Fomapan 100

Pushing Fomapan Film To The Limit

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A few months back I made a last minute booking to a studio space after my plans to work outdoors fell threw due to some very cold, wet, and dark weather. Sometimes that is just the simple reality of being a photographer in the Pacific Northwest. You just never know what the weather is going to be from one day to the next. It keeps you on your toes to say the least!

In order to access the studio one has to walk through an alley that has a real “old city” vibe to it, right out of classic Hollywood noir thrillers. Long strings of ivy running up brick walls and the space lit only by small lanterns built in the building structure. It felt like walking through a haunted space and I desperately wanted to make some images there. The trouble was, I was prepared to work outdoors and only had slower speed Fomapan 100 film with me. Not exactly ideal for a dimly lit scene.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fomapan 100 pushed to ISO 400.

Still, I was incredibly determined to give a try anyway. The absolute worst thing that could happen is the photographs wouldn’t turn out well and in such an event I would lose nothing. After all, I was there to work in a studio, not necessarily the alleyway leading up to the studio. It was worth the risk to expose a quick roll right here and cross my fingers for the best.

The challenge of course was the fact that I needed to expose my 100 speed film to at least ISO 400 in order to get a shutter speed with the Hasselblad that I could hand hold. Even pushing the film two stops I was still exposing the scene at f/2.8 and 1/15th of a second. Any slower on the shutter speed and the resulting images would be guaranteed to exhibit a lot of blur. A tripod would have solved this issue of course, but the space was very small and exposed to the public street so working swiftly was also a significant factor. It was hand hold the camera or bust.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fomapan 100 pushed to ISO 400.

As much as I like the classic look of Fomapan 100 black and white film, I’ve never had a lot of luck pushing the film beyond ISO 100. If anything, the film benefits from pulling it a little. I’m sure a lot of this has to do with the fact that my preferred developer is Rodinal, which is not exactly a developer known for it’s solid high ISO characteristics. But hey, rules and trends are made to be broken and there is nothing to gain if you don’t give it a go. I souped up the developer at a ratio of 1:25 and developed for a solid ten minutes, which is several minutes longer than the Massive Development Chart recommends.

The negatives still came out pretty thin, but there was enough there to get a pretty decent scan of my three favorite frames.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fomapan 100 pushed to ISO 400.

All-in-all I wouldn’t say these are my most successful images ever, but I’m still proud of the fact that I took the risk and didn’t let the technical challenges deter me from giving it all a go. Sometimes that is the biggest obstacle to overcome when it comes to photography, or any other creative process for that matter. It is so easy to find a reason not to make an image and far more difficult to talk yourself into taking a risk.

Photography Really Is Painting With Light

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One of the first things any photography student learns is that the word Photography literally means 'drawing with light', which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw. I think it is important sometimes as an artist to remember that. We can often get caught up with the technical details of the craft, thinking about megapixels and camera specs, but really the most important part of an image is what is in front of us in the scene, not the tool we hold in our hand. It’s all about the characteristics of the light.

Photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR and Ilford HP5 120 film.

The light was really something special when this series of photographs was made. In fact, I had no plans to even make photographs on this particular day. The model and I were planning on going outdoors the following day and she was using my spare bedroom as a landing pad while passing through town. When we both noticed this incredibly intense, yet somehow soft and ethereal light coming through my living room windows during the final minutes before the sun dipped below the mountains west of Portland, we both jumped to attention and decided to harness it on film.

Photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR and Ilford HP5 120 film.

The scene looked more like a mermaid swimming through the ocean than it did playing with the light of a westward facing window. A golden transparent ocean full of warmth and dancing waves. I exposed twelve frames in a matter of about ten minutes without thinking too hard about it. There wasn’t time. The light was changing too rapidly to worry about complicated exposure measurements. I exposed a roll of Ilford HP5 at box speed (ISO 400) and just crossed my fingers that the contrast wouldn’t be so high as to wash out all the lovely details.

Photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR and Ilford HP5 120 film.

Sometimes these are my favorite kind of photo sessions. The ones that you don’t plan at all. They just happen at a moments notice like a firecracker and before you even have time to think about it they’re over. Little miracles that result in a short series like this feel like pure instinct and there is something great about that.

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.

Using the Olympus XA4 For A Sketchbook

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Like most people out there I have a day job. It would of course be wonderful to make photographs full time and pay my bills with print sales, but alas, I’m a cubicle warrior by day and a photography dabbler on the weekends. As such I try my best to dip my toes into a creative headspace whenever I possibly can.

Photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

Every so often when I manage to wake up and get ready for my day a little early I like to take a walk around town and make street photographs with my little pocket Olympus XA4. I’ve never claimed to be a great street photographer, but sometimes I find the practice cathartic, like doodling in a sketchbook. It’s just a great way to look at things, practice making compositions in the viewfinder, and to appreciate the place you live.

Not every photograph I make needs to be a masterpiece. Heck, NONE of the photographs I make need to be a masterpiece. I’m still going to do it anyway regardless of the outcome

Portland Oregon photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

Photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

I find the Olympus XA4 to be a perfect camera for taking snapshots on the street. It’s sleek and durable and fits easily in a winter coat pocket or the side pocket in my daily backpack. Ultimately it’s a point and shoot camera so creative control is limited, but the trade off is worth it for the portability. I also appreciate the fact that it is capable of longer exposure which is helpful when I’m walking about before dawn.

Old Houses in the Deserts of Los Angeles

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Several years ago I made a pilgrimage down to Southern California. I’ve always had a love and hate relationship with the larger metro area that people typically just lump into the label of the greater Los Angeles. On the one hand the traffic is monstrous and frustrating in the best of times. The sprawl and the row after row after row of generic apartment buildings and flat six lane roadways just make me sad.

At the same time, despite the massive population in the area, it is shockingly easy to find places where one can be isolated and alone. It is simply a fact that Los Angeles, and by extension, Southern California, is a place of contradictions.

Photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR and Fomapan 100 medium format film.

I only brought one camera with me on this trip, my Mamiya C330 TLR. I also only brought one type of film with me, Fomapan 100. Predictably, the sun was incredibly bright and harsh the entire trip and I found myself working with the film at ISO 50 nearly the entire time. I’ve always found Fomapan to be a great film to pull down to a lower ISO. Diluting Rodinal just a little bit and developing with some slow agitation tends to yield very low contrast negatives, something I needed to counteract the harsh lighting.

Only an hour or so outside of the greater Los Angeles area there were a lot of abandoned houses, totally falling apart and sitting forgotten under the unforgiving sun. No trees around, no people, not even paved roads leading up to the front doors. It was eerie and quite and made for a great spot to expose this particular frame that has long been my favorite from the trip.