Expired Portra 800 in The Silver Dragon

Since it was associated with three microbreweries, hanging around in bars seemed likely to be part of Photo Opp's photowalk in Appleton a few weeks ago. That calls for fast film and a fast camera.

When Lomography dropped the prices of their 120 films last year, I got some of the 800 color film. It got used for the walk in Appleton last fall and it's impressive how short exposures can be in less than ideal light. Everybody was out of stock when I ran out. B&H was offering Portra 800, normally twice the price of the Lomo, expired six months ago, for only half again as much as the Lomo. I needed the fast film and went for it.

A camera made from beer packaging seemed appropriate. The f130, 90 degree angle of view, Silver Dragon got the job.

Turns out most of the hanging out was on sidewalks, patios and decks. Just before we took off, I went for the interior of the Appleton Brewing Company. Operator error on the shutter so this is only about half the negative.

My plan was to save the fast film for interiors, but this public bicycle repair station colored to match the abstract wall, with its little teammate the tire pump, demanded color film.

The serving bar of the Stone Arch Brewery is in a grotto under the building.

After the mile walk with its intense photography, the Honey Wheat Ale was quite refreshing. One interesting feature of almost any photography gathering is the variety of cameras used. I was the only film user at the table. Lisa had "only" brought her iPhone (with its extraordinary camera, I should add). The gentleman across the table had a full frame Canon EOS R5, which momentarily made me wistful about my FD 20mm f2.8, and next to him a Sony A something and a DSLR, both with massive zoom lenses.

As things were winding down at McFleshman's Brewery, watching Billy Hintz fail to take this picture of Brandi Grahl and Almon Benton because the flash cube wouldn't go off, I stepped in to cover it. Despite the waning light, the exposure measured only 14 seconds. I just counted aloud "1,2,3...." instead of my usual silent "one thousand and." Almon counted as well and said the exposure was only half as long as it should have been. He was right. It's underexposed.

The camera sat there for weeks looking for a need for very fast film. On a sunny morning, I finally gave up and went out on my bicycle. Maybe there would be something in the shade.

Let's just see what happens with a sunny exposure measuring a third of second, at least two stops overexposed by my poor human hand. The lighter patch of grass is the former site of the dilapidated and unused-for-years beach house. Modern color film is amazing, but when you think of it, every ASA 400 picture ever done in the sun with most Instamatics was at least as overexposed.

The sunbeams on the tablecloths in the City Center Atrium were visible from the courtyard but no way could the reflections be controlled. I was surprised to go around to the normal entrance and be able to get in. Three people preceded me down the hallway who turned out to be there to break the place down. They're removing table cloths during the exposure.

At the side with some of the hip event-space lighting on.

I had to go back later to Menomonee Park to take a picture of the Wienermobile on Opening Day at the Zoo. It was a pretty big deal since one of the current HotDoggers is a recent graduate of UW Oshkosh. This is one of those images where the angle of view is really surprising. I could have easily touched it from behind the tripod. Although I could accurately frame with the viewfinders, there's no way you can really previsualize this.

The little circular puddle and squishy lawn reflecting the sky and the leafy trunk merited adding this tree to the collection.

A scene of most common occurence. Maybe the clouds got my attention. I didn't even notice the sky reflecting off the upper windows of the Bank Building. Short enough exposure to capture the fountain and the baby carriage, but long enough to lose the SUV turning off Main onto Algoma.

The rain knocked over this Iris, which survived so it could hold still near the ground for my exposure.

The Silver Dragon has two hand-drilled pinholes, one on the axis, and one 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The Portra 800 was the 8th roll developed in a Cinestill Quart C41 kit. I have to mention these were the flattest dried color negatives I've had since starting to do this at home. Maybe that's why it costs so much.

Across the Fox and back on foot.

A popular activity organized by Appleton's Photo Opp are Photowalks. A large group of people, bristling with cameras, wanders around a specified area. It's still a little surprising that I find these walks enjoyable. There's the game-day rush to get out and find photographs and also, the opportunity to chat about esoteric topics in photography with other enthusiasts; especially with Photo Opp's mix of film and digital workers with a relatively young demographic (I'm at the very top of the range). I explained pinhole photography at least five times.

There were three microbreweries hosting the event this time, possibly explaining it's popularity - over 20 walkers. The weather was warm and dry, but there was a pretty solid deck of clouds covering the sky. In concluding his preamble beseeching us not to frighten the natives, Graham Watashka mentioned it was a great day for fans of totally diffuse light.

I took the f200, 53 degree angle of view Paterson, filled with Kentmere 400, and the f150, 81 degree 35mm front on the Variable Cuboid, with Kentmere 100. The opposite roughly 2 stop difference between the cameras and films almost perfectly cancels out, so exposure times should be the same with either camera. The 90 degree Silver Dragon with Portra 800 was also along but it hardly got used. 

Around the corner after beginning at the Appleton Brewing Company, an anonymous doorway with a modern steel door, but otherwise intact architecture.

The fenestration of the back of the building is not quite so original.

Just down the street is a bicycle shop with its fence festooned with worn out wheels. 

The Outagamie County Courthouse with a tree and a little film curl softening the formality of the composition. 

We walked down to the river via a rustic route behind the Courthouse. This massive stairway and the entrance to underground portion of the Fox Cities Exhibition Center dominate the west side of Jones Park. As many times as I've driven down Lawrence Street above it, and over it on the Oneida Street Bridge, I never knew the park was there.

Walking across the Olde Oneida St. Bridge (Yes, that extra e is officially part of the name), I encountered this young fisher with striking red hair.  Assuming she must have been photographed several times already, I asked if I could take her photograph. She hadn't been asked previously but agreed. Unfortunately, I didn't convey just how still I would like her to hold, and forgot that I had a camera full of color film in my pocket.

The seemingly randomly assembled front of the Union Jack, most often described as a biker bar.

Some serious ventilation behind it.

One more on my survey of the bridgetender's houses on the Fox. I've driven past it dozens of times in the past year but never stop to get the picture since I'll probably be down this way again soon. There's usually only one volunteer running the entire cluster of Appleton locks. They follow along with the boats in golf carts from lock to lock.

The mid-point of the walk was at the Stone Arch Brewery at which I enjoyed a honey wheat ale and took two pictures with the camera with color film.

Back across the bridge are the rather posh Historic Fox River Mills apartments with this extension that housed the turbines which drove pulleys and belts to run the paper mill.

The power channel is still under the building but the Fox no longer flows through it.

A switchbacked path for a slow stroll or a fast roll down the bluff.

The mechanical systems enclosure of the Exhibition Center and the Sheriff's Department bristling with antennas.

The above ground portion of the Center.

RBG looking particularly notorious on the wall of McFleshman's Brewery at the end of the route .

 

John Adams setting up an arrangement of a variety of camera/beer pairings to photograph, maybe including a pinhole camera with me back here taking his photograph. On the left is his Instamatic Budweiser can. It was just like being back at a high school dance when the flash cube refused go off.

It turns out all the talking about photography can interfere with actually taking photographs. There was a really enjoyable discussion of wet plate, direct reversal and development in general but there was still film in Paterson.

I decided to play with the new little LED I bought for my last post. The tableau on the piano consists of three scenes. Our friend Gene's Toad Witch presides with her court over the bass side.

The sun and a somewhat ecclesiastical mirrored screen above middle C.

Minnie and Mickey perform on the treble end

Justice Ginsberg makes another appearance overlooking the living room from the mantle.

A last futile attempt to take a sharp photograph.

Paterson has two hand drilled .30mm pinholes 60mm from the film, one on the axis and one 13mm above it. The 35mm front of the Variable Cuboid has a hand drilled .20mm pinhole mounted on a continuous rising front with 11mm of travel. Both have 6x6cm frames. The Kentmeres were semistand developed together in Rodinal 1:100.

There are seven frames left in the Silver Dragon.

Coco Neige

 

The last Populist template with the new internal structure that needed to be checked was the 60mm.

Occasionally we receive an issue of 31 Rue Cambon, Chanel's semi-annual journal. This one's cover was made from unusually thick and stiff cardstock with a penetrating gaze prominenty featured. In the past in order to spread an image across the whole front of the camera, it took two copies, one for the camera body, and one for the shutter. We only received one copy of this issue. If the shutter covered the entire front of the camera, I realized it would be simple to make the cutouts for the shutter and shutter handle and keep the image whole.

The camera back used a similar scheme with the inside back cover giving the camera a name. In the snowy springtime in Wisconsin it seemed appropriate.

A rather extravagant material. These magazines can go for twenty bucks on eBay.

Followers of the Lensless Podcast Facebook group may recall me recently expressing wonderment at how easy it was to drill an almost perfect .30mm pinhole by hand. That was the one for this 60mm camera, which is extremely long in the pinhole world, but is actually moderately wide angle: 53 degrees. It's a mystery to me why almost all pinhole cameras for sale are of the ultra-wide 90 to 120 degree angle of view. There are probably two reasons. Perfectly rectilinear ultra-wide angle lenses weren't even available until the 1950s and were always rare and very expensive until the iPhone made them ubiquitous. The other oft cited reason is that the equations for diffraction demonstrate that shorter distances to the image plane show better optimal performance (ergo "sharpness") overall, and at faster f ratios. Working at f200 isn't all that big a deal with ISO 400 film, and you'll have to be the judge whether the images are too soft.

The last two cameras made from Chanel materials produced posts featuring Chanel products, but I've sort of exhausted those that are locally available. I carried this camera around for a month looking for an appropriate use before finally being inspired by this month's theme for the Fox Valley Photography Group.

It's a two part concept. First, go to an unfamiliar place and find many different pictures to take in the space around you. A coffee shop was used as an example. Then display nine of those in a 3x3 grid.

I would draw a lot of attention trying to do this in a public place, and most likely be in the way. At home I could probably find nine photographs I've already done of each room. Sarah's studio is one place I don't spend much time in. When I go in to borrow the Nikon or some other tool, I always end up getting distracted looking at some artifact on display. It was the perfect inspiration for both the camera and the challenge.

In addition to it being a pretty tight space for a tripod, it's a bit dim for pinhole. I had seen the small, practically weightless, inexpensive USB powered LEDs that can be mounted on a camera's accessory shoe. Not a lot of light in the pinhole world, but I was planning on using it rather close up. It was a little harsh so I attached a milk bottle for a diffuser to it with rubber bands, and mounted it on a boom mic stand so it could be positioned from behind the tripod. That reduced the exposures from an hour and a half to five or ten minutes, although a few were long exposures with just the room lights.

The shelves are full of objet d'art and artist's supplies.

A mug full of tools.

More artist's tools and supplies.

The inspiration board.

A stack of boxes and books.

A still life on the desk.

Ms. Ivy's collection of hats and bags.

The minimalism of the electric piano contrasts with the profusion of texture and color.

The earring carrousel.

Planning for spooky season.

Kirk's Folly's Seaview Moons are translucent. The expression and color changes as you move the light.

Scarves and shawls on the back of the door.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do about the 3x3 grid.  They may just get a 4x3 grid to better align with my 120 film.

Coco Neige has a .30mm hand drilled pinhole 60mm from a 6x6cm frame.  The film is Lomography 400 developed in Cinestill's Liquid Quart C41 kit.