On Shooting, Scanning & Editing a Recent Portrait Session

by Johnny Martyr Photography is all about combining the right light, lens, film and developer to convey the emotions that you want to evoke. One of my recent favorite combinations is a bright scene with my 1979 Leitz 50mm "Tiger Paw" Summicron, Kodak Tri-X at box speed and HC110b. It's sort of an over generalized...

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...

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

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...

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...

Yashica A, In Use

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my new-to-me, super cheapie antique-store-find Yashica A.  Last week, I burned my first 5 rolls of Kodak Tri-X in it as a test drive and man, what a test drive it was! Every year, my wife hosts a Fall Family Photo session on our friends' beautifully rustic property in...

Kodak TMAX P3200, an Encore Performance

A big thanks to Petapixel for republishing Rockin Out with Kodak TMAX P3200 and getting the word out that P3200 is BACK! But wait... There's more! I burned through 3 rolls of film on Vinyl Rhino so as you might imagine, I still have more photos!  I didn't want to overwhelm my first post with too...

6 Years Without Kodak TMAX P3200 (ALMOST!)

UPDATE:  THIS BLOG WAS PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN AND WAS SET TO AUTO PUBLISH IN OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR.  HOWEVER, KODAK HAS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED TODAY THAT THEY ARE BRINGING BACK KODAK TMAX P3200!!!!   I HOPE YOU'LL FIND MY WRITE-UP INTERESTING IN LIGHT OF RECENT EVENTS! Exactly 6 years ago, on October 3rd, 2012, international photography news...

Princess of the Forrest

Last weekend, my daughter Harper & I decided to take a walk and do a little portrait session.  I asked her "What should we shoot with?  Instax, digital, or b&w film?"  "B&w film!  B&w film!"  B&w film, it was! Harper chose her own outfit, which was apparently inspired by Disney's Mal, Maleficent the dark fairy's...