Steve Maniscalco Photography

030310 - 030810

If everything is going so well on this Instant #365 project, why am I so nervous about it? I just can't help but wonder what I'll be shooting 6 months from now. Must relax.... For now I have to say thank God for old restaurants and signage. 

In addition to the silk 125i I ordered, I just won 10 boxes of expired 690 on ebay. $86 shipped makes it about as cheap as I can expect to get film these days. It's 3 years out of date and I'm hoping it will have some of the wonderful character of the aforementioned 125i silk.

 

 

 

 

 

022610 - 030210

Catching up....

Just as I'm running out of 125i Silk, the impossible project put more up on their web site. Saved. 5 more packs on the way. I love the look of that film. It's not right for every picture, but it really sings in the right spots.

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

021810 - 022510

The Instant #365 project continues...and I'm getting some images I quite like. Yes, I'm still shooting my share of camera and coffee and doggy pictures, but overall, I'm not ashamed of the work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Camera Problem

I know some folks out there think I have a million cameras...it's not true...it's only about 25 or so, something like that.  Many of those aren't very useful, but have just sort of found their way home with me. Heck, I have 4 brownie hawkeye flash cameras, those should really only count as one anyway.

In the past, I've prided myself on not being a camera collector. By that I mean that I actually shoot all of the cameras I own.  Of course, that's not entirely true. I've got a nice Kodak Retina IIa that I'm not allowed to shoot because it was my father-in-law's and my wife doesn't want anything bad to happen to it. I've also got an old Canon AE-1 that is technically my wife's. I don't want to shoot it and she won't get rid of it. Let's see, I now have an old roll film Polaroid that I can't get film for. I didn't even buy that one on purpose, it came in a box of other cameras.

All that usual miscellaneous stuff aside, I really do shoot most everything I own. Of course, I have preferences and so some of the gear sees very little use.  That pretty much includes all of my 35mm stuff, except maybe the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim.

My Bessa R3A is a sweet camera. I've got 15mm, 21mm and 40mm lenses for it. The 40 is f1.4...the fastest thing I own. As nice as this set is, I just don't often reach for it. I'd rather be shooting medium format. On the other hand, I did take it with me on a fly away vacation this past Summer because it was easy to fit in the bags.

By my usual standards, I should sell that kit. It's just never going to be front line stuff unless sometime medium format film becomes unavailable. Even so, I can't bear to part with it. It's just too good a little bit of compact kit to think of sending it away.

Currently, I wrestling with my medium format set up. I've got a wonderful Mamiya 7 with 43mm and 80mm lenses. For most carry around all the time stuff, this is an excellent kit. The lenses could hardly be sharper and the camera/lens combo is about as light as you can get for a medium format camera. Still, it has shortcomings. Primarily, being a rangefinder, it's not good for close up work and the available lenses are fairly slow. So, even though it won't do as my only kit, it's too good to let go.

That brings me to the Kiev 60 kit. I've got it with an 80mm and 120mm lens. Very competent, but has a shutter problem at the moment. (I'll fix that). Problem is, there are no really good wide angle options for it. It does the close up narrow dof stuff the Mamiya won't do, but it can't do the wide angle I want.

Crap! I don't want to carry the Mamiya and the Kiev. Add that to my polaroids and it's just too much.

Lately I've been thinking I need a 6x6 slr system to do it all. In spite of my love for the Kowa system, it's just too long out of production and finding a wide angle lens for it is very difficult, though they do exist. At the moment, I'm thinking a Bronica Sq-a system is my best bet. 40mm lenses are available. The standard lens is f2.8 and good portrait telephotos are there as well. Price is very good on these right now. 

Normally, I'd jut sell off some gear to finance the latest desire, but this time I'm finding it difficult to do. Every thing I have offers some unique quality. Perhaps that quality isn't essential, but even so, I can't seem to get myself to let go.

Is it old age? Am I just attached to my toys? I don't know. I'm thinking I've just managed to put together several good kits that all have their charms. I may not be using one or two of them a great deal at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I will again in the future. 

I guess I'll see what I can scrounge to raise a little cash for that next kit, instead of selling off one of my current kids.

I wonder if I could sell any pictures?

A Little Kipling

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKSHOPS

When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it Art?"

Wherefore he called to his wife, and fled to fashion his work anew --
The first of his race who cared a fig for the first, most dread review;
And he left his lore to the use of his sons -- and that was a glorious gain
When the Devil chuckled "Is it Art?" in the ear of the branded Cain.

They fought and they talked in the North and the South,
  they talked and they fought in the West,
Till the waters rose on the pitiful land, and the poor Red Clay had rest --
Had rest till that dank blank-canvas dawn when the dove was preened to start,
And the Devil bubbled below the keel:  "It's human, but is it Art?"

They builded a tower to shiver the sky and wrench the stars apart,
Till the Devil grunted behind the bricks:  "It's striking, but is it Art?"
The stone was dropped at the quarry-side and the idle derrick swung,
While each man talked of the aims of Art, and each in an alien tongue.

The tale is as old as the Eden Tree -- and new as the new-cut tooth --
For each man knows ere his lip-thatch grows he is master of Art and Truth;
And each man hears as the twilight nears, to the beat of his dying heart,
The Devil drum on the darkened pane:  "You did it, but was it Art?"

We have learned to whittle the Eden Tree to the shape of a surplice-peg,
We have learned to bottle our parents twain in the yelk of an addled egg,
We know that the tail must wag the dog, for the horse is drawn by the cart;
But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old:  "It's clever, but is it Art?"

When the flicker of London sun falls faint on the Club-room's green and gold,
The sons of Adam sit them down and scratch with their pens in the mould --
They scratch with their pens in the mould of their graves,
  and the ink and the anguish start,
For the Devil mutters behind the leaves:  "It's pretty, but is it Art?"

Now, if we could win to the Eden Tree where the Four Great Rivers flow,
And the Wreath of Eve is red on the turf as she left it long ago,
And if we could come when the sentry slept and softly scurry through,
By the favour of God we might know as much -- as our father Adam knew!

Two Bath Developers; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Chemistry

I have the attention span of a hormone enraged cricket...seriously. Detailed, precise and unforgiving processes are not for me. One of the reasons I embraced the digital thing so heavily years ago is that it finally freed me from the darkroom...a place where I showed terrible incompetence. It was enough to put me off serious photography. So, digital came along and I was able to go from the camera to the computer...computers I can do far more reliably than chemistry. After all, if I screw up in Photoshop, I can always revert the file and get an instant do-over.

Over time, I drifted back to film a bit, but shot only color. I could easily get that done at the drug store, scan the negatives and convert to my beloved black and white. That worked pretty well, except that I was paying a lot of money for ham-handed mini-lab employees to scratch my negatives and otherwise do a shoddy job. My on-line friends kept encouraging me to develop my own black and white film, but I resisted. There can be so much precision involved in developing that I thought my odds of consistent success were rather poor.  Heck, just the prospects of trying to control water temperature in hot water out of the tap Arizona was too daunting to contemplate. What finally turned me around was a discussion thread regarding Barry Thornton's 2-bath developer formula. 

I read Mr. Thornton's book Edge of Darkness and became convinced that I could actually do my own black and white processing, economically and with good consistent results. 

The advantages of Barry's formula are compelling:

• Developing time makes little difference to the outcome, so no sweating going over or under by a few seconds.
• Developing temperature makes little difference to the outcome, so I can just use the chemicals at room temperature.
• Compensating developers of this type tend to hold highlights well in high contrast situations, which is pretty important in sun blasted Arizona.
• The formula is made up of inexpensive chemicals and reusable many times, so it's a very economical method.

How does it work?

Very little actual development takes place in the first developing bath. Essentially all that happens is that the film emulsion absorbs the chemicals. Because the film can only absorb so much of the chemicals before becoming saturated, leaving it in longer than the recommended 4 minutes makes little difference.

Developing primarily takes place in the second bath. The second bath chemicals act as an accelerant on the chemicals absorbed by the film in the first bath. When the chemicals from the first bath are used up in the second bath, developing stops. So again, time past the recommended 4 minutes has very little effect.  

Because the development stops by itself, you can dispense with the stop bath. I still rinse before the fixer, just to remove the developer and prolong the fixer's life.

I do 15-20 rolls, reusing the same chemicals. About the time the second developer starts to smell of very old gym socks, it's time to dump.

The formula is as follows:

Bath A
80 g sodium sulfite
6.5 g metol
Make up to 1 L with water

Bath B
12 g sodium metaborate (Kodalk)
Make up to 1 L with water

The chemicals are available inexpensively at Freestyle Photo. Using tap water works fine and you're working at pennies a roll. I've used it successfully on everything from Efke 25iso to Kodak Tmax 400. I've yet to see a roll I was not pleased with, at least as far as developing is concerned.

Could someone else to better with a range of developers customized to each situation? Clearly they could. For my purposes though, I'm unwilling to put the time, effort and precision necessary in to the process to beat out this simple, inexpensive and reliable method.

 

4x5 negative, Kodak TXP, Thornton's 2-bath developer.

Deal With the Devil

The Devil of film love and old gear lust (that's me) is attempting to claim another soul.

I am a fan of Danielle Kelly and the dark images in her Light Shadow project. The other day though, she started posting photos from her iPhone, modified by some hellish app to look like polaroids. Ok, to be honest, the app did a pretty good job of it...still, she was posting Poladroids! (I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but every time someone posts a Poladroid, an angel looses her wings and Edwin Land descends to a deeper level of hell.) The cruelty of the thing is just about unimaginable!

My first thought was, "If we can't save a talented photographer like Danielle from the evil and infectious Poladroid disease, what hope is there for the future of instant film?" My next thought was, "What can I do personally to slow the disease's progression?" Then it occurred to me, "What if Danielle were given the opportunity to experience the real thing? Could she be induced to swear off evil, Polaroid imitating apps forever?

So, I made the following proposal. I would send Danielle a Land 330 camera I have laying around doing not much. In return, she would agree to run 2 packs of film through it and then make a decision. She could either keep the camera and swear off Poladroids forever, or pass the camera on to someone else in need of experiencing the real thing.

Not surprisingly, like any good tog with a love for gear, she found my little Faustian deal to be irresistible. (Bwaahaaahaaahaaaaha.......ha!)

I'll be getting that camera in the mail to her in a day or so. I'm looking forward to her results, and her decision.

021210 - 021710

The Instant #365 continues. I've had a couple of scary days where the outcome was not assured...it's going to be a long year.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

Baldamatic I

Another gem of a consumer rangefinder for you, the Baldamatic I

I commented before that Balda made some very practical cameras. Practical doesn't mean they didn't deviate from the norm now and again. The Baldamatic and several similar models illustrates that quite well. Let's take a look at it.

 

Nice curves! It feels good in the hand, solid with well located controls. Check out the shutter release on the front right of the camera. The viewfinder is large and bright, pretty easy to focus and the selenium meter (still working on my example) is coupled. My camera has the better 4 element Enna lens. 3 element lenses were more common, but still capable.

Where the design gets interesting is in the bottom of the camera.

 
 You can see on the right bottom (left when normally holding the camera) is a sort of key wind for film advance. A half turn is all it takes to advance the film. This placement may seem strange, but it does make it possible to advance the film quickly without taking the camera from your eye.

 

 At one point, I had several similar cameras, so I've only gotten 1 roll through this one. Not much to show really, but I think I can say the lens is plenty good enough.

 

 
Overall, an inexpensive and fun way to experience 1960s consumer rangefinder technology.

If you look for one of these, try to get the Ennit or Xenar lenses, those are the 4 element versions. The Baldanar and Westanar lenses are 3 element designs.

020810 - 021110

You'd think I could just post an image here every day instead of doing them 5 or 6 at a time....

I received 3 boxes of Polaroid 125i Silk film, expired a couple of years ago. I have to say that I quite like it. The blues are brilliant and the warmer tones are shifted over a bit. I think it must have been really nice when it was in date, and I'm enjoying it expired as well.

 

 

 

 
 
 

Digital and Me

I hope I don't give the wrong impression on Twitter about my feelings on digital photography. The fact that I love working with film does not mean that I in any way disdain digital or people who shoot digital. The fact is, I have a long and productive history with digital cameras...well, long in digital terms anyway.

 My 1st digital camera was a Nikon CoolPix 800. It cost me something like $400. I bought it for a trip to Italy and I still have some very nice prints from that trip and camera. I still have the camera as well, though it stopped working a few years back. 2mp and 2x zoom may not seem very impressive by today's standard, but that camera was very nearly as good as consumer cameras got at the time. That's right, I was on the cutting edge of consumer digital. Most of the people I met on that trip were astounded, having never seen a digital camera before. (I had a PDA too, but that's more geek than I should admit to.)

After the Coolpix, I owned a couple of other digital point and shoot cameras until the Canon 300D came along and made a DSLR very nearly affordable. I didn't actually get mine until the 20D was introduced and then I bought it used.

A few years back, I calculated that I'd shot something over 45,000 images with that 300D. I still have it. It still works. I use it mostly to take pictures of other cameras and as the world's best point and shoot camera. Every time I think of getting a new point and shoot, I think, "Heck, the 300D takes a nice picture," and I resist the temptation.

Somewhere along the way, blasting through 45,000 digital images, I rediscovered film. It might have been my father-in-law's old Kodak Retina IIc that did it. It's such a sweet, clever old camera, it just begged to have film run through it. From there, a series of brief flirtations ensued with various 35mm rangefinder cameras. I even have to admit to a tryst with a beast called the Koni-Omega Rapid 100. 

I won't try to catalog my entire old camera odyssey, you don't have that much time to read. The important part is that I fell in love with the feel of owning, holding and using beautiful, and even ugly, old bits of low technology camera goodness. 

At that point in my journey, I was still using the 300D as my primary creative tool. I did some pretty good work with it and sold the most images I've ever sold. There is a 10 ft tall, 50 ft wide installation of an image I made with that camera at a new home site North of Phoenix. It is made up of 14 shots stitched together from that 6mp sensor. That's the single biggest sale (in more ways than one) that I've ever made.

 

So there I was, wandering along my creative journey, excited about the new technologies that made photography so much more immediate and practical than it had ever been before...and something funny happened. The turning point was right after I started developing my own black and white film again after a 20 year pause. I decided I needed to upgrade my Canon 300D, so I bought a Pentax K10D. Nice camera, superior in every way to my 300D. I had it for 2 days. I just failed to really bond with it. There was no excitement in me over it. The thrill was gone.

Along the way, I'd simply fell in love again with the process and results of using film. 

If I were a professional photographer doing demanding commercial work of any kind, I'd shoot digital and nothing else. It's the only thing that makes sense. But, since I don't make my living with photography, since I only really do it to satisfy myself, I can afford the luxury of my soul satisfying anachronistic ways. 

One more thing...I am a capitalist pig deep, deep in my dirty little soul. As much as I hope and pray film will always be available, I understand the economics of the thing. I will not whine if film goes away, I may cry a bit, but I won't whine. What I will do is buy/freeze enough film to last the rest of my life so I can continue to indulge myself with one of the things I love the most.

To People or Not to People

I don't shoot a lot of people...pretty much just my two boys. There are many reasons for this, the simplest being that I have a very small group of people in my life (I work from home and home school my special needs kid). A more profound reason may be that I've always been overly concerned about the expectations of the people I would shoot. An old building or a scenic view have no expectations and are never uncooperative. People, on the other hand, are frequently a pain in the ass.

Now, I recognize this as a serious weakness in my skills and a missing element in my work that is very limiting...still, I haven't been able to push past this problem with any real or lasting success.

I thought I'd post these just to illustrate the issue to myself. (If it weren't for blogging, I'd be paying big bucks in therapy).

Here are a couple of typical shots showing how I might approach an interesting object, in this case, a 12 ft tall tire.

I like this shot. it's graphic and a bit confusing. It takes a few seconds for you to realize the scale of the thing.

 

The semi-abstract close-up is another frequently used tool in my bag. I like how it allows me to compose bits of the subject that amount to large parts of the photo. Textures become very important.

Now, we add people to the pic...what a difference.

Not only do we start to get a better idea of scale, but the image starts to tell a little story. It's easy to imagine a couple of little girls looking up at that tire and thinking "Wow!"  

I was lucky on this outing that another parent had these two cute little girls along. Otherwise, I'd likely never have gotten anyone in that picture. Waiting forever for someone to stand just right, or asking a stranger to pose...either would have been too much for me.

So, a small victory for me, involving a couple of kids not my own in a photo. I need more of this, if I can only figure out how.

Up For Grabs

I just bought my second Land model 250. This is the camera I want to shoot with for the next 11 months of my Instant 365 project. That means I've got 2 Polaroid Land cameras I don't need. Since I'm independently wealthy, I've decided to try to raise a few bucks for charity with these cameras. 

Here's what I've got:

 

That's a Land 330 on the left and a 440 on the right. 

Here's how you can get one or both of them:

Pledge to donate to the Spirit of America's Polaroids for Marines project. In short, the project puts Polaroid cameras and film in the hands of US Marines in Afghanistan. The cameras are used to help build positive relationships with the locals. Seems like a neat program, using the power of instant photography to make connections between people.

So, decide how much you will donate and post it in the comments here. The auction will close Friday February the 19th at midnight GMT. After the donations are made and verified, I'll ship the cameras out at my expense.

Feel free to bid more than they're worth, it's for a charity after all.

Fine Print

Both cameras are in good working order, I've been using them for a couple of months now.
Starting bid on the Land 330 is $15.
Starting bid on the Land 440 is $20.
USA only please. I want to keep my shipping costs down.
A screen shot of your paypal donation will be required for verification.

 

012910 through 020310

Wasn't sure I was going to make it a couple of days there...but managed.

I just got a Land 250 in and I have to say, I feel I almost wasted my money on the 330 and 440. Not wasted really, because they've done great work, it's just that the viewfinder on the 250 is soooo much nicer and the close-up attachments work on it. I'd have been better off holding out for one of the *50 models to begin with. As usual though, my enthusiasm and impatience have ruled the day.

At this point, I believe I will sell the 330 and 440 and buy another 250.

Here are the last few day's results.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

012210 through 012810

Still managing my daily Instant image for my #365 project. Just about 1 month in, I'm relatively happy with the results. Certainly, it's been a fun time playing with color again. I'm loving what Fuji FP-100C does when slightly under exposed.

I added FP-3000B to my bag, but I can't claim to have gotten a handle on it yet.