Am I here yet?
The post-trip film processing continues. I’m down to four rolls to develop. Lots of scanning remains, but I’ve got enough of it done to resume more regular posting. With the bulk of the processing done, I’m just now starting to feel like I’m back from vacation even though I’ve been back at work for a couple of weeks. The post travel readjustment always takes me a bit of time, but this one is taking longer than usual. More on that later, perhaps.
Everything from this trip was shot on TriX with the M6 and the 50 Hex, processed in Xtol 1+1 for 9 minutes @ 68F (or the equivalent time/temp depending on how cold the water was) and scanned on the trusty Scan Dual IV. No major equipment troubles, but it looks like I had a shutter problem for half a dozen frames on one roll, with vertical streaks marring the frames. A cla might be in order. I suspect that my M6 spent most of its former life on a shelf, so the shutter may need some attention.
I was mostly happy with just the one lens. I could have gone wider at times, but for every wide shot that I wanted, there were plenty of opportunities for a tighter view. A second lens probably wouldn’t have killed me, but we spent a lot of time on our feet, so I was glad to have little to carry. Maybe next time I’ll just take the 35 for the sake of variety.
I’m Kreativ
In other news, I’ve been presented with a Kreativ Blogger award by Amy Sakurai. Many thanks Amy. Per the rules of the game:
Six things that make me happy:
- Kate
- the three major food groups: beer, coffee, pizza
econtalklet’s just leave that at the complexity of the world and the appreciation thereof- the Sunday paper and 3 hours to kill
- seeing eye dogs
- waking up at four a.m. to develop film - really
Six other bloggers who are Kreativ:
- Steve Williams over at Scooter in the Sticks
- Bernhard Wolf over at Yet another cute B/W-Color blog
- Kéa of kea-etc
- Debra Broughton at Nothing to write home about
- Hikari
- Joe over at the Thirsty Pilgrim
Well, that was fun ;-)
I’m really looking forward to seeing your view of 2 places that I know, especially Amsterdam. Despite having lived there for 4 years, I have not one photo from that time.
Thanks for identifying me as Kreativ. It is an honor to be included in the same group as you. I’ll have to look at the others in your list. None are on my scooter radar!
Steve Williams
Scooter in the Sticks
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Kongrats on the well deserved Kreativ award.
One word of advice, don’t have children if you still want 3 hours on a sunday with the paper ;-)
Oh yeah, I forgot…. congratulations on the Kreativ Award. You probably already know this but I have been and continue to be impressed with your work and your commitment to your personal photography.
Steve Williams
Scooter in the Sticks
Thanks, Steve.
Nice to have you back. I’m envious of your trip. The picture of Kate is great.
Welcome back - really nice picture of Kate - perfectly composed and executed. One of your very best to date.
Max
Welcome back to you both.
I too liked the portrait of Kate - I usually do! -the out of focus figure in the background adds a little mystery.
Can you please tell me where this was taken? Is it a war memorial of some kind?
Graham
I really like the geometry of some of your recent architectural stuff, e.g. the one above with the 3 vertical posts.
PS what David said …
All, thanks for the kind words.
Graham, that’s at the Memorial for the Murdered Jew of Europe.
Congrats on the Kreativ award and thanks for including me on your list. Your photos are excellent - keep up the good work.
Yo, thanks Matt!
Beautiful shots and beautiful site.
cheers
Joe
I am happy for your award Matt, you deserve it. The last photo here is great, a pity that Kate has a kind of a hypnotized expression… Xtol has so far failed to impress me with Tri-X: while the grain is fine, the sharpness is nothing special if compared to acutance developers, and the tonality is worse than from D76 not to mention the pyro developers or Rodinal. As for the one camera one lens story, if I go with one body one lens it is the ZI and a 35mm, but prefer two bodies, one with a 50 and the other with a 28mm, even if the 50 usually gets the bulk of the action… You could get a 0.85x M6 to be coupled with your Hexar, and that would solve the story, or sell both and get the Zeiss Ikon.
I have my doubts about the utility of acutance developers for 35mm work, where the increase in grain often cancels out any gains in edge definition. There are other reasons to use these developers, but I don’t find the sharpness argument compelling. As far as Xtol goes, when used 1+1, the solvent action is fairly limited, and the resulting negs can be well sharpened in PS. Resolution aside, I’m mostly interested in Xtol for it’s tonal separation, relative convenience, stability - something of a problem with D76 - and low toxicity, the last being a real concern with pyro developers.