Encounter Studio: experiments + journeys

brief notes on experimental photographic journeys

Posts for Tag: log

an outtake

I made a number of 5x4 negatives for the 2015 Magpie Springs Photography competition.  This is one image that failed to make the cut,  and as it didn't work in colour,   I converted this underexposed negative  to a black and white image using Silver Efex Pro 2 software.  

Though it looks better in black and white,  and I've overcoming the over sharpening problem caused by the Epson software,  I still have the  other  problem of  blown highlights  caused by scanning the negative. However,  looking at this image of straight photograhy makes me uneasy and this unease  is over and above these technical flaws. 

I cant help but feel that straight photography, exemplified by this image,  appears as a rather archaic discipline—even in its digital form, let alone the chemical one. There is still the attitude in the art institution that  contemporary visual artist's   love  for the photographic medium is because it is so “simple,” so “non-artsy,” so “direct.” Photography, in this sense,  has always been an important counterpart to modern art, The corollary of this is that straight  photography has gradually acquired a strange status of something not completely artistic and yet highly artistic. 

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along the Heysen Trail

I  came across a  fallen log whilst walking along the Hesyen Trail near Jagger Rd, Victor Harbor  yesterday.  This is part of the Cape Jervis to Kuitpo Forest section of the trail  and it is standing to Encounter Studio. 

I was looking for some subject matter to finish off some old film that had been sitting in the 6x7 and 6x9 film backs of my Linhof Technika 70. This is the digital scoping picture that  I  made in the late afternoon whilst on a poodle walk  with Ari and Kayla. 

Though I used to use this  camera  a lot, it has has been sitting in a wooden box in a  cupboard unused for several years. I have been using the Rolleiflex 6x6 instead. These  are  much quicker and easier to use as the  baby Linhof  functions like a view camera. You line  the image up through  the  ground glass, take off the viewing plate,  put the  roll film  back on, expose the film, take the  roll film back off, then put the  viewing plate back on  to line up the next image.  It is a slow work process--- very similar to large format photography. 

 I  had pulled the Linhof  out of the box a couple of days ago as I'd  wanted  to finishing exposing the  old 120 rolls Kodak Portra 160 VC film  in the  two film backs  so that the 2 rolls  could be taken  to Atkins on Monday along  with some 5x4 sheet film to be developed. This scoped image suited the 6x9 format. 

I scanned the film last night and I noticed the expired film is flat compared to the new film.  It was  made just before the showers crossed across the landscape. So the light is flat.   This image was converted from colour using Silver Efex Pro-2. 

I actually enjoyed using the baby Linhof. Since it offers alternatives to the square format  the camera  and the two lenses have been taken in to be  serviced in Adelaide.  I also ordered a second hand Super Rollex 6x9 film back from England to use instead of  the  very old one that has wooden rollers and is lacks an automatic counter resetting.




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