the bottom right edge. Leica M7, Elmarit 90mm F/2.8 first generation M-mount.
 It was about time to leave the formals location when we realized that we needed some shots of just the couple. I haven't seen Dong's shots yet but he has some more dynamic arrangements. That said, a bench in the Lois Hole Garden east of the main building gave us what we needed to change up the terrain a bit.
 Hahah . . . awesome.
Continue reading "2010.06.05: Slide film sucks . . ." Friday, May 21. 20102010.05.21: Binatone iDECT X5 PhoneI was looking for a unique land line phone with sharper lines like those in my HTC Touch Diamond GSM and came across Binatone's iDECT X5 phone. I ordered the phone through a UK seller on eBay because I was unable to find a North American seller and because all of the European sellers wanted £40-70 ($60-$100) or about 50% more than the eBay seller and wouldn't ship out of Europe. Overall, the phone is beautifully designed with thoughtfully laid out keypadand call quality is excellent. Fit and finish is good though the AAA NiMH batteries (included) rattled inside the battery chamber a bit due to poor fitting band because they were stacked linearly and not in parallel. Fixing the rattle was easy; I wrapped a bit of tape around each battery and reinstalled them. The body of both the handset and the stand are made of plastic but the finish is no uglier than that of the blasphemously-painted top plate of the silver $9000 Leica M9 digital rangefinder cameras. But maybe some people prefer the damage-prone plastic-y painted finish over the chrome or black chrome finishes of the current pre-M9 Leicas considering Leica now offers to paint instead of chrome your M7 or MP for an extra $100.
 Box shot. Yes, it's beat up but hey, I work with what I get. Plus it's probably the only box shot for this phone on the Internet at time of writing. The graphic design on the exterior of the box is attractive and the printing quality is satisfactory.
 The phone in front of the base, adapter, and a plug adapter that I picked up from Black's for the system. I checked London Drugs for a plug adapter and they didn't have a physical plug adapter but had a universal adapter with interchangeable tips that would completely replace the packaged adapter for $15. A sales rep suggested that I check out The Source and 220 (I think it's spelled like that) at West Edmonton Mall. The Source had physical plug adapters but they wanted $15 just for those. Zellers didn't have universal adapters or plug adapters and suggested that I check out London Drugs or the Source. As I was about to exit Kingsway Garden Mall I decided I'd stop into Black's and check. They had a well-built plug adapter for $9. I'm guessing that Princess Auto would have them cheaper and had I been more patient, I could have asked my parents to bring me an adapter from home because they have lots of that sort of stuff.
 Phone on its base. The base has a recorded message counter. My criticism of the base is that it may be a little too minimalistic in that there is no large "guide" to help a user who attempts to sloppily replace the phone to quickly get it back into place. It also lacks the audio and visual feedback of plugging in/charging that my Netgear SPH-200 Skype/Standard Dual Phone offers. Still, these are minor complaints.
Wednesday, May 19. 20102009.07.11 Rescued by drum scannerWell . . . sort of. This frame has been on my list of 4x5's to rescan once I got the drum scanner up and running. We shot this almost a year ago when we were scouting that abandoned house site north of Bon Accord.
 If I recall correctly, this film was Ilford HP5+ shot at stock speed and processed in Kodak HC-110 Dilution B. The fixer had been exhausted or had otherwise gone bad and my usual policy to peek into the tank after the first two minutes of fixing probably killed the film. I closed up the tank and remixed a batch of fresh fixer but the damage had already been done. Still, kind of a neat look for the frame. Photo shot with the Sinar X and Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Colours deliberately retained and levels adjusted so that the maximum amount of tonal information would be retained which doesn't always mean the scan will be neutral or linear.
 At left is the negative from which I made the previous scan and to the right is a properly exposed and developed frame shot on the same film for comparison.
Monday, May 17. 20102010.05.12: Art Gallery of Alberta's Art on the Block event . . . with the Panasonic DMC-GH1My Panasonic DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera with the standard 14-140mm kit lens and the 20mm F/1.7 that's normally packaged with the Panasonic GF1, Rode NTG-2 microphone and shock mount arrived the morning of the day I was to shoot the Art Gallery of Alberta's Art on the Block silent auction fund raising event. It is the first Art on the Block event held by the gallery since it has been reopened as the Art Gallery of Alberta and, fittingly, it was the first time that I was to shoot any event with a camera with a smaller capture area than that of the APS-C sized dSLR sensor as the primary camera. While I packed the Leica M7 and the 35mm F/2 Zeiss Biogon I only shot a half roll of Ilford Delta 400 at ISO 800 and I have yet to process the film. The digital files have already been delivered to the AGA. I don't normally blog about event photos but I feel that being comfortable shooting this event with, effectively, an interchangeable-lens high end point and shoot digital camera, as the official photographer says something about the viability of using such a system for serious photographic work. I have already joked to Dong Kim, Ethan Oblak, Corey Thompson, Justin Poulsen, Craig Hobbs, and Leanna about quitting shooting with Nikon dSLRs for small format work and while I don't really intend on selling off my Nikon gear, I don't see a need to pack it for event work anymore. For the foreseeable future, I intend to shoot events with just the GH1 and the Leica M7 and their complement of lenses. All photographs shot with the Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 and processed in Adobe Lightroom 2.x. Most of the shots were made at least three quarters of a stop underexposed . . . sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally. I had just gotten the camera and had accidentally changed exposure compensation without figuring out how to change it deliberately until later in the night and, at least for this evening, camera had a tendency to underexpose to preserve highlight detail even if the photographer made no exposure compensation offset. Thank you to Adam Neufeldt at McBain Camera for helping me with my purchase.
 The main auction and entertainment area.
 Mid-action awkward facial expression and body position shooting started pretty early.
 This scene is heavily backlit which proves that the camera handles scenes with high contrast acceptably. There were shots in which the sky is blown out but it doesn't blow out in a way that most smaller sensor-equipped cameras typically blow out the sky.
 I was worried that the less oblong 4:3 aspect ratio of the camera would impact my hand held compositions but was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the visual elements that I wanted to incorporate into my shots fit naturally. The 4:3 aspect ratio feels more similar to the 4:5 aspect ratio of the Toyo VX125 than it does to the 2:3 aspect ratio of almost all of my other cameras and the Toyo is always shot on a tripod.
 The camera lacks an optical viewfinder and typical auto focus points that you would find in a normal SLR with a mirror. Instead, the camera uses contrast-based autofocus off of the image picked up by the sensor like what most point and shoot digital cameras use or like the contrast-based autofocus found in the Nikon D3 and D300 when in tripod live view mode. Except this auto focus is very snappy . . . snappy enough to capture certain people's facial expressions before they recognize me. Autofocus is comparable to that of the D300 in similar situations though I know many would argue that the D300 may still be faster.
 The backlit donor wall has been a challenging background to use when tuning for natural skintones even with the Nikon D3 but the GH1 seems to handle the situation satisfactorily. White balance was unaltered from the original capture with only some adjustments made to brightness and contrast.
 Using the "automatic everything" autofocus mode was convenient and fun though about 10-20% of the shots could have been focused better. That said, the shots weren't completely out of focus; one would sometimes prefer to have a face facing the camera in focus than the back of a head but the photographer could opt for a more deliberate autofocusing mode.
 One of the major complaints of the Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds format is that the smaller sensors lead to shorter focal lengths being used for the same angle of view as one would achieve with a larger sensor. However, when lens manufacturer's follow through with one of the original design and marketing pushes of offering wider relative aperture lenses, one can easily overcome the increase in comparative depth of field with wider apertures. All of this in a lens that barely protrudes from the camera body more than the grip.
 Processing almost 250photos in about an hour after shooting them was pretty easy considering how Lightroom worked with the raw files. It seems that automatic white balance information was fully communicated through to the software and the white balance information gives the photographer a useful start from which to tune. That said, at ISO 1600 and above and under mixed artificial lighting conditions white balancing a Nikon D3 file would yield cleaner tonal transitions and with more pleasing and natural skintones.
 This image along with a few of the other images from the set exhibited some interesting blur around faces. I don't know what kind of camera and subject movements could have created the blur around the gentleman's face while keeping the face of the lady in red relatively sharp and in focus in the way we see it here but I don't find it objectionable.
 Tracking movement with this camera was similar to tracking movement with a Contax G1 or G2, Zeiss Ikon, or Leica M7. On top of that, one could very quickly achieve focus and continually maintain focus as subject and camera moves unlike the Leica M-mount range finders which would require the photographer to predict distance changes and continue focus adjustment blindly unless one were to compose with subject under the rangefinder patch in the middle of the frame. In the case of the Contax G system, there is no way to focus track without keeping part of the subject under the single auto focus point. Like comparisons to the Nikon D3, these may not seem like relevant comparisons but when choosing a camera for a particular assignment we need to consider what the absolute best tool for the job is and not just what works within a certain budget or which cameras review best by non-photographers running review websites reviewing under hypothetical laboratory conditions.
 The 20mm lens rendered subjects in close range attractively and without objectionable distortions that even lenses like the Nikon or Canon 17-55mm F/2.8 lenses typically render when shot in landscape and at under 35mm.
 Obviously not shot by me but this photo goes to show how easy it is for someone who has never used this camera before to pick it up make a technically-sound photo. Furthermore, I am far from being model material and I am long overdue for a hair cut but by Klyment-standards this looks pretty good.
Friday, May 7. 20102010.05.07: Howtek Scanmaster 4500 Up and Running!Just a quick update since I'm still working through a backlog of scanning. Most of the new scans are still under embargo. Full artist profile associated with this photo to come. I'm still pretty new at the mounting thing but I feel that my colour management experience has made the colour handling part of learning this new technology fairly painless. If anyone needs some drum scanning done in the next month or so I'm willing to do drum scans to 16bit per channel TIFFs at up to 4000DPI for just $20/scan plus $10/mounting and burned onto your choice of DVDs or Blu-ray discs. For 4x5's I can comfortably mount two frames per mounting but have been having luck with the last two mountings in which I put four sheets of film. For 6x6 I'm guessing I can get six to twelve frames in per mounting.
 Christina and Aaron Ignacio-Deines' dining room, as styled by Christina and Aaron Ignacio-Deines. Shot with the Schneider 72mm F/5.6 Super-Angulon XL on the Linhof Technikardan 45s. Filtered with a Lee 80A polyester filter. Kodak Portra 160 VC. F/8. 30s exposure.
 Unsharpened 100% crop from the previous image. Scanned at 4000DPI on the Howtek Scanmaster 4500 drum scanner (circa 1994) driven by Aztek's fantastic Digital Photo Lab Professional software. Fluid mounted with Kami fluids and Aztek-packaged optical mylar. Full resolution 16bit per channel/48bit TIFF is almost 2gigs. The "noise" that you see here is film grain, not digital noise.
Thursday, April 29. 20102010.03.09: Avenue Spring Fashion FeatureI was hoping to make a bunch of chronologically-ordered posts but I figured it may be a good idea to get this entry out before the current issue of Avenue Magazine Edmonton is off the stands. We were originally scheduled to shoot a week earlier but due to some scheduling conflicts we moved the shoot to March 9th. Capture was destined to be all digital so the later shoot date didn't seem to scare Paige Weir, our art director, as much as it sometimes does when I try to convince her that I should be shooting 4x5's or film rangefinders or something similarly de-evolutionary. Makeup by Adrianne Thomson, hair and styling by Nikolas and assisted by Jacqueline Ohm, music on set by Corey Thompson, and Craig Hobbs and Adam Goudreau assisted on the photographic side of things. Julie and Jessica are represented by Sabrina Notte and her agency, Deja Vu Modeling International of Red Deer, Alberta. Nikon D3X loaned to me by Huy Sam and Manfrotto Autopole/Expan system loaned to me by Curtis Comeau.  I first saw Kayla in the parking lot behind my studio last year. She was dropping off promotional supplies for a beer company that she represents to the pub on the main floor when I spotted her in the parking lot as I was moving some paper up. I told Corey, who happened to be at the studio. I needed Corey to convince me that I would regret not getting her number to shoot her in the future and Corey did what I hoped that he would do. I got her number and a year later she ends up on the cover of Avenue Edmonton.
This photo was my favourite from the yellow dress set but another photo was chosen for the cover. Shot with the D3X and the 135 F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor. Key lighted with a 22" Norman beauty dish and sock with centre dome in place, filled with a Chimera Video Pro Plus large strip, and rimmed with a Chimera Video Pro medium softbox with Lighttools 20degree Soft Egg Crate from the right all driven with the Norman D24r and Norman IL2500 heads. Background lit with a bare reflector on a Bowens Esprit Gemini 500. Avenue Edmonton April 2010 cover.
 Julie modeling one of the outfits that didn't make the cut. It's one of my favourites from the shoot. Hopefully Nikolas will notice this entry and leave comments as to where all of this clothing is from. Similar lighting to cover but shot with the 70-200/2.8 VR Nikkor.
 Jessica modeling another outfit that didn't make the cut.
 This outfit actually made the cut but with a softer facial expression for Kayla. Jacket by L.A.M.B. from Thread Hill. A scarf from She Matters is being used in the model's hair. And I love the suspenders but don't know where they are from.
 A less weird shot from this set made it to press.
 Another outfit that didn't make it to the magazine.
 The collar on this coat was such a pain. It wouldn't stand for more than a few seconds on its own but I think that Julie made it look as good as it was going to look in photos. It looked great in real life.
 A shot from Craig's Leica M3 and 50mm Leitz Summitar on Ilford Delta 100 processed in stock working solution of Kodak XTOL but then fixed in stale fixer. I should have done a clip test before fixing. A certain someone who was working for my studio had significant loss of working solution when they used it introducing a lot of air into the bottle which I suspect caused the premature failure of the fixer.
Continue reading "2010.03.09: Avenue Spring Fashion Feature" Thursday, February 18. 20102009.09.12: 310-DUMP Franchise PackageI first shot 310-DUMP over five years ago making the company my first commercial client. Before that I had only shot weddings and model and actor portfolio work. I met Greg Kirkwood, founder, president, and CEO, at The Standard when I was shooting an event at the night club. All I am going to say about that meeting was that it was an interesting and late night. All delivered photos shot with the Nikon D3 and either the Nikon 24-70mm F/2.8, the 135mm F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor, or the 70-200mm F/2.8 VR Nikkor version 1. Shoot candids taken by Ethan with a Zeiss Ikon, Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 on Kodak Ektar.  Matthew's concept drawing of the interior of the franchise package folder. The booklet pulls out and reveals an unobstructed view of the house in the background. Everything is drawn to scale in relation to how it should look in the actual folder. The concept drawing made the end goal easy to understand but finding a house that was tall enough with enough lawn in front to allow for the proper placement of the elements required to print over the folder was nearly impossible. On top of all of this, because of the amount of space and the shooting angle required, ideally you'd want a south-facing house on a slightly overcast day but with blue sky behind the building. We settled for a nice house that was close enough and Matthew "grew" a fence and lawn and composited the family onto the lawn.
 Matthew's concept drawing of the outside of the folder.
 And a sample page of the interior of the drop-in booklet.
 The photo concepts were meant to appeal to specific customer types who would be likely to use 310-DUMP's services. In this photo, Mike Isaak and Brandy act as the happy couple working on home renovations. Interestingly, 310-DUMP doesn't haul paint or any hazardous wastes but Elizabeth's idea to have the couple covered in paint and Nikolas' careful application of the found acrylic paint helped polish up the look of the shot. The photos were shot to allow as wide an aspect ratio as possible to minimize the amount of height consumed on the web pages they would be used on.
 A franchise owner pepping his workers at the beginning of a new day.
 An engineer and construction workers in front of a construction site.
 Christine Hopaluk and another Matt (I hope that's his name) pose as customer and 310-DUMP employee finishing some paperwork.
 Mother and daughter (who aren't actually mother and daughter) spending time together after booking full service waste pickup with 310-DUMP.
 Most of 310-DUMP's full service residential bookings are made by women so most of the full-service oriented imagery feature women as the customers.
 It's a lot of work getting back up after having settled into the ground for the right angle for a shot so Nabeal got down to have a peek. Of course Ethan had to choose the worst possible moment to snap a photo of us discussing composition.
 The shot of the young couple renovating was made from a slightly higher angle. An adjacent home's white wall provided the necessary fill for this shot.
 Sometimes we find the best camera positions in some of the most unlikely places. Ideally I wanted the shade of a tree right where our models would be but Garth did a great job standing in for one with the Scrim Jim and a blocking screen.
Wednesday, February 17. 20102009.09.15: Blue Willow Fusion Lunch MenuIt seems as though Blue Willow Restaurant has been taking large but cautious steps to revamp their offering. Beginning with the build up of a concession trailer to offer specialized foods and desserts at outdoor special events to participating in the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival, Blue Willow is now open for lunch with some Asian fusion menu options. Well . . . was open for lunch. After checking up on the restaurant it seems as though a curious staffing issue is temporarily preventing lunch serving but official speculation suggests that the lunch menu may once again be available sometime in March. Keep checking the Blue Willow Restaurant website to see when it does. Until then I hope that you'll be satisfied drooling over the photos. All delivered photos shot with Horseman #3, a Horseman L frame camera now owned by Adam Neufeld. Lens used was the Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Film used was Kodak Ektachrome EPP and instant film was Fuji's ISO 100 9x12 stuff. Film processing by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver. Camera and styling assistance, scanning, colour correction, and retouching by Sarah Chung. Later in the shoot, Ethan decided to join us and helped eat. Kitchen and candid photos were shot with the Contax G2 and 35mm F/2 Zeiss Planar on Fuji Pro Z and processed by McBain Camera's Kingsway location. Some of the candids were taken by Sarah.
 It's been a while since I shot these but I'll try my best to describe what's in each photo. This is a chicken breast served on a bed of oriental veggie stir fry with a bit of "Chef Jason's Special Sauce." That's what they told me what I asked them what sauce that was . . . but it was delicious.
 Sweet and sour chicken with a combination of stir fried and steamed vegetables and a side of fried rice. In the background you see the then newly-designed lunch menu. Typically I'd try to shoot with lens axis parallel to the table to maintain subject proportions but I was shooting more for something creative than something more explicit. A small amount of front tilt was applied to get the logo on the menu in focus.
 Take 1 of the breaded pork cutlet.
 Jean felt that the first take of the pork cutlet wasn't descriptive enough and had us shoot from a higher angle. We quickly re-plated, rearranged the table, repositioned some lights and then reshot. While this photo is no longer consistent with the other photos from this shoot I agree that it gives a better representation of the relatively flat pork cutlet and sells the dish better than our original shot.
 Beef steak garnished with onions and lettuce with a side of oriental vegetables. Stan surveyed some of their steak eating customers about which sauce should accompany the steak dish. It seemed as though many serious steak eaters wanted to have HP Sauce with their steak so you get a choice of HP Sauce or a gravy.
 The hands of Thomas (left, restaurant manager) and Jason the chef preparing dishes while we were set up in the VIP room with camera and lighting ready. While all food photography is challenging, Chinese food tends to be especially challenging because of how much of it is fried and because of how much of the food ends up looking brown and in small pieces. It's tasty but not always photogenic so we shoot as quickly as possible after preparation and certain other provisions have to be made to compensate for the food's unphotogenic nature.
Continue reading "2009.09.15: Blue Willow Fusion Lunch Menu" Friday, February 12. 20102010.02.12: Klyment's Garage Sale Part 2 (Linhof Technikardan 45s)
The Linhof Technikardan 45s is this garage sale's feature item. You can find it new here and the bag bellows here. As noted in the previous entry, the Linhof Technikardan 45s is $1795 with choice of bag or standard bellows, $2075 with both bellows, or $1999 with a Calumet Caltar-II S 210mm F/5.6 in nearly flawless condition that's also almost free of Schneideritis which wouldn't have affected image quality anyway. This camera has been my primary camera for the past six months shooting over a dozen residential interiors, two commercial interiors, a handful of outdoor personal projects, and Avenue's sneak peek of the new Art Gallery of Alberta. Before that, Juliana Sohn owned this camera. In fact, it is for that reason that I am halfheartedly selling the camera but I now have too many cameras. Thanks again to Rico Moran for shooting these photos for me.
 The classic "pretzal" shot of a full monorail camera. Full movements in the front and all movements in the back except there is only rear rise but no rear fall. Just apply rise in the front.  The camera is equipped with Linhof's standard gridded ground glass with 9x12cm markings and is fed by a Fresnel lens. The cover glass is pretty scuffed up but doesn't hinder your ability to compose. However, after using a Maxwell Precision Matte screen on one of my Horseman L frame cameras, I would highly recommend spending the money for an upgraded screen regardless of how good your standard ground glass and Fresnel.  The most amazing feature of this camera is that it's capable not only of compressing the standards this close together with the FULL non-bag bellows but the rail can also be rotated so that it is parallel with the standards allowing it to fit into a slim camera attache case like the Domke J-803 or some Billinghams more commonly used to house Leica rangefinders.  This photo shows that this is the newer 45s and not just the 45. Note the lines on the L standard and if you look carefully there is a swing detent visible under the front standard. This camera is more rigid and easier to collapse than the original Technikardans.  This photo shows one of the red lever tabs is missing. It doesn't affect operation and I was told by the original owner that this tab can easily be replaced by speaking to a Linhof dealer but I never bothered replacing it.  This photo shows the other tab that's missing. It's green and it's missing from the front tilt locking lever.  All bubble levels are intact. Not shown is the bubble-level on the right of the rear standard which is also still there and fully functional.  The cross section view of the collapsible rail that allows the rail to extend up to about 19" or almost 500mm.  One of the most recent shots done with this camera that has already been scanned. This one is of a small part of the Art Gallery of Alberta's Karsh: Image Maker exhibit that runs until May 30th. Shot with the Calumet Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5 that was listed for sale in the previous entry. Portra 160VC . . . the sRGB colour profile conversion doesn't do justice for the colour of the walls in the exhibit and for the capture. Thank you to Brendan Klem for assisting with shooting some of these interiors of the AGA with a view camera. 2010.02.12: Klyment's Garage Sale Part 1I have some photography-related stuff for sale! It's mostly large format gear but there are some Nikon SLR-related items and some pieces of Bowens/Calumet lighting. Items are located in Edmonton. Thanks to Rico Moran for helping me shoot the product photos.
 Calumet Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5. It's about 20mm in 35mm terms and it was my primary architectural interior lens up until I picked up a Schneider 72/5.6 Super-Angulon XL. The lens is optically flawless but there are blemishes in the metal as illustrated in the following photos. This photo was lit with an older Calumet/Bowens optical spot lamp head (also for sale) for rim light and a diffused Bowens Softlite reflector with diffuser in the foreground on Savage Thunder Gray. Lights driven by a Bowens QuadX 3000 power pack (also for sale).
 Rear view of the Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5.
 Close up showing condition of metal.
 Shot with the Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5 and the Linhof Technikardan.
 The 75mm doesn't have the largest image circle of this type of lens but still has a big enough image circle to make some nearly impossible exterior shots. Here is a photo shot of the Uptown Estate building for Sylvie Perrault Architects of Montreal.
 Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6 in Sinar DB mount. These photos are representative of the look and condition of the Symmar-S 240mm and 180mm in Sinar DB mounts so I won't post all of them but feel free to request photos if you wish to see them.
 Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6
 Rear view of one of the Sinar DB lenses. I originally purchased these Sinar DB lenses for use in studio and for architectural photography because of the shutter's system ability to mechanically time exposures up to 8s where I would normally have to manually time and trigger for architectural interior shooting. Furthermore, the shutter system makes Sinar handling in studio convenient since adjustments to exposure and aperture settings can be done from the rear of the camera and the shutter will also automatically stop down the iris when shooting. However, now I no longer own a Sinar camera or the shutter so I can't use these lenses anymore.
 The Super-Angulon 75mm F/5.6 looks a bit different.
 Rear view of the Super-Angulon 75mm F/5.6.
Monday, January 18. 20102010.01.18: [De]thinking Lighting
Patrick Jacob of Inex Design Studio came to me with a table that needed photographing. The table has spent the past two weeks sitting around my studio as I agonized over how to light it. The more I thought about it, the worse the lighting got. Over the past few hours I started working with my really old, really basic, and extremely cheap used Norman lighting system. I finally got the results that I wanted. I'll blog again once the film is back from the lab and I am thinking of shooting some Ilford HP5+ and pushing it to ISO3200 in HC-110 dilution B for a few of the angles to see what happens. 4x5 Portra 160VC rated at ISO 100 used as the primary film type with some Fuji Provia 100F to be pushed to ISO 400 out of curiosity.
 Lit with a Norman P500D power pack driving two LH4 heads. One set at 250Ws (channels A and B at 125Ws each combined to power one outlet) and one set at 62Ws (channel C only). The basic 5" Norman grid reflector with grid use to backlight the top glass. 18" beauty dish with a diffusion sock attached for foreground lighting. The "real" shots are being shot on a Horseman LE 4x5 monorail through the Schneider Symmar-S 210/5.6. The rail is tilted forward and the standards were leveled out to provide enough vertical displacement movement to properly proportion the table while still shooting from above the table to show more of the glass work on top. The camera is supported by a Gitzo GT1540 tripod and a Markins Q3 ball head. The head is under 1lbs including clamp (385g) and is rated for a 65lbs (30kg) capacity. And this is Markins' smallest ball head. It's lower profile than most pro ball heads thus helping to reduce impact on tripod stability due to addition of height and is rated for higher capacity and is lighter than any other ball head sold by Vistek or McBain Camera . . . and it's likely cheaper than any other ball head I have found. Markins' North American distributor is based in Langley, British Columbia. Friday, January 8. 20102009.10.30: Art Gallery of Alberta for Avenue Magazine
In October and December of 2009 I had the privilege of photographing the interior of the new Art Gallery of Alberta for Avenue's sneak peek into the interior to be run in their January issue. Art direction by Paige Weir of Avenue Magazine with direction from the AGA by Sarah Hoyles. Ethan Oblak assisted with the October shoot and Rob Lim assisted with the December visit. Shots were made on the Horseman LE 4x5 chassis on Kodak EPP and Fuji Provia 100F or the Linhof Technikardan 45s on Kodak Portra 160VC. There are eight images that I'd like to discuss but my words are governed by a non-disclosure agreement and since the AGA isn't officially open yet I'll only discuss three of the eleven that were published from this day of shooting. I will try to blog again about these photos once the gallery is open.
Another huge thanks goes out to Curtis Comeau for referring me to Avenue so that I would have the opportunity to shoot this project.
 Shot in October. Still a lot of construction going on in what I believe is the main foyer. This was the Fuji 9x12cm instant proof.  A scaled down scan of the frame delivered to Avenue. I wanted an out of focus foreground element and using an ultrawide lens like the All shot through the Calumet Caltar-II N/Rodenstock Sironar-N 75mm F/4.5 allowed me to exaggerate the size of the foreground glass panels. F/11, Fuji Provia 100F.  Shot with the Horseman LE and the 135/5.6 Caltar-II S/Rodenstock APO Sironar-S. There wasn't enough room to back up further to use the 210/5.6 Symmar-S so I used the 135 and applied a bit of front tilt to shallow the depth of field. I also wanted to keep the parallel lines parallel so I needed to apply rear rise to capture more of the lower part of the frame. However, the camera had to stay at a certain height so that there could be some more of the space visible and the image circle of the lens, while fairly large, has its limits. In the dim light I wasn't able to stop down. The dark areas in the bottom are outside the circle of illumination of the lens. In a way, this was an error on my part. There weas another frame with less vignetting but I found this was the most interesting frame. 1/2s exposure, F/5.6, Kodak Ektachrome EPP.  Fuji instant film proof the next shot. Ethan is keeping the film flat for me.  Shot with the Linhof Technikardan 45s on Kodak Portra 160VC with the Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5, this shot provided an interesting challenge for the film. Had this been shot on slide film we would have lost all shadow detail or the film would have to be overexposed so all highlight detail on the white surfaces and metal would be lost. According to the software densitometer in Silverfast while scanning with the Microtek M1, no areas were blown out. And these are the two photos I have posted from this camera. I purchased the Technikardan a few months ago from legendary photographer Juliana Sohn. She has since moved on to shoot a Leaf digital medium format back on an Alpa Max. Sunday, October 25. 20092009.07.20: Nikolas' [unsubmitted] Contessa makeup artistry shoot
Two months before the shoot date Nikolas informed me that he had intentions of entering the 21st Contessa Awards in the makeup artistry category. I was pleased that he was aware of the time and effort required to pull together the models, materials, and time needed to do this shoot properly and that he was still interested in competing in spite already-established recognition for his work amongst my clients and in some parts of the industry in general. I never pass on an opportunity to work with Nikolas and we immediately started creating our list of models that we wanted to work with for this project. The list included many people that we have worked with before and we would have liked to have worked with them all but scheduling prevented us from having more than a single day of shooting. July 20th was our scheduled shoot day. The competition required a day look, a night look, and a look that could be whatever the makeup artist wanted to do. In the end, we didn't produce a night look from this shoot that we felt was strong enough for submission and while we had other options, Nikolas decided not to submit the photos for the competition and I supported his decision. We'd do better work next year and this time we'd have the ideas for the competition brewing in the backs of our minds until summer 2010. Still, I felt that we created some solid makeup-oriented images even though most shots were with very natural makeup. Furthermore, I felt that my yield from this shoot contained some of the best shots of Julie's face that I have ever shot.
Thanks again to our models Whitney Grace, Julie Gillespie, Alteira Evans, and Stephanie Calihoo, photographers Corey Thompson (Yellowjacket Photography) and Rob Lim (Rob & Lauren Photographers) and set designer/prop master Christina Ignacio-Deines (IDBohemia) for making this possible and also to all of the models who agreed to work with us but we were unable to shoot. We will work together sometime soon.  One of the first shots of the day at the shoot location. Nikolas is about to touch up Julie's makeup and Julie looking hot as usual.  Most people's favourite shot of Julie from the shoot. 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor set to the "2R" setting for spherical aberration de-correction. Shot at F/2, nominal sensitivity of the D3 (ISO 200), and around 1/1000-1/2000s. Almost all shots with t he Nikon D3 were shot with these settings and with this lens. Colour photos all untouched outside of Lightroom 2.x. I wanted to experiment a bit with some colour toning and most people seemed to like the "golden" cast that the deliberate white balance offsetting and slight split toning towards yellow for highlights combined with desaturation gave to the photo.  My favourite shot of Alteira from this set. White reflector held above camera and very close to subject to help balance the backlighting of the sun that provides the rimlighting for this photo.  One of Corey's photos and my favourite photo of Stephanie from this shoot. We only met Stephanie this day. She's one of Alteira's friends. Turns out Justin Poulsen knows her, too. Corey was shooting from a low angle through some grass with the D3 and the 70-200/2.8 VR while I was working Rob's Horseman LE.  An experimental shot using no reflector for fill. The ghosting and overall rendition of the 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor is one of the reasons I still shoot small format digital SLR in spite of the availability of 35mm rangefinders, a digital medium format Rollei system, and numerous large format cameras in my equipment collection.  Nikolas was checking the ground glass of the Horseman to ensure that the camera was seeing what he had envisioned when I told him to pose like he was using the camera. Please, someone shoot a shot like this of me one day or else I'm going to Photoshop my face onto Nikolas' body and it's going to be really weird. Zeiss Ikon, 35/2 Biogon, new Kodak TMax 400 @ 1600 in HC-110, dilution B. Many more photos after the jump. Continue reading "2009.07.20: Nikolas' [unsubmitted] Contessa makeup artistry shoot" 2009.06.26: [Getting lost during an] engagement shoot in the woods
The 2009 wedding shooting year wrapped up for Dong and I at the end of September. I'm still working through some colour and silver halide black and white film from the last few weddings and I came across some photos from Vivian's and Aaron's engagement shoot in the mossy forest introduced to me by Cody Tait and Mike Isaak. I started shooting with the Zeiss Ikon at first and then backtracked to pick up my Sinar X and subsequently got lost. Not just a little lost . . . so lost that I had to follow the noise to the high way and then find my way back in, eating up about half an hour of daylight. It was an interesting experience and we got our shots but I'm definitely not wearing sandals into a forest again.
 I eventually found the couple and they were about to leave for a washroom break but they had written me a note: "We are going to the washroom and we have your camera."  This shot gives you a sense of the atmosphere in which the engagement photos were shot. The moss is several inches deep, there's very little direct sunlight entering the forest even when it isn't overcast, and the background consists of muted colours but with high contrast between sky, tree trunks, and moss. Shot on the Zeiss Ikon with the 35/2 Biogon ZM on Fuji Provia 100F push processed to ISO 400 by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver.  This 100% crop of the previous frame performed with the Nikon Coolscan 5000 gives you an idea of the grain structure. It's very well-managed and I find it aesthetically pleasing. I intend to try pushing this film to ISO 800 the next time I shoot it and I will try this with 4x5 sheets as well.  One of the frames shot on a sheet of Ilford HP5+ pushed to ISO 3200 in HC-110 dilution B. For weeks I have been trying to find film and developer combinations to produce film grain that I could resolve using the Microtek M1 scanner and this was the first frame in which I managed to do so. Now the majority of my large format black and white sheet film is push processed. Tuesday, October 20. 20092009.10.20: Uhhh, I think your hypo clearing agent went bad This bottle of Hustler's hypo eliminator working solution was mixed a few months ago but seems to have expired prematurely. What's really funny is that after seeing this liquid come out, at first I told Ethan to just keep pouring it. Hahah.  Solution dumped and a new batch mixed and everything seems to be okay, thankfully. |
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