Flickr: renaizzance

Photography can be described and defined in a multitude of ways. Each of those ways unique to the person holding the camera. For myself, I enjoy traditional B&W film photography, though color finds a place in my diet from time to time. I shoot 35mm, Medium Format, and Large Format, in old manual cameras.

I enjoy all things film. There are still hundreds of working cameras around that use 620 film. Respooling 120 onto 620 spools to still use these oldies puts a spring in my step. A sense of feeling that I am cheating the camera graveyard of a still working camera even though the film format is long gone.

The older the camera happens to be, the higher my enjoyment seems to also be. For me the process of choosing a particular film for a shoot, shooting it, then processing the film myself, and producing traditional wet prints in a darkroom is the ultimate photographic satisfaction.

Some of my favorite films in no particular order are;

Efke Pan films in sheet and roll 25,50, 100 speeds
Efke Ortho sheet films
Efke IR820
Foma 100, 400 sheet and roll
Fuji Neopan Acros -possibly the most forgiving film ever made.
Fuji Neopan 400
Kodak PX-125 TRI-X, TXP320
Ilford Delta 100, PanF50, FP4+
Shanghai GP3

Favorite papers include

Adox -anything!
Oriental Seagull "G" grades #2 #3
Fomatone Warmtone
Ilford Multigrade FB

There are occasional times when I pick up a digital SLR camera, and enjoy the extreme "on demand" results that they give. I will confess that I use my digital SLR's in full manual mode as the electronics seem more confusing than helpful to me. I am a simple person, and need simple controls.

One of my favorite photographic experiences is to breeze through the millions of amazing photographs here on Flickr. It's humbling to see just how many people there are who produce amazing photographs from all walks of life, and from all four corners of the earth. I find these musings to be very inspiring, and motivating to refine the skills I have.

A few of my favorites cameras are in no particular order..

1895 R.O. & C. 5x7 extended focus Premo
Graflex Crown Graphic 2x3 x2
Graflex Speed Graphic 4x3
Pentax Spotmatic
Pentax ME Super -2
Pentax ME -2
Pentax Program Plus x4
Pentax KX
Minolta X700 x3
Minolta Maxxum 7
Yashica -A
Yashica -D
Yashica-635
Yashica 44
Ciro-Flex TLR
Bronica GS1
Bronica SQ-Am
Bronica ETRS
Mamiya 645J
Mamiya 645 1000s
Mamiya RB67
Kinax Provence 6x9 620 Folder
Agfa Ansco 6x9 folder 620
Kodak Senior Six-16 folder (conv to 6x12cm)
Kodak Vigilant Jr. 620
1907 Kodak No. 2 Folding Brownie Model B 120
1909 Kodak No 3-A Model A 122 (conv to 6x14cm)
Agfa Cadet B-2 Cadet 120 Box
And other box type cameras that still work.