This seems like a fitting start to this bloggy thing, as it was the dream of shooting Mono Lake at sunrise that got me off me butt and started shooting again. A little backstory... I had been quite a photo-enthusiast in the days of my youth (some 10-15 years ago by my reckoning), to the point of having a very busy darkroom doing everything from Cibachrome to platinum prints, a homemade 8x10 enlarger to print from my taped together Deardorff. I spent all day shooting, when I wasn't playing music to try and make a living, and I spent all night in the darkroom. I don't really want to think about all the chemical exposure I had during that time...
Cut to 1999. I just couldn't do it any more. My life had become consumed with buying film, mixing chemicals, proofing, printing, drying, matte cutting, repairing cameras, trading lenses, and carrying ridiculous amounts of gear with me at all times. Perhaps this would have been ok if I was actually a working photographer of some sort, but this was really just a hobby for me. Basically, overnight, I ceased all photographic activities. I left the darkroom untouched for about 3 years before I dismantled it. I sold off about 30 cameras over the next few years, except for my trusty M3, and all my slides and negatives went into storage.
I bought a Nikon D70 when it first came out in 2004 (I think?). I thought this was going to change everything, and bring back all of the enthusiasm I had for photography, without the need to spend endless hours alone in the dark in search of the perfect print. I was wrong. I carried it with me daily for a month or 2, then at some point it wound up shackled to a tripod in my office, not to leave again unless I was going on a trip that promised to be scenic.
What does this all mean? What didn't the D70 do for me, that a beat up Pentax Spotmatic did? I guess that's what I want this blog to be about. I think the answer for me is twofold. First off, I had developed a set of skills in the traditional printing realm, but I had no idea what I was doing in the digital darkroom. All my photos looked like the snapshots I had been trying so hard not to take. I hated the color, the tonal range, everything. Second, I realized what a lover of archaic technology I am. There's just nothing romantic about the way a mostly polycarbonate digital slr feels or looks. On the other hand, picking up the M3 is a tactile experience. The feel of the metal, the weight, the beautifully bright viewfinder...
Back to the present.
I was looking at some photos (Brett Weston, I believe) taken at Mono lake, and was remembering how badly I had wanted to shoot there many years ago. Something I never did. I also realized that I wanted to shoot it on film. I wanted to be lugging all that old, clunky gear with me that I used to. Sadly, except for a handful of Kodak Retinas, and a folding 6x9 prewar Zeiss, I didn't have anything that I thought would really do the trick for me.
I always wanted a Hasselblad. I had a Rollei 2.8, which was fantastic, but limited. And those are still going for pretty big bucks these days. Some poking around on KEH.com revealed I could get a very decent Hassy setup for around $600, which is less than a current DSLR body would cost me... That was all the convincing I needed. A little hunting on eBay yielded a 50mm f/4 CF T* Distagon for $500 and a 150mm f/4 Sonnar (chrome barrel) for $250. This was exciting! Ten years ago, none of this stuff was in my reach, and its all built to withstand nuclear war. No plastic here!
My first trip with this camera was back home to NYC to see my paramour (photos of that trip to follow!), but the point is, I FINALLY made the trip to Mono lake. Hitting the road with a coworker, I shot sunset one night, and sunrise the following morning. I hadn't even SEEN a sunrise in years. This is what I was missing, and for some reason, the connecting tissue between me and that experience is old, heavy cameras, loaded with really slow film, usually atop a tripod. It's meditative. It makes me put all other things out of my mind, and just look. This is hard to do for someone as high-strung as myself, so i consider it a luxury to have moments of calm like that.
So begins this new journey, at a weird point in time for film. Its harder to get, less convenient to process, and yet, with the availability of good, inexpensive film scanners, and online printing services, film is actually working out quite well for me. Also, having learned a lot about photoshop in my years as a visual effects artist, I'm much more capable of producing prints that I like from any source, film or digital. I'm just psyched to be shooting again, and lusting after gear that i don't need / can't afford! I had missed the window shopping as much as the photos!
That's the last of the sentimentality. Had to get that out of the way. Future posts will be more concise, and I'm going to try to post 1 photo a day (can he do it???).
Photo above taken with Hasselblad 501C, 150mm f/4 Sonnar, Fuji Velvia 50 (rated at EI 64). No exposure data recorded.
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