natasa

this week's portrait entry is an indoors session. I had shot natasa back in may, and we both wanted to do another, more relaxed, session. I called her over to my place, and we spent a couple of hours trying to get the best out of a confined home studio and my film cameras. I really need to find a space for a proper studio, a 80x80cm softbox is very difficult to maneuver around living room furniture, or in the 10sqm space which modern greek house-builders tend to believe is the ideal size for a bedroom.

we started off with the omega view 45d and the schneider xenar 150mm/f5.6. I had a couple of 4x5 film holders loaded with fomapan 400, as well as a polaroid holder loaded with fuji fp-100b black & white instant film. the resulting fomapan 400 image was a bit underexposed, but I find it an interesting approach, just like the rice paper portraits on Paolo Pellegrin's "Storm".

then I switched to the instant film holder, and the resulting polaroids are a testament to the magnificence of instant film. no feeling can be compared with the tingle you get when you peel apart the "sandwiched" film and you have a positive print with exemplary black & white tones in your hands. there were four remaining frames on the film holder, I shot all of them, correcting the framing issues (I never understood why the polaroid holder's alignment is not centered).

...and then, of course, there's the negatives... the fuji fp-100b b&w negatives tend to solarize after development, so I stored them in a dark cupboard as soon as I had peeled them off the positive prints. I have no idea if I did the right thing, but I do know what came out of it after I bleached them... the resulting negative had a very strong orange base, exhibited solarisation in the highlights (on the face), and it was impossible to properly scan as a black and white negative. I scanned it as color negative, which could be a totally acceptable approach...

...and then I inverted it, applied a red-filtered black & white conversion in order to compensate for the orange base, and the original black & white image popped up. I still need to refine my bleaching & cleaning technique on the fuji fp-100b negatives, there's a lot of development goo still stuck on this negative.

then we moved on to the bronica sq-a, which I loaded with fomapan 100 film. while this film performs well, I'll have to stop using it because it does not agree well with my current developer (diafine) and it isn't that cheap... all things considered, I'd rather pay 4-5€ for a kodak/ilford/fuji film than 3-3.5€ for any other alternative. this axiom is true only for the medium format range - for large format, the fomapan films are very good and their pricing makes them a real bargain.

back on large format, toying with the best film batch I ever laid my hands on: a box of kodak royal pan, 400 ASA, that expired in 1973. 40 years later, its speed has been reduced to 25 ASA and it exhibits high fog, low contrast, lots of grain, low sharpness, mediocre resolving power, lots of artifacts - the perfect film for lo-fi large format images.

the first shot is in the studio with the xenar 150mm/f5.6, while the second shot is lit with continuous lighting. I changed the lens on the view camera, and put on the leitz hektor 150mm/f2.5, minimizing the depth of field and also gaining two stops of speed. the bedroom shot required 4 seconds of exposure. I achieved this exposure using the first shutter mechanism that was ever invented: cover the lens with its cap, remove the darkslide, issue a command of non-movement to the model, remove the lens cap, count slowly to 4, replace lens cap.

...I was out of large format film, so it was time for the bronica again. I took the view camera off the tripod and fixed the bronica - this shot only required 1 sec of exposure, which is very easy to do when you have a camera with a proper shutter: just set the shutter to "1sec", raise the mirror, use a cable release to activate the shutter. oh, the joy of modern cameras.

...and back to the studio again, because you can never go wrong with shooting a second roll of film on the same subject.

vinyl love

fashion meets vinylio club meets the pentax 67.

makeup: Emmanouil Apostolakis for Makeup Forever hair: Roula Marinopoulou models: Nelly B, Elena, Apostolis, Isidoros (Fashion Cult) fashion director: Konstantinos Koutsomichos designer: RATT (Rita Attala)

a couple of weeks ago I was asked by the wonderful miss tina sardelas to photograph her fashion video shoot at vinylio club. I told her I would only be shooting with my analog cameras, and she liked the idea. I wanted to use my latest baby, the pentax 67, but I also brought the faithful bronica sq-a along.

I loaded up the pentax with the new kodak portra 400 and fitted it with the takumar 105mm/f2.4, a truly great portrait lens. the club was quite dark (well, it's supposed to be this way) and I had to put the pentax on a tripod, shoot at really slow speeds (1/15-1/60) and wide open apertures, and rely on the film's wide latitude. I shot a total of 24 frames (two and a half rolls) with the pentax, before switching to the bronica.

pentax 67 | 105mm/2.4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

pentax 67 | 105mm/2.4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

pentax 67 | 105mm/2.4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

pentax 67 | 105mm/2.4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

pentax 67 | 105mm/2.4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

pentax 67 | 105mm/2.4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

pentax 67 | 55mm/4 | kodak portra 400 6x7

using the pentax 67 was a joy, as I have grown accustomed to the 6x7 format for portraiture (very close to the 4x5 of large format cameras), but the slow speeds and the need to use the camera on a tripod (it really is not a camera you want to handhold at speeds below 1/125) were tiresome, so after Ι did a number of pre-imagined shots, I switched to the bronica and kodak tri-x 400. black and white meant that I could stop worrying about color rendition and combination, and kodak tri-x meant that I could push it a bit and achieve 1/60-1/125, which are handholdable speeds with the bronica sq-a. with the tripod gone, I was able to move freely, get tighter framing and different angles. two rolls of film went through the bronica although, to be honest, I had grown weary and repetitive by the first roll.

bronica sq-a | 80mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

bronica sq-a | 80mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

bronica sq-a | 80mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

bronica sq-a | 80mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

bronica sq-a | 80mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

bronica sq-a | 80mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

some of the presented images (both from the pentax and the bronica) are quite alike but I didn't want to throw any of them away. in total I shot 48 frames in a space of a couple of hours. the bronica sq-a I have grown to love and knew what it would deliver, but the pentax 67 is a new acquaintance to me, and I was quite pleased with its handling and the resulting images. the takumar 105mm/f2.4 lived up to its reputation: it is a magnificent portrait lens, small, normal-to-kinda-wide focal length, fast, not too sharp but not too soft either. instant love.

fotini chan

studio mode

large format meets studio meets fotini korre: an afternoon spent trying to combine large format and a simple lighting set-up in a really confined space (living-room-turned-studio). large format in a studio is a very disciplined craft, since you're bound to a lot of tripods - the lights, the camera, everything is on a tripod. changing the lighting takes time, selecting a new angle of view takes time, framing takes time, focusing takes time... hell, even shooting a frame takes time - spontaneity cannot survive on a tripod. lots of patience is needed, and disappointment can quickly rear its ugly head. still, the results are quite interesting.

fotini had an earlier television shooting for mad channel, so she came around with a wonderful make-up, courtesy of maria pilafa. she was dying for some food and all I could think of telling her was "errr, ok, you can eat, but please do not spoil the make-up and the hair". she is a most wonderful person, smart and laid-back, and she loves linguini, a fact which should not be overlooked. kudos to her patience, both when posing ("now, you must stand still while I put the film in, change the aperture, put a cap on the lens, remove the darkslide, pick up the remote trigger, remove the lens cap, trigger the lights, put the cap back on the lens, ok, you can breathe.") and when coping with my moments of failing inspiration. I owe her a night out at an italian restaurant, during which I will convince her to pose on a second, outdoor, shooting, and then I'll owe her another night out at a restaurant, and... you can see how this goes.

the afternoon's tally was 24 frames - 12 large format sheets with the monorail omega view and a 6x6 medium format roll with the bronica. presented in this post are the best 8 of them - they are separated in three annotated chapters, like journal entries.

part I: static normality

photographer tries to shake rust off   //   decides to start with a casual large format set-up   //   omega view 45d, industar n-51 210mm/f4.5, fomapan 400   //   extra background light   //   rediscovery of college yearbook style   //   model frustrated; cause: receiving instructions like "just stay still and look straight into the lens"   //   removal of extra light leads to rediscovery of rembrandt style   //   normal film, normal lens and static set-up bring about quick exhaustion and slow death of inspiration

part II: mobile squareness

photographer in dire need of a fresh view   //   abandons large format in favour of medium format   //   bronica sq-a with 80mm/f2.8 and kodak t-max 100   //   no longer attached to the tripod   //   new-found mobility brings rejuvenation   //   still hampered by casual, formal viewpoint   //   decision to move closer and change angle of view proves invigorating   //   inspiration levels rising

part III: expired pictorealism

mobility of medium format brought fresh inspiration   //   photographer switches back to large format   //   chooses projection lens to emphasize depth of field   //   chooses expired film because there was none else readily available   //   omega view 45d, leitz hektor 150mm/f2.5, kodak royal pan, expired 1973   //   depth of field really razor thin   //   film's extreme old age results in excessive grain, fogging and staining   //   pictorealism winks an eye

shoot me (one last click)

about a month ago, my good friend loukas mexis asked me to shoot the cover of his new book, shoot me (one last click) - a book about a photographer, his bike, gold, guns, girls. we discussed a bit about possible approaches, and we settled on using the "item focused in the foreground / person out of focus in the background" style. the item on the foreground would be a yashica electro 35 gsn, magnificent little camera, and the one that the main character of the book is using. good light was necessary, so we opted for an early saturday morning shoot by the seaside. loukas couldn't do it, though, 07:30 feeling like the dark ages to him when he tried to wake up, and we had to reschedule for the afternoon - loukas went back to sleep and I stayed awake, feeling stupid, since I don't have the gift of being able to go back to sleep easily.

in the afternoon we set out for mavro lithari, a beach about an hour away from athens. when we arrived, the sun was falling and the light was sweet and warm - the time frame we had was one hour, maybe one hour and a half. I tried some digital shots with a tele lens but they were coming out flat, so I switched to medium format. I loaded up the bronica sq-a with some expired kodak ektachrome 64 tungsten film and went really close with the 80mm/f2.8...

...we tried several different poses for the front cover but in the end the first one was the best, one hand on the camera, a hint of the face in the background. then I had to give some thought on the back cover, so I tried some back shots...

...the first roll was over, and I loaded up a kodak portra 160 - I wanted to use a normal film just to make sure I would get some properly exposed images, knowing that the cross-processed results of the kodak ektachrome would be somewhat unpredictable, so I did some front-cover frames again, which came out with totally normal, boring colours...

...then I tried some photos of the bike, not being sure about the design of the back cover...

...the light was falling fast, I was feeling that the job was over, that I had the images I was after, but I wanted to make the best out of the lighting situation, so I loaded up another roll of expired ektachrome 64t and went for the extra promo material...

...the sun had disappeared behind the nearby hills, I had two frames left and I decided to finish them off with some tight portraits - the first one with an eyes-in-the-camera approach and the other with an eyes-in-the-distant-light-source approach - loukas preferred the first one since he felt that the second one was "like a portrait of a communist leader"...

...during the whole photoshoot we were thinking that the book cover would be a full colour photograph, but it ended up as a collage of different black & white photos taken from various photostories that appear in this blog (heartless, time machine, the last good day of the year, alight)...

...while the back cover featured the bike photograph and the first portrait was used on the sleeve - I very much preferred the "great helmsman" portrait but I understood that it wasn't suitable for this particular purpose.

the book presentation took place on the 20th of june - you can see photos from the presentation on the book's facebook page, you can see the video trailer on the book's web page and you can buy the book online at captainbook.gr and other similar websites.

mariane

it had been a really long time since I last did a "proper" portrait session, so when x-ray model agency asked me to do a test with mariane, I immediately agreed. sunday was coming up and I had nothing arranged, so we decided for a morning shoot. dear liz was happy to provide make-up and hair styling, and we set out on sunday morning for zappeio. I was expecting the place to be empty on such an early time and I was planning to set up mariane in front of zappeio hall and let the speed graphic work its magic... but, surprise surprise, the leader of a political party had arranged a gathering there and the place was teeming with politicians, voters and police officers. so, plan b, we headed straight into the trees.

the time frame was quite tight, we had less than two hours before mariane had to go, and I settled with getting simple, natural portraits. straight on, I loaded up the bronica sq-a with a roll of kodak tri-x 400 and tried to catch the light that was filtering through the trees.

...then on to some against-the-light portraits...

...and as the tri-x roll came to an end (I was out of b/w film, too, just two rolls with me) I set up the speed graphic, paired it with the leitz hektor 150/f2.5 and looked around for some background that begged to get creamcheesed... I had some film holders loaded up with fomapan 400 and a couple loaded with expired kodak epn 6122 color duplicating film...

...it took me some days before I decided to develop the color films (always bored of heating up the chemicals), but the result was well worth it - expired cross-processed slide film, cheap as hell, kinda unpredictable but not without its merits...

...we'd already spent one and a half hour, what with the extra time needed for each large format shot, so I figured out it was time to pack up the speed graphic and go back to the bronica. the second b/w roll I had with me was kodak t-max 100 - two stops slower than tri-x but sporting a lot more of detail in the midtones....

...and that was it, we packed up and left just as that bloody politician was starting his speech. in total, 24 frames of medium format and 8 frames of large format were shot in the course of two hours. next time it's gonna be longer, with more large format shots, which are a pain in the ass to set up but quite wonderful if they come out as planned.

alight

last friday was a wonderful sunny day, as opposed to the recent spell of bad weather we're having, and I decided that it should not be wasted. constantina had asked me for a portrait session a while back, so we arranged a little trip to the seaside. the winter seaside is always a nice place if you want big open spaces, while at the same time you can get full advantage of the setting sun. my speed graphic was stranded on the sidelines, resting on a service table somewhere in the netherlands (the repair went fine and the camera is now on its way back to athens), so Ι fell back to 135 and 120 film. the minolta xd-7 was already loaded with some polypan f 50, and I hadn't aired the bronica sq-a for a really long time, so I took it along.

we arrived at the seaside early, but the sunlight was too harsh and I really get baked in direct sunlight (my body has a blown fuse when it comes to high temperatures), so we relaxed in the shadow until the sun was two hours away from setting, and the light had become more mellow - the golden hour.

I am quite wide-angle and static when doing large format portraits, but the 35mm format allows for fast pace and extreme close-ups - I tend to default to tight portraiture in such occasions, getting the most out of the 50mm/f1.4 lens...

...of course I still have the wide-angle bug in me, and wide-angle lenses really like big open spaces...

...and back to cream-cheese-the-hell-out-of-the-background territory...

a couple of dogs were around, they weren't exactly friendly...

...the sun was getting lower by the minute...

...and when I finished the half-full roll in the minolta, I took out the bronica, loaded it up with a roll of ilford fp4+, fitted the zenzanon 150mm/f3.5 on it and I was back to square portraits after months of working with non-square formats...

I need to get these negatives to the darkroom - they will print nicely, and also contact sheets would be nice. 20-something images in the 35mm roll and 12 images in the medium format roll, almost all of them based on different aspects of the same face, they will make up good contact sheets.

motocrossing

this post is a tribute to loukas mexis, who broke his ankle in a motorbike accident a week after we did these photographs. our intention was to re-do the motocross theme with a little more preparation than "-I've got free time. -I'm going motocrossing. -perfect, I'm coming along to try large format on action photos". this is not going to happen for a while, so I decided to post these photos, although they are a bit monotonous. the equipment I carried along was the usual stuff: the speed graphic, six 4x5" film holders loaded with fomapan 100 and the bronica sq-a which had half a roll of fuji pro 400h 220 that I wanted to finish up. the funny part was that I had to ride the motorbike along with loukas to get to the motocross field - you can imagine the sight of two people on a single-seater ktm bike, the one fully dressed for motocross and the other carrying two photographic bags and a tripod.

we arrived at the field and sought for a nice spot to try and capture a jump, which worked out quite well (although even the speed graphic's 1/1000 top shutter speed is not enough to "freeze" a motorbike that's flying through the air next to you), but I didn't give a lot of thought to the trees in the background - the resulting image would be a lot better if I had stayed clear of the trees, thus allowing the bike and the rider to stand out against a clear sky...

...then I tried the same framing with the medium format bronica sq-a (top shutter speed: 1/500) and the wide angle 50mm lens, choosing a lower angle and getting as close to the bike as I dared to...

...I spent a number of frames there (they came out identical, and I was pleased to see that I didn't miss the bike on any photo) and moved on to some portraits, first with the speed graphic...

...then with the bronica, still using the wide-angle 50mm lens...

...a change of view and a lower angle in order to emphasize the bike...

...and then we moved on to a different spot, trying to find a higher "jumping point". the sun was getting low and I wasn't really trying to get the best out of the whole situation (thinking this was a warm-up session), so we didn't search for a long time - we found the next jump and I readied the speed graphic again...

at that point I decided to switch from the hektor 150mm/f2.5 projector lens I was using to a proper lens, complete with an aperture diaphragm (the hektor doesn't have any) and full 4x5inch frame coverage: the industar n-51 210mm/f4.5. this lens is a russian copy of the classic carl zeiss tessar design, originally used in russian 5x7inch view cameras, and cost me about 30€ including postage. I mounted it on the speed graphic, focused, closed down, set the shutter speed but when the time came to release the shutter, my cable release got stuck and only fired on the second try...

I thought that I never got the bike in the frame, so I reckoned I could re-do the shot on the same film sheet, essentially creating a double exposure. turns out I got the bike both times, the first time on the edge of the frame, the second time bang in the center. the image frame is exactly the same (since the camera stayed in the exact same place during both exposures) but the two captures of the bike are ghost-like, since it was the only object that changed its position during the double exposure...

time was running out and we both wanted to pack up and leave, so I decided to spend the remaining frames on portraiture. I got loukas against the setting sun and loaded the speed graphic with my last large format film sheet...

the industar 210mm/f4.5 is a normal photographic lens and has a bigger image cirle than the hektor 150mm/f2.5, thus explaining the absence of vignetting in these two frames, as well as the more conventional rendering of the out-of-focus areas.

finally, I finished the film in the bronica, still using the wide-angle lens...

we left the motocross field with a lot of discussion on how and when to do a proper motocross photo-session, but it wasn't meant to be. next session I'm making with loukas will be named "spending two months with your ankle in a plaster cast". have a swift recovery, man..!

wasted youth,cinema magazine, issue 220

After the portraiture work on the winter issue of Cinema magazine,  I also got involved in the spring issue (#220), taking portraits of the directors and some of the cast of the hit movie Wasted Youth.

The location we chose was Tora K44 at Gazi, with respect to the movie's association with that particular venue. It was March 2011, the day was growing bigger and luckily K44 is facing west, so I could make the most out of the setting sun's light.

Despite the tight time frame (it was two days before the magazine was sent for printing), I wanted to use medium format, so I opted for the Bronica SQ-A along with a handful of Kodak Portra 400NC films. I also had my dSLR with me, to serve as a lightmeter and to take backup shots.

In the beginning I tried the dSLR for quick portraits, just to be on the safe side, but I wasn't really thrilled by the results so I immediately switched to the Bronica. I have to admit that I never got the hand of using a dSLR for anything apart from concert/event/low-light photography - I really feel much more at ease using medium format for anything that doesn't require fast paced action or really high ISO. When I had the Bronica in my hands, everything felt easier.

I did the standalone portraits first:

[argiris papadimitropoulos]

[jan vogel]

[the gang]

[argiris & jan]

...and then I set up the tripod for the group photo, which would be the most troublesome of all, since I had to overcome low shutter speed (1/15-1/30 because of the rapidly diminishing available light) and the unwanted movements of five people and... the dog of Argiris.

...which proved quite hard, considering the dog had specific views about the legs he found on his way:

[leg-lovin']

...after the dog did his thing with the desired legs, we settled down to get one frame with everybody staying still and composed at the same time:

[wasted youth]

...although the magazine chose to publish the first group photo because  (I guess) it was funnier. I would be seriously torn between the spontaneity of the first photo as opposed to the politically-correct stillness of the second photo, but happily this decision was not mine to take.