Film/Analog Photography in the Garden -Page 1-

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(facebook post from Oct. 21st, 2024)

These are my medium format film cameras. I used them at the end of my season for a more artistic approach than I normally find time to explore. Using them is a challenge, expensive, and involved some re-learning, but I think the results are worth it. I was unable to locate my old light meter so mistakes plus accidents and beauty in THIS was my mantra. I truly enjoyed this "project" of reacquainting myself with how to operate this clunky old archaic equipment and I'm thrilled with the results. I especially like some images from the first few rolls that had an eerie firefly effect - white dots - possibly from something going wrong in developing and was exactly what I had hoped would make its presence known - imperfections. Many of the film rolls expired in the early 2000's sitting in a fridge drawer, stored waiting to be used, and for inspiration to arrive. Setting up a shot is so much different than the digital process. When you only get 12 frames per roll it forces and selects for decisions you wouldn't make otherwise. Here's a few from the first batch. I'll find time to post more in the coming days - moving from this Wizard of Oz B&W intro to full technicolor. lol. Be well and creative everyone.

(facebook post from Oct.17th, 2024)

I just got my scans in from my attempt to photograph the recent Northern Lights with my old film camera and these are the raw files. Problem was I thought it was loaded with color film. It wasn’t. Ha! So I find it hilarious that these came out so well in black and white. I sure wish they were color but I didn’t have any 120 color film on hand to use - I just thought for sure the ten exposures I had left were color, since I was using this camera in the garden photographing Iris this past summer - in an attempt to re-learn how to use the archaic device. 

Let me say it was a challenge using this old stuff at 2am, 37° weather, in the middle of nowhere, manually holding the shutter open for 2 minute exposures, not really having a clue how to photograph at night in the first place, getting questioned by police why I’m stopped on the side of the road photographing in the middle of nowhere lol, using film from left over rolls expired 25 years ago etc. Anyway, I had fun, and in the next few days I will post Iris/garden photos I shot at the end of the season using film. I guess it’s the hipster in my 42 year old bones that has me using old tech.

(facebook/blog - posted April 2 - 3, 2025)

Post #1 of Winter film photo series

I took some time this winter shooting more film photography and recently got my scans back after development. I wanted to test some new Kodak Ektar 100 film and figured if I could get results in harsh conditions I will be more than ready to capture some great images this spring. It was more than challenging. Didn't use a light meter, but located two packed in a box and will have them for the future. Despite not being able to photograph flowers in winter I think I found some beautiful moments and nice lighting situations. More to upload in following posts.

Post #2 continuing my winter film photo series

...I still plan to use my digital camera most of the time but it's 20 years old – so I surely need a new one. I am considering a Nikon or Canon DSLR or mirrorless and need to research more. Recommendations welcome. I use my phone a lot but I think it does funny things to pixels and prefer more control - shutter speed and aperture etc. I'm still convinced that film is the best photographic medium. It's a cost prohibitive thing with old methods. You can't just take hundreds of photos in an hour. I like this limiting factor. There's more time crafting and setting up and actually thinking about what you are going to photograph. At 12 shots a roll for medium format that means you must be selective and discriminating...

Post #3 continuing my winter film photo series

...I believe the results speak for themselves. Grain quality and everything is beautiful even on low res scans. I will also be trying Kodak's newer Ektachrome E100 color reversal (slide film) as I understand it's the best on the market – world's finest blah blah. In an instant McWorld it's strange to wait to see images you took 4 months ago. 

Most of all I think I enjoy the surprise elements film can introduce. For great iris photos I DO want the best crystal clear everything but at the other end of the spectrum damage/mistakes can be fun and more artistic. And that feels forced when trying with digital and you just can't get the same visual effects. I've always been interested in bending the medium towards abstraction – so more on that when I post different roll of shots on film that our dog chewed up many years ago - prior to being run through a camera – and saved for the purpose of intentionally introduced mistakes.

This roll had some development or scanning issues so I left that stuff in.

Post #4 of Winter film photo series

...To use finish up a few of the rolls I turned to our cats for help.  So why not include them? A few bonus shots. You shouldn't use 100 speed film indoors but you CAN find ways around that and end up with cool ghost/smokey effects when correcting under-exposed film in photoshop. I'm sure I've seen photography and photo groups intentionally going for this effect... I kinda did. Came out better than I thought.

Back to iris in my next post - I promise.

Post #5 continuing Winter film photo series

More shots from winter 2024/25. This time black and white. Film allows for natural abstraction effects. I used to do a lot of this in older work before I even knew what an iris was. I can't say I ever felt like a photographer then, just an artist exploring the medium, but I liked the results and still do. I feel like a photographer more and more, but I'm a painter and draftsman first and foremost in my art-making. A mark is mark anymore be it watercolor, oil, exposed film, garden art ...a plant? I sure think so. 

This is film I saved, for 25 years expired, rolls all chewed up and bitten into by our old dog, that I recently somehow managed to run smoothly through my camera. I ran another roll in much worse condition but it did not come out. Too many light leaks? Not sure. I hate developing film so I hand that off to a lab. 

I wish these were in worse condition – even more of a painterly abstraction of the photographic image - this is what I love about film and natural effects of distortion or abstraction and accidents. In my head it mimics what hybridizing is like. You can make guesses at results but there is always a surprise element – then you must evaluate and select. I've been fascinated by how hybridizers manage to accomplish this since day one. I love when you can see a photo of an iris and accurately guess its lineage, name a parent or grandparent, or the hybridizer. That last one might happen the most. Everyone creates their own selection factors and aesthetic. You CAN often see it. It's probably the main reason I am trying to do what I do and love hybridizing. Living art. 

2nd to last one is actually a 4 minute exposure of the Constellation Orion in the night sky. Sky motion blur...not a camera motion blur. 

Thanks for checking out my photo series... of not even a single flower! 

They'll be here soon enough. Happy spring time everyone!

(I enjoy the photo in part 5 of Orion in the night sky - might be my favorite. Because it is so very destroyed and abstracted. It's a night shot of the constellation Orion with a 4 minute exposure time. What would otherwise appear to be a throwaway image is the progression of the night sky and not a camera motion blur. I stood still holding open the shutter for 4 about minutes with camera on a tripod…while freezing. I like how you can read imprint markings from the Kodak film paper backing. I guess this can occur with expired film - chemical degradation over time causing the backing paper to stick to the film emulsion.)

6th and final post of my Winter film photo series/essay

I hope my recent posts of my film photography were enjoyable. To finish this up, when I started using these cameras last year they had been in storage since around 2009. I inherited all this gear from my late father-in-law. One of his two medium format cameras that I had never used still had a roll inside! Once developed, I was delighted to see that the very last exposure, before my own photos to run it out, was of John. My father-in-law died in August of 2009 and he is greatly missed. Dr. John Robert White was a spectacular guy. He was an anthropologist and mostly used his cameras for documenting archaeological dig sites. He would have loved iris and all that I am doing, but I barely knew what an iris was way back then.

Still, John was always supportive and enthusiastic about my artistic pursuits and I have plans to name an iris in his honor - if it makes the final cut to be introduced, sooner than later. So, in this order there's a photo that appears to be taken at his last dig site – the waterfall at Springfield furnace in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Then the photo of John from that roll. The next photo is the photo I took recently, all these years later, to finish out the film and is a double exposure of trees and snow in my side yard. I find this to be an odd juxtaposition after his image – I had no idea what was left on that roll. John was larger than life and like these photos back to back the world felt empty after his passing. 

The next photos are of the future iris I want to name after him. By the way it was his dog Molly we inherited after he died and chewed up a bunch of black and white film. While she is also gone now her marks live on – see my last post – of dog-chewed processed film. It's nice to find an use for it – several rolls remain to be used. Everything sort of comes down to making marks and the marks you leave.