Photographed with a TL-120 using Provia 100F pushed one stop with a Vivitar 285H with a diffusor for fill-flash. I believe it was f16 @ 1/125. The TL-120 seems to do fine with flash sync at 1/125 even though 3D World only claimed 1/30.
It was bright sunny day for the 2014 Mermaid Parade, fill-flash saved lots of my shots from excessive shadow detail.
For me fill-flash is like that commercial for hot-sauce: “I put that $#*& on everything!”
The Taj Mahal is often seen just in the classic full view, but there’s quite a lot to look at when you get closer in. MF3D is really the only medium that can convey the richness of all the marble inlays and carving.
This was photographed with a TL-120 using Provia 100F pushed one stop. I believe it was 1/250 @f16. No tripods are allowed at the Taj unless major fees are paid, so this was shot with the camera hanging around my neck using a Hasselblad waist level finder and a cable release. October 2010.
The TL-120 attracted a lot of attention in India, at times I was mobbed with people wondering what it was.
“Noodle Delirium” was an “ephermeral installation” that was created by the “Collectif ARG – Les Astronautes” and included in the “Unusual Passages” show in Quebec City the summer of 2014. It transformed a discreet anonymous passage into something special that people loved to walk through brushing against the noodles with their hands.
Original slide on Provia 400X taken with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop at 1/8 second at f25 on August 14, 2014.
I tried several classically centred shots of the fountain, as with the photo on the right, but I was not satisfied. I then decided to emphasize the overlapping jets of water coming from the frogs’ mouths, which I hoped might be more interesting in stereo than the fountain itself. I waited some time to view the scene with tourists in the background and without, and decided to take the shot with tourists to give more “as it is” context. The Tourney Fountain was a gift of the Simons Family to commemorate Quebec City’s 400th anniversary in 2008, and has become a popular landmark in front of the parliament. The fountain is the creation of French sculptor Mathurin Moreau and was originally installed in Bordeaux, France in 1857.
Original slide on Provia 400X taken with tripod-mounted Heidoscop at 1/80 second at f25 on August 12, 2014.
I enjoy playing with back-lighting, which in this case lit up the drops of early morning dew on the grass. The uncoated lenses on the Heidoscop require careful shading to avoid flare in back-lit situations. I hope this image captures the calm I enjoy in the Parc du Bois-de-Coulonge in Quebec City.
Original slide on Provia 400X taken with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop at 1/15 sec. at F25 on August 9, 2014.
The dew on these moon vines at sunrise seemed to give them a silvery sheen. These vines are located at one of my favorite parks in Quebec City, Parc du Bois-de-Coulonge, which housed of the residence of lieutenant-governors from 1870-1966.
Original slide on Provia 400X taken with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop at 1/6 Sec. at F25 on August 9, 2014.
Fiery Depths
Looking down into the pits of hell, are those the screams of your political opponents you hear? Maybe it’s only last night’s burritos talking.
Regardless, I don’t want to be pitched over the edge.
TL120-55, Ilford HP5, DR5 processing (Yes, I typo’d the title on the mount, but given the scarcity of mounts I didn’t feel the need to remount in a clean one.)
Against The Light
Looking over my earlier efforts at winter landscapes, I decided that my lighting decisions were too conservative and would never capture the feel of a winter snowscape. In February of 2014, I tried to change that by using more aggressive sun angles and shooting into the light. I didn’t want to go full contre jour because so much of what I find engaging are the textures of the surfaces, and MF3D is superb at capturing textures.
Here, I tried to position the camera so both lenses were shaded by the distant trunk, and positioned a flash on the left. I then waited while the earth turned, and tripped the shutter as the shadow-line reached the camera.
The result is the the best representation I’ve been able to make of a Juneau winter day. The sky isn’t blown out, but is a featureless sea with a floating sun. The trees are more than silhouettes and able to contribute to the story.
Standing Proud
This image has been a while in the making. After reviewing my attempts at winter landscapes, I went out to try to do some things differently. I loaded a pack, took the first sunny day off work, and headed out to Cowee Creek where I knew I’d have moderate snow, free-standing trees, and a dramatic backdrop lit by the low afternoon sun. The film was exposed in February of 2014, processed by DR5 in May, and mounted in February of 2015.
To try to force the back of foreground tree trunk out of the shadows, I used a couple of Vivitar 285 flashes. One weak one firing forward (and slightly right) from just below the camera, and a stronger one coming from the far left.
While I think my concepts were correct, I fell short in the execution. This was the last roll of the day. It is a tested characteristic of my camera that the shutter timings start to drift at low voltages. By the time this roll was exposed, the batteries in the TL120 were failing in the cold and the right side was under exposed.
Foliage at Cowee Creek
While this film was exposed in February of 2014, I only mounted this image recently and Boris’s foliage efforts prompted me to include it in the folio. While it lacks the diversity of color most people associate with “foliage”, I hoped the medium would be able to convey the textures and details I found that day.
I have been generally dissatisfied with the winter landscapes I’ve made, so tried to do this session differently. Rather than try to frame with the sun behind or safely off the lens, I shot into the sun or let it come aggressively in from the side. This is a “from the side” shot with at least one Vivitar 285 providing fill against the natural light. I didn’t make a lighting sketch, but I suspect there was one above the camera and a stronger one firing from the right.
Well, this one is a bit different. It’s a hyper of a formation about 1/8 mile away taken using the Sony SLT 55 with a 100 mm prime macro lens. The images were acquired as part of a rapid burst from a moving car (I’d had foot surgery and my wife was driving me about). The spacing of the shots is around 100 feet. The white formations are about 30′ tall. This is a little known site near Los Alamos.
This was transferred to TL 120 using a “4K” screen. See “Camel Rock North Face” for the details of that process.
There is a very famous grouping of tent rocks, larger and more numerous, south of Santa Fe, which some of you may know of. They occur only in a few places, including outside of Istanbul, Turkey.
I’ll be heading out to Tent Rocks proper in the summer once things have solidified.
This image was taken using cha cha and a single Sony SLT 55 with 35 mm Sony prime F1.8 lens. The focus of the infinity point was a bit soft so I used a bLind deconvolution filter (Lucy Richardson) to refocus. Then the images were transferred to TL 120 by photographing a quad UHD screen with custom color table.
This is one of my favorite sites, with many opportunities for interesting views depending on the time of day. This wa 2pm to a bit hard lighting. The figured rock in foreground was interesting. I was pleased that the raw format and transfer process kept the detail and color of the highlight on the rock. In the left distance is Black Mesa. I lived near there for 5 years in a former candle factory where I had a lot of my woodworking equipment. I’ve since sold that equipment.
When I take this site again, I’ll be using the tl120 directly with its 85 mm lenses
Sony slt 55a 35 mm prime. Cha-cha. October 10, 2013 10:35 am.
Used to be you could climb up on this until about 1970. There were actually two formations, one about 100 yards south. Some kids attached a rope and pulled it down with a pickup. So they put a fence around it.
This was transferred to TL 120 using a “4K” screen. See “Camel Rock North Face” for the details of that process.
I only recently discovered the MF stereo world thanks to Nik! the first I’d seen was at the 2012 NSA. Immediately after that I’ve had 7 foot surgeries and unable to use my TL 120 the way it was intended. Determined to participate though, and once things are healed I’ll be getting out and composing directly to film. I realize one goal of this folio is to preserve the art of direct analog film photography, so my new entries are a bit of sacrilege. Since I’m a scientist I like to experiment. I have a bunch of 35 mm stereo and digital stereo photos. One question I wanted to answer empirically was: what would it look like to transfer images from my archive to medium format. Continue reading
I shot the USBG earlier this year during the day, and it is a smorgasbord of post-industrial steam-punk vs. wilderness 3d imagery. I returned last month to try and capture the magical evening light, which makes the place look even more mysterious than it already is. I was hampered by equipment problems (in part of my own making), and did not get very many shots. This is one of the better ones, taken about 5 minutes after the “magic” lighting had ended. (Equipment failure prevented pictures during the magic 15 minutes!).
Then, on the drive home (about two hours highway driving), my car broke down near Culpeper, about halfway home. Michele and Jet had to come fetch me in the middle of the night. The car was repaired in Culpeper over the course of three more weeks. I only got it back just recently. All in all, an ill-fated photo mission.
Sputnik, RSX 400 film, f16 probably, 30 seconds exposure.