Exposing the Millennial Generation to Film!

by:  Michael Raso

Blog by Amy C. Davies
For the past two years the Film Photography Project (FPP) has donated cameras and film to an Oregon high school. Armed with four 35mm SLR camera, two 120 Debonair cameras and 147 rolls of film the students hit the streets to shoot.
In a small high school in the Pacific Northwest one teacher is exposing his millennial generation students to the world of film.
Scio, Oregon is a rural town situated between Eugene and Portland. Jonathon Bernard is language arts teacher at Scio High School and he is also the photography instructor for the student body of nearly 300 students. Three years ago Jonathon began using film camera for his own work. “At first I had a typical point and shoot that I just did snapshots with.”, he said. Then his father gave him a Pentax K1000.
Jonathon said, “It all just happened at the same time. I was able to relearn that (Pentax K1000) as I was teaching the kids.”
Photography 1 & 2 classes are made up of students from all grades. Twenty-one students signed up for the class in the first semester of 2014.
“The first year I did it, some where kind of interested. Most didn't continue on. It was sort of a novelty that I think wore off”, he said. But as the years have gone on the students have become more interested.
Jonathon says the interest has steadily grown. “The last couple of years particularly there's been a lot of more people interested in it. I think it's the art angle of it and that people are interested in the class itself and wanting to create things.”, Jonathon said.
He also thinks some students who live in an on demand, instant gratification world enjoy having to wait. He said it may be a “push back” to digital. “They like actually crafting something.”, he said.
He tells the students, “when you are metering the light and you're turning this dial and that dial and that knob, if a picture actually turns out, you own it.”

The students have been using several Pentax K1000 cameras some of which were donated by the FPP. Michael Raso from the FPP says the collaboration with Scio High School fits perfectly into the philosophy of the podcast. “The FPP has become a global resource for both people who are looking to discard their old film cameras and for groups like the students at Scio School who actually need film equipment. Re-purposing and donating the gear out to students is really what we're all about!”, Michael said.

above: Katherine Miles photo shot by fellow student Dakota Cook / below: Photo by Katherine Miles

Student Katherine Miles has embraced the concept of making a picture. “I have to admit that using film was a bit tricky at first, but I felt like I could really appreciate photography as an art after using it.”, she said. “We only had so much film, so it led us to really focus on getting a perfect shot. I think it was a lot more exciting to use film, but that's not the point.” Miles appreciates the technical aspects of shooting with film. “ She said, “I think film cameras allow you to really capture contrast, and just better exposure and resolution in general.”
Jonathon said that it is really a matter of personality when a student decides whether to continue on with film or go to digital shooting. “Some of them can't handle it. Some of them like the x-factor. I don't know if it's going to turn out or not for a couple of days and some really truly can't deal with it.”

above: Nora Mikolas shot by fellow student Elizabeth Ortega-Valdez / below: photo by Nora Mikolas

Scio High School doesn't have a darkroom so Jonathon has come up with his own workflow. He develops the students' film during his prep period and rolls the reels using a dark bag. He said the students are intrigued by the process. He uses the sink in the staff room which is next door and hangs the drying film in a corner of his classroom.
He said keeping his classroom at 70 degrees helps to “maintain the fluid temperature at 68 degrees”.
Jonathon then scans the negatives on an Epson V500 scanner for the students to see.
Jonathon said the students have been creative in finding subjects for their photos in a small town. “I'm kind of fascinated with as small as the town is, I really don't see many duplicate pictures.”, he said. “They tend to find different angles or different things.” He said they have one business area in town, Main Street. This year students are coming up with new subjects from alleys he didn't know existed.
“They liked the way the dumpster happened to line up with the door, the geometry just sort of worked out.”, he said. “What struck me was how similar types of friends and families and culture can still see different things in the same place they occupy day after day after day for sixteen, eighteen years.”

above: Elizabeth Ortega-Valdez shot by fellow student Nora Mikolas/ below: photo by Elizabeth Ortega-Valdez

Senior, Elizabeth Ortega-Valdez has found an unexpected appreciation for film photography because of the class. “Being able to take nice pictures was never my specialty unless it was with my phone.”, she said. “Then for my senior year, I wanted to take photography class. I thought it's be easy since it was just taking pictures. At first I thought that digital was the way to go for the color and whatnot, but there's something about film that it more real.” Ortega-Valez said about film, “It's comforting.”
Amy C. Davies is a regular contributor to The Film Photography Project. Check out her images on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/capefilmshooter/

problem developing tri-x

Matthew Headrick , Mar 17, 2014; 08:42 p.m.

Recently, all of the Tri-X I have developed (both 120 and 35mm) has turned out like this. I'm using HC-110 dilution B.

5 more minutes in fixer.

Get Your Glow On! PolyPan F BW Film!

Since announcing that PolyPan F would be available in the FPP On-Line Store in 36 exposure rolls, the response was so great that we sold out in less than 24 hours! The new batch is now available! I'm so thrilled at the enthusiasm over this  unique black and white film and I hope to see your PolyPan images! If you haven't visited the FPP Group on Flickr, I hope you will - to share your Poly F images! Super thanks to Mike B! It was his idea to make available 35mm rolls (as the film was only previously available as bulk-load film). Thanks, Mike B!
- Michael Raso, FPP

SHOOTING POLYPAN F!
Guest Blog by Mike B.
As many know, I am a large advocate of Polypan F film.  It's a Cinecopy film, that has little to no anti-halation layer, and can give beautiful bloom effects in bright light.  It is also a very thin film, but surprisingly doesn't scratch easily, perhaps because it is a cinefilm it needs to be robust.

There has been some speculation as to the origins of this film.  Anywhere from it being a Ilford PanF type of film, or some late-run Agfa film.  But in truth, there is only speculation, but word is, and this is still, again, speculation, a Last-Run B&W Cinecopy film from the Shostka Film Company in Russia.  They have been defunct since around 2000 when the Svema film company bought it, which also closed down in 2006.  One thing that I know, is that I just love using this film.  Sure, it's slow, and sure it isn't the most fine grained film there is, but that's fine with me.

above: Desiree Saetia - Photo by Michael Raso / Canon T60 / Canon FD 50mm f1.2 lens / PolyPan F BW film

Whenever I want fine grain, I'll use Ilford PanF+ 50, or Kodak TMAX 100, or even Ilford Delta 100.  Those films are super fine grained.
But when I want grit, contrast and beautiful glowing images, I use Polypan F!

above: "Cold Stone Ingredients" - Canon T-80 35mm SLR - Canon AC 35-70 ƒ/3.5-4.5 Macro / Polypan F @EI80 - Developed in Diafine 5+4

below: "A Pair Of Exaktas" - Rolleicord V TLR - Schneider-Xenar Kreuznach 75mm ƒ/3.5
Polypan F - Developed in TMAX Developer 1+9

Or perhaps there's just something there that I cannot put my finger on, and just have to accept that for as long as Polypan is around, I will continue to use it...

A truly wonderful film!

Red Rock Canyon Park – Las Vegas Nevada – Film Photography

by: Stephanie Susie

March 2014, Posted in film,Personal,Weddings

YAAAYYYYYY!!!  I heart film….as if you didn’t already know that  These are the film images I shot at our styled shoot while we were out in Vegas.  Unfortunately there weren’t a whole heap of them….and here’s why.  So evidently you can’t run 800 ISO film (or higher) thru the x-ray at the airport.  This on top of the fact that my bag was pretty much over the weight limit on the way out there the 800 film had to stay home.  I am a nervous nelly going thru security at airports and to hand them a bag and demand that they not scan it scares the living stuff out of me…..one of these days yes – I am going to have to nut up and deal with it….however this was not the trip!

SOOOOOOO…moral of the story is, I only brought 400 film with me and the latter part of the shoot was a smidge darker than the 400 film could take with the style that I like to shoot.  :)  photo talk bla bla bla…..

I still love them and I hope you do too!

FAVE!!!!!

OH….and FYI – If when you are on your way home your bag weighs 80 pounds and you pay the additional fee for the overage…..the TSA will leave a nice little love note in your bag that you will find when you start to unpack

What is Reciprocity Failure?

 Anonymous

"Lower Manhattan Glowing" - by Shawn Hoke, via FPP Flickr Pool

Whether you’re using a lower speed film in daylight, trying to maximize your depth of field in a landscape, or just setting up the camera for an exposure at night, sooner or later you’re going to start pushing the limits of your film’s light gathering ability. As light becomes more scarce, the silver halide grains residing in your film will be less uniformly struck by photons, causing a steep drop in density after a few seconds of needed exposure. This exponentially diminishing response to low light levels is more popularly known as a film’s reciprocity failure. Not all films are created equal, and some will respond better than others, but here’s what you can typically expect:
B&W Film - exposures in excess 1-2 seconds will result in reduced density, yielding very thin, if not non-existent shadows.
Color Negative Film - exposures in excess of 20 seconds will result in color-shifting, as dye layers of the film will absorb light unevenly over the prolonged exposure.
Slide Film - exposures in excess of 5 seconds have color shifts similar to color negative. In high saturation films such as Fuji Velvia, this shifting is much more extreme.

"We Saw It Happen" - by Kevin Joes, via FPP Flickr Pool

So how can we avoid the “Effffed!” moment after getting our images developed? Compensation, compensation, compensation! In B&W films, you compensate by adding more exposure time, and developing slightly less time. In color emulsions, you add slightly more time, and apply color filtration to compensate for color shifts. But to what degree to we make these changes? Luckily, chemical engineers and other well trained film professionals have rigorously tested films before bringing them to market. Almost every major film out there gives us a general use data sheet, telling us what working exposures we can expect from a given metered scene. Take, for example, this lovely chart (page 2) for Kodak’s classic B&W film, Tri-X.
Dissecting B&W exposure compensation a little more, why is it necessary to reduce development time if we’re already increasing the exposure time? The simple answer is to save highlights. During that longer exposure, photons hitting the film emulsion in the highlight region will give the silver halides plenty of light. To make sure there’s still some detail in the final image’s highlights, you reduce the development time; this will give the shadows adequate time to develop while taming just how dense the highlights get. In other words, we’re taking a very high contrast exposure and applying a low contrast development to obtain a “normal” negative. For more information and much more on exposure and development, I highly recommend Ansel Adams’ The Negative.

"Patiently Waiting" - by Jeff Soderquist, via FPP Flickr Pool

If anything here is starting to sound too technical, have no fear. Remember that a vast majority of the pictures you’ll be taking won’t even need to consider reciprocity failure. But if you regularly shoot at night or with a large format camera, however, you may want to get to know your film a little better with a five minute “Da Google” search. A couple other ways to “cheat” reciprocity failure is to shoot with a film stock that has very low reciprocity failure or responds well to color shifting. In the B&W world, the hot film for long exposures the past couple of years has been Fuji Across 100. For exposures 2 minutes or less (that’s right, 2 minutes!), no compensation is needed. For anything after that only needs ½ stop adjustment or 1.5 times the indicated exposure time. For color film shooters a, now harder to find, popular solution was to shoot slower speed tungsten balanced slide film such as Ektachrome 64T for a really long time, as the shifts would lean more towards daylight, no filtering required! You can see a great example below:

Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina - by Rafakoy, via FPP Flickr Pool

So now that you’re in “the know” on reciprocity failure, get out there any time of day and shoot. Stop all the way down in broad daylight, shoot with ridiculously slow film in low light, and even play around with color shifts. Just use that trusty tripod, remember the pros and cons of your film, stay super positive, and have fun! And when you get those tasty film images developed, be sure to head over to the Film Photography Project’s Flickr Group, and post ‘em there too.
Happy shooting and long live film.

CAMERA MOD: Brownie Bullet + Holga = FrankenHolga!

 Gregg B. McNeill

"It's ALIVE!!!" FrankenHolga is born.

It all started with a Holga, my first Holga (you always remember your first). When I bought it almost 10 years ago, I had no idea that it would be one of many, nor did I realize that it would go through a transformation into what would become one of my favorite cameras ever.
The first incarnation was the removal of the shutter and lens assembly and the installation of the .0059" pinhole. To distinguish the pinhole version in my bag, I painted the top "safety yellow". It stayed in that configuration for about 8 years. I took some amazing images with it.
But, alas, creative boredom being what it is...
I was admiring a recently acquired Brownie Bullet. I was intrigued. I wanted to use it, but I needed a few more metal take-up reels to make it work. What I really wanted was a 120 back for it. This got me thinking about what I wanted from the Bullet. It was the lens.
I estimated the Holga's focal distance from the lens to the film plane with a ruler and put a mark on the Brownie body. Cutting the Bakelite plastic Bullet down to size with a Dremmel Tool was a very loud and messy process. I had to carve away some of the Holga as well. I secured what was left of the Bullet to the hacked Holga body with black paper tape. I had to tape over the Brownie's periscope eyepiece as well.
I assumed the Bullet's shutter was roughly 1/60th to 1/100th of a second. As a quick and dirty test (instead of potentially wasting an entire roll of 120 film), I prepped some photo paper and exposed some paper negatives, which I contact printed to check for exposure and focus. The relative sharpness of the image and the soft edges amazed me.
The resulting square image was a bit smaller than the standard Holga 6x6 image. The image was so much smaller, in fact, I wondered if I could get 16 images out of the roll. On a trek to a local market, FrankenHolga created a wonderful montage by perfectly connecting all of the images on the roll edge to edge. A FrankenHolgarama.
The addition of a Polaroid back added to the fun, versatility and the name, thus becoming a FrankenHolgaroid.

“empty metro car” - multiple exposures with the FrankenHolga

“Vancouver shore portrait”

“Nathan and Keith at The Rugby”

I’ve been, needless to say, very pleased with the results of this ongoing experiment. I never expected it to work, let alone become one of my favorites. FrankenHolga continues to amaze and delight me with its unique outlook on the world. Both of its viewfinders are useless, leaving FrankenHolga to determine what it wants to show me. Giving up the control to a camera you trust has been a great release for me. I love the images and the reaction I get from people who see FrankenHolga for the first time.
So get out there and hack up some of those classic cameras gathering dust on your selves. They really would rather be working anyway, right? Just ask them, they'll tell you.
Check out my FrankenHolga set on flickr

Gregg B. McNeill is a Filmmaker and Photographer currently living in Scotland, on the Isle of Bute. He runs a production company called Big baby Productions Ltd. shooting documentaries, features and music videos.
Gregg's photostream on Flickr.com

Extraordinary Photos of Animals Posed in Human Situations from the 1910's

Extraordinary Photos of Animals Posed in Human Situations from the 1910's

These photographs were taken by American photographer Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953), who dressed his cats, Rags and Fluff, as well as the pets (dogs, pigs, rabbits and birds) of his friends and neighbors, and posed them in human situations with props, often with captions.

Those viewing his photography instantly think there is a trick to it. However, Mr. Frees worked in a time in history when tricks in photography didn't exist. The photographer simply had to wait patiently for the shot he wanted. In Mr. Frees' own words, "These unusual photographs of real animals were made possible only by patient, unfailing kindness on the part of the photographer at all times."

His career in animal photography took off at the turn of the 20th century when his pictures first appeared on novelty postcards and calendars. The March 1, 1937, edition of LIFE magazine reatured an article on Mr. Frees titled, "Speaking of Pictures...These are Harry Frees's Lifework". The article explains that Frees's career as a photographer of dressed animals began at a birthday party in 1906, when a paper party hat was passed around the dinner table and landed on the pet cat's head. Harry took a picture and a career was begun! He took others and sold them to a postcard printer, who clamored for more.

In the preface to "Animal Land on the Air", Harry Whittier Frees describes working with his subjects. "Rabbits are the easiest to photograph in costume, but incapable ot taking many "human" parts. Puppies are tractable when rightly understood, but the kitten is the most versatile animal actor, and possesses the greatest variety of appeal. The pig is the most difficult to deal with, but effective on occasion. The best period of young animal models is a short one, being when they are from six to ten weeks of age. An interesting fact is that a kitten's attention is best held through the sense of sight, while that of a puppy is most influenced by sound, and equally readily distracted by it. The native reasoning powers of young animals are, moreover, quite as pronounced as those of the human species, and relatively far surer."

Frees' animal pictures became more elaborate. His exposures were taken at 1/5th of a second and two-thirds of the negatives had to be discarded. He rented his models from neighbors, breeders, and pet shops and said his work was so nerve-racking that he only photographed three months a year. The rest of the time was spent preparing new props, scenes, and situations.