Hollywood Theater
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Kodak Retina IIIc, Super Ricohflex | Tags: 120 film, 35mm film, cameras, classic cameras, film photography, hollywood theater, Kodak, Kodak Retina IIIc, photography, Portra, Portra 400, Super Ricohflex 1 Comment »
The Hollywood Theater opened it’s doors on Johnson Street in NE Minneapolis in 1935, and has been closed since 1987. It’s in rough shape, but has recently been re-opened on a limited basis for some theatrical performances. And the local arts television show MN Original recently filmed a nice performance by local musician Mason Jennings in the theater, in which the theater’s beautifully decrepit interior plays a starring role.
It was designated a local historic landmark in 1990 and the city of Minneapolis has owned it since 1993. There have been many redevelopment plans discussed over the years, but nothing has happened so far. It would be an amazing space if it were renovated and re-opened as a live-performance theater.
Another feature of the part of NE Minneapolis I call home is the resident flock of wild turkeys that roam the streets, sidewalks and yards. They’re frequently seen outside the local coffee shop and corner restaurant, or sitting on the small strip of grass next to the craft store, in front of the funeral home, or even sitting on the park benches lining the sidewalk. They’re quite used to the people and cars around, and take their sweet time crossing the street. They’ve become symbols of our little corner of NE Minneapolis. As I was taking the Hollywood Theater photos above, they wandered by, so I had to snap a shot of them in the street.
The second photo of the theater was taken with my Super Ricohflex on Portra 400 film, and the rest were shot on my Retina IIIc, also on Portra 400. The third photo — the straight-on shot — was cropped square from the 35mm frame because I liked the composition better, and straightened a bit in Lightroom. The first image, taken with the Retina, was adjusted in Lightroom — I added some Recovery to darken the sky that was a bit washed out, and a little fill light to brighten up the darker areas under the overhang. It gives it a little bit of an HDR look, I think, but hopefully not too much — I tried not to over-do it. I’m always amazed at how much detail can be pulled out of the highlights and shadows on a good scan of a negative.
On the Rocks
Posted: February 13, 2012 Filed under: Rolleicord III | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, Ektar 100, film photography, Lake Superior, photography, Rolleicord 4 Comments »
Here are a couple of simple detail shots of the ice-covered rocks lining the shore of Lake Superior. It makes for some difficult walking.
Shot on Ektar 100 film with the Rolleicord III hand-held.
Tranquil morning on Lake Superior
Posted: February 9, 2012 Filed under: Rolleicord III | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, Ektar 100, film photography, Lake Superior, old cameras, photography, Rolleicord 1 Comment »
I captured this image just after dawn a couple of weeks ago while staying at a great little cabin on the shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. I think the temperature was below zero (fahrenheit, for my non-American readers) that morning, and the rocks were incredibly slick with ice from the spray of water splashing on them. It’s been an unusually warm winter here in Minnesota, so Lake Superior has not frozen — some years this part of the lake does freeze, others it doesn’t. If you’re lucky enough to be there when huge chunks of ice are breaking up and crashing and piling up on shore, it’s an amazing display of nature’s power. The tranquility of the lake on this particular morning is enhanced through a long exposure that softened the small waves tumbling over the rocks.
I used my Rolleicord loaded with Ektar 100 film, and metered the light with my Gossen Luna Pro handheld lightmeter. I believe I stopped the camera down to about f/16 or f/22 and counted about eight seconds of exposure. I had my lightweight travel tripod’s legs wedged between the icy rocks (and my boots wedged between rocks to keep myself upright). I had forgotten to bring a cable release, so I had to hold the shutter open by hand and was worried about camera shake with my lightweight tripod, but it seems to have remained pretty solid.
I’ll have a whole series of images of this tree and the ice and rocks, as I sort through some film that I just had developed and scanned. I should have a lot of images to share, and even some ‘new’ old cameras to talk about, including the oldest one I’ve ever shot with, a folding #1 Kodak Jr made, I believe, in 1914.
Fall on Lake Superior – Retina IIIc
Posted: February 2, 2012 Filed under: Kodak Retina IIIc | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, film photography, gooseberry falls state park, Kodak Retina, Kodak Retina IIIc, photography, Portra Leave a comment »
A kind of funny thing happened when I shot that last photo. There was a small clearing in some trees where you could get a good view of the falls from a hiking trail. A guy stepped out of my way so I could take a photo, and after I snapped my one shot, he asked “did it turn out?” I glanced at my 1956 Kodak Retina IIIc and said “yep, looks good” before continuing along the trail.
These photos were made at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota. The extremely dry fall slowed the normally-spectacular falls to a mere trickle. Those people in the photo above are standing where a lot of water is typically flowing.
I’ll have some newer photos to post soon, as I just sent several rolls of 35mm and 120 in for processing and scanning. In the meantime, I thought I’d dig back through some older shots. These were shot with the Retina IIIc on Portra 400. The bright sunlight was a bit harsh that day, especially at mid-day when these were shot, but the Retina and Portra handled it pretty well.
Stone Arch Bridge – Seagull 4B
Posted: January 24, 2012 Filed under: Seagull | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, film photography, photography, Seagull 2 Comments »
Seagull 4B
As explained in the previous post, I won this camera from the Film Photography Podcast (thanks again, guys!!!!). This Chinese camera is kind of a low-end twin-lens reflex, with a bit of a soft lens, but overall it has a pretty well-built feel and is easy and fun to use. If you want to try out medium format photography with a TLR, and found one of these for a good price, this would be a fine way to start. You could probably pick up one of these for the price of one of the popular plastic toy cameras. It was likely modeled after a Rolleiflex or Rolleicord or maybe a YashicaMat, but it’s definitely not of the same high quality as these German and Japanese standard-bearers.
I like the results, though. The images are pretty sharp, without too much softness around the edges. The only negative thing I have to say is that the out-of-focus quality (or bokeh) in some images is not as pleasing as in images from some other cameras for some reason. If I knew more about lenses I could probably tell you why, but I’ll just say that I can see a difference between the blurred areas in some of these photos, and those in images takes with other cameras like my Rolleicord. Instead of a pleasing rounded blur, there seems to be a directional, oblong blur, especially in blurred areas toward the edge of the image.
I look forward to using it some more.
Winner, winner – Seagull TLR
Posted: January 3, 2012 Filed under: Seagull | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, film photography, photography, Seagull 4 Comments »
I’ll follow up with more info later, but for now I just felt like posting a photo that I shot with my Seagull twin-lens reflex. I won this camera in a prize drawing from the fine folks at the Film Photography Podcast. It is my very favorite podcast, and while listening a few months ago I was thrilled to hear my name drawn for the prize. They shipped the camera right out to me and even threw in a roll of 120 film for me. These guys are great, and if you haven’t listened to the podcast, you have to check it out. I’ve unfortunately not shot with the Seagull a lot yet, but it’s a nice camera and I’ll be sure to write a complete review and post more photos soon. For now, this was my favorite from the first roll I shot in it, while walking around the Mississippi River and the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis.
Historic Rolleiflex
Posted: December 30, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, photography 1 Comment »Have you ever seen a camera in a museum and wished you could shoot with it? Well, maybe we just need to ask. Here’s a great story about somebody who did just that – someone who was given a remarkable opportunity to use a historic Rolleiflex. And he created some beautiful images with it. Read the whole story here.
This is the first time I’ve used this blog to post a link to something like this. Let me know if you like this. I’m inclined to just stick to my usual posts of my own photos, but maybe I’ll start adding some posts about interesting film-photography related stuff I see elsewhere.
-Rick
Old film discovered in my Pentax K1000
Posted: December 27, 2011 Filed under: Pentax K1000 | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, film photography, kodak tmax 400, Pentax k1000, photography, Tmax, wide angle lens 6 Comments »
I pulled my old Pentax K1000 off a shelf recently and decided to try shooting it again, only to discover that it still had film in it – it was just sitting there waiting to be used. I didn’t know when I had last used it, but figured it was around the time I got my first digital camera. There were still a few shots left, so I put a new battery in the camera so I could use the light meter, shot the rest of the roll and had it developed. Turned out it was loaded with Kodak Tmax 400 film. Judging from the age of my son in the shots, this film sat in the camera for about ten years, and no doubt endured some hot weather during that time. The images on the negs came out extremely thin, like they were severely underexposed, and very low contrast – so that apparently is what happens as Tmax ages. The images that I shot recently were just as thin as the ones shot nine years ago, so it didn’t seem to make a difference if the film was exposed when the film was new, then sat, or if it aged before being shot. I did some major curves adjustments in Lightroom to pull out these images. The first two images are old ones, the other two are recent ones. The image of the leaves has the end of the roll visible at the left edge.
The old K1000 seems to still work great. I got this camera as a gift from my parents when I was in high school, and I’m sure I’ve shot way more photos on it than any other camera. Picking it up again after all these years, it took no time at all to feel comfortable shooting it and knowing right where the few controls are (right at your fingertips on a couple simple dials, not hidden inside an electronic menu).
The lens that I have on it is a Tokina f:2.8 28mm that I bought in college. I had wanted a wide angle lens but couldn’t afford much at the time, and this was a pretty cheap lens — but in my opinion it turned out to be a pretty darn good lens. I shot for years with that one lens after my 50mm got dropped and broken (it was on the camera at the time, and the camera was fine). I love the wide angle of that 28mm focal length, and some of my favorite images were shot with it.
Mat Marrash wrote a nice article about the K1000 as the perfect starter camera on the Film Photography Podcast site. It was a perfect starter camera for me. Using a basic full-manual camera like this is a great way to learn.
I’m looking forward to shooting this camera some more.
I wonder how many half-shot rolls of film are sitting in other peoples’ cameras. There might be some great family memories just waiting to be developed.
Guest Camera – Zeiss Ikon Tenax
Posted: December 17, 2011 Filed under: Zeiss Ikon Tenax | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, film photography, photography, Tenax, Zeiss 2 Comments »
Zeiss Ikon Tenax
This fun little viewfinder camera has a nice sharp lens, and one of the biggest, brightest viewfinders I’ve ever seen on a camera.
It belongs to my friend John, and I did some repair work to get it shooting (and did a little damage in the process – you can read about that on the camera page linked below). I shot a roll of regular Kodak Gold or something like that in ASA 200. It shot nice photos regardless of the minor damage I did to the lens.
Mill City Panorama
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: Kodak Retina Automatic III | Tags: cameras, classic cameras, film photography, Kodak, Kodak Retina, photography 1 Comment »
St. Anthony Falls panorama auto-stitched in Photoshop from two photos taken with the Kodak Retina Automatic III. The concrete wall is the side of the lock that allows boat and barge traffic to navigate the falls, and the buildings beyond are mostly what once was the heart of Minneapolis industry — the flour mills (which were powered by the falls, through an elaborate system of tunnels that brought the water under the mills to drive the machinery). You can click the image to see it slightly larger.
