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The Twilight Feeling
“The Twilight Feeling”
1956 Ferrania Ibis 44 / Efke R100
See the new gallery from this camera here.
Jem Jr 120
“Norfolk Vintage”
Jem Jr 120 / Cross-processed XP2
Taken this weekend.
See the full roll here.
I confess that I noticed this camera originally because it shares a name with me. My family have called me Jem from the earliest age, so I don’t even remember the origin of it. When I was a teenager I got a little embarrassed by it, but for the last several years all the people that I am closest to call me Jem again, and my family never stopped of course. The camera is quite a fine box camera manufactured in Newark, New Jersey in 1940. It needed some considerable cleaning, but it works pretty much perfectly and still contains the original wooden spool.
These very old lenses are fairly unforgiving, they are just plain ground glass and they fall-off a great deal, but that is part of the charm. In fact you could argue that it is all of the charm. If you want pin-sharp undistorted glass, then it’s your choice to buy a 7-element laboratory grown, multi-coated monster for the price of a small family car (or 200 beautiful box-cameras). In fact, I sold a Canon 24-70mm L series last year, and it paid for our entire camera collection (maybe 40 cameras) and associated darkroom gear, film and chemicals and we still have change. Okay, not much change.
New cameras are finding their way to us all the time though. I have Efke 127 film in a Ferrania Ibis 44 just now, and I also have a Pentax auto 110 to test. And a Halina 35x Super, which is perhaps not so much of an improvement over the ‘Empire Made’ 35x standard.
On we go.
Superheadz Gallery
“Unlikely Conversion”
Superheadz Black Slim Devil
The entire gallery is available to view here…
Teddy Dusters, with stick
“Teddy Dusters, with stick”
Voigtländer Brilliant (1938) / Cross-processed Ilford XP2
Cross-Processed Fujicolor C200
My first cross-processed film.
We bought some Fujicolor C200 from Bulgaria, on eBay, and I processed the film in Ilford LC29 (black and white) chemicals. This gallery contains some of the shots from that roll. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. 
A not-quite-dead film
Just had a totally magical experience.
Yesterday, I developed a film with some trepidation. I had brought it with me, in my camera, before Jem and I were together.
I wasn’t sure what would be on it.
As
it was, the Universe fixed that problem for me. As I spooled it in the
dark bag, it was horribly stuck together and my heart began to sink.
As I went through the developing process, more bits of film disintegrated away with each chemical emptied out of the tank.
I
took it out of the tank and there was nothing left. Just scraps of what
once was film on the long plastic reel. I hung it out to dry thinking
at the very least we could use the film to teach the boys how to wind it
onto a spool.
Then, today, just before either ditching it or putting it away, I looked closer and saw a little face.
Only two partial prints had survived. Both of a baby Bert (of whom I now own precious few photographs).
And here he is…
