I'm so happy to have found this forum–it has already been immensely valuable and entertaining. I'm an American living in Paris, and fell backwards into large format when I picked up an unmarked antique tailboard with a lens (also unmarked) and three film holders at a vide-grénier (a sort of community garage/car boot sale). I grew up with an enthusiastic amateur photographer father, and became a photographer myself--but by the time I arrived, digital was already firmly in place as the dominant force.
However, I make my living working with old and even ancient technologies (spinning yarn and thread on spindles and wheels, weaving cloth on a handloom, sewing on a treadle machine); and one little experiment with the field camera, paper negatives, and homebrew caffenol was enough to hook me immediately.
I'm only beginning to find my way around the analog scene in Paris (if there is one? there must be one, surely) and would welcome any advice--especially on clubs, reliable sources for supplies like chemicals, and darkrooms for rent. I do speak French, but even so the grumpy camera store staff find my interest in analog and large format to be weird and annoying. Even at the shop that specializes in medium and large format equipment. Ça, c'est Paris.
Here is my first reasonably correct and more-or-less properly developed negative, indifferently scanned on a cheap scanner and inverted in Photoshop. (My contact printing frame is still under construction.) The weather has been beastly, and so took a cue from Niépce and shot the view from the kitchen window.
It ain't much to look at, but I enjoyed every step.
My thanks to the people who make this forum run. It's magnificent.
-Franklin
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by fhabit
Bookmarks