Film From the Freezer

Johnny
U.S. Route 285, Española, New Mexico, June 2006

This portrait was taken on a roll of Adox KB-14, which is pre-Yugoslavian, pre-Efke.  Yep, you read that right:  This particular roll expired in October 1969, and rated at ASA 20, it hasn't lost a bit of its lustre.  This is Frankfurt, West Germany Adox, made 23 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and exposed 17 years after!

In fact, I have never seen tighter grain on any slow-speed film I've used in 35mm.  Not Agfapan 25, not Panatomic-X 32 ASA.  In fact, I was already well aware of Adox's legendary sharp accutance and smooth rendition of the full tonal range that I centered all my subjects on that particular roll, so that I could print them square, by chopping the sides.

This portrait of one young punker was taken with my Nikkor prime lens, 50mm/f1.4.  It is technically -- and artistically -- worthy of my Rolleiflex SL-66.

I'm so blessed that I still have twenty bulk reels of the stuff in the Frigidaire!

Unintentional Photo Effects

U.S. Route 285, Eddy County, New Mexico, 2008

This photograph was taken on Fuji Velvia 50 color transparency (slide) film, on my Rolleiflex SL-66.  At the time this image was captured, I only had Velvia in my camera, as I hadn't brought along any black-and-white negative film for the camera.  I did have a roll of 35mm Kodak Tri-X, but this composition struck me as a square, not a rectangle (either vertical or horizontal).

I finally got around a few months ago to scanning this transparency, as I envisioned it as a black-and-white print.  The strangest thing happened with the tones:  The resultant scan turned out looking almost as if the picture was taken on infrared film, particularly in the deep grays of the sky and the paleness of the shrubbery.  (Red, however -- which is the color of the "WHITE'S CITY" sign -- came out in normal tonality, not as a shimmering white, as it would appear on infrared film, through a red filter).

Of course, this oughtn't to have surprised me, given Velvia's exagerated color curves -- which, when desaturated produce exagerated tonal curves.

Still, I love the otherworldly feel of this picture, something not uncommon in New Mexico landscapes.