Film

Babby's First Leica - A Camera Test:

"...So I have something for you."

I like it when stories start this way. I'll give you the cliff notes because many of the details aren't important. A co-worker of mine came into possession of a lot of camera equipment. I dug through it a few times to help him sort away anything that was too fungus ridden or broken. As payment, I walked away with a couple of neat lenses and that was that. Or so I thought. 

A few weeks later I went back to his house to help him with some computer problems. And he told me a few words that would make many photographers drool.

"For helping me out I'm going to give you this Leica" 

As much as I appreciated it, this isn't exactly a Leica worth bragging about. 

He followed it up by handing me a roll of film that has been expired since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and told me to shoot it to see if it was any good. Below are those test shots. 

They aren't much to look at, mostly because I was trying to shoot through the roll as quickly as I could. But, that being said, for a cheap plastic camera, I'm pretty impressed. I had to do some smoothing out of the grain in lightroom (I'll show a raw scan below). But all in all, I'd consider the test mostly successful. 

Uncorrected: Note the more pronounced grain.

Week 14a – Straight Edge Tattoo – Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400

A couple of friends of mine Brandi and Nic just opened a tattoo shop in Woodstock GA (Atlanta Suburb). She had contacted me a few months back and wanted to get some work done once everything was up and running. 

Everything isn't 100% ready, but they invited me down and allowed me to snap a few photos while they had some downtime. The only member of the shop so far I wasn't able to photograph too much was Nathan, but he was busy working most of the time I was around.

For anyone in the area, please don't hesitate to stop by and get some work done. Also be sure to follow them on instagram at @straightedge.tattoo

Development Notes:
Unicolor C-41 Kit
Standard Development
Color Equalized in Photoshop

52 Rolls – Week 3 Extras

Ok. So I just couldn't stop playing around with these two images. I couldn't figure out why the original scans just didn't look the way I wanted. Then I realized that even the best scanner can sometimes not reproduce things 100% correctly.

So I made a few changes through photoshop to adjust levels and curves and all that fun stuff, and I came up with these two final images. To see the originals please make sure to check out my 52 rolls blog at UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls.

Week 2 – Pack Faster Film – Kodak Max 800 (Expired)

So far so good. I am on schedule to make things happen this year. It's becoming harder than I expected already, not because of shooting and processing a roll a week, but more because I am trying to only shoot a single roll a week. 

The following images were taken on New Year's Eve/Day using a roll of film that was given to me sometime within the last year or so. It hasn't and hadn't been kept in a temperature controlled environment so I had no idea how the images would come out. My only worry shooting it was thinking that I should have experimented with pushing it to 1600 iso. The only image I thought was properly exposed was of a lit up cigarette machine.

This was also my first attempt at home developing C41 film using this kit.

I read and watched everything I could to hopefully get everything right. Needless to say I was a nervous wreck the whole time. I have processed film before (See Week 1) using a Caffenol process, and in a darkroom during college, but this was my first time using a pre-made system that was very temperature specific. 

UNICOLOR C-41 Powder kit:
Factory instructions/Dilution

Tumblr/Wordpress visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the gallery

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