Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/07/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark, 1. I'd have to work up the ambition to paw through boxes (many) of stored prints. 2. I'd have to see if the scanner in my cheap HP all-in-one printer is good enough. Will think about it. Regards, Herb Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org 650-326-8204 Question authority and the authorities will question you. On Jul 7, 2013, at 7:54 AM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote: > Herbert naturally it would be good to actually see some of your black and > white prints vs. Kodachrome vs. digital so we can agree with your or not > agree with you on their relative merits and how you dealt with them. As in > if you can print. Words about pictures kind of only go so far. Give us a > url. > > > On 7/7/13 4:43 AM, "Herbert Kanner" <kanner at acm.org> wrote: > >> Since Jayanand got auto-biographical, I thought I'd do the same. >> >> I started developing film and making contact prints at high-school age if >> not >> before. I think my first exposure to Kodachrome was around 1948 when my >> wife, >> a friend, and I made a trip from Chicago to a series of national parks. >> The >> friend had a borrowed Leica (F, I think) and 50, 90, and 135 mm lenses. I >> was >> hooked. He and I alternated possession of the slides every six months, and >> projecting those incredible slides repeatedly brought back vivid memories >> of >> the trip. >> >> Eventually, I bought an Omega enlarger and started getting serious about >> B&W. >> Never was particularly pleased with any of my prints, and the majority of >> my >> shots were still Kodachrome. Around 1971, temporary unemployment which in >> a >> recession promised to possibly last a year, caused me to accept a job, >> relocation expenses provided, with ICL in England. To my annoyance, I >> found >> that Kodak UK was on strike, that a million rolls of Kodachrome was in >> their >> premises waiting to be processed, and that the nearest place to get the >> stuff >> processed was in France. I decided then and there that this was a good >> opportunity to try to develop some skill at B&W. >> >> I had not brought my enlarger to England, so I joined a camera club in >> order >> to use their darkroom. It turned out that the hours of availability did >> not >> suit me and I bought an inexpensive Opemus enlarger. But I stayed with the >> club, which had monthly competitions, sometimes prints, sometimes slides. >> In >> time, I even wound up with prints that I was proud of. An interesting >> aside >> comment is that they expected 16 x 20 prints but I managed to get by with >> 11 x >> 14. 8 x 10 would have been totally unacceptable except for one time when >> the >> had a competition expressly for "small" prints. What amused me was that in >> this country, where people had little money, big prints were expected; >> when I >> got back this relatively richer country, I saw competitions just full of >> 8 x >> 10 prints an smaller. >> >> One day, I decided it would be neat to prints some of my slides, so I >> bought a >> color head for my Omega. I first tried the Ilford process because it was >> reputed to be the most archival. I ultimately came to grief with it when I >> tried to print a picture of my Abyssinian cat, a mountain lion colored >> critter. He'd come out greenish or reddish; no way could I get his true >> color. >> I switched to a Kodak reversal paper and got a perfect print on the first >> try. >> >> In time, I realized that if prints were my objective, color negs were >> obviously the way to go, and I switched my operation to developing color >> negs >> and printing them. For color balance, I just used very crude tools: the >> Kodak >> viewing filters, and usually got a good print on at worst my second try. >> Very >> rarely did it take three tries. >> >> Alas, a few years after acquiring my pride and joy, an M6 TTL which I've >> got >> to get around to selling one of these days, I just burned out on darkroom >> work, and several rolls of film are still sitting around unprocessed. I >> might >> in time have gone back to the darkroom, but my wife decided that we >> needed a >> second bathroom, and there went the darkroom. I gave away the equipment. >> >> Having spent too many hours of my life in front of a computer, both >> professionally and for entertainment, I was very reluctant to get into >> digital >> photography. Ultimately, I decided I had to find out if I could live with >> it, >> so I bought a cheap Nikon point-and-shoot and Lightroom 2 and played >> around >> for a while. Having decided that I could live with it, I then thought >> about a >> camera with a full-frame sensor. I was pondering Nikon or Canon but kept >> wistfully remembering how much I enjoyed using the M6 and finally decided >> that >> at my age you can't take it with you and sprung for an M9 which I just >> love. I >> use the two lenses, 35 an 90 chrons that I bought when I got the >> second-hand >> M6. They both were made in Canada, some time in the '70s. The 35 came >> from a >> dealer, the 90 was bought from Henning Wolfe. >> >> Herbert Kanner >> kanner at acm.org >> 650-326-8204 >> >> Question authority and the authorities will question you. >> >> >> >> >> On Jul 6, 2013, at 11:25 PM, Jay Burleson <leica at jayburleson.com> >> wrote: >> >>> With Dr. Ted's famous quote used to sum it all up... >>> http://www.the.me/b-d-colen-on-the-distraction-of-color-the-subject-is-black- >>> and-white/#ixzz2YKfnZYo6 >>> -- >>> Jay, >>> >>> Jay Burleson Gallery <http://jayburleson.com/leica/gallery/index.php/> >>> "A photographer is simply someone who is >>> looking for something that can't be found. >>> The photograph is the record of that attempt." >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > -- > Mark William Rabiner > Photography > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information