http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/761253

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billwadman//sets/72157616809298067

I’ve got one more roll to get developed next week, but I’m done with everything I’ve got right now.

Now I’ve got to cull the 122 that I scanned down to 25 or so for a show at the Red Horse Cafe in June.  <sigh>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billwadman/sets/72157616477543783/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billwadman/sets/72157616408174078/

Scanning film is a giant pain in the ass and very time consuming.  I spent all day yesterday and got through 9 of 24 rolls of film, so there is a lot still to process.  More to come in the coming days.

They are in no chronological order, just the first 9 rolls I put in sheets, and really more about fun and interesting things I saw than the normal portraits I do.

Let me know what you think.

As you know I went with only a film camera, an old Hasselblad 500cm.  Today’s job is to start culling through all the pictures and scanning and whatnnot, but I can already make some conclusions:  
– The Hasselblad takes really pretty pictures.
– Film and processing are getting more and more expensive.
– Slide film sucks on contrasty scenes.
– and finally, if I had it to do over again, I would shoot digital. Probably the 5DII with the 24-105IS zoom and an additional wide fast prime for night stuff.

It was really fun shooting film and certainly changes the experience of taking pictures. And even though with digital there isn’t that “this piece of film was there at the location where the picture was taken” kind of like an ‘moment time capsule’.  In the end the cost of film, I probably spent almost $400 on film and processing,  as well as the inability for me to change films quickly, led to some frustration.   And yes I know I could have had multiple film backs with different films, etc, I didn’t want to deal with that kind of complexity.  Plus at over $1 a shot with medium format film, I was more hesitant to take more fun and silly pictures that might not work.  Digital would have let me be a bit more experimental.

All of that said, for those photographers planning a trip to Japan, here are a few pointers.  You really can find film over there.  120 is no problem, I even saw 11×14″ sheet film.  I should have brought some home for Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.  The big camera stores like Bic Camera and Yodobashi have large film selections which are just out against the wall for you to peruse, and even little camera places in tourist sections of town carried a more impressive range than most pro shops here in New York.  I’ll agree with the person who suggested Provia 400.  It’s beautiful, though a little too expensive for me at $8 a roll.  Yikes.

As far as processing goes, I didn’t do any until I was back in Tokyo the second week. I brought most of it to a place called Kimura Camera  on suggestion of an old post on photo.net.  I was in Shinjuku, so it was the closest place that wasn’t some huge mega store.  However they sent it out and it took a few days, though it was done faster than they promised.  Quality seemed good and the people there was super nice.  Like if they were that nice in America, they would be being sarcastic. This place also had cases of old cool stuff to oogle, some of it at reasonable prices. 

However when I picked up my last batch from them, I had a half dozen or so more rolls and not enough time to do it their way so I asked if he had any faster suggestions and he pointed me to Horiuchi Color, which is the kind of place I was looking for all along.  Pro lab, overnight turn around, better prices than people who have to send it out. Their work was great, and they only took cash (which I found interesting) but the one guy in there didn’t like me at all.  I was trying to be polite to the girl who was helping me, and maybe he was dating her and felt threatened or something, because he was cold.  A drastic 180 degree difference from everyone else we me there.

Oh and as far as film suggestions.  I think sticking with negative film over slides is a good idea. The dynamic range of chromes is a little too narrow for many settings.  If I were starting over on the trip, I’d grab a couple boxes of Portra 400VC and then a few rolls of 160 and 800 for certain settings.  

Ok, time to get to scanning and such. If anyone has any specific questions, let me know.

Next is a meter, since the 500cm doesn’t have one. So I’m carrying my Sekonic 308. It’s not fancy like some of my friends have, but it does the job for what I need it for, which is mostly purposes like this and when I’m shooting film with a strobe. Actually in this case I wish I had a smaller one like the 208.  Some little old school analog one that took up a little less space, but at the moment I’d rather not spend another $100 for a marginal size decrease.  One thing I like about the lens I’ve got is that the aperture and shutter speed are linked and related based on EV which is a measure of the amount of light there is available.  So your meter reads 12EV, you left the lever and set your lens to 12 and then all of the correct combinations of aperture and shutter are available at a twist.  So maybe f/2.8 at 250th, f/4 at 125th, and f/5.6 at 60th are all options for 12EV.  Well the lens is locked to 12, so just select the combination you want. Makes it really easy, especially when your traveling and your head gets fuzzy.

And since it’s a film camera, I’ll be bringing film.  It’s all in a plastic bag so that I can ask TSA security to hand check it and not have it go through the machine.  Apparently they have to if you ask nicely and make it easy for them.  I always bring a roll or two of Ilford 3200, both because it’s handy when there’s no light, and also because it’s really fast, so you can say, “Well, there’s high-speed film in there, so it absolutely can’t go through the machine.  I plan on getting the film processed there when I can, just so I don’t have to deal with security on the way back, and I’ve heard that I can buy film there, but I’m more of a Kodak guy than Fuji, so I thought I’d bring some just in case.  So in the bag I’ve got:

Kodak E100G Chrome
I love this stuff, something about the subdued colors it’s got.  Shot some in Paris a few years ago and they were my favorite pictures. Plus looking at travel positives on a light table is so satisfying as well as making scanning easier. Some of the more observant of you might notice that there are a couple rolls of Provia in there as well, but I’ve replaced them with more E100G since I took this photo an hour ago.  I figure I prefer the Kodak, and I’m sure I can get Fuji over there.

Kodak Portra 400VC
I usually get NC, but they didn’t have any in stock so I figured I’d try the more saturated stuff.  My girlfriend Holly at Calumet assured me that it wasn’t too garish, I’ll find out for myself. Went with 400 for times when 100 chromes are just too slow.  I also threw in a roll of Portra 800 just in case.

Ilford 3200 B/W
This stuff is really fast, really contrasty, and pretty grainy, but fun for dusk and nighttime in the city.  I imagine it could be magical in Tokyo.  We’ll see.

My goal is to shoot about 1 roll a day, which would leave me with about 200 photos over the two weeks.  That’s a lot of scanning, and processing fees, but when’s the next time I’m going to be in Nara?  Exactly.

didn’t have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I’m
in the mood to lose my way with words

I’m currently in the planning stages for a 2 week trip to Japan late next month, and think it’ll be quite the experience. I like being other places but I hate getting there, so that 14 hour flight is going to suck, and I’m not big on local cuisine, so it’ll be noodles for me. That said, I can’t wait just to see some of these places and experience these cities.  I’ve always wanted to visit Hiroshima, so that’s going to be quite special.

I’ve been feeling a bit depressed and burnt out lately, so part of me was actually considering taking a break from photographer and just not bringing a camera at all.   <gasp!> I know!   But, maybe what I need is to see the world with both my eyes. But then I think about the visual opportunities over there and I just can’t help myself. I don’t take travel pics as a record of my trip though, for me it’s about taking pretty pictures along the way.

Now, there’s also the question of equipment.  You want to be able to carry it all day long while walking around, but you also don’t want to forgo quality.  Again, I’m not much of a cellphone snapshot for facebook kind of guy.  There was an article on Luminous Landscape recently where a guy said he ended up using his Canon G9 much more than his Leica M8, because it was always in his pocket.  And that he was astounded with the quality when he had decent light.

For my many trips to europe in the last 5 years I went with both digital and medium format film. Say my 5D body, 28mm prime, 50mm prime, the 24-104L that I once owned.  And then my Hasselblad with a dozen or so rolls of film.  I really love the Hasselblad for travel. It folds up small, the quality is unassailable, you take your time when shooting so each shot counts more, and the images just ‘feel’ like memories.  Chromes especially; looking at my slides from Paris on a light table at Duggal a couple years ago was one of those sublime moments. That said, dealing with film when flying can be a giant pain in the ass.  Security people who don’t speak your language don’t always have the same idea of the importance of not putting your film through the x-ray machine as you do.

My current idea is to bring the 5D2 with a couple primes (35? 50?) and then borrow Meg’s 24-104 as a general walk around lens.  It’s got IS and the 5D2 is great at high iso, but f/4 is not exactly a lot of light coming in, so that worries me a bit.  But I don’t want to leave myself stuck with 50mm as my longest, and the extra weight and annoyance of swapping glass.

Or maybe I should go the LL route and bring a little pocket camera and don’t make a big stink out of it all.  People really love that Panasonic LX3. Damn, this should be easier.  At least I have a few weeks to think about it and collect your thoughts.  So if anyone has any experience in Japan and would like to give me some advise, please do.

Damn, now I’m looking through photos from paris and am thinking of doing just the hasselblad. <sigh>