So I headed to the woods

[MichaelHarris]

with my new/old Nikon telephoto lens to do some bird shooting yesterday. Around a small lake in the mountains of Idaho there's usually tons of different birds, even bald eagles but not today. On the drive up I watched the tops of trees and telephone poles for predatory birds, usually I see 20 or 30 along the way. Didn't see one.

Pheasants in the valley, turkeys in the hills, all gone. It was just weird, where did they go? Could the heat drive them off? As I walked through the woods surrounding the giant ceder near Elk River, Id., a place usually full of small birds I didn't see one. The forest was dead quiet, was bigfoot near?

I only bring this up because of the bee stories and how they seem to be MIA. Are you seeing fewer birds where you live? Maybe it's not just bees, maybe a lot of insects are in decline. Don't know, just pondering.

As far as photos I did the whole Ansel Adams thing:



Nothing else seemed to be alive.

[rwenos]

1. Film or Digital?

I'd guess film. Does Kodak still make that old 36 ASA fine grain b&w 35 mm stock?

Or are you Old School / medium format?

[MichaelHarris]

4. I'm way old school

I shoot a 4x5 a lot. I have a Cambo rail 4x5, an old Graphic View 4x5, and a press 4x5 like you see in the old movies.

For medium format I use either a Hasselblad or a Mamiya RB67. The RB67 gives a much bigger negative.

It gets a little crazy when it comes to 35mm. I use Nikon for film and digital and sometimes a Leica SLR. For street photography I use 1930s and 40s Leica screw mount rangefinders. I love the old lenses.

I'm about 80% film and 20% digital. Usually I use the digital to check out lenses or do what little commercial work I get. I recently started developing my own color so that's opened a ton of doors. Kodak doesn't make that anymore but Fuji is re-releasing the Velvia 50 color slide film which is wonderful.

[rwenos]

12. Bravissimo!

Wow! I always wanted a Hasselblad, but never aspired to 4x5. RB 67 was too heavy for me (I once heard it referred to as a "wonderful boat anchor.") But you've obviously mastered the medium.

VERY fine work. Thank you so much for posting it, and especially for responding with the technical side.

[MichaelHarris]

15. thank you rwenos

You know Hasselblad 500 series bodies are pretty cheap right now. It's lenses that kill ya. You're right, the RB67 is huge. I use it a lot over the Hasselblads, I think the lenses are just as good. A 4x5 speed graphic can be found for 100 dollars or so and some of the old lenses on them are wonderful. Make sure if you look for one that it has a Graflock back, that gives you more film options like shooting 4x5 Polaroid film.

You see that first 4x5 negative and you're hooked, no going back. B&W is so easy to develop, I'm always teaching people around here how to do it. Believe it or not, color is easier. Fewer parameters. The thing with color is temperature, it has to be dead on. If you're interested let me know and we'll go "shopping" :)

[rwenos]

17. Thanks

The best pic I ever took was with a $20 old twin-lens with no meter, that I'd bought in a used camera shop. (The fact that it was bright sunshine and the Golden Gate Bridge held rock-solid still during the shoot helped!)

No budget these days for fun stuff. Got a teenage daughter. Ha!

[MichaelHarris]

18. LOL

My wife and I didn't have kids but it seems my free time is landscaping a backyard that looks like a gravel pit. I recently loaned out my two TLRs to a couple of college students, they had never seen one. They work at Ritz camera in the mall and someone brought in a roll of 120 film. They said, "what is this?"

Me and the guy explained it to them and they seemed excited so the next day I dropped off two cameras for them to play with. Hope I see them again :)

[Schema Thing]

26. You're doing your own E-6 process?

brave man! Do you have a small machine processor, or do you do it by hand?


I have the sweetest, cleanest Toyo field camera you ever saw.... which I haven't seen in ages, lol.

[MichaelHarris]

27. Aw man

Toyos rock. I do my own E-6, it's so easy. Two ways to do it, one is with w chemical called Blix. That's bleach and fix together. It's a 3 step process. The other is with the "full meal deal" chemistry, 6 steps I think.

I've mostly done the 3 step but I recently ordered the chemicals for the 6 step. I do have an old Jobo processor but before that I made a rig to do it. I took one of those rubber pails used to feed horses, an aquarium heater that I could 100 degrees with and some insulation.

I wrapped the insulation around the pail and put the heater in the water in the pail. I made sure I could maintain 100 degrees for 30 minutes or so and went to town. Temp is real important with color and E6. Once you do it you'll never go back, I hated waiting weeks for my 4x5 E6 to come back from the developers. Now it's about 10 minutes and I'm drying.

[Schema Thing]

51. Like I said...

brave man!

That's cool that you've gone to those lengths. I'm probably spoiled being in a big town; and as a pro, we often did snip test, came back to the lab in 50 minutes to check them, and then had the film pushed (or sometimes pulled, but that doesn't look too good on most chrome film, unless it's only a very small amount) to the perfect exposure.


It's been a while since I've shot a roll of film, but I've heard that there is only one lab in town (Dallas) doing E-6 process anymore.

Back when I did it (15 years or so ago), our little slide-making lab used a tabletop unit; I can't even remember the name of it now. It pre-dates the Jobo stuff though. If I remember correctly, we'd put several rolls into a tube, but then the machine would both fill and drain and agitate each bath, and we would only touch it again when we'd take the film out for air drying; but for the life of me, I can't remember the exact mechanical process that effected all that filling, agitating, and draining.


Now if they'll just make a kodachrome processing kit :P~

[Ezlivin]

37. Do you use HC 110, dilution B?

Before the digital age my wife and I had a home darkroom and did all of our own film processing: B/W, infrared and E-6. Naturally we had our Kodachrome processed by Kodak, but we did all of our own film and paper processing.

It's so good to see that B/W is still alive, along with the Zone System.

Your photo reminded me of some of the work of Fred Picker of Zone IV Studios.

[MichaelHarris]

41. Thank you

you know, the great thing about doing your own B&W is the choices in chemistry. I tried a bunch of different ones and ended up using the old standby D-76. I sometimes use Microdol, it gives very nice almost grainless prints. Right now everyone is hot on the old Agfa Rodinol but I tried it and just couldn't get a handle on it. It uses very high dilutions.

Thanks for that link, that guy has wonderful control of the whites in his prints. The one with the snow and the flowing water is amazing, that's hard to do. You can still see detail in the snow.

[Ezlivin]

52. Fred was pretty amazing

He and (mostly) Paul Horowitz developed a compensating darkroom timer that measured the brightness of the enlarging lamp and then would automatically adjust your development times to keep tonal consistency. Link



Zone VI Studios had all sorts of cool stuff for the B&W photographer.

[formercia]

55. I took a large format class in college

It made me appreciate the old-timers and the artistic talent it took to use the old cameras.

We used Speed Graphics mostly but one of the students had an 8x10 if I remember correctly. He did an Ektachrome plate for his class project. It was spectacular.
This was 1975 time frame when there was a good assortment of film and chemicals available.

[MichaelHarris]

56. 8X10 cameras are huge

I use 4x5s, one of them is a Speed Graphic. If you ever get interested in doing it again the show up for sale all the time on EBay and chemicals are readily available. I get mine from a place called Freestyle online.

[formercia]

57. I'd like to but can't afford it right now.

We were at the Boston Flower Show a couple of years ago and there was an author displaying a book he did with large format. He used a digital plate and it was impressive. Big bucks but I think that will be the way of the future.

Large format is so flexible, especially when adjusting perspective.

[shadowknows69]

2. That's nice work n/t

[MichaelHarris]

7. thank you

after spending an afternoon looking up for birds not there I decided to look around my feet.

[losthills]

3. Yeah.

That's very nice.

[shadowknows69]

5. On second viewing

and this is just the opinion of a completely non-professional, barely amateur photographer, but I'd crop closer to the main leaves. The lighting on them is amazing and it should be extenuated, some of the edges just kind of decay off for me.

[shadowknows69]

9. just on the left and right.

I go now. Great work.
S

[MichaelHarris]

11. LOL

thanks, cropping for me is hard. I spend so much time framing a shot that when I get home I never know where to cut. I'm a fan of focus fall off and light fall of sometimes. I'll upload a quick sample of focus fall off that I like.

[MichaelHarris]

13. Here's what I mean by

focus fall off or Depth of Field. It's fun to play with sometimes:

[shadowknows69]

14. Sweet, and it's very pronounced there

and was in the center most column of the B+W too but the edges just lost me. Just my two cents man. Art is art. Never take offense in the way someone sees it.

<edit to add> my mom was and is the most prolific picture taker in the history of photography. The woman has photographed everything she's experienced for 40 years now. I've seen A LOT of pics lol. I just automatically analyze I guess.
Peace.

[MichaelHarris]

16. LOL

my parents never took pictures. I don't even remember them owning a camera. I got my Mom a little point and shoot last year, she took a liking to flower pictures.

My real passion is street photography. I like walking the streets at night shooting the weird and wonderful. Problem is I live in a small town. Went to Chicago last year and fell in love with that city.

[MichaelHarris]

8. thank you and

welcome to DU :)

[newyawker99]

20. Hi losthills!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Breeze54]

6. Absolutely beautiful!

Thank You for sharing your talent, Michael Harris! :)

Bravo!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[MichaelHarris]

10. You're very welcome

and thank you :)

[Swamp Rat]

19. I lament the loss of our local bee keeper because of Katrina

I haven't seen a single bee in New Orleans since. :shrug:

I really like your work. :applause:

[MichaelHarris]

29. Thanks Swamp

I really want to get back to the south soon. Right now I'm in the middle of a photo essay on wheat farmers and after that I hope to do the migrant farm workers in central Washington. Here's a sample of some of my stuff:

http://www.photo.net/photos/mharris

[YankeyMCC]

21. Very nice photo nt

[MichaelHarris]

30. Thank you

I really enjoy using film, not really grasped the digital revolution yet. I wish I was on a marketing team somewhere, I'd sell the phrase, "It's time to enjoy the wonders of film again".

[yodermon]

22. Hey have you guys seen this photoblog

http://www.durhamtownship.com/
best of: http://www.durhamtownship.com/portfolio/index.php

as for photography i don't know anything about anything but I find this blog breathtaking, thought I'd share.

Great pic BTW
:hi:

[glitch]

25. Wow. That is wonderful, thank you for posting! nt

[MichaelHarris]

28. those

portraits are amazing, that person is good. Here's some of mine:

http://www.photo.net/photos/mharris

[glitch]

23. That's a stunning photo. The birds are quiet here today but I think it's the heat. Here anyway.

Everybody, including me, wants to hang out in the shade doing nothing.

[MichaelHarris]

31. thank you and

you just gave me an idea. I may sit down by one of the colleges and photograph people "beating" the heat.

[glitch]

40. Cool! Do you post your photos often? I'll keep an eye out, in case. nt

[MichaelHarris]

43. I do every now and them

when I can tie in a related story. If I don't relate it to something relevant I'm always afraid it will get deleted or moved. I really really hope my migrant farm workers shots happen. I would like to show them here first.

[glitch]

46. I am looking forward to it. Please PM me, in case I miss it. Thanks! nt

[MichaelHarris]

50. I'll do that, thanks

I guess every now and then I go on a mission. I always try to get people back to film. The old great cameras and lenses are so cheap right now and all they want is a little love. I recently picked up a camera that sold for 1300 dollars in 1999 for 87 dollars. Deals like that are everywhere. Schools are giving away enlargers and stuff. Our kids will never know the thrill of watching a print develop in a pan.

Instant gratification is OK but remember when you couldn't wait for you film to get back from the processor? I love that anticipation, opening the package to see if I did good or not. Maybe I'll start one of those think tanks or focus groups, go on Fox news and stuff. Tell everyone Y3K will kill their digital cameras and they need to buy film.

Wait, forget that. If I do that those great prices on wonderful old cameras may go up :)

[BlackVelvet04]

58. I love doing my own printing

but since we bought a house in the country I haven't had a dark room. I can't dump the chemicals in our septic system.

Watching a print develop is magic.

[vireo]

24. Breeding Bird Survey results show continued declines

New data show the populations of some of America's well-known birds in a tailspin, thanks to the one-two punch of habitat fragmentation and, increasingly, global warming.

From the heartland's whippoorwills and meadowlarks to the Northern bobwhite and common terns of the nation's coasts, 20 common bird species tracked by the National Audubon Society have seen their numbers fall 54 percent overall since 1967, with some down about 80 percent, the group reported Thursday.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0615/p02s03-usgn.html

[MichaelHarris]

34. Thanks for that vireo

Another thing I just remembered was that Chenowith lady Idaho saying, "I'll clear cut the entire Clearwater national forest if it means more jobs." She died recently, wonder what wood they used on the coffin?

You can see some of the clear cutting on the sides of the mountains. Once I saw it in British Columbia and it was horrible. They took these two huge bulldozers, I think they call them D-9s, and put a ship anchor chain between them. The bulldozers drove down the hill side with the chain stretched between them and drug down everything in it's path.

[vireo]

53. Very sad

Speaking of birds and large format photography, you likely are familiar with Eliot Porter's work. His bird photographs are truly amazing and helped to spur me into becoming an active birder years ago.
http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/porter/collection.php?mcat=3&scat=9&pagen=1

Here's a nice non-bird portfolio: http://www.afterimagegallery.com/porterinwildness.htm

I can't see your pics now, Michael (blocked on work computer) but will check them out later.

[Uncle Joe]

32. Thanks for the photo and the report, Michael

Kicked and recommended.

[MichaelHarris]

35. Thanks Uncle Joe

I'm really hoping for a gallery exhibit soon. I keep going through all my negatives and try to decide what to frame.

I'm doing a series of the area where I live called the Palouse. It's miles and miles of rolling wheat fields. Here is a couple while it's still green:





It's starting to brown now so I'll get those pretty soon.

[Uncle Joe]

38. You're a talented photographer!

:thumbsup: If you don't make a living doing this, I would respectfully suggest looking in to it.

[MichaelHarris]

44. LOL, thanks Uncle Joe

I sell a few here and there. I did a wedding once, did I mention once? Next time I ever consider doing a wedding again I think I'll just go in the shop and pull a few teeth, that's much easier.

[BlackVelvet04]

59. I did ONE wedding....

I'd rather eat dirt than do another.

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. BEAUTIFUL picture! I love B&W photos. I have many, many birds in my birdbath. Robins, Cardinals,

male and female, Wrens, Sparrows, and Doves but NO BEES at all. We have bumble bees and wasps ONLY.:(

[MichaelHarris]

36. you should

get pictures of them. I'm just starting with bird photography and it's hard :). They don't really like sitting still.

[in_cog_ni_to]

39. I tried a few times. I did get a Cardinal in the bidrbath, but it was through a window

and didn't turn out very well because I had the flash on :(. If I'm sitting outside anywhere near the birdbath, they won't come and take a bath. They're shy!:) I thought about setting up my tripod and using my remote, but I don't know if the remote would work through the window. I'll have to try it sometime.

[MichaelHarris]

47. here's a good tip for shooting through windows

There's this lens thing called Depth of Field or DOF. If you look an most lenses you'll see some numbers, one is the focal length like say 50mm and the other is the maximum lens opening or aperture, sometimes called the speed of the lens. The numbers are something like f1.8, or f11. The smaller the number, say f1.8 has a shallow DOF, meaning what is in the center of the object you focused on will be sharp and the rest will be blurred.

When you shoot though a window with the small numbers, say f11 most of the image will be sharp. So when shooting though glass use a small number, wide open, and the glass won't even be see because it's closer to the lens and out of the focus area.

Sounds complicated but it's real easy. If you take a few pictures at the different f stops you'll see how it works.

[in_cog_ni_to]

49. THANK YOU for that info! I've bookmarked this thread so I can print it.

I'll definitely try it!

[malaise]

42. Stunningly beautiful

Thanks.

[onethatcares]

45. I don't know anything about photography but I feed the birds

every day. We have doves, cardinals, bluejays but no wrens or thrushes this year in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Bumble bees we have, honey bees stopped on a brance of our norfolk island pine for one day, it was a writhing mass of bees, I called a keeper to come and take them away, but within 12 hrs they were gone. He explained it might have been the weak tropical storm we had causing them to stop and regroup prior to moving on.

[MichaelHarris]

48. I have

one robin that comes into my yard everyday after I water the lawn. He's a big plump sucker, walks around so proud. I should put out some feed and maybe I'll get more. We once had a hugh owl on our fence at night but he hasn't been around in a while. First time I saw him I was amazed at how big they were.

[formercia]

54. Interesting that you mention this

Here in Maine, I have noticed more song birds this year. Perhaps the heat is driving the birds to the North.