Flowering trees, depicted with grains of silver

Last week I attended the Digital Developing Discussion at Photo Opp.  I make no apologies for using a hybrid process. Analog negatives and digital positives. There's nothing I do that doesn't have a direct analog in the darkroom. Not even things like create a base layer to return to the original scan, just do my levels, burn/dodge, color balance and dust removal and save it. I can go back in the history as long as the file is open, but can't readjust individual settings like I just found out is how Lightroom works.

But I'm curious about all these things people talk about at meetings. 

Inevitably, the topics of sharpening, noise reduction and grain removal were often part of the discussion.

So I went home and loaded the 35mm Handicam with about two cubits of ISO 400 Tri-X from my vintage bulk roll. People often speak of grain like it's fundamentally evil, to be avoided at all costs, but it's inherent in the creation of an analog negative. That's how silver based photography works. Imagine somebody complaining about Da Vinci's drawings because you can see pencil marks.

On a beautiful day, I set out toward Lake Winnebago. Every year, I forget about lake fly season until I run smack into tens of thousands of them at 12 miles per hour on a narrow path on which it's hard to turn around. They look like a half-inch mosquito. They don't bite but they're a noticable mass when you ride into them. They swarm like gnats all along the lake for about 50 meters from the shore - in most years. Occasionally they cover the whole town and snow removal equipment has to be used to get them off parking lots.

The trees on Miller's Bay in all their seasonal manifestations has gotten to be sort of a continuing theme. Before I became aware of the lake flies, I photographed this blossoming crab, more on the north end of the bay than my usual viewpoint.

As I fled inland, flowering trees were on my mind after that first exposure. I kept noticing their individuality and in the early morning sunshine, they were often highlighted against a shady background. Spring flowering trees. What a great theme for grainy black and white photographs!

Grove Street is safely a few blocks away from the lake. Pointing at peoples' houses is something I usually avoid, but from our experience with the magnolia in front of our house, it's not unusual for folks to stop to take a picture of your flowering tree. I stayed on the sidewalk, but put the tripod as far onto the lawn as I could reach.

A more bushy variety at the end of a driveway a few doors down,

At the end of Oak Street, a crabapple skewered by a street lamp in the parking lot of Bella Vista, formerly Mercy Hospital.

Across the parking lot, a particularly asymetrical example.

Possibly the most modest house on posh Washington Avenue seems to be protected from my prying pinhole by these two crabs.

Farther down Washington, the walk is bordered by a neatly trimmed short hedge and flanked by crabapples of different shades of grey.

Across the street, two more, of different albedos, flank a power pole.

A trio in front of the Oshkosh Public Library.

Some terraced planting around the library.

Flowering trees contrast well in front of stone walls.

A rookie, planted just last year when they redid the parking lot.

In front of the hotel, formerly a Best Western, now being converted to a Marriot.

A low display mirroring the aspect ratio of the single story Chamber of Commerce.

A row along the edges of the relatively new Washington Square.

A lilac in front of the historic Airbnb Doe House.

No flowers, but leaves of a range of exposure values. As I was waiting for the sun to come back from behind a cloud, a young man walking by asked "Pinhole?" "Yes" I replied. "Awesome!"

Next to the Mercury Marine Lab.

This tree had one branch that was much brighter than the rest.

While waiting for the sun again for a flowering bush on campus,  I noticed the historic-looking street lights were framed in a gap in the clouds, which it seems I didn't quite capture. 

The roll turned out to be 20 exposures, just like they used to sell Tri-X in before the mid-70's.

The handmade Handicam has a hand-drilled .15mm pinhole 24mm from a 24x36mm frame. The film is 40 year old Kodak Tri-X semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100.

HandiCam: A 35mm Populist with the new image chamber box

The template with the new image chamber box for all sizes has to be tested, including the 35mm Populist. Good thing it got checked. I laid out the new part a few millimeters too short. Easy to adjust if you notice it before folding and gluing the part. 

 Materials again provided by local business Kimberly-Clark with this diverse set of hands.

Of course it's going to work, but the rules say you gotta put some film through it. Unfortunately, the clicker underperformed and the yield was particularly low from this roll. I have to quit telling myself I can hear a very faint click and just remove the film in the darkroom and fix it. Even taking it out in room light in the two cassettes would only lose one frame instead of half the roll futzing with an inneffective clicker.

Sarah and I went up to Appleton and stopped to see the current exhibits at the Trout Museum. If it looks like the upstairs gallery seems dark, it was washed with video projections. You can see the blue lens of one of the projectors at the upper left.

Out the second floor windows, the giant steel origami bird on the roof of the entrance to the museum watches over Houdini Plaza. They've just started building a new museum a couple blocks down College Avenue in a partnership with Lawrence University. I wonder what they're going to do with the bird?

The third floor hallway. This would have been good for the "high key" theme a couple years ago.

We stopped to snoop at World Market. Lots of quirky imported goods in addition to a very entertaining foodstuffs area. We left with chips, cookies and oat-milk chocolate. Maybe they were crisps and biscuits.

An iconic first sign of spring.

Unfortunately in Wisconsin it's often not a definite indication. An hours long, wet and blustery blizzard occurred on April 2nd. More white on white. That high key challenge was in October. Most of these people grew up in the pre-climate-change upper midwest. No one would dare suggest such a theme in April.

The magnolia was ready to go, but had the sense to wait when it got covered in snow.

The daffodils were starting to come up. They can survive almost anything before they blossom.

The poor crocus was almost completely buried in snow.

 

The brilliance of what the container said was a "classical cedar finish," somewhat muted by the snowfall.

The crocus made it through and opened up when everything melted.

Working on that self-portrait theme for the Fox Valley Photography Group.

Photographers gathering for the Photo Opp photowalk in DePere.

Socializing after the walk.

Then it was Pinhole Day. A selection of cameras to choose from, arranged by angle of view.

Brandi chose the 103° Wisconsin Amber Wide Angle. That camera seems pretty close to her, but almost her entire body is in the image.

Across the street, there was a painting on an easel out in the yard. As I set up the camera, the painter came out to introduce himself. He did it in college in 1970 and thought it was better out here than in his basement.

A selection of backdrop papers included in the donations to Photo Opp.

And toward the end of the day, hanging out watching the negatives scanned and appearing as positives on the screen.

The handmade Handicam has a hand-drilled .15mm pinhole 24mm from a 24x36mm frame. The film is Lomography 100 developed in Cinestill's liquid quart kit.

Pinhole Day at Photo Opp

I celebrated Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day leading a group at Photo Opp in Appleton. I've participated in all 24. I wonder how many others have submitted a picture every year?

All week long, there was an almost 100% prediction of rain on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day for the second year in a row. They were right, but only about the first hour was really steady rain. Last year everybody stuck right around the venue, but this year they took off around Appleton. 

I chose the Variable Cuboid, starting with the 45mm front.

My contribution to the decor of Photo Opp and some merch on a shelf next to the front door.

With a name like John Adams, it's probably expected that you're some kind of founder.

To get in the spirit of the day and play with something I normally don't, I changed to the 114 degree wide 20mm front. John climbed up the scaffolding with a tripod. 

It's traditional to try to depict the conditions in your corner of the world on Pinhole Day. The trusty 99 Mustang (older than Pinhole Day) dappled with raindrops on a wet street with Photo Opp in the background.

 

I'm the guy who's always complaining about converging verticals with wide angle cameras, but thought this time I'd just lean into it. For me, pareidolia changes the picture entirely.

A stately home on the corner with tulip beds, leaning away from the camera.

After my sermonette on honoring every frame and approaching it as though you had to exhibit all twelve photographs, and in order to counter possible misperception by the participants of any pinhole-god-like qualities I might have, I must fess up to why there are only ten pictures from this roll.

I blew a frame not opening the shutter far enough with the tripod up on its tippy-toes, and got another blank frame in what must be an incomprehensible act of vengeance by the spirits of analog photography. But the pinhole Dude abides.

I grew up in South Bend, Indiana. My dad was working at the Studebaker plant when I was born. I walked to school on the road they used to deliver convoys of cars and trucks to storage facilities out of town. No surprise this truck down the block caught my eye. They also had a 1960's Lark but that was the photo that mysteriously vanished

Switched to the 35mm front.

Too bad Jacobs Meat Market and Deli is closed on Sunday. I could have used a sandwich.

A recently graduated and a currently enrolled Art student from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay came with their prints professor, who also participated last year. They had the sense to go out to lunch and take pictures of their waffles.

The bookcases full of cameras that have been donated to Photo Opp are on a not very well lit wall. The exposure was deliberately really long, at least 45 minutes. Several participants expressed surprise that it wasn't going to be horribly overexposed. That's not really a concept with a scene full of black objects on dark furniture.

A Digital Postscript.

Maybe I can make up for the short set if I show you two shots I did earlier in the day with Sarah's Nikon D750 and a hand-drilled .2mm pinhole on a bodycap.

A hand-held 10 second picture of Sarah's bed-side table as we reviewed the manual controls.

My insurance shot of the magnolia just in case, although I also still have a half dozen exposures from a 35mm Populist in addition to this medium format roll.

You'll have to check the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day gallery to see what I submit, as well as the other participants.

The 35mm front has a .25mm pinhole. The 45mm front has a .27mm pinhole.  Both are hand drilled and mounted on a moveable front with 14mm of rise. The 20mm front has a .20mm Gilder Electron Microscope aperture. The Kentmere 400 was semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100