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Jon Bosak
@bosak@flx.masto.host
mastodon 4.7.3Retired standards expert living in upstate NY. Photographer. Writer. Gardener. Syndicalist. Animist. Doomer. Occasional mystic. Member of The Things Network Ithaca. Proprietor of Medicine Spring LLC. Father of XML and UBL, but they left home a long time ago (ibiblio.org/bosak/cv). FCC Third Class Radiotelephone License (expired). Avatar: obscure George Herriman reference.
I am Lazarus, come from the dead / Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all
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Joined January 09, 2023
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1/
"It’s difficult to describe how it feels to me to get what I’m looking for in a picture. It’s good, of course, a very peaceful state. But the inspiration, the idea is in control and my job is to do as it tells me and not get in the way, so I don’t feel much of a sense of personal achievement or pride in my work.
Replying to
@analog_cafe@mas.to "...any type of film photography can be considered an experimental pursuit in today’s context — those who shoot it never know whether the image will come out."
Am I the only film photographer who knows that his images will come out? Gosh.
#photography #filmphotography #retrobosak
Roll 19707201, cont.: Riverside, mostly (1970)
One: Ah, dear old Denny's.
If anyone had told me when I was younger that I would someday find myself enthusiastically supporting a Papal pronouncement, I don't think that I would have believed them. But Leo has put his finger exactly on the problem.
#photography #filmphotography #retrobosak
Roll 19707214, cont.: Riverside (December 1972)
The heart of downtown Riverside is demolished to build a new City Hall.
Set One.
#photography #filmphotography #TLRTuesday
This is from the same roll that I showed a shot from last week. That scene was in full sunlight and seemed to be a perfect match for the Barry Thornton Two-Bath formula. This shrine to St. Jude of the Telephone was in the shade (i.e., flatly lit) at the entrance to an antique mall in Owego, NY. I like the way it finally worked out, but it did take work to recover some separation in the midtones, as was true of other shots on this roll. See alt text.
#photography #filmphotography #retrobosak
Roll 19707201, cont.: Riverside, mostly (1970)
One: we lived in houses built around 1910 and not updated since the 1930s. Often the living room was lit by some glaringly ugly fixture in the center of the ceiling. But with war surplus parachute silk suspended from the corners of the room and a nice Indian scarf placed over the light (both items being cheap and easily available), the environment became much more pleasant. Very trippy.
Jason, a member of our analog film club who knows that I've been playing with D-23, suggested that I try Barry Thornton's Two-Bath (BTTB) formula, which uses a slightly weaker D-23 for the first bath and a 1.2% Kodalk (sodium metaborate) solution for the second. So I got some metaborate and tried it on the current exposed roll of TX. I think it's just about perfect for full sunlight: see this example for #TLRTuesday. But next Tuesday, I'll have more to say about BTTB.
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Two: The crowd assembles. The photos in this set and the next are shown in the order in which they were taken.
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Two: A "grange." This was the traditional name for a total drunken debauch, an all-you-can-drink affair at some place rented off-campus but an integral part of a week of partying at UCR called "Scots on the Rocks." Interestingly, this word "grange" that had been used regularly for years seems to have disappeared after 1967, due probably to the general shift on campus to marijuana. All these photos are shown in the order in which they were taken.
I won't be able to say this later, when the human suffering necessarily involved in this development becomes apparent, so I'll say it now: the coming destruction of demand for oil may in the long run be the best thing that ever happened to us. And I'll also note that most of the suffering will follow from the capitalist system in which this transition will take place.
Now forget I said that.
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/billion-barrel-hormuz-oil-shock-is-about-to-crash-demand
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6/
Do I use D-76? No, though for years I did. Right now I'm using D-23 1:1 for 120 (6x6 and 6x9) and Acufine for 35mm, and for maximum flexibility, I always keep HC-110 around. But I've been at this on and off since 1966, and I have pretty clear ideas about what I'm after. Unless you're into photography as an aleatory, unrepeatable medium, I recommend sticking with D-76 (1:1) until you have everything else under perfect control.
Replying to
5/
D-76 is best diluted 1:1 and used as a one-shot. It's cheap and available in powdered form from multiple suppliers. At 1:1, a gallon of stock will process 32 rolls of film, an ambitious shooting goal for the six months that the stock will last. (In commercial studios of the past, D-76 was used as the regular developer and kept continuously active through the periodic addition of a replenisher, D-76R.) It's also easy to mix up from scratch, but there's really no reason to bother.
Replying to
@carusb Official formulas for D-76 and ID-11. Note that Elon and metol are the same thing.
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4/
D-76 was also the developer that Kodak recommeded "for panchromatic negatives and variable density sound negatives" made from their motion picture film stocks. That's right, the negatives for many classic Hollywood movies were developed in this stuff. Every manufacturer of b&w films to this day provides recommended times for developing their films in D-76.
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@cdevroe I don't think that this is an enlarger. Some kind of compact process camera, maybe?
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@carusb D-76 and ID-11 are often said to be the same thing. But they're not. The formulas are almost identical (both have 2g metol, 5g hydroquinone, and 2g borax per liter), but ID-11 has twice as much sodium sulfite (200g/L instead of 100). So results are no doubt very similar, but with 2x the sulfite, ID-11 should be slightly more active (sulfite is alkaline) and slightly less grainy (sulfite etches silver grains).
I get the same complaints, btw. Never mind the bleach under the sink....
Replying to
@alwirtes@indieweb.social Oh, it was a current term all right, but still taboo. Radio stations couldn't play that song. (So, of course, at KUCR we played it all the time.)
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@cdevroe I could make some guesses (the vacuum back was a standard feature in process cameras, hence "pump"), but that switch labeled "tape light" has me stumped.
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@yvanspijk The now unusual meaning of "to blow" as "to bloom" in English makes it easy for a modern reader to misconstrue the first lines of this once famous WW1 poem:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
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@tmcfarlane Oh wait a minute, that's not quite right. People seem now to be using stand development for pushing, and that's not what DD76 is good for. Stand development used to be used per St. Ansel as a way to cope with extreme contrast (e.g., a sunlit scene with both important highlights and important shadows), and this is the purpose for which I think DD76 is best suited. (That and playing continuous-tone games with high-contrast technical emulsions.)
Replying to
@tmcfarlane 1:3 is another excellent choice. Greater compensating action than 1:1, of course. The next stop down that road would be Divided D-76, which is incredible in its own way.
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@terrillmoore@flx.masto.host I look forward to seeing the print of that! And also what a scan of a step wedge would reveal.
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@barefootliam@floss.social A great example of the way that people themselves (not just fashions) change over time: that's a 19th century face. It couldn't exist now.
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@terrillmoore@flx.masto.host Wow, you'd never know that all that gradation was there from the initial positive. "Fun to print" indeed!
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@terrillmoore@flx.masto.host Oh, now you need to go nuts with the lighting.
I seem to remember that Edward Steichen did 400 versions of a white porcelain teacup and saucer just to study the effects of light....
#photography #filmphotography #retrobosak
Roll 19707215, cont.: UC Riverside (1968-1970)
Continuing this piece of visual anthropology. Final set tomorrow.
Set One.
#photography #filmphotography #retrobosak
Roll 19707216: Riverside (1970-1972)
A normal roll of nothing in particular.
One: Photos taken from someone's car.