Leitz 5cm f3.5 Elmar: The Meaning of Gestalt

I'll admit it. As I shuffled around the streets of downtown Frederick, Maryland anticipating the paths of passersby and lifting my little black Leica to my eye, I imagined that this is what it was like for Henry Cartier Bresson before this equipment was legendary, new methods were standard practices and the genre was a...

Happy Birthday, Kodak Tri-X

Kodak Tri-X, as a concept, has been around since the 1940's when it was a 200 ISO b&w sheet film. Because it was their first fast film, when Kodak released the 400 ISO roll film version, the Tri-X name was maintained. Just like Kodak TMAX P3200 revolutionized low light photography in 1989, Tri-X was an...

Ilford XP2 – A Smart Go-To B&W Film

Are you interested in shooting black and white and want to know what film to start with? Do you you use a lab to process your work, or do C41 at home? I highly recommend giving Ilford XP2 a spin. 35mm Ilford XP2 400 Super rated at 1600, scanned without ICE Ilford XP2 400 Super...

Johnny Martyr’s B&W Darkroom Grocery List

by Johnny Martyr 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...

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...

One Year with the Voigtlander 40mm 1.4 Nokton MC

Since buying, shooting and writing about the Voigtlander 40mm 1.4 Nokton MC, I feel like I see this lens everywhere! I didn't realise how popular it is. The blog I wrote about it is my third most viewed of all time, I see it mounted to many of the cameras that I read reviews of...

Johnny’s Favorites

For my last entry, I shared The Very Best of Johnny Martyr, but as with most greatest hits compilations, so many great songs get left behind.  Often the songs that mean the most to the author are not the chart-toppers. So if you don't mind, I'd like you to give the blogs below a second...

Photographing Fireworks with a 90 Year Old Leica

*photos and text depict July 2019 There they were, a continuous, almost organized line of middle-aged men in various stages of unfolding tripods, mounting massive DSLR's on them, carefully aiming long lenses at indeterminate points in the darkening late evening sky.  The LCD's lit their faces with a soft glow as they took test shots...

One Photographer’s Experience; The Frederick Maryland March for Justice

It's a little after 10pm on Friday, June 5 2020.  My negatives are hanging in a nearby window to dry and my shoes are still sopping wet too. Today was the Frederick March for Justice, one of innumerable nationwide demonstrations in honor of George Floyd. A storm front began lingering around the area Thursday afternoon...