I finally had a chance to shoot a roll of Harman’s new color film. Phoenix is noticeably different than other films on the market; the film comes out of the can a mustard color and comes out of the developer a deep indigo. At quick glance the developed negatives look to be black and white. It’s only on closer inspection that orange hues are visible. The purplish base color might cause problems for some negative digitization programs, but I was able to get usable images with a small amount of effort.
The final images turned out well, though not without idiosyncrasy. Pictures shot outdoors under average conditions produced contrasty images not unlike other daylight balanced films. It is outside of average conditions where the film began to show its unique character. On mostly blue-sky days, the film seemed to produce pure whites which enhanced the clouds. When shot into the direction of the sun, even under rainy conditions, the lack of an anti-halation layer was obvious and overpowering at times. It seemed that every time I used the spot meter on the TC-1 to preserve details in the shadows, I lost them in the highlights, so perhaps the dynamic range is somewhat limited. Finally, when shot at night Phoenix may have imparted slightly more orange than would be expected from a daylight film.
There is no doubt that this film has quirks, but I enjoy the character of Harman’s Phoenix. I will undoubtedly shoot more of this film, though I will be mindful of the dynamic range and halation.
Modern cameras have evolved towards a uniform set of ergonomics. If you are looking for a new, high-end, mass-market camera, there’s a good chance the one you get will be covered in black plastic, have a hand grip on the right side, and place the majority of controls within the reach of your right thumb and forefinger. And there is nothing wrong with this uniformity; these cameras are like this because the layout works. Vintage film cameras, on the other hand, are what evolved into this form, so they come in a larger variety of shapes, sizes, and layouts. The layout of film cameras is also influenced by the type of film and the functionality that was available when the camera was produced. Film cameras simply have more diversity with regards to form and function.
Since I dropped back into the world of film photography, and my eyes were opened to the number of choices available, I have been searching for the kit that works for me. I tried a lot of cameras. After an obligatory TLR phase, I briefly thought that mid-century rangefinders would be the camera for me. I eventually realized that I was looking for two different cameras. When I go out with the intention to take photos, I like a medium format camera with a large aperture manual focus lens. When I just go out, I like a small, capable point-and-shoot; I’m looking for an alternative to the fine-in-their-own-right iPhone cameras.
As time moves forward, preferences change and get refined. This is how my camera choices have evolved over the past year.
In this video I experimented with creating colorized prints on regular black and white paper using Rockland Polytoner. It started with me mixing up the chemistry, and learning that pouring alcohol into hot water creates a lot of nasty fumes. I then created prints three different ways. First, I developed the print directly in the Polytoner and then fix. Next, I developed in Polytoner and bleach before fixing. Finally, I developed in Ilford Multigrade before toning with the Polytoner and then fixing.
In this video I cover the techniques I use to develop color film. I am not a darkroom expert, I have only been developing color film for a couple years, and I mess the process up 2 or 3 times out of ten. So, if I am being honest, I might not be the best person to learn from. However, stoping to think about and explain the process has helped me, and I hope it can similarly help others. Or, maybe, some nice person will notice a mistake I make and point it out to me. In and case, we will only get better.
For the demonstration I developed a roll of expired Kodacolor VR-G. Though there were no obvious problems with development, the results were not amazing. I expected that. I decided to create the video while developing this particular roll of film because I assumed that I would make a mistake. I frequently make development mistakes, so the added distraction of also shooting a video would only increase the risk of failure. I am happy that the images turned out as well as they did, even if I did have to do a lot of post-processing.
I was worried that deployment would wreck my home. It’s not an unreasonable fear, that outcome is a high probability event. A lot of things need to happen in order for a family not to be destroyed by a deployment, the sundry details fall into one of three conditional categories. The people left behind have to hold everything together with one less contributor. The person deployed has to make it through the deployment. And, the expeditioner must successfully re-integrate into society. This last item is often taken for granted. Most assume that surviving the war is surviving the hazardous part.
My family had a community that supported them, and they were able to make do without me. It wasn’t fun for them. They had to learn to cope as a one parent household, on what they hoped would be a temporary basis. They were on edge, praying that they didn’t one day learn the situation would become permanent.
I wasn’t killed in the war, but parts of me died. The remaining innocence I had and my naïveté about how the world worked were both certainly causalities. Some might argue that those represent positive changes; I’m not sure that I would agree, but it makes for an interesting debate. On balance, being deployed made me a worse person, at least for a while. I had great people in my life that helped me through periods of dealing with untreated post traumatic stress. With their support I was ultimately able to find serenity. I knew people who were not so fortunate.
The reality is that, for many people, the war doesn’t end when they arrive back home. The effects of the war linger on in people, long after the war has supposedly ended for them. Somehow, I eventually got better. Miraculously, my home wasn’t wrecked by my 18 month adventure.
The Labor Day Weekend BBQ and Music Festival at Barberton’s Lake Anna Park
The film was shot at box speed and developed normally.
Barberton’s Lake Anna Park on a foggy Saturday morning
The film was shot at ISO 50, as per my rules of thumbs for shooting expired film.
On 14 August 2003 the Northeastern United States and Canada experienced a massive blackout which started right here in Akron, Ohio. Two days later I received a call from my sergeant, and based upon an almost manic journal entry, I may have been working on creating my own personal blackout. I learned that I would be activated and deployed to support the Global War on Terrorism. Rather than doing easy time guarding the Perry Nuclear Plant, I was destined for an overseas deployment. And, by the time my pen hit paper that day I was apparently fully engulfed in the second stage of grief.
I am not sure why, but I thought that I would be doing peacekeeping, in a war zone. Prior to facing the consequences of their favorite policies I was a mindless Fox News viewer, so the seeds for those thoughts may have been planted by the media I was consuming at the time. The valid concern that I was unable to articulate was probably related to entering a situation where it would be very hard to differentiate between civilians and un-uniformed enemy combatants.
From my perspective, I was going to be entering a hot combat zone where I would need to take the appropriate posture. From the perspective of Iraqis, I was entering their hometowns where they were doing their bests to live normal lives. In the end, there would be something that both of those perspective could agree upon: I shouldn’t have been sent there.
