Stay on the trail

Stay on the trail.
A buzzing insect visits me in the shower, crawling up the pipe to the shower head. I slay it viciously with hot water and watch it swirl away.  It does not understand my politics, and I have no patience for it.

I am america, both in my balance and my sum.
Dancing the daughters of flimsy men away as the sun shines down on defeated ideals that were only golden in the mouths of politicians anyway.

A slain insect, an aborted movement, an encouraged trend.
Each second, brings less human recognition than before, the methylated masses search for every sign in the old ways
and disbelieve the new.

The fly on the wall did not comprehend,
and I didn't either,
until now.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park on Ektachrome 100S

In the late fall, I had the opportunity to take a few days off here and there and run around the Cuyahoga National Park with Steph while she was working. We visited Blue Hen Falls, Brecksville Station, and other awesome sites up and down the Towpath trail and Riverside Drive.
This Ektachrome 100s is probably about 10-12 years expired, and didn't have much in the way of magenta shift or anything else...just good chrome color.

Fujichrome Astia 100

I recently shot up some Astia 100 expired film that I've had laying around for about 2 years. Its about 4-7 years expired, based on the rest of the lot that I purchased and I've shot a bit of it before (at night) that I was somewhat pleased with. This, however, took me aback. I sent the roll to Dodd Camera in Cleveland to develop, and it came back beautiful. I think this is the best color that I've seen from chrome film thus far, my crappy developing aside.

The Fisherman (Agfa Isolette Test)

Due to the great weather we've been having lately, Steph and I headed out this weekend to take some photos of what we could find.  We ran down to rocky river and shot the bridges and persons that we could find. I have recently received a gift of several awesome old cameras from a friend of mine, so I took one of the brutes down to the river with me, an Agfa Isolette, loaded with expired Agfa APX 100 film in 120.  

The camera is nice, the bellows are in good shape and the aperture/shutter is pretty snappy.  On many of the shots, I was much too close to the subject, resulting in blurred nothing, but I did get two nice photos. One, of a fisherman that we'll call "Jim". I later got a chance to take a photo of him with his personal camera holding a 30" Trout that he'd just pulled out of the river.

Strangely, this is the only shot with any apparent light leak on the whole roll...I'm wondering if maybe it's just a flare on the glass...

Sunshine in a Bottle

Here, I'll tell you a secret,

There is no sunshine in a bottle, 

but 

the dim rooms of winter can often allow you 

to bend the rules a bit. 

Those dawns are hard to forget, too,

the sun streaking in, 

last nights cigarette still clinging to your throat and lungs,

starting the day with a cough that ends in a retch.

I wish I had a better tale for Christmas, 

but here it is. 

Look elsewhere.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cuyahoga Valley National park is one of the only reasons that I stay in Ohio. Aside from the metro parks there is not much nature to see, other than driving through endless farmland, which, on the interstate, is more boring than suicide. So, there's some great parks to get into in Ohio, if you're willing to close in on the cities to get it done. 

The black and white in this set represents kodak plus-x in wd2d for 6 min, and then we have some expired velvia 50 for fun. 

Sand Run Metro Park

Sand Run was a good experience. Located near Akron, Ohio, it is located around a large reservoir, and filled with stately trees and streams. Here is a sample of what I found, shot on some 10 year old velvia 50. I really like this film. It scans well, and the expiration adds some interesting character to the shots, I think.  

Erosion

The water spills and I cannot erode in its time.

Merely flesh, merely mind

The unsorted conundrum of self, heart, sanity, health

lie in quiet, white sheets on the floor,

barely giving a nod to the reckless nature that created them;

barely noticing.

Today I watch the water wear away the stone,

sensing a time beyond this

listening to the speech of erosion.

Dirty Cleveland

The Dirty Cleveland:

 is synonymous with the upper-decker where the perpetrator defecates in the upper portion of the toilet thus leaving the bathroom owner perplexed for weeks as he searches for the increasingly horrible smell.

The Butcher

The Butcher:

Steph and I were taking a sunday photo-drive, out to see the brownstones of Cleveland. We ran across this crazed butcher, ostensibly the owner and head butcher at Stockyard Meats. He chewed our ears about such topics as the downturn in the economy, the way the neighborhood used to be and back when the Cleveland Browns could whip anyone on the earth. He was extremely vibrant and animated...a real character.  If I still ate meat, I would purchase it from this man.  

A trip through the woods at Rocky River.

Not so terribly grand, I think. However, I haven't posted anything in some time, due to the time necessary to scan, re-scan, re-scan again, curse the newtonian rings, and then give up. However, I've purchased a negative carrier for the scanner, and now, it is much less painful to scan negatives, and faster, too. 

There was no time available for fuji Neopan Acros 100 pushed to 400 by my stupid metering, but I think that the t-max developer did this film some justice, even if my time was perhaps a bit long....Here's some film. 

I shot these in the Rocky River Basin about 5 miles from lake Erie using a Yashica A tlr. Fine Camera. 

Ultrafine Extreme 400 Test Roll in Yashica-A

In my Search for a Cheap-ass film alternative to Kodak films that I fall in love with and then never get to use again because they are discontinued, I figured perhaps less might be more, so I went in with my friend Dehk and bought some Ultrafine. We both had pretty horrible experiences with the Ultrafine 100ISO films, but the 400ISO extreme emulsion is worth it. At 2.69$ a roll, it is very hard to complain about this solid film  Here are a few from a roll of 120 that I tested in a used Yashica-A that I've recently aquired. I developed at 20celcius for 4min 15 seconds in Acufine developer

Pinhead, I am through with you.

Some things are never meant to be

like

colored pencil portraits falling in love with a demon from hell.

They both end up looking rather upset,

though,

you'd think that the demon would somehow have the upper hand

however,

it's always going to be

the woman

who wins.

Photos are for the Road

I like to take photos while driving. I know that this notion has frightened some of you, but I do. Now, more often than not, I am a passenger, so it doesn't hurt that I am taking photos while moving.  There is a certain sacrifice that one makes when moving at 60 mph down the road, and at the same time attempting to capture a beautiful sunset, cloud formation, wildlife or what have you:  Things that are moving, look blurry.  Well, I like blurry, sometimes. Even when I was a small child, I used to look out of the window of my father's truck and focus and un-focus my eyes on the scenery passing by.  The fescue, barbed wire, or the gravel on the shoulder racing by in a grey blur.
I recently took a trip with Stephanie and Shannon back to the farm country where I was born. Here are some photos from the road.

 

And NOW....

I've made it back to winter again.  Next year, the 'year in review' will go throughout the month of December and not the month of January. I'll have more sense.  January has been 'The month of the Camera", insofar as we in Ohio are concerned. Due to the generosity of 2 friends and Steph and I's industriousness, our camera collection has grown by 6 new cameras.  We added a Mamiya MSX 1000, an Olympus Om-1 and Om-2, a Mamiya 135 ee, and a Honeywell/Pentax Spotmatic.  All cameras are in functional shape and with a bit of TLC and lens cleaning, (fungus) they'll be back on-line.  Stephanie, too, has caught the 'film-bug' and has finally finished her first roll of film in several years.  Its always good to go back to analog products and do what first sparked your interest in any given craft or art.  Also, due to my friend Derek, I've developed my first roll of 'found film'.  Derek sent me a roll of kodacolor II film from 1974-1981 (approx) and I developed it in acufine developer.  It took a week's research to determine what times and temperatures to use, and I did find several individuals that helped along the way.  The film was 127 type, which is 43mm wide and contains 16 exposures. Kind of an 'in-between' film for 135 and 120, now discontinued utterly.  There were 2 exposures that had been saved on the roll, all the rest were solarized completely due to someone opening the back of the camera after the film had been exposed.

Here is the result of my research. I developed for 8 min @ 22c in acufine developer.

I would encourage anyone who reads this to send along any 'found films' that they might have lying about, and i'll see what can be done with them.  You can always reach me at josephdecker0@gmail.com if you'd like to send along some film, or have an orphan camera that needs a home.  Broken is best!  It gives me an opportunity to learn something. :)  Thanks for all the views and the lessons last year, I hope this year is just as good!

Fall! part two

COLOR! For those of us who miss it.