I skipped my normal 4 miles Saturday morning and got into the darkroom around 8:30. Except for a short lunch break I didn’t come out until 6:30 … conveniently just in time for dinner! It is pretty unusual for me to print more than two new images in any one day. My routine is fairly efficient and I can complete a finished print short of the final selenium toning steps in about and hour and a half to two hours (I wash and dry the prints, then store them until I have a sufficient number to tone). So about four hours plus set up and clean up is about what I am good for.

However, in the last couple of sessions my prints have required relatively little dodging and burning and things have gone faster. During my last printing session completed three prints. On Saturday I finished six! Strange! Probably a rare stroke of luck, or maybe I am becoming less critical – I hope not!!! Maybe it has to do with the paper I have been using recently. Maybe it’s due to good clean living… or it’s just a fluke. In any event, I’m sure not going to complain!

After the demise of Zone VI paper I used Forte VC FB glossy paper for a number of years and truly loved it. Unfortunately it also went the way of many great papers and stopped being manufactured. While I still have 5 boxes left in the freezer, I knew it was time to find a replacement.

I read that Bruce Barnbaum loved Fomabrom Variant III. Bruce also used Forte and his use of that fine paper originally convinced me that I should give it a try. However, several years ago he found Fomabrom Variant III to be its superior. In fact he found it to be superior to Bergger and Adox as well. Enough said – I purchased a 25-sheet package of 8×10 glossy FB and gave it a whirl.

I did a little more research on the Internet and discovered that Arista EDU Ultra was apparently re-badged Fomabrom Variant III at a less expensive price. OK, I’m game. So I bought a 100-sheet box of glossy FB.

And guess what … as best as I can tell the two papers are in fact the same.!

Now that I finally finished my final bag of Zone VI print developer I have been using Photographer’s Formulary Liquidol, said to be a replacement for that fine product. As the name implies it’s a liquid concentrate that mixes 1 part to 9 parts water and develops most papers in roughly 1 minute … nice! So far so good and I think it will be a keeper.

One interesting item of note is that the paper’s manufacture says you need to use a red safelight instead of the normal OC safelight. This is necessary as the paper is orthochromatically sensitized. No problem; I am grateful to my workshop attendee that told me about red LED bulbs available on the Internet that can be used for safelights. Yup … and less then 3 bucks each!! I have tested them; they are completely safe and will last for years!

So how is the paper? First off, it’s nice and heavy. I like that. With Liquidol, it’s neutral to slightly cool with a bright white base. Prints like a dream with super highlights, deep blacks and fantastic shadow detail. And at least with the negatives I have just printed so far, very little manipulation needs to be done. I really can’t explain it. So I won’t try. In short I think it’s great (Note: I have not toned it yet and I will report back in Part 2 once have done that)!

That’s the good news. Now for the not so good news. Once I finished the Fomabrom and started using the Arista I noticed something I hadn’t seen before … residue left in the developer. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. Then I realized that some of the emulsion was peeling off the edges of the paper while in the developer!!! As I got deeper into the box, it happened more frequently $#@%^#$%^&* Fortunately, it never peeled as far as the image area on the paper, but as you can imagine, most disconcerting!

I don’t remember this occurring with the Fomabrom, so I am a little disappointed. Not sure if this is an anomaly, a problem with the rebranded paper, or with both the Arista and the Fomabrom papers. If anyone has any thoughts or similar experiences please chime in!

I’m just about at the end of the box now. I like the paper so much, that despite the creepy molting emulsion, I will buy more. Except the next batch will be Fomabrom. We will see what happens. Stay tuned.

Yes, I know this is taken from a Beatles song. Precisely, from the comparatively under appreciated Let It Be album. It’s one of my favorite Beatles songs and I think it is appropriate as a lead-in to telling you about what I have used, why, and how I got to where I am now. It’s a sometime meandering road, with a few detours along the way, but I think I have ended up in a good place.

You might find it interesting because it really isn’t about GAS per se, but about a journey of trial and error, and learning about what you are comfortable with to accomplish what you want to do. As I have said elsewhere, you can make a great picture with any camera/lens … and really, isn’t a camera just a light tight box that has a lens mounted to it and holds film? Yes that’s true, however, in my opinion, anyone that says there isn’t something special about the intimate relationship you have with a particular mechanical device (primarily the camera body and to a lesser extent the lens) and how it works is simply not telling the truth.

Maybe this will be instructive; it surely was fun writing and it brought back many fond and not so fond memories – so here we go!

I started out with a Kodak Brownie as a young boy and progressed on to a Kodak Instamatic. As I became a teenager I became more interested in photography. Wanting more control over the camera, I graduated to an Argus C3, and finally to Voigtlander and Konica fixed lens rangefinders. I loved taking pictures but I also couldn’t get enough of going to the various local camera stores that were in walking or bicycle distance from where I lived. There I could look at all the new and used cameras, talk to the people behind the counters and learn everything I could. They would let me hold and marvel at anything I wanted to see even though they knew my paper route money wouldn’t get me too far. It really was a different time.

After a lot of research and sole searching I was finally able to purchase my first new camera, a Honeywell Spotmatic F with a 55mm f1.8 lens. Boy, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I loved that camera, but unfortunately it met its end during a car accident. That led me to purchase a Nikkormat FNn with a 50mm f2.0 lens. It was a wonderful camera and gateway into the Nikon system.

Given my economic situation, I became adept at buying and selling to get what I wanted and finally ended up with a Nikon F2, which was and still is a spectacular camera. I also was able to somehow finagle a Hasselblad 500C with a gorgeous chrome 80mm f.1.8 Zeiss lens, along with a few accessories. I was able to sell the accessories to pay for the main event! As much as I loved the camera, I soon needed money to buy a car, so off it went. Having a ride was better than having your parents drop you off for a date!

During college I read about the new Canon F1 with its built in semi spot meter. So off went the Nikon and in came a brand new F1 with a 50mm f1.8 lens. Another incredibly built and wonderful picture making machine! But because I was paying for my education and was usually cash poor it eventually had to be sold.

During my second year of graduate school my wife bought me a Canon EF that had a shutter priority automatic exposure feature. I have always thought that if you were going to use AE wouldn’t it be nice if you could select the shutter speed for those moments when there was little time to think? Why would you want to make a perfectly exposed blur (another discussion for another time!)? In any case the EF was not really for me and I purchased another F1.

The F1 served me well until I walked into a camera store one day and saw a used Leica R4 body with a 50mm f2.0 Summicron R lens. I had never seen a Leica of any kind in the flesh. I timidly asked if I could see it. OMG, it just felt right … and IT WAS A LEICA! Yes I know what you are thinking and I am not going to say that Leicas are any better than anything else or that their use will result in better pictures, etc.   I immediately knew I had to have it. Thank goodness for installment paying (I don’t think anyone does that anymore; I didn’t have a credit card at the time). I think it took me about five months to pay it off but it was finally mine! Can’t remember if I slept with it next to me when I got it home … but it’s possible.

In the early Eighties that camera accompanied me on many trips overseas, most memorably to China. I was able to purchase a used 90mm f2.0 Summicron R lens to go along with the 50mm but only used it once on the China trip.

About a year or so later, I met someone who owned Leica rangefinders and I quickly decided I would like to get one for the types of street and documentary photographs I was interested in making. So I finally was able to get a used Leica M3 single stroke along with the really outstanding 50mm f2.0 Dual Range Summicron lens. No camera seems to cause user angst like the remarkable Leica M and most who use one experiment with different versions over time. Suffice to say, I have had a number of Leica rangefinder bodies over the years: M2, M3, M4, M4-2, M5, M6, M6TTL, M7, and MP. There is something about Leica rangefinders where you tend to want/need to try them out. Indeed, it can be a slippery and expensive slope – and that doesn’t factor in the cost of the lenses!

And though I have used Leica rangefinders on and off over the years I can honestly say that I am not infatuated with them. Blasphemy? Perhaps. That having been said, they are truly wonderful mechanical picture making devices, impeccably designed and built to perform well in the environment they work best in.

I currently own and use two of them.

Somewhere along the line in the mid Eighties I purchased a Plaubel Makina 670 medium format folding rangefinder camera, equipped with the outrageous fixed Nikkor 80mm f2.8 lens. I had that camera for a long time and it replaced everything I owned. The 80mm on 6×7 equates to a 40mm when using a 35mm camera and it may be an ideal focal length if you were to only have one lens. It was a quirky but spectacular combination. Not for everyone, but it travelled all over the world with me until it started to develop reliability issues. Of course it was no longer being made and very expensive to repair. It had also become a cult camera. I regrettably sold mine, but happily used the cash to purchase a more modern Mamiya 7II medium format rangefinder camera, equipped with the equally outrageous Mamiya 80mm f4.0 lens.

I made some very nice pictures with that camera but realized while visiting a West Bank refugee camp that rapid film changing was not its strong suit.

This experience forced me to think about the best tools for me, for the job at hand.

So back to Leica rangefinders and Leica single lens reflex cameras for situations where having these types of camera makes sense … for me. Again, horses for courses; the right tool for the job … or the one that works for me in certain situations.

I don’t believe in rules. But I think that the small quiet Leica excels in candid human interest and low light situations. I also think that the rangefinder viewfinder is similar to, as some have said, looking through a window into the scene as it is playing out vs. concentrating with a single lens reflex on a single point or area where precise focus is critical. That having been said, I have made meaningful pictures in these different situations using both types of cameras. So please don’t feel obligated to use what you think is expected or what is the current convention. The key in general photography is to use what works for you and gives you the results you want … in a manner that gives you enjoyment. In the end, isn’t that the right tool for the job?

I experimented with the incredible tank-like Leica SL and SL2, the R8 affectionately known to some as the “Hunchback of Solms” and eventually, for a number of years, settled on its successor, the improved R9 (“Son of Hunchback of Solms”?) – one of my all time favorite SLRs (I just wish it wasn’t battery dependent!).

Detour Alert!!!! Along the way I made the mistake of becoming infatuated with large format because I admired the photographs of Adams, Weston, Strand, and other landscape masters of the twentieth century. I had to do it and couldn’t help myself! The fatal flaw was that what I photographed and the way I photographed didn’t really synch well with the way these cameras were meant to be used or to their particular strengths. Nevertheless I soldiered on with various brands (Deardorff, Arca Swiss, Sinar, Phillips, Ebony, Zone VI), types and film sizes, not too mention various tripods and tripod heads. I went through several phases, finally to realize it wasn’t for me, even though I wanted it to be for me. Since I pretty much never made a print larger than 8×10, was the larger negative really necessary for me? Remember, this is about me and as some like to say, your mileage may vary. No matter what my experience has been – and it hasn’t been all bad – I will never say that large format does not produce exquisite images, and the use of the equipment forces a truly contemplative approach to making wonderful photographs.

There also were a few very quick experiments along the way. Contax, Fuji/Bessa, Bronica and Hasselblad (again) medium format cameras, as well as Contax and Zeiss Ikon 35mm cameras.

Wow… I need to stop and catch my breath!

Today I have 35mm rangefinder (Leica M3 with 50mm lens, Leica M2 with 35mm lens and a 90mm lens that rarely is used) and single lens reflex (Leica SL and Leica SL2 with 35, 50 and 90mm lenses) systems. Take a look at What’s In My Bag? 

So, have I tried and owned a lot of gear and kissed a lot of frogs over the years to get what works for me and provides an enjoyable experience as part of the bargain? You bet! That having been said, it has been an entertaining, if sometimes frustrating journey. But I have learned a tremendous amount about what works … and about me as an individual. I honestly can say that it was never a diversion in the way of my making photographs. But I can see how it could have been and might be for others – an icky side effect of GAS (see my previous entry on this subject!).

I don’t suggest buying for the sake of buying, which is one of the symptoms of GAS. And I don’t want to promote this kind of a journey at the expense of what is most important – the journey of making meaningful photographic images. But I do say that the vast majority of film cameras and lenses are relatively inexpensive today … some Leicas notwithstanding … so make sure you are happy with what you use. I think owning and using something that gives you pleasure, and also happens to support your particular way of seeing and purpose is a good thing!

This past Friday, I took my class to the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown to see the great exhibit “Unguarded, Untold, Iconic: Afghanistan through the Lens of Steve McCurry”. Visiting a museum to see a photography exhibit is one of the assignments my students have as part of the course “Living a Photographic Life”.

We never got into the Photoshop controversy and I’m glad we didn’t. Not that it’s something that shouldn’t be discussed, but I wanted the students to focus on the photographs and see if they could learn something about portraiture, composition, light, use of color (almost every picture was in color) and story telling in a good photograph – whether or not is part of a larger thematic body of work.

McCurry is a wonderful photographer and we focused on some key aspects of his work that were easy to detect with careful and contemplative viewing.

Almost all of his great portraits such as the justly famous Afghan Girl incorporate shallow depth of field. It appears that he focuses on his subject’s eyes. But within a few inches fore and aft, things are no longer critically sharp. No matter, it gives the focus of the portrait a great intensity that somehow would be otherwise missing. Additionally, many of his pictures of people are “environmental portraits”, such as a great photograph of a man standing in front of stacks of automobile tires. It’s obvious that this is how he earns his living and the image creates a story beyond the fact that it’s a great picture. Another spectacular environmental portrait is taken of a group of men in a café. Taking time to look at the photograph closely shows that behind them on the wall is a picture of New York that includes the Twin Towers. The picture was taken after the 9/11 attacks, and is remarkable not only for its composition and use of lighting but also because of the many meanings contained in it!

There are also pictures of larger outdoor scenes. In some the action is stopped completely, and others show the movement of daily life, enabled by use of a slow shutter speed. A picture that stands out contains a large street scene taken from vantage point looking down. People riding their bicycles appear to be moving, while others in the street and the majestic background beyond the main scene itself stand still in time.

Lighting is always beautiful, especially where it is used to effectively frame the main subject, or focus you in to what McCurry wants you to see.

Then there is the color. Those familiar with this website know that I am a black and white photographer and that I am not a great fan of color per se. McCurry knows how to use color and often his photographs are not only about the subject itself, but also about color. A striking photograph of a woman completely covered from head to toe in bright yellow fabric in front of a rich blue background tells you a lot about Afghan society and makes a bold and graphic visual statement at the same time.

But most importantly, each of McCurry’s exceptional photographs, while part of large body of thematic work, stand on their own for the deep and moving individual statements they make.

The exhibit runs until October 23^rd. If you happen to be in or near Bucks County you owe it to your self to see it!

It’s alive!!! It’s alive!!!

The FrankenLeica lives!!!!!

Is it a monster … or a really neat camera?

I was happy for a long time with my Leica R9. In many ways it was a stupendous camera, but not absolutely perfect for me. I say was, because now it’s gone. But, why?

Yes, I have said it before … it’s not about the gear, but damn it, I am only human!

A long time ago I tasted the forbidden fruit … yes I owned a Leica SL. Some say it’s the best single lens reflex ever made.   Built like a tank and able to stand a nuclear blast. Brightest viewfinder ever. A heavy piece of hand made metal and brass gears that perfectly mold to the hand. Unreal fit and finish. And yes, fully mechanical … except for the meter. For me it was as close to perfect as an SLR can be.

In my humble opinion Leica pretty much got it right with the Leica SL (although I prefer a split image focusing screen as found in the SL2 that came later – more on that below) without any useless microelectronic enabled “features” for needless choices to make. So simple, so pure.  And yet it was gone. Sent away due to the incredibly lucky acquisition of the latest Leica R ROM lenses at great prices. Unfortunately they were incompatible with the SL lens mounting flange, mirror box and other inner protrusions. It broke my heart to see it go, but lets face it, as important as it is to have a meaningful tactile relationship with one’s camera isn’t it really about the glass in the final analysis?

So earlier this year I found a few references on the Web concerning how the SL could be modified to accept certain Leica R ROM lenses – but not my 35mm Summilux R f/1.4, as it fit too far into camera body, hitting the mirror box. Was I interested? Silly question! Then I read that Doug Herr, the great wildlife photographer and Leica SL devotee had some silver parts found on the original Leicaflex transplanted to his SL.

My devious mind started to think about all the diabolical possibilities and soon the plot was hatched!

Yes a beautiful Leica SL was about to be dismembered and put back together again with added body parts!!! My partner in crime in the fiendish plot was none other than the great Don Arthur Goldberg (DAG), Leica repair guru extraordinaire.

After a number of conversations we agreed the dastardly deed could be done. The trick though with a Leica SL is to find one where the prism isn’t de-cementing or doing other strange things causing the viewfinder to look yellowed. Fortunately, Don had nice SL body with a perfect viewfinder. But the SL incorporates a non-split image focusing screen. No problem … we could remove the split image focusing screen from a Leica SL2 body and transplant it to the new host. Of course the SL needed a complete cleaning, lubrication and alignment (CLA) too. Then Don would remove the lens flange from the SL body; file it down where necessary so that the ROM lens could be mounted. Nice!

I sent off my 35mm lens to Don and the operation began. But nothing is as easy as it sounds. While adding the silver self timer switch and shutter speed dial from an older Leicaflex body and filing the lens flange was an easy task, getting the 35mm lens to fit into the body cavity without hitting any of the innards proved to be a nightmare!!! There were several internal parts that needed to be dramatically filed down just so, and the camera ended up traveling back and forth from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin several times.

But finally … the FrankenLeica came to life … it lived!!!!

But alas, there were evil consequences to my actions.

Soon decided I wanted a second body for use with slower film for some long-term projects I am starting … so guess what … I decided to get a modified SL2 (also considered by some to be the greatest single lens reflex ever made)!!! At a minimum it could serve as an emergency back up should something really strange happen like slipping on a wet rock, and watching the camera fall into the drink! Don’t laugh; I witnessed this happen last year when I was photographing with a fried in Vermont!

Of course Don had a body and it only needed the lens flange modified, as well as the requisite CLA. Again, the deed was done.

The only minor downside of the modifications to both cameras is that their internal meters are now decoupled from my ROM lenses – although they would be coupled with standard 2 Cam and 3 Cam Leica R lenses. However, this is of no matter to me, as I use a hand held meter anyway.

Frank and Elsa (if you don’t get it see the movie!) are now happily in my possession! Together, they will last longer then I will.

Was this all insanity? I don’t think so. Excessive? Perhaps to some. Am I happy? Yes!!!

Will I now be making better pictures? My brain says no … but my heart says yes.