And so my friend Stephan is leaving Japan for the US. He will be missed and I wish him well. I am glad he is following his dream and I look forward to hearing about his adventures.
Blog
The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)
Brett
World traveler, great photographer and writer and now father. Learn of his adventures here.
Oleg
So my friend Oleg came to Tokyo for a week of work and a few days off recently. I'm very glad he could make the trip. I didn't really take the chance the last time he was here to get a decent shot of him but I couldn't let him escape this time.Now that 400b has gone I'm shooting 3000b and carrying an ND4 or 8 filter with me when it's required. Nice thing about 3000b is the neg that you get from the shot. And this shot is from the neg. I only hope instant film for the Hasselblad stays around for a while.
Adrian Storey - Photographer
March 2007. I can't believe it's not seen the light of day until now. Shot in the usual Friday night location when thing's were a lot quieter and we were all a little greener. This shot is one of my favorites and one that, in the current light, seems to have more meaning than any of us could have known.
A dream?
This picture was shot quite a while ago in Shibuya with Jon. This girl happen to be standing in just the right place and I happen to have my Rolleiflex and a Rollinar at the ready. I can't begin to describe the soft yet sharp quality of the Rollei f/2.8 lens. If you have the chance to use one I highly recommend it.
Random street portrait
Asked this guy if I could take his picture. Still like the contax lenses even if it is non square. Shame I can use the lenses on anything else.
Lens fun
So just for fun I asked several people, including my friend Stephan, for a photo. I usually use the Hasselblad and have tweaked my settings so I can use the 80mm lens to take close-up head shots. I was, however, surprised to see the result when I developed the film. I wasn't expecting him to look so different. And I always thought that the 80mm lens on the Hasselblad was a 50mm equivalent on a 35mm SLR. What a difference a lens and a bit of fiddling with the settings makes. Stephan prefers the digital shot. Probably because of how different the lens makes his face look. I actually like it more. Most likely because it's difficult to replicate the look. In any case I'm surprised to see how well the film version turned out when putting it side by side with the digital one. More of these to come.
JR staff portrait
This past weekend I spent the day changing all my chemicals to new ones. My fix has now changed back to Kodak and is slightly more concentrated than before. The jars that hold the 1 gallon A and B solution needed to be scrubbed and chiseled at to remove the years of build up of gunk at the bottom.As a result of all this work my negatives look amazingly clear. It's easy to let quality slip as chemicals start to slowly die and it's difficult to notice until it's too late (or not at all in my case for a while).
Waiting for the train
Shooting with the Rollei 35 is very hit and miss. The focus is all based on distance. There is a finder but you cannot see the focus through it. And shooting at f/2.8 at night and candid photos at that makes this task even more difficult. So I was surprised to see this shot turn out so sharp.
Clément
Here he is on flickr
When everything goes wrong
Words of advice from the inexperienced. Wash your negatives thoroughly and DON'T change the type of film you shoot unless you have experience with the new film you plan to use.I'm a bit disappointed that I traveled thousands of kilometers to meet up with the family (which is hard considering everyone lives in a different state) and manage to destroy all my black and white film in an afternoon. I shall, from this point, revert to my tried and trusted film stock and developers. Not that there is anything wrong with what I've just ruined. Just that I don't want to have to spend more money learning the in's and out's of another stock when the current one already serves me well.
Uchujin
See his genius at work here -> UchujinWhile I was in the film archives the other day I found a few shots I forgot to scan. A case that so often happens to me "ah, not bad, I'll do that one last". As usual, I forget or run out of time. Figured it would be nice to add to the rest of the shots considering everyone else got a look-in a while back on the blog.
Enoshima, Pan F and Diafine
Click the image to start the slideshow (2 slides)
On my little adventure to Enoshima last weekend at 4am, not only did I manage to get sick but I tried a Film / Developer combination I hadn't seen before.
I've used Ilford Pan F on occasion and, while expensive, have liked the results I've gotten so far. My trip to Enoshima was finally a chance to shoot something at ISO100 (developing with Diafine pushes it a stop to 100) so I thought I'd try it developed in Diafine.
Well, as you can see by the results, it's pretty damn dark. But, looking at the shot of the old man (second slide), I couldn't have really exposed it more or the shirt would have been blown. The background at the time was not at all dark and the day was overcast so there were no shadows so in theory more of the background should be visible.
If you are going to use this combination, make sure you don't have any dark area's in your shot or you're likely to get blacks.
