Darkroomist

Goodbye Fuji Neopan Acros

It’s been reported that Fuji is officially discontinuing all black and white films and papers with Fuji Neopan Acros being discontinued in October 2018. I’ve read rumors that the production equipment has already been dismantled and they’re just selling off their remaining inventory. The amount of available Acros may already be finite. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This hits me in a weird sort of way. For starters Acros developed in Xtol is the first real combo I feel in love with. Great for read more

Kayaking and Film Photography

What happens when you want to take film photos in places that are bad for cameras? In my example my wife and I went kayaking in a cove on Drummond Island, Michigan and I wanted to take some film shots. In this scenario there’s a LOT that can go wrong and ruin a camera. Ever try to keep your balance while taking a photo in a kayak? It’s not that easy. Water can get in the kayak, you can flip over, there’s lots of camera-terminal contingencies one can imagine.

My solution, read more

What had happened was…

For those of you who know or follow me, it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update. Truthfully I still don’t really have one. I hate blog posts apologizing for or explaining why they haven’t posted in a while so I’ve put this off perhaps longer than I should have. Here I go anyway.

Back in May I started a new job and it was more a-lot-of-things than my last job. It took a month of training, then several months of adjustment to get used to it. I always viewed the read more

Some Scanned Negatives from my BumbleBee Holga

Really, a good portion of the fun of a Holga is modifying it to be your own. This particular one I got some time ago when Freestyle Photo ran a sale on a couple colored versions. This was before Holgas closed and then reopened. I got this one in “mustard”

Right off the bat I ditch the clips and use velcro to hold the back on. Of course you need to remove the internal F8 aperture ring. With this one instead of filling aperture (sunny/cloudy) hole and drilling a correct aperture, instead read more

Shots from my new-to-me Hasselblad!

Whoah! I’m impressed with this camera! Sorry my trusty Bronica SQa that’s gotten me this far but the ‘Blad is wonderful though a little quirkier. Shot on Kodak Tri-X and developed in HC-110 dilution E for 8min. My first time using HC-110 also! These are negative scans.

Lucky Film is back!?

Whoa! After some of what I heard and saw I thought it was the end for Chinese photographic films. Then one day I was looking around on eBay and I found 10 rolls of 36exp 35mm Luck Film for $45 with shipping. I grabbed a package quick and just recieved it. It’s dated 2018-07! Fresh stuff!

Alas there seems to be no more of it cheap. A precursor for more to come or some sputtering from a dying emulsion? It’s difficult to know. Shanghai seems to be putting out some decently priced 4×5 read more

Las Vegas on Velvia Part 2 – Red Rock Canyon

Like I said in Part 1 – Lights!, this was shot on Velvia 100 of unknown age. Stored in a garage fridge that freezes in the winter, it aged somewhere between 5 and 15 years.

Living in Michigan is a very flat earth experience. No in the “whole earth is flat” way, but the landscape here is rather featureless compared Pennsylvania or upstate New York. There are some hills and sand dunes and stuff in places, just not where I’m at. I was super excited then to go out and see some read more

My obsession with analog photography.