Good old rules

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

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.

Polaroid

This picture by lost in pixels inspired me to start taking Polaroid pictures with my Speedy.

Since Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 and stopped manufacturing instant film, Fujifilm of Japan could start importing their own instant film into US. I couldn't find out if I could use the Fuji film packs with my Graflex pack film adapter that I bought through eBay some time back, I went to Calumet and bought one pack of the film to try out.

Here's info for anyone else who is looking for it: Fujifilm FP-100B45 (Black & White) and FP-100C45 (color) are NOT compatible with the Graflex pack film holder. Instead you have to use either Fuji PA-45, or Polaroid 550 Pack Film holder.

The Graflex pack film holder doesn't have the development rollers that are needed to develop Fuji instant film.

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.

Found the shift release "button"

After some more investigation I managed to locate the shift release. The front standard lock has to be open and then you just push down on the shift lock and adjust the front standard sideways. The movement though is quite underwhelming 1cm left or right.

Inspecting the equipment

Haven't had any time to take pictures with the big camera. Instead I have been spending my free time making a movie and taking pictures of that with my DSLR. Some pictures can be seen in Flickr .

Today I spent some time troubleshooting my inside-out negatives. I still stand behind my instructions on loading the film. I went through the negatives and it seems that only last 4 are exposed on the correct side of the film. I also checked all the already loaded film holders and all of them seemed OK.

All the hassle must have been problems with the initial loadings. Have to start being more careful.

My future darkroom - Reyko Photo Center

I have been looking for an affordable place to rent darkroom to print my new films. There is a city run Photography Center, which is in temporary space until they building is renovated. The cost was 50$ for half a year membership + 5$ for each visit.

My choice though is Reyko Photo Center. They have a cool space and all kinds of cool photo gear to rent also ;). The cost is 8$ / hour no membership fees. Cool!

Research for scanner

After finding out the scanning cost in shops I desided to go ahead and get myself a proper scanner. The shop I usually go to charges up to 5$ per 4x5 scan which seems a bit harsh for me.

I have been doing some research on scanners and are leaning towards Epson V750-M Pro scanner now. The price is around 800$ and Epson has 100$ mail-in rebate program ongoing. I might be cheap also and go for the older Epson V700 which goes for around 550$ and offers same 100$ mail-in rebate.