About to go back in the darkroom.  Spent several hours yesterday working with a negative from the roll of Agfa 100 I shot through the Mamiya RB67 Pro-S last weekend.  I checked my stock of 120 film and I am a little low.  I have quite a mixed bag of 120 film, Ilford, Konica, Kodak, Agfa including quite a lot of infrared film.  I like Agfa the best and I still have a lot of 35mm including a 100ft roll of Agfa 100 that I have yet to access.  Yesterday at Eds I bought some film cannisters and I have a bulk film loader but it has been so long since I've used one I've kind of forgot how they work.  I am consulting this which is pretty helpful when you have to mix developers.  I have a lot of Rodinal and I thought I read somewhere that it is identical to D-76.  It appears that Agfa film even outdated stock is getting harder to find.  I still have may a half-dozen rolls of Agfa 25 120 and maybe 3 rolls of Agfa 100 left.  A company bought the name rights to Agfa/Rollei and they are selling film again including Pan 25.  I still think they make Tri-X Pan but I've been kind of dissappointed in the results.  I may just have to learn to work with it if I want to use the 120 format. Oh well back to it.

These are images from my first roll of color film I shot with the Mamiya RB67.  I still have some black and white negatives to work with but the problem with putting them up on my blog is that my printer/scanner stopped working so I have been unable to scan the prints.  When I have color film developed I have a high res disc made along with prints so I was able to include these images.  The exposure is a bit off in a lot of these prints which I believe was my fault.  I'm impressed with the camera.  I have never used a medium format SLR before but I really like it.  I have ordered light seals for replacing and I hope to do that soon.  There appear to be no light leaks but the gooey left over seals are messy when it comes to handling the camera and I'd rather not spread the stuff around in the camera while using it.

I was testing out my RB67 in Lone Fir Cemetery last Saturday.  It had been perhaps 2 years since I'd visited the cemetery and I was pleased to discover that a favorite feature had been restored.  The statue of Ada above her grave in Lone Fir had stood there for close to 100 years since her death at the age of 5 in 1885.  I saw it many times but only  photographed it once on a visit in 1982.  Shortly after that the statue was stolen, snapped off at the feet and for years that was all that remained of Ada.  I am still not sure if this is a replica or the original was found and restored.  I am glad though to see her restored and intend to take advantage of her return to photograph her now as I had wished for many years since her disappearance.  Welcome back dear one you have been missed.

Mamiya RB67 Pro-S

  I got my Mamiya last week and tried it out yesterday shooting a roll of color film and a roll of black and white.  I just finished developing the black and white and it looks very good.  Hopefully I can do a contact sheet later today.  The cameras only issue is that the light seals need replacing.  The camera looked like it had not been used in a while it was a tad dusty and the seals on the inside had turned to goo.  The camera though functioned well and the negatives from the first roll of film look really beautiful so I think it is going to work out.  I had been reading how many of the cameras have to have the seals reaplaced in the film backs as well as in the camera itself.  It has a rotating back like a 4x5 camera so you can shoot in either a horizontal or vertical format without having to realign the camera itself.  The Film backs are very easy to switch and load much easier than the Koni-Omega 6x7 200 camera I bought about 7 years ago which I plan to sell now and invest in some additional lenses for this one. I think I'm really going to like this camera.



I don't know what this is.



Blue Passion Flower

I bought these two vines probably a little too late for them to really grow.  The red one has been a prolific bloomer but the passion flower was a bit of a dissapointment.  It is just finally starting to get a few buds on it but there is only about another 4 weeks in Portlands summer gardening season.  Usually I succeed with these pretty well but this particular plant was a bit of a shy bloomer.

He has high hopes.  Here is a lot of cameras for sale on e-bay. Wants 50 bills or 500 bills (not sure if a bill stands for a thousand or a hundred) and a thousand for shipping. Yikes.  If I had 50,000 to spend on cameras I'd be more selective.  Right now I am thinking of reducing the cameras I have in order to focus with only a few.  My Nikons for 35mm and a Mamiya RB67 Pro for medium format.  Of course I'd keep my Mamiya 220 for 6x6.



Mamiya RB67 Pro

I was looking at one of these in my favorite used camera shop.  He wanted a little too much for the model he was selling and I detected an issue with it so I decided to see what they sold for on e-bay and craigs list.  This is a camera a lot like the Nikon F.  Well made, plenty of them out there, lots of lenses and accessories and undervalued.  A camera for those of us who actually take pictures with their cameras rather than collect them.  My kind of camera.

A picture taken yesterday with my digital camera.  This was taken in the vertical but I like the composition better in the horizontal.  The sky was overcast so it made for a good background almost looks like a studio shot.  I worked in my darkroom yesterday as well.  I developed some film and made a contact sheet and one print.  Also ordered some ilford graded paper.  Pricey probably because it's old stock.  I don't think Ilford is still making graded papers.