After a long hiatus from shooting film I’ve put my Zone VI 4×5 view camera back into service for a new project. It’s too early to describe what I’m working on other that to say trees may be involved. Just not sure of much other than I’ll be focusing on view camera photography.
View camera photography is a departure from the process involved in making digital photographs for Scooter in the Sticks. The pictures I make while riding generally are completed in less than a minute. Often in seconds. The small digital camera can be put into action quickly due to it’s size, weight and how it functions.
The view camera is a different story. It’s slow to use, cumbersome to carry, and resists speed and haste. Those characteristics are exactly why I chose to use it. Often, in discussions of the relative merits of digital versus film photography, I hear people express that there’s no need to go through the trouble of film when digital can make the exact same print. While I agree with that statement that a similar print can be made, my feeling is that without that slow deliberate process, I never would have arrived at the image using digital equipment.
The process of production affects what I feel and see, and ultimate affects the image I create.
For the near future, I’ll be working with the view camera.
4×5 Film Negatives
This week I’ve shot and processed eight sheets of Kodak TXP film. The developer of choice is HC110 Dilution B and using a Stearman SP-445 Compact 4×5 film processing tank. The developer is simple to mix and use and the tank allows for daylight processing once the film has been loaded into the tank in the dark. So far it’s working well.
Printing in the Darkroom
Working in the darkroom has been a series of fits and starts. I’ve lost the routines from mixing chemicals to working in the dark. It’s coming back but slowly. For now, I need to make sure I close the paper safe before turning the lights on. Or remembering a 1:2 mixing ratio for Dektol developer means one part developer and two parts water and not, as I did, the other way round.
Working in a darkroom is a physical act compared to digital post production. And it demands patience. Time and temperature are dominant factors. Sitting in the darkroom is quiet and allows time for a lot of thinking. I’ve resisted playing music or the radio while working just so I’m forced to stick with the thoughts in my head.
Making Prints
It’s been satisfying to see images emerge from the chemical soup. The same feelings I had when I first started printing so many years ago. This first batch of contact prints were made on some leftover Ilford Multigrade RC paper that is fine for contacts but is showing some edge yellowing that makes it dubious for anything else.
I have a hundred sheets of fiber-based paper that I want to use up. Hopefully it will be in good shape.
As I continue to shoot and produce contacts and prints, I’ll determine a way to share some of the project here. Between scooter pictures.
I use to shoot 2.25 and dreamed of going to a larger format. Seeing this makes me want to break out the Ikoflex.
Before choosing another view camera I looked hard at a twin lens reflex camera like the Ikoflex — Rolleiflex and Yashicamat. But I had a really hard time focusing those cameras. My old eyes would need some more specialized glasses. I do love the light weight and silent nature of them though.
Hope you find the Ikoflex a viable option should you choose to pick up a roll of film again. BTW — a roll of film is pretty heavy these days…
I really enjoy your posts. They’ve become a staple for me and thank you; I appreciate them. They move me to consider things, look at things, and evaluate things in a way I hadn’t in a long time. It’s funny how discovering your site dovetailed with me returning to the seat of a motorcycle after a 20+ year layoff.
There has been, if you don’t mind me saying so, a feeling of…melancholy; perhaps, in some of your last epistles and…well, geez, I get it. Having passed through 63 years with 64 looming of wandering around on this terra that seems a lot less firma, I think I get it.
So I have to say this: bro, THAT is one BAD ASS looking camera! Just knowing you even freakin’ HAVE that to look at…whoa. That thing is gorgeous. The fact that you can, apparently, take pictures with it, well that’s good too.
Shoot away.
Fred,
I’m glad you find some value in the things I share here. The blog has become a sort of online journal/therapy/tool for exploring the things that bother me. Riding provides the space to think that otherwise gets lost in the daily flow of things. Hope you find similar spaces while riding your motorcycle.
Autumn always places me in a state of melancholy. As the natural world fades and goes to sleep I seem to do the same thing emotionally. I’ve recognized it in childhood and it has faithfully returned each year. I should point out that it’s not depressive, but rather a recognition of the cycle of life. As I race toward 65 it has indeed become a keener feeling. What once felt theoretical now seems much more real…
The Zone VI camera is stunning as an object by itself. This one even more so than the others I’ve owned. When it arrived and I first opened the box I was startled by the gleaming hardware. At first I thought it was one of the rare gold plated ones. But it was just so seldom used that it looked new. The brass had no tarnish at all. Unfortunately that will change as I put it to use. But even worn these cameras are magnificent. I’m looking forward to more use.
It’s been over 3 decades since last I was doing darkroom work….
As to the view camera and its bulkiness….you could carry it along easier (I know you’d come up with a way to do it on the Vespa) if either the Vespa had a sidecar attached or perhaps a gently used Ural sidecar rig…..
Glad to see you’re feeling better Dom. It had been so long since you suggested a sidecar that I thought you might be ill. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’ve figured out a way to haul the view camera on the scooter. Will have to test it out.
Very nice looking camera. There were some tilt-shift gizmos for dslr’s but they never worked very well (IMHO). Do you have a 4×5 enlarger or is there some organization that allows you to use their setup?
I have a 4×5 Beseler enlarger in my darkroom. With the sink and trays I have I can make prints up to 20×24 inches. I seldom print larger than 11×14 though and for the current project I can’t imagine exceeding 8×10. Time will tell though.
This post prompts so many memories for me. My first position after graduating from a community college photo program was in a dark room. Processing both sheet film, roll film and proof/contact printing the results. If I hadn’t had enough by the commercial days end I was free to use the dark rooms for my own work. I appreciate too the likening of slow travel and slow photo technique, plenty there to think about. Timely Steve, as my riding season winds down a more contemplative season begins for me.
Thanks once again for a thought provoking prod.
You’re in an exclusive club having been a processor of sheet film. Not many of us around anymore.
Slow travel and film photography with a view camera do have a lot in common for me with the way I ride and shoot. Not the case for all riders though I feel they should give it a try. At least the slow travel part. Very hard to do though for people in a hurry where the motorcycle or scooter supports speed and haste.
Sorry to hear the cold is approaching and your riding season is drawing to a close. That always feels like the day after Christmas when I hear it…
The last time I worked in a darkroom was in 1972 in Germany. I haven’t been in one since. Now I just take pictures with my cell phone and then manipulate them if desired in my computer. Fast and easy.
Digital is certainly fast and easy in comparison. I won’t be giving up my digital cameras. They serve me well for almost everything.
In 1972 I made my first foray into a darkroom at Penn State. Until then it was just processing film and making contact prints in my basement while in high school. I fell in love with the darkroom and remain smitten.
Ah, the Zone VI: I knew someone who had one, and someone who had their enlarger, making some unbelievably sumptuous 16×20 prints – stuff that can’t truly be emulated digitally (although I’ve made some really nice b/w inkjet prints, via quadtone and more-conventional “tritone” black/grey inksets. And the timing of this post, as wells its subject, dovetails rather neatly with my plans to clear out and rearrange our basement here for (among a few other things) the beginnings of a darkroom – starting off, as mentioned previously, with film processing. (I have nice electric Prinz film dryer I’m just itching to wall-mount and put back in to service.) And, yes, HC-110 is my Main Axe for film development, although I’ve got an unused Diafine/Acufine kit from about ten years back that I never got around to using.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing what you do with that camera, when you’re ready to present. Above all, enjoy.
The Zone VI camera is lovely. I used to have a Wisner Technical Field camera but like the Zone VI better. Also had an Ebony RW45 with titanium hardware — exquisite camera but not a Zone VI. Whatever I use has to resonate with my aesthetic sense. The Vespa, Leica M6 and the Zone VI met that requirement.
I’ve never attempted a black and white inkjet print. I’ve seen great ones though. Prints that were difficult for me to distinguish from gelatin silver. For me the print isn’t the concern. It’s the process of creation that’s so different that it just leads to a different image. I’m convinced the images I make with the view camera would never be seen if I was working with a digital camera. It’s not about best or better. Just different.
Good luck with your plans to revamp a darkroom. It’s a big step.
It’s been just a wee bit hectic around here the last few days. Today October 8 is our Canadian Thanksgiving, and unlike many years over time am alone. Perhaps given circumstances a good idea.
And am only reading your posting, now.
Until some six years ago also owned a field camera; an ancient Horseman red bellowed and with the ability to accept 8″ x 10″ sheet film. Art one time too had a Polaroid back for 4×5, which would allow one to expose the sheet of Polaroid film before the actual photo was exposed. Very important especially when using colour negative, be it 4×5 or larger. Larger colour negative was expensive. Still is.
The bellows on the ancient Horseman was developing pin holes, and no amount of nail polish lacquer to fill the holes . Then too the over all mechanism was slowly failing.
When I purchase the camera 42 years prior, it was in good shape however still old. I stripped the wooden frame and did a total clean up of the wood frames and related.
An older Wollensak convertible lens was acquired and sent a lab to be cleaned and mounted on a lens board.
The Wollensak lens allowed t he front element to be unscrewed giving a very wide angle result.
Swings and tilts are a lifesaver. Want to get rid of the chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling and still expose your subject? Swings and tilts are your friend. I lean ed much with that camera; and like you processed my own film; colour was sent to a local lab. Incidentally my small darkroom both at work and at home was painted white on the interior. Yes a “dark” room does not allow outside light in; once you’re inside, and away from exterior light, you’ll need light, as to what your eyes are accustomed. My darkroom was bright inside even with all the lights turned off!
The safe light often was not required however it was required, every once in a while.
Glad to see you’ll probably end up doing contact prints. so much easier.
There is something about seeing that recently exposed negative change into a usable negative in the chemical as it appears like magic as you gently rock the tray to and fro.
There’s nothing else like it!
I hope your time alone at Thanksgiving offered some solace of thought or meditation. Holidays can be strange.
Film and Polaroid materials are expensive. My choice of 4×5 was driven partially by cost. Mostly by my back. I’m satisfied so far.
You’re a better man than me in undertaking a view camera restoration. I do not have the patience. I’ve repaired pinholes in bellows with black silicone rubber but that’s the extent of it.
My darkroom, on the enlarger side, is quite dark. Just a small OC safelight on a worktable to allow me to put a negative in a carrier. On the sink side it’s much brighter though nothing like some of the darkrooms I’ve worked in with Thomas Safelights that made the room seem almost like daylight. Mine is a cozier light level. And the white epoxy sink brightens the place as well. I can leave a sheet of paper out for 10 minutes before any fog begins. That’s plenty since I am using a 2.5 minute processing time in Dektol.
The printing process remains magical but I must admit that making contacts I don’t look at the image side of the paper until it’s in the fixed. So I don’t see the slow revelation. Just a sudden look!
I am, as always, way behind in my reading, so I have been trying to catch up. I am sorry I didn’t have anything to add to the comments from so many of your wise readers on the previous posts…but this one was like Greek to me! I am a huge fan of photography in general, and yours in particular, but I have to admit to never being exposed to view camera photography, developing in a dark room, etc. I can’t wait to see what you produce!!
I know the dilemma of being behind reading and commenting. Amazing the guilt it generates in me.
View cameras are different animals. Slow, cumbersome and demanding. In the digital age they are truly an antique approach to making photographs. Heading to the darkroom shortly to process more film. Once I have some stuff finished I’ll share some things on the blog.
Now your comment on my blog about mixing chemicals makes sense. Glad to see you are back at the darkroom work. I still think of your long ago three prints project.
I’m heading toward a resumption of the three prints project. Feels good to be working again. Have spent some time learning to scan 4×5 negatives with an Epson V700 scanner and output on my Epson P800 printer. The images look great on Epson Exhibition Fiber paper but they don’t have the glow of a 4×5 negative on gelatin silver paper.