All Through a Lens: A Podcast About Film Photography

It's about time we hit up a new (to us) developer! This time around it's Pyrocat-HD. This is a staining developer that was recommended to us. It's sort of like PMK Pyro, but not! The instructions are amorphous and vague. But did we get pics?

Vania shot Ilford HP5+ at 200iso and devved at 1+1+100 for 9 minutes!

Meanwhile, Eric devved Ilford FP4+ at box speed at 1+1+100 for 8 minutes!

On this week’s show we’re talking to the hardest working man in photography – Jamie Maldonado (@jamiemphoto on IG). Our feature this week is our first part of two about the Zone System – we’ll be doing our best to wade through that mess and tell you about how we’ve used it to take a few photos here and there.  We’ve also got the answering machine and a couple of zine reviews.  

We called up photographer Jamie Maldonado for a chat about shooting “Distance Sessions” via FaceTime during the (ever-ongoing) pandemic.

Here’s a selection of his work:

And here’s where you can pick up his zines:

http://jamiemphoto.com/zines

We are admittedly new to Zone System, but that doesn’t stop us from slogging through Ansel Adams’ prose in some sort of self-flagellation ritual.

We referenced a photo taken by Eric for most of this.

Camera: Mamiya RB67Lens: Mamiya-Sekor 3.8/90mmFilm: Kodak Verichrome Pan; x-1/1996Process: HC-110; 1+90; 18minOctober 2020

We reviewed:

Monochrome Mania No. 3 by Mark O’Brien, which you can (and absolutely should) pick up here.

We also reviewed Venetiae Deerratus by Federico Quaglino.

Thank you to everyone who supports us!

Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes, extended interviews, early drops. Tons of stuff!

patreon.com/allthroughalens

Our featured Patron for this episode is Kikie Wilkins! Check out his work on IG: @kikiewilkins

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

On this little ol' episode, we're developing some oldish film. It's not the most elderly emulsions we've devved, but hey...

Vania devved two rolls of color using the C-41 process:

And here are a few photos Eric took:

About seven minutes into the episode, Eric and Vania talked about an ECN-2 kit mistake they've both made. Vania made hers about a year ago, and Eric did his just recently. Curiously enough, they both made the mistake on photos taken in the exact same place:

The mistake was that they accidentally skipped the water stop and wash steps immediately following the development step. Thou shalt not do this.

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

On this week’s show we give a call to Megan Karson (@megankarson on IG), a tintype photographer. We’ll take another quick shot at the whole E-6 thing. We’ve got zine reviews and more fun. Plus we’ll tell you about Julia E. Tuell, a little-known photographer of Native Americans who was one of the few who were granted access to ceremonies typically barred to whites.

Our interview this week is with Megan Karson. We talk about how she got into photography and tintypes, traveling while shooting, the differences between shooting film vs. tintype portraits, and a whole lot more.

You can find her @megankarson on IG as well as www.megankarson.com.

Our feature is about Julia Tuell, a photographer who lived on several Indian Reservations in Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana in the early 1900s. She was so trusted by the tribes that they allowed her access to not only their daily lives, but to their ceremonies.

You can find a lovely selection of her work on our website.

 Links

Three of Julia's photo albums.

Julia Tuell's photography on Facebook

Julia Tuell's (basically official) website.

Functional Japan/ese by Robert Burton

This is a book more than anything. It’s about 100 pages long and perfect bound. Over 100 photos taken with a Pentax K1000. It’s got cats. I’ve complained about lack of cats before, and I think Robert has really delivered here. I mean, there could always be more, but this is great.

You can find Robert @elgatomagnifico on IG.

The zine can be bought on his Etsy page.

Thank you to everyone who supports us!

Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes, extended interviews, early drops. Tons of stuff!

patreon.com/allthroughalens

Our featured Patron for this episode is Dave Walker! Check out his work on IG: @alanbeingalan

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

On this episode, Vania develops her first roll shot with the new waterhousing she had custom made for her Pentax 645N. Is she excited? What do you think?

Here are some of her photos:

She shot Ilford FP4+ and devved it in PMK Pyro; 1+2+100 for 10mins.

Eric also developed some stuff. It just so happened to be some shots of Vania surfing!

He shot HP5+ and devved in PMK Pyro 1+2+100 for 12 minutes.

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

Yo-ho! We’re on this week’s show, we’re talking to Pete Halvorsen (@petehalvorsen on IG) about his seaside photography. Following that, we’ll plumb the depths of underwater photography from the first photo to Jacques Cousteau. We’ll also discuss some of our recent film failures and why we don’t shoot digital – the reasons might not be what you think.

But first, Vania has a bit of an on-the-road report recorded while she was driving and photographing her way through the lower South West. With a bit of a time jump, she’s with us for the rest of the episode.

Before diving in (haha) we listen to the answering machine. This episode’s question is:

Why not digital?

We received more answers for this than ever before, thank you!

We’ve been having a few film failures of late, and we tell you about them because that’s what we do now.

Here are a couple of Vania’s. She shot Fuji Neopan 1600 and accidentally developed it in C-41:

And here are two of Eric’s, complete with the light leak provided by the watch:

• Camera: Chamonix 45F-2 Lens: Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 5.6/210mm Film: Fuji Super HRT 100iso Exposure: f/64; 1/4sec Process: Rodinal; 1+100; 7min Ferndale, California October 2020

If you go to Manhattan beach as much as Vania does, you’ll end up meeting Pete Halvorsen. Pete’s a regular at the pier. While he shoots mainy digital for his commercial and professional work, he’s never left film behind. Today we’re going to talk to him about why.

We talk to Pete about his professional work and how it’s changed during these weird plague days. He tells us why he likes the RZ67 and why he still shoots film.

Pete’s website: http://www.pchpro.com

Pete on IG: @petehalvorsen

Here are a few of his film photos:

The first underwater photo was taken by William Thompson in 1856 and it was horrible:

Fortunately things improved.

The first underwater portrait was taken by Louis Boutan in 1893. It’s pretty rad:

Here are a few other photos concerning Boutan:

Louis Boutan’s book. In French, so good luck: https://archive.org/details/laphotographieso00bout/mode/2up

J. E. Williamson and his Graflex going down into the tube.Though we question it, this is “officially” the first color photo taken underwater, 1923.

We wrap up by talking about when underwater cameras went commercial. The first was the Mako Shark, a camera Vania owns and has shot with. Here are a couple of her photos:

We’re finally back to reviewing zines!

This one comes from Canada! It’s called Houses of the Holy by Markus Staley. And it is just what it says it is – a zine full of churches. I’m kind of a church fan myself. Like Marcus, I’m drawn to their architecture.

This is an 8”x8” zine, perfect bound and comprised of both film (35mm and 120) and some digital shots.  For me, the black& white photos are my favorites. Particularly, the ones with more close up details, like the one of the Berean Baptist Church.

You can pick it up @markusstaleyphotography

On our next Dev Party, Vania develops the first roll taken with her new water housing!

Thank you to everyone who supports us!

Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes, extended interviews, early drops. Tons of stuff!

patreon.com/allthroughalens

Our featured Patron for this episode is Dave Walker! Check out his work on IG: @davethewalker80

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

On this episode, we continue our X-Ray fun by developing X-Ray film of our own!

Here are some of our results:

On this week’s spookyish show… we’re talking about x-ray film and x-rays in general, really. What are they? How’d all that happen and what’s with x-ray film? We’ll talk about cameras stealing souls, and also talk to Montana photographer Leland Buck (@leland.buck on IG).

After we field some messages concerning the emulsion our listeners would like to see brought back from the dead, we get into it.

We were kicking around spooky ideas for a spooky Halloween episode. So what we came up with was this idea that some cultures are afraid of having their picture taken because they supposedly believe that the camera will steal their soul.

It seems like so many stories told by photographers of their times among the Native Americans or indigenous Africans are capped off with the subjects refusing to be photographed. The reason, which most of us accepted as fact, was that these strange and superstitious people actually believed that the camera could steal their soul.

But this got us wondering… did anyone actually believe this? We did some digging.

Leland Buck is a Montana photographer who shoots x-ray film. But we didn’t just talk to him about that. We covered Montana, various emulsions and shooting styles, as well as a ton of tips for shooting X-ray film.

Here are a few of x-ray images Leland took:

More can be seen here.

We’ve always kicked around the idea of shooting on x-ray film, but after trying, we couldn’t resist learning more about it.

1895 found German physicist,  Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen,  in his laboratory experimenting with vacuum tubes. He didn’t exactly have a specific theory he was chasing. He was merely seeing what adding different variables to the already established science might produce.

This brings us to the “first” x-ray photograph. According to biographer Otto Glasser, the event went like this:

Röntgen “conceived another experiment for which one evening he persuaded Mrs. Rontgen to be the subject. At his instruction she placed her hand on a cassette loaded with a photographic plate, upon which he directed the rays from his tube for fifteen minutes. On the developed plate the bones of the hand appeared light within the darker shadow of the surrounding flesh, two rings on her finger had almost completely stopped the rays and were clearly visible. When he showed the picture to her, she could hardly believe that this bony hand was her own and shuddered at the thought that she was seeing her skeleton. To Mrs. Rontgen, as to many others later, this experience gave a vague premonition of death.”

Legend has tacked on an ending where Mrs. Röntgen saw the image of her boney hand and exclaimed “I have seen my death!” and fled the lab never to enter it again.

This little ending is probably apocryphal, but it makes for a good title, so we had to include it.

Here are some early x-ray shots – some by Röntgen, most by others.

There were poems and cartoons written and drawn about the dangers of x-ray photography – though these dangers weren’t what we know them to be now.

Here are two shots on x-ray film by Vania:

And here are two shots on x-ray film by Eric:

On our next Dev Party, we’ll be developing X-ray film!

Thank you to everyone who supports us!

Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes, extended interviews, early drops. Tons of stuff!

patreon.com/allthroughalens

This episode, our featured patron is James Huffstutler! He’s @allingrain on Instagram.

allingrain.com

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

On this episode, we’re trying our hands at E-6 home development! Vania shot 35mm Ektachrome, and Eric shot a couple of Provia 4×5 sheets.

Here are some shots from developing:

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

We’re talking about Kodak Ektachrome – the history of the film and the various processes used to develop it. We’ll also give you some advice on shooting and developing expired film. We’ve got the answering machine question, some more trivia, AND we’ll give a call to Janet (@janet_built_a_wet_plate on IG), the woman who built her own wetplate camera.

After a bit of small talk and trivia, we get down to it! First up is the answering machine question:

Apart from photography, does other analog media play a role in your life?

We got a bunch of wonderful responses – and two people who still use reel-to-reels – amazing!

On our first segment, we both talk about our experiences with shooting and developing expired film. We get specific and continuously warn that there are no rules.

That whole “one stop for every decade” thing isn’t exactly bunk, but it’s not something you can ever count on.

First we go over how to shoot it – everything depends upon the original ISO and how the film was stored. You likely only know one of these things, so good luck!

Then we go over processing. Basically, box speed always.

Here are some of Eric’s oldest shots:

Suppose you wanted to shoot wetplate collodian, but you didn’t know much about cameras or photography. And then suppose that instead of buying an old ass camera to figure it out, you just built one yourself.

That’s Janet. And we had a wonderful conversation with her about camera building, wetplate workshops, the opera (she said that “wetplate collodian is the opera of photography”) and so much more. It really was a delightful interview.

Ektachrome and its process has been around for nearly 75 years. We delved into the subject, talking about each of the various E’s (E-1, E-2, E-6, etc).

We used the research of Maurice Fisher and Michael Talburt (here) as the backbone, but fattened it up with various newspaper photography columns that were published as Kodak broke the news of Ektachrome (and the numerous iterations along the way).

We even take you through the earliest Ektachrome Process, step by step!

And this episode, our featured patron is Jamie Maldonado! You can (and should) find him at (@jamiemphoto on IG).

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Be sure to check out our Dev Party episodes.

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon