Good old rules

The optimum aperture for sharpness and detail is about two stops away from wide opened.

New website

I just published a new website for myself. Enjoy.

http://www.skaffari.fi

The content will be changing every once in a while. Currently I'm looking for more pictures of people to add.

New film and paper source

Last week I discovered Freestyle Photographic Supplies, a photo shop in Hollywood. They are kind of a photo shop I would like to have here locally. They seen to have very extensive selection of quirky materials, such as Croatian films and papers, infrared, reversal, Polaroid etc. Basically everything you don't _need_ but still want. They also seem to have extensive selection of cameras and accessories. Very cool!

I ordered a box of EFKE PL100M film and a box of Arista Private Reserve VC RC photo paper. Including delivery charges I paid 84$. I'm really waiting for the delivery which is happening today even though I ordered the material on Thanksgiving day. Very, very fast delivery.

Buying Ilford film & paper from Calumet would have cost me roughly 125$. Ilford may be somewhat better quality, but 30% cheaper is still better for me.

DIY 4x5 film developing tank

I seem to have inherited a problem from my father. I think it's unnecessary to buy anything you can build yourself - even if becomes more expensive and not as good when building it yourself. This time I think I have dodged the bullet since I don't have a suitable place for developing film, but just wait until I move to a house with a garage and a pitch dark small room.

Anyway, here are instructions on building the film development tank from PVC tubes and accessories.

The design
In action

About blur and Bokeh

Bokeh is a term referring to quality of out of focus light sources in a photograph.

I found a great article explaining some of the physics behind this and found out that even when the lens does play a big role in Bokeh, there are other factors also. Applies to bigger cameras as well as smaller ones. Naturally when working with black and white medium the color shifts are rendered as shades of gray and are harder to analyze.

Birth of landscape photography

Seen in Beyond the Lens: New York times had a great article about Edward Weston and his career as landscape photographer. For me he's up there with Ansel Adams and both used large format cameras for their work.

Large Format Photography dot Info

A lot of useful info, hints and tips.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/

I think someone should save the information. The site hasn't been updated in almost 2 years. Sites like that have the tendency to vanish once the administrators get tired of paying for the domain or hosting.