M6TTL, 28 Hex, TMY2@250, Rodinal 1:50

M6TTL, 28 Hex, Fuji Neopan Acros, Rodinal 1:50

M6TTL, 28 Hex, Fuji Acros, Rodinal 1:50

M6TTL, 28 Hex, Fuji Acros, Rodinal 1:50

That roll of Acros has been banging around in a box through many moves.

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:100

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:100

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:100

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:100

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:100

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:100

and I am massively allergic.

This Neopan 100ss is not bad stuff. The purple tint takes some extra washing to clear, but no problems other than that. Developed in Rodinal 1:100, 72F, 16.25 minutes, 30 seconds initial agitation, 3 inversions per minute thereafter.

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, FP4, Xtol

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, FP4, Xtol

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, FP4+, Xtol

Despite having a perfectly good kitchen table and chairs, we seem to eat most of our meals sitting in front of that picture window. The world just goes by.

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, FP4+, Xtol

Well, today was a productive day. I gave myself a haircut which Kate won’t have to spend too much time fixing, and I finished my SoFoBoMo book. Get it here:

this is not there

Update 6/17/2009: I realized this morning that my ‘finished’ book is actually fairly far short of the required 35 photos. I’m happy with it the way it is though, so I’m disinclined to add photos to fill it out. At the same time, I’m not entirely comfortable claiming the finishers badge on sofobomo.org, so I’ve decided to take the book off the official site. The book will remain available on my site at the link below.

I’m quite satisfied with the end result of the project. That I came in under the 35 photo minimum is somewhat irrelevant to my own goals. I put together a collection of photos that I like and got them into a book format that makes me fairly happy. I’m going to call that a success.

this is not there, the unfinished edition

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, FP4+, Xtol

Contact sheet for roll 2

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, FP4, Xtol

One from version 2 of my sofobomo project.

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol

I’m starting over, scrapping the Paris photos and nearly completely rethinking my SoFoBoMo project. The Paris photos just weren’t working for me. I never quite like my own travel photos anyway. They always seem to have a momentum that belongs to someone else, as if the vacation is taking the photos instead of me. All the novelty of travel overwhelms my sense of my own style. I’m much more successful in a place I know.

So, vacation photos out, here photos in. The roll from the first half of this week has 20+ photos that I’d be happy to put together into a book. Hopefully I’ll find the balance of 35 on the half-shot roll in the camera. I should still be able to finish in time, but this reminds me of a university essay; three weeks fooling around, chasing tangents and banging my head against the wall, only to scrap the whole thing and rewrite in a fit of energy in the last few days.

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol

It took me less than a week to get all the film developed and scanned, so I’m a bit ahead of schedule. This was my first opportunity to put the Coolscan 9000 to the kind of daily use it takes to really get to know a piece of equipment. Somethings I’ve learned:

• You can have VueScan ring a bell when it is done, useful when you feel like leaving the room to read book.
• Click the box for Fine mode unless you want to find banding in your scans.
• The Coolscan 9000 is much more capable of dealing with full density negs than the ScanDual IV was, to the extent that I’ve started to correct my long running habit of under-developing.
• The two strip 35mm holder is great for big scanning projects. Yeah, it doesn’t hold the negs completely flat, , but I’ve only found one scan that showed obvious results of field curvature, and I suppose you could always rescan with the glass carrier later.

I’ve now got two weeks to put the book together from the raw scan files. Apart from one roll that I dropped while hanging to dry, the negatives are remarkably clean, so the post processing is just inversion and curve work, and I’ve already made my first pass at that while scanning. I’ll need to make a second and third pass, and go back and redo some of the conversions from the first pass, but here is what I’ve got so far:

Contact Sheet PDF

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock

Kate and I are back from our vacation to Paris, where I started my SOFOBOMO fuzzy month. I’ve now got a pile of film to scan and develop, 10 rolls, four more than I had planned on. I’ve already developed four of those, and the scanner is humming along beside me as a I type. In addition to the usual Raw scan files, I’m also having vuescan output a JPEG with the TMax preset. These JPEGs are dark and low contrast, but they let me quickly eyeball the whole roll without doing one by one conversions of each frame. Hopefully these will help with the editing process, which if all goes well I should be able to start next week. Until then, I’ll be developing and scanning.

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, TMY2, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, Lens Unrecorded, TMY2, Xtol Stock

This might be the last post for a while. I’m off to Paris for week on Friday, and there isn’t much in the photo queue between now and then. I will be starting my SOFOBOMO fuzzy month while on vacation, so more on that when I return.

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

This much I know. Kate and I are bound for a week’s vacation in Paris at the end of May, so I’ll be starting my SOFOBOMO fuzzy month then. Subject; my vacation. Nothing fancier than that. I’m not much of a project photographer by nature, so I need to keep things simple, lest the whole thing implode.

I’ll be shooting with the M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2 and six rolls of film. I’m still undecided about the film stock. Shooting color and dropping it off for processing has some appeal, particularly with the tight time constraints of the project, but the processing burden wouldn’t be so bad with six rolls of B&W. Whatever stock I choose, I am definitely limiting myself to six rolls. Last year, I shot too much and for too long, so this year I plan to spend more time on editing and assembling the book. I plan on posting PDF contact sheets of each roll when the shooting is done, so the editing process will be out there for all to see.

That’s the plan, such as it is. I might end up with a book of happy vacation snaps, but that wouldn’t be a bad outcome for the project.

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

Nothing like a 30 inch monitor to completely isolate you in the world of work. You can just fall right into that thing.

M6TTL, 50 Hex, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock, Coolscan 9000

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, TMY2, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

This is me shooting this.

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, 50 Hex, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, 50 Hex, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 400, Xtol Stock

M6TTL, 50 Hex, Neopan 400, Xtol 1+3

M6TTL, ZM Biogon 35 F2, Neopan 100ss, Rodinal 1:50

M6TTL, 50 Hex, Neopan 400, Xtol 1+3

M6TTL, 50 Hex, Neopan 400, Rodinal Stand

M6TTL, 50 Hex, Neopan 400, Rodinal Stand