foto-mondo: downtown cemetery test shots

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

downtown cemetery test shots

was out shooting/testing with several new 2nd hand cameras... AND my old stand-bys [my vivitar plastic panoramic camera] - i keep 2 w/me- [1 with 100ASA the other w 400ASA]- the shot above is with the vivitar... using ilford xp-2 [400 asa] -this was NOT a test w/this camera. i love it; it always works; no knobs to twiddle, no f/stops or shutter speeds, or batteries... nada... simply open it's little eye and shoot. you have a choice of regular size shot, or panorama. i usually get the best shots ever with it [or one of them... i have maybe 5, and buy them wheresoever i find one... usually goodwill for 50 cents!]... now just why did i buy that Leica... Rollei... etc.?

i recently found an old 'kodak pony 135' [made in 1950- the year i was born] i've had forever- and figured out how to use it a few days ago [had thought it was broken but like my old agfas' needed the barrel pulled out before the shutter would work] - it's pretty complicated and has to be set etc and a lever moved before you can advance the next frame, etc. but great for double exposures, i'm thinking. this was shot w/the pony using kodak Bw400CN [400 asa]

this last shot was done with a Minolta Hi-Matic 7s [of which i have about 3 or 4, now]- which i saw and bought in an "antique mall" the other day... [this was shot using color -a rarity for me- Fuji 100 asa]- but because it had no battery in it, the camera's built-in light meter didn't work... so, i just diddled with what i thought were the right f/stops and shutter speeds... yawn... the shots came out very grainy... i put in a battery as soon as i got home!

btw... had all this film scanned and put on cd at my local drug store yesterday...

[c]2007 doug duffey

about this blog

i began making photos in my teens. i wasn't really making much more than snapshots [except for a few psychedelic polaroids in the late 60s] until the 90s, when i bought a used Canon AE1 camera from a guy on Bourbon Street [probably 'hot']. that's when i began getting serious about photography. i taught myself everything by doing: how to use the camera; how to develop film; how to make the prints [b&w only]. when i bought 2nd hand darkroom equipment and began printing, it really became a passion.

i collect and use cameras: everything from crap 50-cent fixed focus plastic 35mm ones i find at junk stores to good quality Leica, Rollei, Bronica, Yashica, Nikon-i particularly like old manual cameras that don't use batteries etc. [Voigtlander, Zeiss, etc] i've been collecting rangefinders like crazy-it's gotten ridiculous: i have more cameras than i can use... but keep collecting. i sometimes turn broken cameras into pinhole film cameras.

i really like the effects i get with the crap plastic cameras [i like the element of surprise] using 'color process' b&w film- i usually load several w/different ASA film and take them when i go shooting. they're light, easy to carry, never need batteries, and i don't have to worry about lighting, or f/stops etc. i've also bought a lot of medium format plastic cameras as well [diana, agfa isola, etc] and old 127 ,120, & 620 film-cameras [both good quality and bad] - the fixed focus plastic lens make for dream-like, soft focus shots. i love old photographs and these were the type cameras that made the majority of those!

i've been trying to scan/archive most of my negatives/fotos for years now- but considering i have been making fotos from my teen years until now that is a major on-going work. i have about 4 external hard drives w/ thousands of fotos on them... and thousands of 'actual' physical negatives... and fotos- things i've shot all over the world; however, my favorite subject matter remains the beautiful but tragically disappearing old south, which i hope to capture as much of as possible.

i almost never have prints made. i usually print photographs myself, when i am going to do a series and or a show. i also develop all true b&w film/negatives myself, after having some negatives ruined by so-called professionals, who either used old chemicals or didn't time things right. as said, i collect old cameras and have many different film formats; many of the negatives would have to be sent off; so, doing it myself is faster and much cheaper. i'm not really into digital, because i like film... and i like working in the darkroom. digital cameras take the photos when THEY decide to; a manual camera makes the foto when YOU press the button. i've also seen digital fotos just 'disappear'- due to computer crashes- or media cards- so i prefer film. i have my grandmother's and mother's negatives from waaaaaaaaaaaaay back... which i can still print from... who knows that whatever digital medium we're using these days will even be functional in 5 years? give me film any time!

for a long time i have been using Ilford xp-2 - and Kodak BW400 [both are color processed b&w you can have processed anywhere] and scan the negatives into my computer. but , now to make things even easier, i just have whoever develops the negatives scan them to cd. of course i only print b&w- so for true B&W i print myself. if i photoshop anything it has to be a digital print; especially anything in color.

i've had exhibits in louisiana and europe, but due to the fact that music is my top priority business, i haven't been doing any printing lately. i just keep shooting more and more film and keep acquiring more and more negatives, polaroids, and cds of the work... [and collecting more cameras] at least i can post some of the digitized shots/scans here!

check out the IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT to save and continue Polaroid film