These Photos Were Processed In Kodak’s New HC110 In Spite of The Product’s Single Flaw

In early 2019, the film community was pretty stressed out, and with good reason. The nearly two century old chemical manufacturer, Tetenal appeared close to shutting down. Many photographers have probably never even heard of this company, but Tetenal has been “the man behind the curtain” for many of Kodak’s products for decades. The product […]

Time Traveling with Papermoon Diner

There’s a lot that I don’t know about Papermoon Diner in Baltimore, Maryland. And what I think I know, I may not even remember correctly. Sometimes, I’m not even sure how to get there. I bet that with the quickest bit of Googling, I could easily find the basic information; when it opened, who the […]

Mailing out the M6

Mailing out cameras and lenses for maintenance can a harrowing experience. On one hand, I’m excited to get equipment back to 100% but on the other, I get so nervous about loss or damage in the mail. Or just plain bad news from the repairer. And then, of course, I can’t keep using the camera […]

An Odd Length; Voigtländer 75mm 2.5 Heliar

Most prime lens SLR kits are a 28-50-85 or 135. Most rangefinder kits are a 28 or 35-50-90. 75mm is an odd focal length. I don’t think it’s even available for SLR’s and most rangefinder shooters fall on the side of either 50 or 90 – the distinction between normal and portrait focal lengths. 75. […]

Lens Hoods for the Leica Summitar

I touched on this topic a little bit in a previous blog about hoods for various LTM lenses entitled Throwing Shade, but I wanted to drill down on lens hood options for the Leitz 50mm f2 Summitar. As previously stated, I think that earlier Leitz lenses require a hood in many circumstances to perform their […]

Johnny Martyr’s B&W Darkroom Grocery List

If your New Year’s resolution is to start processing your own b&w film at home, or you’re just interested in comparing notes, I thought it would be handy for me to share my darkroom grocery list. Disclaimer – I am not a chemist! I’m just a photographer who has found some products and methods that […]

Rating + Processing for Available Light Portraits – EI 3200 ISO

It bears repeating: International Center of Photography shooter James Mignogna once told me that a good photographer matches their light, lens, film and developer. Nowhere do I think these decisions are more critical than portraits in dim lighting. That was the intro I used in my previous entry: Rating + Processing for Available Light Portraits […]

A Post About Louise Post and the Importance of Photography

A few years ago, I photographed a Veruca Salt concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. I wasn’t an official photographer, I was just having fun with the then still available Fuji FP-3000b peel apart instant film and my 1960’s Polaroid Automatic Land camera. But it was a great night anyway and I’ll always […]

On Fuji Pro 400H and Any Discontinued Stock

You’ve probably heard by now that Fuji have discontinued what was for many shooters, their go-to, general purpose color film, Pro 400H. For anyone who’s been shooting film for more than a few years, we know this rodeo all to well. Fuji or Kodak announce a discontinuation (notice that Ilford never does). The bloggers pick […]

Rating + Processing for Available Light Portraits – EI 1600 ISO

International Center of Photography shooter James Mignogna once told me that a good photographer matches their light, lens, film and developer. Nowhere do I think these decisions are more critical than portraits in dim lighting. With all of us spending so much time at home lately, I have gotten a number of emails asking for […]