Retro Slide Show!

Back in March of this year, I purchased an E6 (slide film) home developing kit from the Film Photography Project so that I could try making my own slides from the box of RetroChrome film in my fridge. I'll be honest here, I started developing my own film a while ago because it is much less expensive than mail order. I gradually dipped my toe in home developing when I read about caffenol developing several years ago and have progressed to other types of developing. I previously had a reliable develop-only option available at the local CVS, but they stopped in-store processing last year. The other local option is Walmart, which no longer returns your negatives, which I would scan on my Epson V500 Photo.

After having success with caffenol, Kodak D-76, and a couple of Unicolor C-41 kits, I wanted to try E6 processing at home - the cost of 1 mail order roll of slide film processing is almost as much as the kit costs, but I would be able to develop more rolls myself with the kit. I was really excited when I pulled the first rolls of slide film out of the tank to see beautiful positive images and couldn't wait to get them into slide mounts and project them. I scoured Craigslist for an inexpensive slide projector, finding a Vivitar 3000AF model with two extra trays and an extra bulb for $25. The drive to get the projector was over an hour away, but with the assurance of the owner that it was fully functional, Brenda I drove to Marysville, PA for the purchase. I was a bit annoyed that the owner wouldn't stop talking about the projector, when I had already told her that I wanted to buy it. Just take my money already and let us be on our way!

Now that we had the projector and fresh slides, I invited a friend of mine up for a home slide show and asked her to bring along some slides of her artwork that she had made years ago. Everything was great with the projector and the slides, but our makeshift screen from a large piece of foam board left a little to be desired. So, that evening, I was back on Craigslist looking for a portable projection screen and found one for $20. We picked it up along our Sunday drive around Lancaster County the next day.

The last thing I needed was more slide mounts - I bought a box of 500 Hama DSR one piece plastic mounts, which are very easy to use. I will be able to mount about 20 rolls of film with those, and I plan to be on the lookout for old slides at yard sales and flea markets for future home slide shows.

Kodak Baby Brownie Special - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 29 - Kodak Baby Brownie Special that I've had for many years, not sure where I purchased this camera. A bakelite 127 roll film camera made from the late 1930's to the mid 1950's, it has an optical viewfinder, an improvement over the original Kodak Baby Brownie.

I used a roll of Triple Print film from a lot of expired 127 and 620 roll films purchased from ebay. Triple Print film was only to be processed by the Triple Print lab in Philadelphia, PA and as the name implies, triple prints would be returned to the customer. I took the Baby Brownie Special along on a Sunday drive through Lancaster County, PA, where we went on portion of the covered bridge driving tour.

After finishing the roll, I went on an online search for the best way to process the film. After reading the sparse information that was available, I decided to use Kodak D-76 with the same development time as with the Kodacolor X that I've used before. I found that the July 1970 expired film did pretty well in very bright sun, and I'm pleased with how those photos came out, especially the one of the Lititz fountain.

Negatives were scanned on Epson V500 Photo with a 127 film adapter purchased from ebay.

Konica Black & White Disposable Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 28 Camera - Konica Disposable Black & White Camera with 18 exposures purchased at the local Community Aid store for $1.99. After shooting through the exposures on this single-use camera, I cracked it open to find that it did not contain true black and white film but Konica Monochrome VX400 black and white film requiring C-41 processing.

The Konica came wrapped in its original plastic wrap with no markings, only the camera showing through. Konica started manufacturing single-use cameras in 1987, according to Wikipedia, with black and white film versions made after 2002. This one is unusual as it had only 18 exposures and was marked not for individual sale - I think it was a novelty gift, which were produced for major companies.

Shooting with the camera was pretty straightforward, just point and click, advance the winder to the next shot. I didn't shoot any flash photos with it, the flash battery appeared to be dead. I carried the camera in my bag and snapped a few shots wherever we happened to be going, then I finished the last half of the roll on my lunch break earlier this week.

Unfortunately, when I developed the film, I got nothing but blank film. I think the chemicals are still okay as I just used them a couple of weeks ago, and normally C-41 gradually deteriorates as it loses it capabilities. I will do a test roll with the chemicals to see if I need to get a new batch. Above is a scan of the blank film to represent the total fail of this week's camera.

Imperial Delta 127 4x4 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 27 - Imperial Delta 127 4x4 camera purchased in an antique store in Berlin, MD for $5. It had a roll of film in it, one of the reasons I bought it. I didn't have much hope of recovering any photos as I had opened the camera with the roll midway and I'm sure many others had done the same. 

I had one roll of 127 film left, a July 1970 expired roll of Kodacolor X that had come in a box with another camera. Kodacolor X can no longer be processed as color film as the chemistry is no longer available, so I thought I would develop it in Kodak D-76. I had success recovering photos with D-76 on another roll of Kodacolor X from a different camera.

Brenda and I went on a Saturday morning drive last weekend to some of the places from my childhood. We drove down Falls Road with a stop at Graves Run M.E. church, a small country church that hasn't been active in my memory, but we walked by it daily on our route to and from the school bus stop. It has a small cemetery where we used to play (I know - we didn't have internet and video games then). It has an old outhouse in the back and doesn't have a parking lot as I think the last time the church had services was probably in the days of horse transportation.

After that stop, we continued on to Beckleysville and St. Abraham's where I attended church as a kid. My aunt and uncle lived in Beckleysville in what was once the local hotel, actually a smallish house that had a couple of bedrooms with a winding staircase. Beckleysville was a bustling paper mill town and quite populated in the late 1800's but was just a small intersection while I was growing up.

Brenda and I continued out to Beckleysville Bridge over the Prettyboy Reservoir where my dad used to take us fishing. We would sit on the bridge at night over the water and fish for crappies with the light of a Coleman lantern hanging close down to the surface of the water. The light seemed to draw the fish to our lines and we would have a feast of pan fried fish the next day for dinner. I find the waters of the Prettyboy Reservoir somewhat mysterious and a little creepy, I'm not sure of the reason, except maybe it's my fear of deeper waters. We continued our drive around to Prettyboy Dam further south of the Beckleysville Bridge. I was quite fascinated with the dam while I was growing up, again finding it somewhat mysterious, partly because of the stories surrounding the origin of the name. One story is that there was a farmer with a beautiful white colt named Prettyboy that was frightened by lightning and thunder from a sudden storm. The horse, seeking shelter along the banks of the Gunpowder, which forms the Prettyboy reservoir, slipped and perished in the Gunpowder stream.

We stopped by my old school, Fifth District Elementary, and snapped a photo there and then continued out Mt. Carmel Road to Hampstead, Maryland where we stopped at a farmers market to pick up fresh vegetables for the week.

I finished the roll of film with a few shots on a short walk around town and processed it in Kodak D-76 for ten minutes. I pulled out my bag of tricks and scanned the negatives as positive film and inverted them in Photoshop to recover the photographs shown here. 

LoFi Chocolate Milk Box Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 26 - LoFi Chocolate Milk Box Camera with RetroChrome 320 from the Film Photography Project Store. The camera was purchased at FiveBelow for $1.99. The shutter button is the straw that sticks out of the top of the box camera. It has a 28mm f/9.5 lens with a photo taking distance of 1.0 and shutter speed of 1/100 sec. The side of the camera states that it is best used with 800 speed film. I maybe should have used the RetroChrome 160, as this roll came out overexposed on the sunny bright days that I used it.

I thought I could discreetly take photos while walking around Gettysburg with Brenda last Saturday, but I felt I looked somewhat conspicuous holding a chocolate milk box to my eye. So I tried just shooting a couple from the hip without really looking through the viewfinder. The camera was easy to carry around but the film counter wasn't working so I wasn't sure how many photos I had taken. I also used the camera on a lunch time walk up to the art supply store with my co-worker earlier this week.

I developed the film with my first ever E6 developing kit, after developing two other rolls first. The first two rolls came out properly exposed (probably because of the auto exposure settings on those two cameras). As you can see, these came out much lighter, I'm happy with the way some of them look though.

The slide film positives were scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 25 Camera - Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 with expired roll of 35mm Kodak Portra 160NC. I thought I would shoot sprocket hole photos with this camera rather than respooling 120 film onto a 616 spool. I like the look of color sprocket hole photos and thought they would be a nice change this week.

I brought the Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 with me on a photo walk around Hanover last weekend. I had a bag with three cameras (the Brownie, Canon AE-1, and Nikon EM), water and a snack when I went on the walk last Sunday morning. It was a beautiful day, but it did start to get a little hot walking around town. Before heading out, I taped the viewfinders of the box camera to limit my view to an approximation of the area that would cover the much thinner 35mm film area in the camera. I had previously calculated how many turns of the film advancing knob would advance the film far enough to not overlap exposures. I managed to get 5 and half sprocket photos out of the 35mm roll. Another thing to consider when shooting is to try to hold the camera level and against your body to stabilize it to make sure the resulting photos are straight. 

I mostly shot some of the old buildings around town, my favorite subjects when walking around Hanover. When finished, I needed to place the whole camera in a changing bag and rewind the film into the canister by hand before opening the film canister and placing the film in the tank. I developed the roll with the Unicolor C-41 home kit from Film Photography Project Store, I'm up to 16 rolls developed with it now, I think the results are still satisfactory to me.

Ondu MKII 6x6 Pinhole Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 24 Camera - Ondu MKII 6x6 PInhole Camera received as a reward for backing the Ondu MKII Pinhole Camera Kickstarter campaign. I love pinhole photography - the wide angles, the slightly distorted views, and the occasional sun flare. I truly admire the pinhole photographers that can achieve these otherworldly images. I can't decide if I like black and white pinhole photos with smooth tones or the sometimes wildly colorful sun aberrations achieved in color pinhole photos. 

The Ondu MKII 6x6 Pinhole is a beautifully made wooden camera with a new design where magnets hold the camera back in place as well as the film advance knobs and film spool holders. Their Kickstarter campaign had a few setbacks causing a delay in shipping the rewards, but I must say the camera was well worth the wait. Everything was light tight and the first roll of film through the camera worked great.

I chose to load my Ondu MKII 6x6 with expired Kodak Portra 160NC and I went pinholing on my lunch break on a beautiful day last week. I walked to one of my usual places for lunch, the Mount Vernon area, with the Washington Monument and the Gothically styled architecture of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church. I prefer when the skies are partly sunny with puffy clouds, they look awesome in pinhole photos. It was very bright outside, without a cloud in the sky, but I did achieve aberrations in a couple of photos, not intentionally, but that was a bonus. I also shot a few photos in the backyard and of course, a front porch portrait of Brenda.

The film roll was developed with the Unicolor C41 kit from Film Photography Project and scanned on Epson V500 Photo flatbed scanner.

Polaroid Land Camera 360 - 52 Cameras, 52 WeeksWeek

Week 23 Camera - Polaroid Land Camera 360 Electronic Flash model (without the electronic flash) that Brenda bought for me on her birthday! We were poking around in a few antique stores, I saw this camera and I was mulling over whether I wanted to add another pack film camera to my collection in light of the fact that pack film will no longer be produced by Fuji. But the camera was in such good condition and had the flip up Zeiss viewfinder, so Brenda bought it for me (it was only $10). I had trouble figuring out how to get to the battery compartment, but a quick search online provided the answer. As suspected, there were a couple of corroded batteries, but after cleaning with white vinegar, I popped in a battery and the shutter clicked twice - awesome!

On Sunday, I loaded my last pack of Fuji FP-3000b, found my Polaroid 516 Cloud Filter attachment and Brenda and I were off on a car ride up to Peter's Orchards and Pine Grove Furnace State Park, in the Michaux State Forest. I'm so glad that Brenda likes to ride along with me on these little photography excursions - at Peter's Orchards we stocked up on apple butter, honey, and a jar of pumpkin butter to try. To get to Peter's Orchards, it's a straight drive up Route 94 through Cross Keys and York Springs with part of the ride over some roller coaster type hills that can leave your stomach in the air (fun!). It seems an endless drive over the hills surrounded by acres of apple trees until suddenly there is the fruit market in the middle of the orchards. I especially love to drive through the orchards after the leaves have fallen as the bare trees have interesting gnarly branches that I haven't quite been able to capture well on film.

After shooting at the fruit market, we headed north with another stop for a photo and then to Pine Grove Furnace. The Furnace stack is near the Appalachian Trail and the park campgrounds. I love the texture of the rocks that form the furnace and the remains of the walls behind it with the foliage poking through. I made a couple of accidental double exposures here as I wasn't sure I had cocked the shutter. I also took a few iPhone photos for reference to make a sketch or two. 

The Polaroid 360 operated smoothly though the exposures were a little too dark, I probably should have adjusted the exposure more. The photos were scanned on Epson V500 Photo and I also scanned the negative side of the peel apart film, one of the scans is shown above.

Nature Journal Sketchbook

Sketching entries in my Global Art Handbook Panorama.

Agfa B2 Cadet - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 22 - Agfa B2 Cadet - I found this camera in an antique store in Berlin, MD for $5 and couldn't pass it up. We were on a trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE and had driven down to Ocean City, MD and neighboring Berlin to spend the day. I was of course, shooting with another camera that week for my 2016 camera project. I used an expired roll of Ilford FP4 that I had purchased on Ebay - the resulting images have some light leaks around the edges and I had light leakage through the red film window on the back of the camera. I will need to tape up the camera and the film window if I use this it again. 

I like the large 6x9 negatives (minus the light leaks) and shooting with the Agfa B2 Cadet was pretty much the same as other box cameras. It has two shutter settings, time and instant, with a pull out tab to switch between the two. I had read another review online where the photographer had trouble loading the film, but I didn't have that problem (sometimes a little tape helps, lol) Composing a photo is accomplished through two top down viewfinders, one for portrait orientation and one for landscape. 

 It was a beautiful Sunday on Memorial Day weekend and I was eager to get out shooting somewhere, so we drove over to one of my favorite places - Gettysburg, PA. We drove out to Devil's Den, a frequent stop on our battlefield drives, and then to the Pennsylvania Monument and Culp's Hill areas. Brenda happily posed for a view photos (she's so supportive!)

I developed the roll in caffenol and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.