Rolleiflex 2.8C - University of Michigan

[joho35mm]

It's strange, but up until two weeks ago, I had no idea how to develop my own film. When I was learning darkroom techniques in 9th grade, I took a course that taught us how to make enlargements and manipulate prints, but not how to develop negatives. For the longest time, the idea of loading film onto a reel in the dark (sometimes with scissors involved) was intimidating for me, so I never bothered to try it out.

Then I found out that a fellow graduate student in the History department here was an avid film photographer and skilled in black and white darkroom work. After hanging out with him a few times, he lent me a changing bag, a set of chemicals (D-76, Kodak Fixer, and Photoflo), and a complete developing kit, complete with four Paterson reels and a nice tank. My first attempt at developing MF film was a great success, with four rolls of Tri-X developed without any problems. My next two rolls were completely ruined because of sweat build-up in the changing bag jamming the reels and frustrations with loading in the dark. After some tweaking and moving the development procedure from the changing bag into my (very small) bathroom late at night, things picked up again.

Here are a few shots that I'm really happy with, shot around the University of Michigan campus with my Rolleiflex 2.8C Xenotar loaded with Tri-X or Fuji Acros 100, all developed in D-76 1:1 and scanned with my Epson V500. The photos with clouds were made possible by a Rollei deep orange filter. Apertures generally ranged from f/2.8 to f/8.

[radiophoto]

Joe, you did an awesome job!  Both the subjects and the development are terrific.  Congratulations on joining the fold. 

[jamesmck]

Wow, Joseph, excellent work all around - composition, developing, scanning.  Great tonality.  I am with you on the frustrations of 120 in a changing bag, and also try to do all loading in my pitch-dark, windowless bathroom, late at night (for developing the following day).

James

[BillyBob]

Really really very nice :-)

[joho35mm]

Thanks, guys! James - I didn't know you could load a tank and then let it sit for a while before developing; I might do that next time if I'm pressed for time.

Here's one more that I forgot to add. This was taken outside my apartment on the street at about midnight. I was suffering from writer's block getting through a course paper so grabbed the Rollei and went outside. I knelt, rested the camera on my foot, guessed exposure at 1 second at f/2.8 on Tri-X and took two shots. Then I looked up and saw a group of strangely-dressed men approaching, so I scooped up the Rollei and hustled back inside.

[Ronald Bishop]

You are an inspiration Joho,a great job picking subjects and really a good job of developing.
   I have all the tools to develop but for one excuse or another haven't gotten around to it.
Now I will have to dig in and getter done :p

[br1078lum]

Good work, Joseph!  That shot of the bike is lovely, and the cloud shots are superb (I'm kinda partial to cloud shots).  The orange filter gives it just the right amount of contrast without going overboard, like a red filter would.  When I'm shooting b&w, there is usually a yellow filter on point, but I've been picking up some orange ones when I can.  Now I need to get some chemicals so I can start doing my own developing.  I might need to borrow a 116 reel and tank from someone, as I've got two rolls out of some cameras I bought, and one in a camera that is on #2 I need to shoot up.

PF

[Dean Williams]

Well done, Joseph!  You got everything right, especially your developing. 
Great people shots, and I love that bike!
(And yes, I do deserve candy.) 

[Wayne]

Great work all round Joseph! I like the cloud/sculpture shot and the first three pople shots below it the best.

[shadowfox]

Chiming in to welcome you to the darkside.

Lovely shots, those clouds are very well rendered, is your deep orange filter bay III ?
I like the shot of the rope-walking girl (or is that a ribbon?) but I am a bit surprised seeing the 'swirly' bokeh on the picture of the guy with the waist-pack.

[joho35mm]

Thanks again for the encouragements and comments!

Dean - the student with the "You Deserve Candy" sign was reacting to a number of street preachers carrying signs that read "You Deserve Hell." Incidentally, the subject in the photo right before that (taken about 15 minutes before), a homeless man yelling at students, was a 9/11 conspiracy theory proponent.

Will - yup, it was a Bay III filter that came with the Rollei. The girl in that shot was "slacklining," a kind of tightrope walking on flat belts slung between trees. I was taken aback by the man's ranting about 9/11 and wanted to shoot something more lighthearted, so I saw three students - the girl and two other guys - practicing their slacklining and ran over to them to ask if I could take their photos. They were delighted. One of the guys, who was a major in Film and Screen Arts, was fascinated by the Rolleiflex and kept asking to look through the viewfinder.

It seems like the Xenotar, when shot wide open, still has some of that swirly bokeh common to Tessar-type lenses. The ranting man, the Michigan Quidditch poster, and the photo of myself in a safety mirror were all taken wide open. The swirl calms down nicely by f/4, which is what the slacklining photos were shot at. It's nice to be able to control the effect via aperture, which is a little harder to do with Tessars, especially older prewar types. They don't stop "swirling" until about f/5.6-f/8!

[radiophoto]

The bike pic is awesome, and I'm glad you didn't get mugged.

Your TLR work has inspired me to load up my Argoflex EF with some Agfapan 200 film in 620 (1960s vintage, but the seller assured me it had been frozen since he bought it new).  Let's see what happens! 

[Nick Merritt]

Joseph, you really set the bar high for interesting shots from "ordinary" subjects.  And your developing and scanning skills are really superb.  Keep inspiing me!  (Or should I say, putting me to shame?)

[Mike Kovacs]

That's the stuff Rollei is made of

I need to put my digital toys away LOL