Wallace Koopmans Artlog

As I reach number #10 in my Interactions series I thought I would take a moment to speak about it again.

As I have stated previously the source of the images that form the basis of these paintings is from images seen through mapping software.  So why not just present the image as seen without the process of painting?  Well there are several reasons for this one of them being the necessity to make them stand out from the multitude of images we continuously see.  Another reason is it allows me to simplify the scene to make it about what I choose. By re-creating the scene through painting I can pick and choose what is relevent.  One of the side effects of Google Street view is it grants equal visual weight to a piece of garbage on the street as to a sign in a window or a person.  I as a photographer am not there to compose a scene as I would like it but as a painter I can address that.

While in Niagara Falls Ontario I had some time in the late evenings to walk around and take a few pictures.  I chose to use Cinestill film for this because of its tungsten colour balance and how it reacts to light sources with a certain glow.  I also chose to use the Canon QL17 both for its fast 40mm F1.7 lens and that it can be used completely manually.  While it does lack slow shutter speeds I wouldn’t have a tripod and these are all hand-held so the 1/4sec slowest shutter speed is leisurely enough.

Cinestill 800 is an interesting film because it is actually motion picture film, specifically Kodak Vision 3 5219 that has had its Remjet layer removed to allow for it to be processed using regular C41 and its then packaged in a 35mm still film cartridge.  The effect of pre-removing the Remjet layer is that its antihalation properties are also removed.

What this means is that light can pass through the film and be reflected back striking the emulsion layers a second time which creates halos which are particularly noticable around bright light sources.

It gives Cinestill 800T a different look that isn’t easily duplicated and I kind of like it for that.

Every photographer knows that film can be grainy or should and Adox Colour implosion is about as grainy as it gets, like a grain elevator at harvest time.  So how do you take it up a notch?  Shoot half frame that’s how.  I used the Yashica Samurai half frame SLR to reap my 72 frames of granularity.  Some of which can be seen bellow.  72 images is a bit much for one harvest so I will break some of them into two posts and leave the chaff for Instagram.

Duncan Turner of DLT photographic had the brilliant idea to repurpose his child bicycle trailer into a camera gear trailer (No actual conversion is required).  The only downside is the looks people give, some people clearly want to get a peak at what must be a cute baby and still others look on disapprovingly as you carelessly subject your little one to dangerous maneuvers.  All the while though the cameras are snug as little bugs shielded from the rain and mud.   While the bulk of my gear was being towed about I had my Pentax K-3 slung over my shoulder with the HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR mounted on it.

There was a lot of rain that didn’t let up very much, which dampened my photographic spirits, but had no effect on the camera or lens.  Here is a sampling from that gear combination.  It’s not the fastest lens nor does it have the least distortion but it does give me some focal length reach which I appreciate.

Garry Winogrand is quoted as saying ‘I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.’  so in that spirit I took these infrared images not so much to photograph the things depicted but to see how they looked in infrared.

I used my Sony DSC-V3 in nightshot mode with an infared filter.  A camera that is nearing 10 years old now but has far outlived its expected usefulness.

Yes that’s right this little 110 film camera is actually a rangefinder with a slider on top that adjusts to bring the two images in the viewfinder together and in focus.  I had this already out of date film in the camera for several years treating each frame like it was some sort of precious commodity never to be seen again, which it pretty much is.  The camera itself probably occupies more volume than a 35mm Olympus Stylus Epic and is very heavy so you really need to want to take pictures on a tiny little chip of film to justify using it.  There is no denying that it makes distinctive looking images.  I suppose you could argue that the look might be nearly achieved with processing but where is the fun in that?  That’s also why I’ve left the area around the image in the scans why hide the origin of the images it’s part of their appeal.

I didn’t want to cut the film yet until I figure out the details of a holder for it for my scanner so I made this little ad hoc scanning set up with pieces of black paper to hold it against its natural propensity to curl into a ball like a digital photographer that forgot to charge their battery.

The Holga Tim has some serious limitations when it comes to aperture and shutter settings but what it lacks in that category it gains in others.  With it’s two lenses its possible to take all combinations of exposures from 48 half frames to 24  image pairs as well as multiple exposures and even stereoscopic 3D.  It’s the multiple exposures that I am interested in here.  Advancing the film also sets the shutter but you can reset the shutter again using the slider just above the lenses as well as covering and uncovering each lens with the ‘eyelids’.  I think I understand the appeal of simple plastic cameras but using this camera is anything but simple. When It comes to remembering which ‘eye’ to open and when to reset the shutter using the TIM becomes rather complex. So with that and it’s really limited adjustments I wouldn’t recommend this camera as a fun camera to use without care despite its smiling face.

If your wondering what that thing is it’s a Duncan’ donut

A night-time visit to the new Mall called High Street provided an opportunity to take some images. It’s always fun to compare other people’s visions, sometimes you see things in a similar manner and sometimes you see it completely differently.  I think that the second circumstance is the best, it’s an opportunity to learn from others and expand your photographic vision. Duncan of DLT Photographic has posted some images that he took at the same time and place in his blog High Street (Night Edition)