So, I've been bitten by the Shutter Bug. Actually, I was first bitten in elementary school, but such wounds never heal. In fact, they flare up from time to time and the symptoms tend to become more severe with each episode... :-)
Cameras I've used, in approximate chronological order of first use:
Details on the other cameras to follow, eventually...
What have I shot with those?
My ``undrawn'' image gallery. Quite a few images now. I should probably throw up some HTML to better organize them and provide thumbnails...
11 March 2004. I was given a selection of oddball film spools. From left to right they are: 127, 620, 120/220, 116, 124. See also an overhead view of the spools. Note that the 124 spool has a wooden core.
Having acquired a taste for serious chemical photography, I also have taken my first steps at developing my own black and white negatives, thanks to a friend who let me leech off of his stock of chemicals. I've even gone out and got my own tank/reels and supply of chemicals, but haven't mixed any of them up yet. I need to find someplace relatively dust/lint-free so I can hang them for drying.
Eventually, I'll want to print them, assuming I can arrange for something to use as a darkroom. But equipment collection has already begun. I have a Federal model 311 enlarger that appears to have been originally produced for the U.S. military, but then repainted and sold on the civilian market. It's a nice wrinkle-finish flat gray--except the underside of the base/easel, which is olive drab!
I got it and quite a few accessories for $40. The catch: no lenses. Seems its optics were far superior to those of a sleek new Beseler, so the seller kept the lenses and adapted them to his new enlarger. But in short order, I found an inexpensive 105mm enlarging lens on eBay and all I have to do is build the lens board to mount it.
``geekcon 0'' was held 2-11, 14, 16-18 July 2004 at Tommy Johnson's house, some 1500 miles away from my own. So, I loaded up my entire photography department in my car and drove there over the course of 2 days. The first project was to fabricate the lens board for my enlarger.
We then proceeded to shoot a pile of B&W film, process it and print it ourselves. We also made holograms using Tommy's holography apparatus. We also shot a pile of 16mm movie film, mostly to try and do something useful with some really old stuff languishing in Tommy's freezer (there was a handwritten ``12/93'' on one can).
When a friend loaned me his Minolta srT102, there was still a partial roll of Kodachrome 64 in it. I finished up the roll (about 6 frames) and then started hunting for where I could get it processed. It seems Kodachrome has generally fallen out of favor because of its rather complex processing routine. In fact, Kodak seems to be trying to kill off Kodachrome, now only offering it in 135 cartridges where it used to be available in 120 as well.
The more I read, the more I wanted to shoot some Kodachrome of my own. It has superior image quality and is the most archival of any color film, negative or transparency. Basically, Kodachrome is a multilayer Black & White negative film with filter layers between the image layers to separate out the colors. When processed, the color dyes are laid down according to, and completely replace, the silver-bearing photosensitive material. The result is an image rendered in pure dyes which will last a century when properly stored. (Ektachrome, on the other hand, is a dye-coupled film in which the silver-bearing materials remain in the processed emulsion, eventually oxidizing and turning the image blue. At best, Ektachrome will only last 50 years even in the best of storage conditions.)
That said, I soon discovered Dwayne's Photo Service and their consumer division Happy D Photo which processes all manner of Kodachrome slides and movie film. The results are stunning.
When I got the enlarger (see above), I was also given a small Da-Lite "Star-Lite" projection screen and three slide projectors of unknown condition. Of the three, a Kodak Carousel 550 showed some wear, but worked very well. (A Kodak Carousel 850 that doesn't move the slide tray may be repairable, but I haven't investigated it further. A Simpson-Sears Continental 45 projector was not investigated due to lack of compatible slide tray. It may end up being gutted to construct a projector for 120 slides...)
