Arran Salerno | Photography - Blog » Film

A whole lotta randoms

admin — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:21:34 +0000

Ahh 2011.
2010 was bit of a whirlwind year for a number of reasons, so I’m looking forward to a more enjoyable new year.
To start off the new year I developed an old roll I had kicking around in a camera I don’t use very often. I couldn’t remember what was on it, so it was quite nice looking back over the last year from the perspective of random photos taken roughly over a several month period.
I’m looking forward to completing a couple projects/sets and starting a few more. Things had gotten stagnant for a period, but I’m somewhat relieved that has now changed. Fresh starts all round.

Some of these pics were in Melbourne, the others I have no idea.
(As usual, please forgive my crappy scans)

Oh, one more thing.
Came across some youtube videos today. They are from a documentary on Henri-Cartier Bresson and it’s brilliant. I think HCB is often misunderstood and his work over simplified. There is a lot more going on with his work than just “street photography” – a shallow term I’m actually getting a little tired of, as it’s continuously thrown around without much consideration. Anyway, that’s a discussion for another time and place I think.

The documentary is broken up into 5 parts so make sure you continue watching them in order. This is the first : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6l09YEeEpI
Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Expired Film

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:28:41 +0000

Just like cameras, I hoard film, and for some reason I quite often come across people throwing it out, or shops clearing it off their shelves.
I can’t stand the thought of film being thrown in landfill somewhere when it can be used for something creative or fun. It’s just a waste. So as a result I have quite a lot of it.
Mostly I just load it into one of my mju:II‘s and keep it in the car or in my pocket and shoot anything that come to mind. A lot of the time they don’t turn out, and from the ones that do, only a small number are “keepers”. I’m not really bothered. This “low stress” type of shooting is what got me into photography in the first place. It’s something I lost for a couple years. Instead I’d agonise about the shot I wanted to get, the preparation and post work etc. It became a chore and not enjoyable.
These days I just shoot for the fun of it and the final result isn’t the prime importance. I find it a lot more fun now.

Below are some shots from expired film I’ve been using. I’m not even sure what it is. Just some consumer grade Kodak 200 & 400 iso I think. These are some scans of the prints so things aren’t as sharp as they’d be from a negative scan, but I kind of like the aesthetic anyway.
Some shots are from my ongoing A car took me there series.

A Car Took Me There

Arran — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:39:45 +0000

Been doing a bit of driving lately, so it’s only natural that some of my photos are taken from the car.
Here are a few from a set.
My scanner doesn’t like film anymore, so I have to scan prints – luckily I always get prints.
I’m gradually going through a big bag of expired colour print film I got for nothing a little while ago. It’s been a nice change from black and white, plus I like the random colour casts that may/may not happen depending on how the film has been treated over it’s life.

Oh yeah, I’m still here

Arran — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:48:02 +0000

Been quite a while since my last post for a number of reasons. Nothing bad, all good, but my priorities have been with offline pursuits lately. I’m trying to minimise the amount of time I spend on the net and computers in general also, which is kind of hard seeing as though my job entails alot of computer time!
Anyway, I’m still taking photos, mostly colour though, and mostly with a p&s Olympus Mju:II – photo attached as proof! I’m finding it alot more fun with a p&s, I seem to put less pressure on myself, and photography has become alot more enjoyable. I like my photos more too.
Will give another more detailed update again soon. Have a couple of projects I’ve been progressing with, and my entire website will be rebuilt with a slightly different focus. Time has been a precious commodity lately though!

Last for a while

Arran — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:29:56 +0000

Just some random scans I had lying around. Been shooting colour lately, and waiting to get about a dozen rolls finished to developed them in one hit (i’ll be doing it myself). These may be the last b&w shots I post up for a while.

Some shots around Sydney

Arran — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:33:53 +0000

Developed an old roll of Tri-x and found some shots I took in and around the city. Alot of the shots are in the same area as an old set i did around Circular Quay with the Olympus Trip.
I shot this roll in my Bessa – a camera i haven’t been using lately. I seem to of gone back to my Olympus OM’s which i’ve found are with out a doubt my favourite cameras to shoot with. That’s no real secret though i guess.
Got a few rolls to put through the Mamiya RB67 which i cant wait to start using again. I’m going to finally bite the bullet and get a new scanner though for the 120 film.

Been a While

Arran — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:13:36 +0000

.. Since my last post.
Nothing exciting to report really. Been having trouble finding time for photography lately. Well, I shoot stuff, but at an extremely slow rate. I’ll bring the camera out and may only shoot one frame all day. I dont know what it is, but i’m having trouble finding anything visually interesting lately.
For some reason I also have 5 rolls of film sitting in various cameras half finished and another 3 or 4 rolls already shot and waiting to be developed. I’m just not in a hurry to see whats on them.
Saying that though, the other day I got an urge to develop some Neopan 1600 (not so interested in the photos themselves) as i’d never done it before ,so went out to buy some Microphen. At the last minute I changed my mind as i felt like bit of a challenge and decided to use my normal developer – Rodinal. Probably the worst developer you can choose for high iso stuff, but i figured i’d be able to minimise the grain by altering a few developing techniques. I think it worked, i was relatively pleased with the results. Sure they’re grainy, but I dont think any more than what i’d get from another developer, plus the grain is pretty sharp which is nice too.
The roll was an old one I had sitting around, and most were of photos I took on NYE, so things got a little “messy” near the end of the roll/night. I’ll just post one up for now as I haven’t gone through them all yet.
It’s now my mission to develop another roll this week. I need to get back into the routine.

Makeup

Arran — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:22:57 +0000

This style of photo is a new aesthetic for me.
I recently shot some 100iso Fuji Reala Superia on my half frame and it produced some impressive prints. However, my scanner seems to hate C41, and anything i scan looks flat and dull. That means im not going to bother trying to post them up for the time being. However, there were some shots i took in very low light that interested me even though they lacked the vibrancy of a proper exposed negative (i had to trick the camera into thinking that i had the flash on otherwise it wouldn’t let me take the shot). They’re dark, grainy and soft, but as an experiment I think they turned out nice, and create a sense of atmosphere or feeling for me. I hope to develop the concept a little further and get a whole set inspired by the shot/s below.
As usual, it’s probably best to click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Oh yeah, one more thing.. I’m waiting on something very special that’ll be coming in the mail soon

“Instant” 35mm Film

Arran — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:52:40 +0000

Well, not quite “instant”, but pretty damn close.
I didn’t know this (maybe you did), but Polaroid used to make 35mm film that you could process at home without messy chemicals, in a matter of minutes. The system seems to of had some popularity at one stage, but like other Polaroid products, the profit margin must of been pretty small and the product was phased out.Several types of film instant film were made (all slide film) in both colour and black & white.

The system is based around a hand operated Autoprocessor. Into this you place your film and its matching processing unit (single use-comes with each roll of film). You then complete a series of winding actions and hey presto, you’re film is developed in about 2 minutes.
I saw a processing unit and 6 rolls of film going for less than $5 the other day, so thought I’d give it a go. The only thing is, the film had expired in 1984! I was more curious to see if anything would come out at all, and have a bit of fun.

I did get results, but as you’ll see, its pretty rough and insanely contrasty, but surpringly ok for film that coule be over 25 years old! I have a few rolls left, so might shoot them deliberately to bring the most out of the unique aesthetic. I’m kind of thinking of the movie “Metropolis”

Half Frame Fun!

Arran — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:56:06 +0000

Here are some shots from my first roll in the little Pen EF i just got.
Tried out some diptychs as it fits them on a regular single frame. Some obviously worked better than others, but it was still alot of fun. I’m quite surprised how well it metered and how sharp the lens is (when its actually in focus ofcourse).
Tri-x400 in Rodinal 1+50