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...

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. 

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.

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

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 one

Summer! part 3

Well, summer's over. On to FALL!

Summer part 2

I was lucky enough to travel quite a bit this summer. Most of these photos are from a journey Steph, Shannon and I took to Philadelphia and back in a convoluted way through the Pennsylvania wilderness. It was a beautiful ride. 

Summer! part 1

Ah, just think...Soon it will be summer, infields, swimming, gulls, summer rains, hydrant flushing and hosta. What more could one ask for?

Spring part 2!

Lakewood is the land of flowers during the spring-time.  It explodes into color and dies off by July.  This is also when the beading began, so I have lots of happy photos from this time of year.