Tachihara, Nikkor-W 150mm 1:5.6, ISO 100, f/32, 1/15s, tilt 11.3 degrees, D76 1:1

There is nothing there.  

This is in stark contrast to the innards of modern cameras which are packed with various technologies used in the production of an image or are related to that process.  

This emptiness quite clearly exposes how simple it can be: A lens; a gap; a piece of film.  

It's easy to be mislead by the wood and brass construction that there is no technology at all.  But there is; the various knobs, levers and slides provide capabilities not available on most cameras: swing, tilt and shift.  

In the normal camera the film plane, lens plane and focus plane are all parallel.   

Swing and tilt (of the lens) change the relationship among these planes.  Tilting the lens forward, for example, tilts the plane of focus proportionately such that it slides under the camera and projects off into infinity.  

As I explored the subject of tilt I came across Scheimpflug.  Captain Theodor Scheimpflug was an Austrian Army and Naval officer, born in October 7, 1865 and died in August 22, 1911. In the early 1900's he used cameras suspended from balloons for aerial photography for the purpose of creating accurate maps.  To resolve the various distortions that result from imperfect alignment he developed a number of principles, one of which bears his name.

In order for a view camera image to be sharp, the rules of optics state that the film plane, the lens plane and the plane of sharp focus must intersect along a common line in space. That line is the Scheimpflug line. [Merklinger, Focusing the View Camera].

The objective of my first experiment was to get a sense of how it works--the set up and the execution--by walking through the steps. The first step is to establish the things to be in focus. Or more precisely, what is the plane of focus?  Standing in a field (picture below) I picked the distant trees and a spot just under the camera.   With the plane picked I determined how far below my camera the plane passed (J).  With J, I could then calculated the necessary tilt of the lens [a = arcsin (f/J), where f = the focal length of the lens in meters]. I estimated the plane ran 1 meter below the plane of the lens, which was just about ground level. The result was a tilt angle of 8.62 degrees.  [Note: implicit in the equation above is some a relationship between the tilt angle and the angle of the plane of sharp focus which I do not yet understand.]

I levelled the camera and then tilted the lens the prescribed amount. Rather than calculate the depth of field I set the aperture to f/22 and the speed accordingly.  

Tilt = 8.6 degrees; J = 1 meter; Focus on far subject; Nikkor 150mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/60s, Kodak TMAX 100

Tilt = 8.6 degrees; J = 1 meter; Focus on far subject; Nikkor 150mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/60s, Kodak TMAX 100

Inspection of the shot confirmed the angled plane of focus was present.  Point #3 corresponded to my estimation of the far point of the plane and point #2 the near point.  Both have focus.  In contrast is point #1 (which is on the approximately the same vertical plane as point #2) that is completely out of focus.  

I have more work to do to fully understand the maths, but given the results are there to be had, I'm encouraged to explore further along this path.   

Leica M, Leica Noctilux-M 50mm 1:0.95, ISO 200, f/16, 1/60 sec

I realised I hadn't shot digital for a while. The convenience of digital was a nice change. Yet I'm now a little more patient. A little more thoughtful about what I shoot. 

Leica M, Leica Noctilux-M 50mm F0.95 , ISO 200, f/4.0, 1/4000sec

As noted in my previous post, phase one of the project completed the dry area which hosts my PC, scanner, printer and a work area for framing prints.  Phase three, and it is hoped to be the last phase, will connect the sink to the plumbing.

The sink, located on the left, is 2 feet deep by 4 feet wide. The bowl of the sink is 6 inches deep.  It is made of PVC on a wood frame. The PVC sheets (three 2'x4') were purchased on eBay from a store in Missouri as I was unable to find any locally.   The wood was sourced from my reserves (that is, I had a lot of extra wood that I wanted to get rid of).  I only had to buy one 2'x4' sheet of plywood for the sink base.

The original idea for building the sink was described in an article, How to make a custom darkroom sink out of PVC.  It provided the basic instructions and importantly they key parts.  With that information, and the inventory of wood I had available, I created my own plan (pdf). 

Tachihara Field Camera 4x5, Nikkor-W 150mm 1:5.6, Kodak TMAX, f/64, 5 sec, ISO 100, D76

Hydrangea are an interesting subject; globes of small-petalled flowers on a background of large-leafed stems.   Compositionally this offers a natural contrast.  However, now my attention is directed towards the Zone System to ensure proper capture and development.

In the digital world results are immediate and each shot can be used to iteratively hone in on the right exposure and composition. There is really no cost to taking another shot.  In the film world results come only later after development and processing and each shot costs about $2.00.  It takes me between 5 and 10 minutes to set up and complete a shot. Mistakes are costly in terms of time and money. Attention to detail and a consistent process is important.  Therefore, planning the shot and ensuring proper exposure are important. As I get better at this, I expect this to increase; and then may be at some point it will decrease.  

My attention right now is on getting the tones right and understanding what constitutes right.

To complete the wet side will require plumbing and a darkroom sink. This being more complicated extended timelines result.  Finding a sink being on the critical path.  So until this is complete I will use the framing area as the wet zone. Yet even with this interim state, Darkroom 1.5 improves the level of maturity of the core capabilities.  

View of the darkroom in action. 

For the most part I have declined the offer. I expect e-mail volumes to reduce upto 50%. I sincerely look forward to this outcome.  

Maybe I'm a dreamer but I don't think I'm the only one.  

This is the question posed by the video:

As I watched the video I struggled with understanding the relationship between the content and the industrial revolution.   So what if Facebook would be the 3rd largest county; so what if some twitter user has more followers than the population of Sweden; so what if it took 39 years for TV to reach 50 million viewers and Facebook reached 200 million in less than a year. A stream of numbers, possibly interesting, inferred to be meaningful.

So what is that meaning?  It seems to be about markets.  It's about forming markets to bring together people. When you have a number of people common interests can be identified and then come products and then advertising.  This looks like an advertisement for advertising on social media. 

So when Facebook or Google create some place for people to congregate, they do so by attracting people by giving them something, usually for free.

As David Carr put it: "when what you are getting is for free, you're the product."

To generate revenue, the providers need sponsors--usually advertisers--to pay for access to the people in the market.  If you're a service like Facebook you have a lot of personal information that can be used by marketers to slice and dice down to very focused groups.  This focus translates into higher hit rates and thus more sales per advertising dollar.  So goes the theory.    

So when I visit one of these places, I am presented with ads that correspond to some marketer's idea of my product interests.  On Facebook these manifest as the ads presented on the home page.  On my home page these are often for dating services featuring pretty girls. God forbid I click on one of these ads. First the event will be on the record in perpetuity as an interest.  Next, this interest will no doubt toggle some marketing flag which will only encourage more of these ads.  Finally, unless I'm careful, this click will be broadcast to all my friends. How embarrassing would that be.  

The flash and tempo of the video seem to be directed to attract the advertiser and to get them to look at social media or continue to support it.  Certainly when comparing these virtual markets over the traditional media outlets there is a lot of opportunity. I presume the relationship to the industrial revolution is in those days markets where physical things coupled with physical limitations.  Social Media have few of those.

Tachihara Field Camera 4x5, Nikkor 150mm F5.6, Kodak TMAX, f/36, 1/8 sec, ISO 100, 

Tachihara Field Camera 4x5, Nikkor-W 150mm F5.6, Kodak TMAX, f/32, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

Tachihara Field Camera 4x5, Nikkor-W 150mm F5.6, Kodak TMAX, ISO 100, f/35, ISO 100, 1 sec

There is a printed edition of my book Serengeti Portrait, but at an exorbitant price (there's a free eBook edition).

The machine bound into our world delivering over 20 cups in the first evening. From then on, each morning it reliably delivered two cups of coffee to me, and God knows for the rest of the family.  It served us well at dinner parties delivering countless cappuccino's and lattes.  

In lieu of flowers please send donations to you favourite charity.    

Tachihara VW45FC, Nikon Nikkor-W 150mm F5.6, ISO 100, f/32, Kodak TMAX 100 

While I'm considered part of the class of '72, I moved to Montreal in 1967. So I have not seen any of these guys for 47 years.   

Leica M, Leica Noctilux-M 50mm, ISO 200, f/0.95, 1/45 sec
Class of 1972

There were five fellows at the table who were at the school when I attended.  Interestingly, while I may not have recognised them had I bumped into them on the street, knowing who they were, I could still see their faces of so long ago.  

Leica M, Canon FD 200mm F2.8, ISO 200, f/8, 1/250