getOBphoto

Now that I've worked out a routine exposing on photo paper and paper positives I feel I have reached my intent of making cheap almost-instant photography. I can now - when conditions are good - expose & develop + scan a 9x12 paper photograph within 25 minutes. In theory I could print it - i e hold a finished photograph in my hand - within that time (if I had a printer). I think that's rather 'instant'! The costs involved, per photograph, are as approximated: almost nothing for 7x11,5 cm very expired photo paper bought in several packs of 100, or €0,3 apiece for 9x12 cm Harman Positive Paper cut into size almost nothing for developer (rosemary tea or instant coffee base with vitamin C and washing soda) almost nothing per negative for fixer (Ilford) Total cost: Almost Nothing . Of course there is the cost of the scanning equipment if you want decent photos to edit. There are free apps like Filmlab which will reverse your negative photos, so you can see them in posi...

These photographs were made with my favourite SLR - the Olympus Pen F. I used my Helios-44 58 mm lens and my unique Color Lanthar 42 mm. I also used the Meyer-Optik Görlitz 30 mm. Attached to the half-frame F they equal image size 87 mm, 63 mm and 45 mm for full-frame cameras. The first film with the 87 and 63 mm lenses is a Rollei Retro 400.   Below you can see the Görlitz photos, exposed on Washi A 12 ASA film.   Visit my Etsy shop for cameras and related stuff, the facebook group on modding lenses and cameras or my Instagram account ourbooksmalmo .

The Beier Beirette compact viewfinder cameras are not known for producing any grand Photography. Beirette made lightweight, cheap tourist cameras for decades, from the 50s on. That isn't to say that they are to be discarded on the rubbish heap of history.  For me, particularly these small manually controlled cameras are pure time-travelling devices. If I cooperate delicately and deliberately with the devices I can produce photographs on 35 mm film that could have been made at any time in the past century. I so love the aesthetics of it. The Beirette is prone to camera shake when the shutter is pressed. You can see the results of that in the next photo and in the last two. I have to concentrate real hard when pressing the release which is situated on the side of the lens housing. I really have to get one of those short cable releases for this camera. The closest focusing distance is 0,6 meters. That's a rare feat in this generation of cameras. The shutter times are limited t...

Some time ago I aquired several boxes of expired photo paper. And I mean expired. We're talking 1930s or '40s expired. Getting more and more attuned to large(r) format photography - 9x12 cm that is - I have been exposing on photo paper in film holders for a while now. In the lot of photo papers were a couple of 100 packs of ~6,5 x 9,5 cm sized papers, meant for contact copying of glass plates or roll negatives. I decided to try an experiment. For the following photos I used the old unidentified camera I own which was made for the 120 film format. The camera makes 6x6 cm images. In red safety light I cut the contact copying papers into 6cm and taped them into a strip to finally roll them onto a spool with reused backing paper.  These are some of the first photographs I made with expired photo paper rollfilm in a medium format camera.   All the exposures were made for 2-4 minutes. I figured the ASA is somewhere at 0,007, which is seven steps below 1 ASA - which conveniently [si...

  I spent a month in Tbilisi in 2011. There were plenty opportunities to indulge in historical sites - both from the Soviet era and older.  One of the most unexpected was the Velodrome, situated close to the heart of the Left bank's bustling centre. The velodrome at the time was maintained and mended which seemed a sign of there being enthusiasts keeping at the sport. And there was proper space for an audience in the blue seats.  In the usual manner the neighboring properties have bit by bit edged close to the arena. This nice man worked on a bike in the well-equipped workshop adjacent to the entrance courtyard. Unfortunately we didn't share a (verbal) language but I got the opportunity to take his portrait. My interest in competitive cycling has since grown, which makes me eager to visit this place again, when the time comes.   Check out my Instagram and my Etsy camera shop!

I came across a Konica Zoom 8 mm camera. There was an accessory wide-angle lens attached to it. After screwing it off I held it in front of the adapted Steinheil Cassar S 50 mm lens mounted on my Olympus Pen F. Lo and behold! A wide angle lens for my half-frame favourite! I've never come wider than 53 mm (equivalent) before.  The wide-angle lens isn't close enough to the 50 to allow for infinity focus. It stops at somewhere around four meters, but with zone focusing that's negotiable. In my guesstimation I figured that the lens steals two stops of light, so I added that when exposing. After seeing the scans I will add only one stop. Here's a bit from my wide-angle bonanza that followed, exposed on Washi film (12 ASA): Unintentional double-exposure, like the topmost photo in the post. As you can see focus can be achieved in the middle-most of the frame. Outside that area things go swiftly downhill... Depending on aperture I can somewhat control the size of areas in focus...