Photography & Music

Tag: film

  • The Agfa Chief – A Definitive Guide

    Photos made in 2021 with an 80-year old camera. If you are into modifying cameras or photo history, keep reading. If not, it gets a bit dry!

    Panorama of cows made with an Agfa Chief Film Camera
    Panorama of cows made with an Agfa Chief Film Camera

    The Chief is a simple camera made around 1941 with one shutter speed and one aperture, but also manual “bulb” shutter and a selectable haze? filter. There is also focus control from Near (6-15’) to Far (15’ and BEYOND!)

    I was looking at photos of a friend’s pinhole camera recently and I was interested in the curved film plane. I wondered which other cameras from that era might have a curved film plane and I came upon the Agfa Chief. It’s a medium format camera that was made for two different film types, this one was made for PD-16. It’s wider than 120 film and has different markings, but with 616 to 120 adapters and a custom film guide extension, this camera can shoot modern 120 film.I liked the curved film plane and panoramic negative, roughly 2.25” by 4”. I had to figure out frame spacing, Ilford FP4+ has numbers that work in the red window, you just have to be a little creative to get 6 shots on a roll.

    What is the most fun? You can use the Agfa Portrait Attachment #29 and focus exactly at 42” for a close subject and a real out of focus area in the background.And that, my friends, is the Agfa Chief. Don’t leave home without it. Photos made on Ilford FP4+ and processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 15 minutes. In summary, it’s like a metal Holga with do-it-yourself frame spacing. You still have to tape up the camera to avoid light leaks. But hey, it’s fun.

  • Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition!

    One of my photographs was selected for the 2018 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition! After several years of solid rejections, I got one in. This is a 14″x18″ print on Ilford Classic 16×20 silver gelatin fiber paper enlarged from an 8×10 film negative in a traditional darkroom. Traditional portraiture with a large format film camera is apparently still a thing.

    8x10 film print
    8×10 black and white film portrait enlarged in a darkroom on silver gelatin fiber paper.

  • 8×10 black and white film portraits

    Portraits on black and white 8×10 film

    It’s 2017 and I’m making large format film portraits with a vintage 8×10 camera that is 100 years old. This camera is the Folmer & Schwing 8×10 Home Portrait Camera No. 1 with a 14” Wollensak Velostigmat Series II lens.

    Why pursue photography with this combination? Photographs such as this one are made with a “view camera”, a camera where the photographer composes the image upside down and backwards on a ground glass on the back of the camera. View cameras use film that is typically 4″x5″ or larger, thus called large format. Often, images made with these cameras on large format film have a look that cannot be achieved in any other medium. The tonality has a smooth gradation between tones that feels open compared to smaller film formats. Also, vintage lenses designed for 4×5, 5×7, 8×10 or larger have a timeless character that is hard to replicate with modern photographic equipment.

    Part of my artistic vision is to create photographs that are not easily identified with any particular period. Sometimes clothing or hairstyle gives it away, but other times it’s hard to tell whether a photograph is contemporary or made anytime back to 1928.

    This portrait of a woman was made on Arista EDU Ultra 100 black and white film and drum processed for 9 minutes in Freestyle’s L110 developer at dilution H 1+62.

     

    photograph of a woman
    Portrait on large format film made with a vintage camera over 100 years old.

  • St. Louis Park Friends of the Arts Exhibit!

    Last week, I had the good fortune to exhibit two pieces in the SLP FOTA exhibit. I grew up in SLP so it was nice to have something in the show. Two other photographers in our Midwest Passage photography group had work in the show as well. My images were from the series that I have been doing on the flooded golf course just a few blocks from my house. The flood created a wetland bayou, disrupting a carefully manicured and managed area. The future is still uncertain for this area because the flood devastated the course.

    Blowdown was taken with an 8×10 film camera. I couldn’t get over the way nature had claimed this path between the fairway and the green. Shortly after I made this image, the groundskeepers started repairing the path and this composition was wiped away. Like so many good subjects, this was only available to see for a short time and now it will never be seen again other than in photographs. Lugging 30 pounds of gear to this spot and lingering in the stench of the bog was worth it.

    Meadowbrook Bayou was photographed with a medium format film camera early in the course of the flood. I marveled at how nature took this land back, if even for a short time.

    Blowdown

    Meadowbrook Bayou

  • Pinhole Photography featured in Looking Glass, a new film photography magazine!

    What! A new online magazine with a focus on film photography? It can’t be! But it is! Check out the first issue of Looking Glass Magazine, published by a team of photographers dedicated to keeping film-based work alive and thriving.

    But wait, there’s more! They asked me to contribute an article on Pinhole Photography and some photographs and do you know what I said? I said “of course!”. The magazine showcases several photographers, has compelling images and photo-related prose. There’s a great story about a pilgrimage gone wrong trying to find the location that Ansel Adams used for a famous photograph. If you’re into film or photography in general, there’s something here for you. Did I mention pinhole photography? I did? Support film photography and subscribe!
    …pinhole.

     

  • Cowboy and Camel Reflected in a Lizard’s Eye

    Zorki 4K Pinhole Camera photograph of cowboy and camel reflection in giant lizard eye

    An oldie but a goodie, this 2006 photograph will be included in the upcoming 4th Biennial Pinhole Show at the Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco starting April 28, 2013. The exhibition dates are April 28th – May 25th with an opening reception on World Wide Pinhole Photography Day: Sunday, April 28th from 3-5pm.

    1809609367_ed09b72b44_o

     

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottstillman/1809609367/

  • Soon at a gallery near you…

    This photograph will be included in the upcoming exhibit, “Picture This: What We Photograph” at the Mpls Photo Center, starting on January 18, 2013.
    Burke and James 8×10 camera and 305mm Caltar wide open. Captured on Kodak Ektascan B/R x-ray film at EI 50 and processed in Caffenol-C for 11:00