The color here makes me want to run out and buy some Ektachrome. I was just pricing processing the other day, and 5x7 isn't as much as I thought it was. These look like Kodachromes from the 1940s! Beautiful. I guess there must be some routine I can run my digital shots through to mimic this look a bit. . . I should look.
Thanks, but I'd rather just watch:
Large format: http://flickr.com/michaeldarnton
Mostly 35mm: http://flickr.com/mdarnton
You want digital, color, etc?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stradofear
van Huyck Photography
"Searching for the moral justification for selfishness" JK Galbraith
I still use a Toyo G 5 x 7 I bought in 1988, from a guy who purchased it new in Japan, but never used it (I got it out of Shutterbug. Remember those days, before eBay?). It was my 'Go-To' camera when I was a cross-country (OTR) truck driver running 48 states and Canada. I lived out of my truck for two and a half years. No address, no phone, no mail (except at the yard, which I visited about every two months.), and I made hundreds and hundreds of 5 x 7 negatives.
I'd plan my layovers so I could meet up with people all over the country, with whom I'd gone to school while studying photography at A.S.U. — where I was fantastically fortunate, in that, my M.F.A. committee there was made up of Light Bill and Dark Bill (after some old comedy thing, Light Bob and Dark Bob, which I don't think I ever heard). Light Bill was the late, great photo-writer and critic Bill Jay. He was always happy and ready to drink red (only) wine from a jug. Dark Bill was Bill Jenkins, the brilliant photo scholar who dreamed up, curated, and wrote the essay for "New Topographics," among many other pieces of work. He was always deep in brooding thought; therefore, Dark Bill (but also did a fair amount of academically related drinking).
Incidentally, when I was at A.S.U., my roommate ran the L.F. department at Tempe Camera and was good friends with Keith Canham, who shopped there. It was during those years, 1987-1990 that Canham Cameras was started. I used to tag along out to the shop all the time, when it was basically a garage.
On layovers, I was able to make a lot of pictures out with old friends from school, as well as use their darkrooms to process film. So I used HC-110, because it was readily available all over the country. But there were still misadventures and imperfect negatives produced in some of the more spartan facilities I had to use. I don't care. If I like it, I print it. I never (by choice) show my work anyway.
The road adventure paid off all my student loans and still left quite a bit in the bank (no personal expenses on the road). Film was Tri-X. Negatives printed on Azo (the good old days of 500 sheet boxes). Unfortunately, everything was scanned on a cheap Canon unit that really was a piece of crap, but it was what I could afford at the time.
Fishermen, Russian River, from U.S. 101
Deep Water Channel, Port of Stockton, Stockton CA
Self-Serving Self-Portrait, during D.O.T. Tire Check, outside Winnemucca NV, 107º
P.S.: coincidentally, only yesterday I discovered my 5 x 7 needs a new bellows, after 35 years (not bad), and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Ultra Fine Photo Acc. on Ebay. Looks pretty good to me, and great price.
Last edited by scott palmer; 9-Jul-2018 at 16:57. Reason: mistake
Thanks Scott, great images and interesting narrative.
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