35mm Film

Accidental Self Portrait

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Sometimes interesting photographs happen by complete accident. More often than not I wouldn’t exactly call these moments works of genius, but the results can be fun all the same. This “self portrait” is a perfect example. I was walking around the streets of Portland with my Olympus XA4 as I often do, photographing nothing special in particular, and when winding on a fresh roll of film I accidentally managed to capture myself framed by a nearby building.

Sure, it may be an exposure right up my nose and not exactly flattering, but it was a fun little surprise when I pulled the roll of film out of the developing tank all the same. I like when I’m surprised. That’s part of the fun!

Photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

On a side note, this image is also a perfect example of the chunky grain I like with Ilford HP5 when souped up in Rodinal. I don’t often publish my 35mm photographs simply because I don’t do a huge amount of “serious” work with 35mm but this image illustrates an aesthetic that really tickles my fancy. It’s like looking at a single frame to a French New Wave film from the early days of Godard or Agnes Varda. Deep void like shadows and grain the size of grains of sand. I love it.

...more with the Panon Widelux F8

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It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen so hard for a “new” camera as I have for the Panon Widelux F8. The unique design of the swivel lens has really opened up my creative eye to seeing the world in a slightly different way and over the last several months I’ve become addicted to the experience. I’ve written a couple of blog posts on this camera already which you can find HERE and HERE. I also recommend checking out the web page actor Jeff Bridges has made dedicated to his own work with the Widelux, which is incredibly well done.

Recently I sent the camera off to get a good CLA from a knowledgable repair person who knows far more than I do. I could tell the shutter speeds were a bit off and I’m already waiting anxiously for the camera to return to my possession so I can run more film through it. Still, I managed to do several photo sessions with it, most of which I have yet to even develop, so I should have plenty of images to work on the meantime.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

I’ll fully admit that about 90% of the images I’ve made with the Widelux aren’t particularly great. One of the Widelux’s greatest strengths is its ability to photograph an incredibly wide field of view. This is also one of its greatest challenges as well. Most of the images I’ve made with the Widelux just feel incredibly “busy”. There is just so much going on the frame that the composition is no longer pleasing to the eye. I don’t fault the camera for this as much as I fault my own lack of experience. My photographic failures with the Widelux are part of the fun and every bad image makes the good ones feel that much sweeter and more satisfying.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

With this collection of images, you can clearly see what an image looks like if you don’t set the camera level with the landscape. All of these images were done hand held without paying attention to the bubble level on the top of the camera at all. The result is a “warping” effect which in a lot of cases doesn’t look all that great, but occasionally looks interesting when done with some purposeful intent. If there wasn’t a model in these frames I’d probably dismiss these frames entirely, but when there is a figure to draw the eye into the center of the frame, the semi-circle of the landscape actually looks interesting.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

This session was also the first time I attempted to load film into the Widelux while outdoors. More importantly, I was loading the film outdoors with some incredibly intense wind and temperatures that made my fingers a little bit numb. Threading the film through several gears with barely working hands and a model patiently waiting in the wings proved difficult to say the least.

All part of the learning curve….

Panon Widelux Portraits

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I made a quick blog post last month about my early experiences with the Panon Widelux F8. It should come as no surprise at all to anyone that I brought the camera along with me to a session with a live model at my earliest opportunity. I’ll be the first to admit that the Widelux is a camera that didn’t have portraiture in mind when it was designed. It is definitely more suited to landscape work or even street photography. However, the unique design of the swivel lens can yield some incredibly interesting results.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Ilford FP4 35mm black and white film.

These images where captured in a natural light studio with me sitting about four feet back from the model. I didn’t even bother using the viewfinder on the camera as it is highly inaccurate at close distances and instead opted to just aim the camera in the right direction as best I could. You can see I accidentally caught a bit of the studio window in the right side of the frame. The ultimately field of view with the Widelux is always just a little longer than I expect it to be; which is kind of cool to be honest.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Ilford FP4 35mm black and white film.

The reason the model appears twice in each frame is because about halfway through the camera’s lens travel from one side to the other I moved the Widelux on the tripod to follow the track of the lens with the subject. You can see Jeff Bridges employ this technique in the following YouTube video when he appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show using his own Widelux camera. It’s a fun way to experiment with the camera and it resulted in more failures than it did usable images for me, but that is perfectly fine. Photography has never been about getting an entire roll of perfect exposures.

Panon Widelux F8 - First Roll

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The Panon Widelux camera is a machine I’ve long been interested in checking out. For those reading this who have never heard of the Widelux, in a nutshell it is a 35mm camera with a rotating front lens that gives a mind blowing 140 degree viewing angle and a negative that is roughly twice the width of a standard 35mm frame. It’s one of those cameras that truly transforms the world around you when you look through the viewfinder. The images are so wide when using the Widelux the photographer has to hold the camera at the top and bottom, not the sides, otherwise you’ll get your own fingers in the frame. I had quite a few bad images on my first test roll because I instinctively gripped the Widelux with my right hand like I would any other camera.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

Famous actor Jeff Bridges is well known in the photographic community for using a Widelux. You can check out his website here and it is worth a look if you’re thinking about buying a Widelux for yourself. He has a lot more experience with the Widelux than I do and his photographs are quite good. He’s also got some great tips and tricks on his website worth considering if you want to buy a Widelux for yourself.

I first encountered the Widelux in my college days when I saw a series of work one of my Professors was working on with the camera. I thought it was insanely cool but I was also hesitant to pick one up for myself for nearly two decades. The Widelux is notorious for being a little unreliable and incredibly difficult to work on. A lot of repair shops won’t even touch the thing.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

The camera I purchased from eBay clearly has a shutter swing that is running on the slow side. Given the cameras age and the amount of gearing it takes for the Widelux to work I’m not totally surprised. I compensated for that when I made the images on my first test roll so the images turned out more or less fine. I had to do some post production work when scanning my negatives because they were clearly a big “overcooked” but nothing I wouldn’t be able to do in an analogue darkroom.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

However, if I’m going to dive into this strange world of Widelux photography I’d rather have a camera that is in tip-top shape. So I’ve immediately sent the camera off for a tune-up and I’m eagerly awaiting its return. I waited nearly two decades to buy a Widelux so I can certainly wait a few more months to have a sample that works perfectly. Hopefully, like most mechanical 35mm cameras, once it goes through a good CLA (Clean, Lubricate, and Adjust) it’ll work nicely for the foreseeable future.

Photographed with a Panon Widelux F8 and Fomapan 35mm film.

The unique “swivel” of the lens allows for some very unique creative opportunities, especially at slow shutter speeds. At 1/15th of a second the lens takes a few seconds to swing from one side to the other. Moving the camera or moving the subject (in the last image on this post, that subject is myself) along with the movement of the lens can be really fun. When I get the camera back from repair I’ll probably do a lot of experimenting with this. It’ll be a unique way to approach figure studies on film.

Even though I’ve only dabbled with the Widelux F8 so far I can already tell I’m going to enjoy this camera a lot.

Journey To Northern California

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I recently found myself on a trip to North California to visit family and like every time I journey outside the comforts of Portland I brought a camera with me. It was fitting I brought my Minolta SRT-101 with me on this particular trip. The Minolta SRT-101 was the first “professional” camera I ever used as it was gifted to me by my parents on my 16th birthday. Just a few short weeks ago I turned 46, which means the Minolta has been going strong in my life for exactly three decades. That is quite remarkable when you think about it. I can’t recall of many things that stay consistent in one’s life for that long.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Ilford HP5 film.

During that time I’ve only sent it in for repair once, a good old fashion CLA, and quite frankly it didn’t even need it. I only did so because a local shop was holding a discount and I figured why not?

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

I traveled to an area just outside of Nevada City California. It’s an area of the Golden State that still feels like a bit of a boom town, attracting people who want warm weather and who want to forge their own path with maximum autonomy. It’s a different vibe than I’m used to in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s good to be in a new environment every so often. I can appreciate the fresh air to be found there, the horses that trot around fenced pastures, and the rivers with shallow shores that were once lined with panhandlers searching for gold.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

I only went through a couple rolls of film while on the trip because I had other business to take care of. Still, some pictures are always better than no pictures at all and it was refreshing to just wander about a bit capturing whatever caught my fancy.