My Zen Place

At least weekly, sometime more often, I’ll pick up one of my film cameras sans film and cycle it through its shutter speeds. I used to tell myself that the reason I was doing this was to exercise the shutter and keep all of the moving mechanical parts operating in good order. And of course, it is important to use a machine regularly. Lubricants dry out. Mechanical cameras do not like to just sit on a shelf. But I have to be honest with myself and with you. There’s something cathartic, meditative and zen-like about cocking the shutter, focusing on the table lamp across the room and firing off a few shots at 1/30th, 1/60th, 1/125th of a second. At least for me.

Analog photography is full of delightful tactile experiences. Like loading a roll of 120 film into a Hasselblad film back…

Calculating exposure with an old Weston meter…

Winding film onto a stainless steel developing tank…

Feeding a new roll into a Leica…

I remember talking to a friend many years ago who enjoyed woodworking. He built very nice pieces of furniture however he told me that he enjoyed working on the piece more than the joy of having it completed. The tools, the process, the sounds, even the smell of wood was what he truly enjoyed…his zen place. I guess that is true for me as well. The tools and the process bring me joy, whether there’s film in the old Nikon or not.

Madness

I knew when I saw the black Nikon F Apollo in the case at my local camera shop on my lunch hour that I would go home that day with a lighter wallet. I’ve recently become quite infatuated by the F bodies with the standard non-metered finders and this 1972 vintage example looked to be in fine shape. In these days of escalating film camera prices, Nikon’s original SLR is still somewhat of a bargain. I asked to see the camera and quickly ran it through all of its shutter speeds. The finder seemed clean and clear with no de-silvering. Removing the back, the film chamber looked very nice, the film advance was smooth and sure. In short order, the old Nikon was in bag next to me in the car as I headed back to the office.

I know buying another old camera sounds like madness if you’ve read my recent posts where I talk about reducing my collection, but there really is a method to all of this. There is. Really. My plan is to whittle my collection down to just a few cameras that inspire me to get out and take more pictures and it seems that after all of these years, minimalist, mechanical machines seem to do that for me. As for the F, I wanted a chrome one and a black one. I already owned a chrome one so…ok, maybe it is madness.

I think, maybe a little too much, about these old cameras that find their way into my life. This particular F is over 50 years old and in very good condition. The body is cosmetically probably an 8.5. There’s a little brassing on the top plate and some surface scratches on the bottom. The finder is nearly mint, which makes me think that at some point, someone switched out an older Photomic finder for this one. I wondered who owned this camera and how, after all of these years, did it end up on a glass shelf in a camera shop in Northern California?

I decided that this old F deserved a spa day and reached out to my friend, Nikon F2 guru Sover Wong, to see if he might take in my F for a refurbishment. Sover only works on F2 bodies but graciously offered to make an exception and service my F.

Having a camera serviced by Sover Wong is an immersive experience. From the moment he opens up your camera for inspection, he sends pictures and updates. Sover’s first email to me thankfully did not contain any surprises:

• The camera had not been opened or serviced before

• There was original old glue on the front leatherette coverings

• Foam seals were old and rotten

• Mechanisms were dry

• Slow speeds were good, fast speeds needed adjustment

• The inside was very clean with no corrosion or fungus

Here is the photo of my F, opened for inspection:

Sover cleaned and lubricated all of the mechanisms, replaced the rotten foams, cleaned the mirror, adjusted the shutter speeds and returned the F to factory specs. Next, he inspected the prism finder:

• The finder had rotten internal foams with fungus

I asked why the camera body had no fungus and the prism finder did. He replied that fungus is very common in F and F2 standard prism finders as they have no ventilation and are very dark inside. Fungus loves that kind of an environment.

Here are some pictures of my finder with the icky fungus:

Servicing the finder, Sover removed all of the old rotten foams, cleaned all of the surfaces and optics and applied new foams. He also added a Nikon F2 protective cover inside the prism. Here is a shot of the prism finder with new foams and prism protective cover:

I was quite surprised to receive my camera back from Sover four days after it was shipped from the UK. I sent a birthday card to my Mom once and it took two weeks to get from California to New York. As many people have written, receiving a camera back from a Sover Wong service is like getting a brand new camera. A properly serviced mechanical camera is a delight!

Here is my serviced Nikon F Apollo with a Nikkor 50mm F/2 lens, lens hood and my favorite Eggleston leather strap:

I have some Ilford HP5+ film loaded in the F as I write this. As you can see from the photo, I’m about halfway through the roll. I will share the results soon.

I believe I have a clear vision of my photographic workflow moving forward—Simple, mechanical film cameras loaded with black and white film and my Fujifilm X-T1 mirrorless digital camera for color work and also as a platform for some of my older legacy lenses with adapters.

I see myself with just a few cameras. Maybe two or three...or four.

Really.

One Photograph: The Golden Gate from Tiburon

I’ve lived in the Bay Area for nearly 14 years now and have not spent much time at all in the little community of Tiburon. Just across the Bay from San Francisco, Tiburon is an upscale community with a quaint little downtown area. My wife and I spent a night there a few months ago and I took along my Nikon FE loaded with some Ferrania P30 film. I’ve not shot much P30…I think this is only my second roll…so I am still deciding if I like it or not. Nonetheless, I do like this photograph I made of my wife taking a photo with her iPhone as the Golden Gate Bridge emerged from a fog bank.

Downsizing Update

This blog has rewarded me with some enriching connections with photographers in the US and around the world. I feel very fortunate to be part of an analog film community that is vibrant and healthy.

Last month, I listed six film cameras that I am selling in order to downsize my collection to just a few cameras that I regularly shoot. I sold three of the six to friends of the blog. I feel good that these cameras have gone to good homes and it will be fun to see the photos they shoot with them.

Here are the three that remain, all with price drops. Any of these would be great for someone just discovering film or for seasoned shooters as well.

Pentax K2 with 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M

Pentax K2 with 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M: The K2 was the top of the line in the K series full size Pentax SLRs. Think KX, KM or K1000 with aperture-priority auto exposure. I love the analog meter read out in the viewfinder. This copy came from a dear friend in Los Angeles who used to work for Pentax. Overall in excellent ++ condition. Lens is in similar condition. I’ve included an after-market lens hood as well. $200 + shipping.

Canon A-1 with Canon FD 50mm f/1.4

Canon A-1, 50mm f/1.4 Canon FD: Jim Holman at ICT in San Diego did a complete CLA on this A-1 last March which cost $180.55. I’ve shot it twice since then, hence my desire to see it in the hands of a friend, making amazing photos. The A-1 was the top of the line of Canon’s A-series cameras when it was introduced in 1978. It offers four exposure modes: Manual, shutter-priority, aperture-priority and a program mode where the camera does all of the work for you. I’ve tried many times to fool the meter in this camera and have never been successful, it’s that good. The information display in the viewfinder is unique to this camera with bright red shutter speed and aperture. The 50mm lens is a stellar performer. Camera comes with lens, cap and an after-market red soft release that I think looks cool. SOLD

Nikon FM2n

Nikon FM2n Black Body: I had Bellamy Hunt, the Japan Camera Hunter source this FM2n for me. Other than the FM3a, which I could never afford, I think he FM2n is Nikon’s most amazing all mechanical camera. With a top shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second and Nikon’s dependable center-weighted metering, there is really nothing this camera cannot handle. This is a camera that you can buy, shoot for a few years and then sell and probably get back what you paid for it. SOLD

Considering Color

I shot the last roll of color film I had on hand this past weekend. It was Kodak’s ColorPlus 200 which I bought for about nine dollars earlier this year. I like ColorPlus, but not as much as I like Portra 400. I’ve made some of my most satisfying color photographs on Portra 400, setting my camera to meter at 200 ISO to coax a little more sizzle out of the film.

Portra 400 sells for about $15 a roll as I write this and I think that is a lot. Processing and scanning costs another $15. That’s nearly a dollar a frame!

I see that Kodak’s Pro Image 100 is available again for $8.99 a roll and I like that film, but not as much as Portra. Fujicolor 200 is about the same cost. It’s just me, but I like the flexibility of 400 speed color film.

Right know, I am pondering using my Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera for color photography and shooting black and white exclusively in my film photography. I have a nice supply of Kodak Tri-X, T-Max, Plus-X and Ilford in the chiller. Maybe by the time I shoot that up, color film prices will come down a bit. If not, I’ll be content with monochrome analog photography.

The author shooting Portra 400 in his Olympus OM-2, Marin County, CA.

The image on Kodak Portra 400

Late Night Radio

I just read an article about a radio station using an AI-generated disc jockey. It got me thinking about how lucky I was to work in radio when it was still live, local, very analog and very fun.

From 1978 to 1983, I worked at various small town stations in Upstate New York and finally in Phoenix, Arizona. In those days, radio stations had live disc jockeys covering most every hour of the day. DJs usually worked four hour “airshifts”; 6:00am to 10:00am was morning drive, 10:00am to 2:00pm was mid-day, 2:00pm to 6:00pm was afternoon drive. Evening and overnight shifts were longer. At one station I worked for, afternoon drive was 3:00pm to 7:00pm and the evening shift was from 7:00pm until 1:00am when the station signed off the air. For 24 hour a day stations. overnights were typically from midnight until 6:00am.

I never did morning or afternoon drive, but I worked mid-days, evenings and overnights. While it was great working at the station during the day when the place was a buzz of activity, I must say that I enjoyed the evening and overnight airshifts most of all. The station had a different vibe after the sun went down, cooler, hipper, more relaxed…more romantic. I was a bit of a loner in those days and the solitude of being by myself in the broadcast studio in the wee hours suited me.

One common misconception about being a disc jockey was that you got to play whatever music you wanted to play. In most cases, that is not true. Radio stations had a Program Director or Music Director who “programmed” the station. The radio station’s “playlist” was carefully designed to match the demographics of the station’s listeners and to get them to listen often and for as long as possible. The more people who listened and the length of time they listened directly correlated to how much money the station could make from advertising. All of the stations I worked at had a “format” or “daypart” clock that told us what songs to play in each segment of the hour, when to stop for commercials, weather or news. If everyone followed the clock, the station sounded tight and consistent all of the time. Evening and overnight jocks got a little more leeway. We could play longer cuts of music and mix in more obscure cuts, depending on the format of the station. As a nighttime jock, you could get away with not following the clock or “breaking format” much easier than the people on the air during the day could. At one station I worked at part time in Arizona, I was breaking format like crazy one night around 2:00am and it just so happened that the Program Director was on his way home from a night out and heard me. He called and told me how great I sounded. I was lucky and he was probably drunk.

Radio stations had “request lines”, a telephone number that listeners could call in to make requests. The number rang through to a phone in the studio. A little blinking light told the disc jockey that someone was calling the request line. One would think that people calling a radio station in the middle of the night might be odd, but in all the time I worked evenings or overnights, I never had a “Play Misty for Me” moment. Most of my callers were very nice people working third shift at IBM, nurses at the local hospital, people working at 24-hour diners, security guards and the like. I think the oddest call I ever got was when I was working at an album rock station and some guy would call each night and when I answered, he would simply say in his best Jeff Spicoli voice… “FREEBIRD” and hang up, obviously asking for the Lynyrd Skynyrd hit.

Clint Eastwood in “Play Misty for Me, 1971. The Malpaso Company, Universal Pictures

Some of the stations I worked at carried live network news, usually at the top of each hour. In those days, you had the ABC Radio Networks—American Information, American Contemporary, American Entertainment and American FM, CBS Radio, NBC Radio and Mutual. If you worked at a station that carried network news live, you had to learn how to “back time”, making sure that your song ended with enough time for a station ID, jingle, promotional announcement or whatever and it all ended just perfectly before the news started. Doing it right took a little math and a lot of practice, but when you did it right, it was very satisfying.

Back timing was also used when disc jockeys “talked up” record intros. This was an art and the best jocks would talk over the intro of the record and “hit the post”, saying their last word just as the vocals of the song started. You can hear what I mean by checking out some classic radio airchecks on YouTube from WLS Chicago or WABC New York to hear top 40 DJs like John Landecker, Tom Kent and Dan Ingram hitting the post on the hits of the day.

40 years ago radio was an important part of everyone’s life. People depended on it for entertainment, news and information. Working in local radio was fun and rewarding, even in the middle of the night. Today, locally owned and operated stations are far and few between and if you hear a disc jockey on one of the corporate-owned stations, chances are he or she is “voice tracking” for multiple stations across many markets. Or it might not even be a real person at all.

One Photograph: Found Faucets

For 6 months or so, in 2013, I rented a little cottage on Salmon Creek just off the Bohemian Highway in Freestone, California. The Freestone cottage sat on about an acre along the creek, mostly in the shade of oak and redwood trees. Shafts of sunlight would poke down through the canopy providing me interesting light to play with at all times of the day. In the sunny spots, apple and pear trees flourished.

In addition to the cottage, various businesses operated from the property over its long life. Freestone was originally a lumber town and I was told that the old foundation near the back of the property was once a blacksmith shop to serve the nearby stagecoach line. Near the creek, I found the remains of a large brick oven.

One of the most interesting features of the property to me were the outdoor faucets. They were everywhere! A few of them, closer to the cottage, worked. Most did not. I was shooting a lot of medium format while I lived at the Freestone cottage, mostly my Hasselblad 500cm and Mamiya 645Pro. As I wandered the property with my cameras, some of these found faucets became subject matter.

Two faucets, Freestone, CA, Mamiya 645Pro, Kodak Ektar 100

Downsizing

I am beginning to downsize my collection of film cameras and regretfully parting ways with a few that I do not shoot enough. They need to go to good, loving homes. If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know I go to great lengths to find nice cameras and then invest in a service if necessary. These are all nice cameras and ready for you to enjoy.

If anything interests you, please contact me. Prices do not include shipping and in most cases, everything will fit well in a USPS Priority Medium Flat Rate for about $18 shipping cost in the US.

Nikon FM2n Black Body: Excellent +++ condition. 1/4000th of a second in a fully mechanical marvel. Lens not included but I can kit you out if you want. $425

Pentax K2 with 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M Lens: Excellent ++ condition. Includes OEM UV filter and after-market lens hood $205

Nikon F Chrome w/eye level prism and 50mm Nikkor-H Auto f/2 non-ai lens: Nice condition Nippon Kogaku logo version. SOLD

Canon A-1 with 50mm f/1.4 Canon FD Lens: Recently CLA’d. Excellent ++ condition with Canon UV filter and red soft release. $265

Nikon F100 with 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor AF-S special edition lens: Like new condition. SOLD

Nikon FE Chrome: Excellent ++ condition, fully CLA’d. SOLD

One Photograph: Solitude

Living on the Sonoma coast for so many years provided ample opportunities for late afternoon and evening walks on the beach. I’d often take one of my old cameras along and, if I got lucky, grab a shot or two during those magic moments just before the sun slipped below the horizon.

Busy on the weekends, the stretch of sand near where I lived was uniquely quiet on weeknights. Sometimes, I would only pass one or two people enjoying the sounds of the ocean and the solitude.

Some of my most satisfying images have been of people walking the beach, silhouetted against the disappearing daylight. I always felt as if I were intruding on their privacy as I made these shots. I felt uneasy, but told myself that if a subject asked, I would simply say I was photographing the sunset over the ocean.

No one ever asked.

One Photograph: Rainy Day

Watching the news coverage this week of the wet weather in Southern California reminded me of a particualry rainy February back in 2015. We had several weeks of big storms with lots of rain and wind. I was living out at the coast in Bodega Bay at that time and one Saturday morning, I woke to a downpour and a power outage. With the electricity out, I had to make my coffee that morning on a small camp stove, standing outside under an overhang.

All day long, I was really itching to go outside, get some exercise and take some pictures, but coastal storms are no fun for people or cameras, so I spent the day inside with my Nikon F2, some TMax 400 film and the fabulous 55mm f/28 Micro-Nikkor lens.

Standing at the window, hoping the storm would let up even for a short while, I snapped this photo that pretty much summed up the mood of the day.

One Photograph: The Fences at Fort Ross

The Pacific Coast Highway between Bodega Bay and Fort Ross is not for the faint of heart. The road barely seems to hang on to the cliffs here and sometimes pieces of it give up and fall into the ocean. More than once, in my decade of living on the coast, I’ve driven this route and found the ocean side lane closed and passage limited to one lane. It’s a driver’s road for sure, the journey being as much of a reward as the destination.

Fort Ross, an active fort from 1812 to 1842, was the southern most settlement in the Russian colonization of the Americas. Today, it is a state historic park. I try and visit at least once a year, not so much for the history, but to spend time along this stunning stretch of Northern California coastline and make some photographs.

There are miles and miles of deteriorating wooden fences in the park. I came across this section that seems to almost slip over the edge and go into the Pacific. I made this photograph with my Nikon F4, 50mm f/1.4 AF-D Nikkor on Kodak Portra 400 with the camera set at 200 ISO.

Facebook Flips

I finish off most every roll of film I shoot by taking a mirror selfie. It’s my system for remembering which camera and lens I used. I have shared these self portraits here and occasionally on various Facebook groups I belong to, mostly to show off a camera. More times than I can count, someone in the group will download the photo, put it into Photoshop, flip it and re-post it. At the very least, someone will comment “Why don’t you flip this image so we can read the name of the camera correctly?”

I’ve done post processing of my photographs since I started in photography. Manipulating images in the darkroom was time consuming, but fun. Photo software makes it much easier. Whatever a photographer wants to do to their own image to fully express his or her vision, I say “have at it!” But please leave mine alone. I think a mirror selfie should look like a mirror selfie. And in this case, you spell it n-o-k-i-n.

Minimalist Photography

I’ve joined a Facebook group of photographers who embrace minimalism in photography. Browsing through the posted images, there are quite a few that I really like. I have never considered myself one type of photographer or another, but in looking through many of the photographs I have made, I realize that some of my most minimalistic images are the ones that satisfy me most.

Windmill, Mendocino CA. Leica MP, 35 Summicron, TMax 100

My First Roll of Kentmere Pan 100

I have decided to shoot up the last few rolls of color print film I have left in my refrigerator and concentrate my film photography efforts in black and white moving forward. Availability of my favorite color films, like Kodak Portra 400 and Ektar 100 are hit and miss and prices are pretty high. And I am happy to make color images with my Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera.

To keep my black and white photography within budget, I’ve been trying out some less expensive film stocks. I’ve seen some nice work from various photographers I follow using Kentmere Pan 100 film. This film retails for around six bucks a roll and since it’s made by Ilford, I assumed the quality would be consistent with their other fine black and white products.

I tried my first roll during a weekend trip to San Francisco. My equipment was a Nikon FE with the compact Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 pancake lens mounted. This is great lightweight kit for a day of walking around the city.

First, Union Square:

Having lunch atop Macys:

A stroll around Chinatown:

And then off to Golden Gate Park. First stop, the Ansel Adams exhibit at the de Young:

As you would expect of an ISO 100 film, the grain is fine. I didn’t do much at all in post processing of these images other than some cropping here and there. This film has a bit of a vintage look, somewhat reminiscent of Kodak’s Plus-X Pan, a film I dearly miss. I keep saying I need to find one black and white film I really like and then spend some time shooting it exclusively. Really get to know it. I am not sure this is the film, but I have four more rolls in the chiller, so we’ll see.

One Photograph: The Cypress Tree Tunnel

At California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, I am not sure which attraction is more popular, the Point Reyes Lighthouse or the Cypress Tree Tunnel. Whenever I have visited, there are crowds at both. Google “Cypress Tree Tunnel” and you’ll find many photographs taken in this very spot. I made this image with my Leica M2 and 50mm rigid Summicron.

It feels very lonely and desolate along Sir Frances Drake Boulevard as you slowly make your way from the Point Reyes National Seashore visitors center on patched asphalt to the lighthouse. And it makes sense that your eye is drawn to the long row of Monterey Cypress trees growing along both sides of a narrow driveway about halfway out to the coast. These trees stand in stark contrast to land sculpted mostly by the wind.

Planted around 1930 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), these trees framed the grand entrance to the KPH Maritime Receiving Station. At the end of the long tree tunnel, sits an Art Deco-style building that houses the radio receivers of once mighty coastal radio station KPH, manned 24 hours a day for most of the 20th century, monitoring incoming radio messages from ships at sea. A similar building, 20 miles south near the town of Bolinas, contained the transmitters. Operators at the receiving site could remotely key the transmitters over phone lines that connect the two buildings. KPH was once a powerful and critical link providing Morse code and radio teletype ship to shore messages until satellite communication became technically and commercially viable.

KPH made its last ever Morse transmission on July 12, 1999. Many similar stations up and down both US coasts had their equipment scrapped and buildings and antennas razed. At KPH however, operators finished their last day, locked the doors and left. Since the KPH facilities were on National Park Service land, the facilities were simply abandoned until two radio “true believers” Richard Dillman and Tom Horsfall, decided to visit the transmit and receive sites two years after they were shut down. Instead of the vandalized sites they expected to see, what they found were radio time capsules with equipment intact. In fact, at the Cypress Tree Tunnel facility, the radio receivers were still on, monitoring the ship-to-shore Morse channels. Dillman and Horsfall started the Maritime Radio Historical Society and convinced the National Park Service to allow them to begin restoration of the KPH facilities with the goal of returning KPH to the air—a functioning memorial to the history of maritime communications.

Through their hard work and dedication, along with many volunteers and donations, Dillman and Horsfall brought 1950s vintage RCA transmitters back online, some that sat abandoned for more than 10 years in the salt air and slowly and patiently restored both the receive and transmit facilities, including acres of antenna fields. Today, KPH and amateur radio station K6KPH are on the air each Saturday. Check their website for more information. Maritime Historical Radio Society.

Channeling Ansel

My wife and I visited the deYoung Museum in San Francisco recently to see an exhibit called Ansel Adams in Our Time. While I have seen his photographs in various places over the years; The Ansel Adams Gallery at Yosemite and some individual pieces in Carmel, I had never seen an entire exhibit of his work. Other than the crowds, it was an enjoyable afternoon and only intensified my appreciation for his work.

One of the photographs on display, Self Portrait, Monument Valley, Utah, ca. 1958 is a shadow self-portrait of Ansel with his view camera and tripod. Seeing the photograph that day reminded me that I have taken similar selfies over the years, mostly to amuse myself. With various 35mm film cameras in hand. mine are far less dramatic than his.

One Photograph: Saint Teresa of Avila Church

This little white Roman Catholic church sits on a hilltop overlooking the little hamlet of Bodega, CA. Ansel Adams made this church a subject of a 1953 photograph although, he like most others, photographed the church from the front. The church was built in 1860 and right next to it is the Potter Schoolhouse which was used as the Bodega Bay School in Alfred Hithcock’s 1963 horror movie The Birds.

I too photographed this church from the front many times but on this day, I walked up the driveway behind the church to make some pictures of the Potter Schoolhouse. Looking back at the church, I thought this might make a good photograph and an angle of the church not often seen.

I made this image in 2015 with my Mamiya 1000s medium format camera with 110mm Mamiya-Sekor lens on Ektar 100 film. I converted the color image to black and white which I find more satisfying. Some day, I will go back into this file and use my now more advanced post processing skills to clean up the dust and do a better job of getting rid of the one small overhead power line that runs to the back of the building.

Continuing Adventures with the Nikon F

I thought, after nearly 13 years of buying and shooting all sorts of old film cameras, I had finally come to a place where I could no longer be tempted by “gear acquisition syndrome” or G.A.S. But I have learned that I am weak. Shortly after buying one nice chrome Nikon F, I bought a black body F.

In the past, while hunting down a new-to-me film camera, I’ve alway looked for the most pristine copy I could afford. This time however, a well-loved camera with some nice brass showing caught my eye. Obviously, this F has traveled some miles. I wonder what stories it could tell?

These meter-less Fs have allowed me to experiment with Sunny 16, using Kodak’s old film data sheets to estimate exposure and then bracketing a bit for insurance. I shot these on Kodak Tri-X. I did not nail exposure on all of these, but I had a lot of fun.

Unexpectedly, I find that I really enjoy shooting the Nikon F. With the standard prism finder and a 50mm Nikkor out front, the camera has a nice feel. And the big viewfinder, without any sort of needles or lights or other data is quite liberating.

Three Photographs: The Fog at Tomales Point

For the 30 years I lived in the Arizona desert, I had forgotten all about fog. Here in the Bay Area, it’s a constant companion.

In February of 2016, I hiked the 9.4 mile out and back trail at Tomales Point along the Point Reyes National Seashore. The day started out sunny and nice but on the return, about two miles from the trailhead, just as I came across a herd of Tule Elk, the fog pushed down hard.

Tule Elk grazing near Tomales Bay. Leica M9, 35 Summicron

Living for 9 years in Bodega Bay, I had seen my share of fog, but on this day the fog was thick and heavy with moisture. I had to tuck my Leica M9 inside my jacket to keep it dry. At times, I could barely see the trail ahead of me. The lack of visibility and the sudden absence of other hikers made me feel unsettled.

The hike ends at Pierce Point Ranch, once the largest dairy ranch operation on the Point Reyes peninsula. Today, the ranch serves as housing for National Park Service employees.

Near the trailhead of Tomales Point trail. Leica M9, 35 Summicron

Pierce Point Ranch. Leica M9, 35 Summicron

It felt good to finally get back to the car, remove my wet jacket and pack away the Leica.

Everything I Know I Learned from Kodak

About photography that is. Well, mostly.

I started dabbling in photography in junior high school. That would be 1975 or so. My father loaned me his Kodak Retina IIc 35mm rangefinder camera and I’m pretty sure the first film I ever shot was Kodak’s Plus-X Pan black and white. I would alternate between 125 speed Plus-X and 400 speed Tri-X, guessing exposure based on the little paper instructions that Kodak would pack with every roll. Here’s an example of one of the instruction sheets from a roll of very expired Panatomic-X film I bought on eBay.

I would pretty much follow Kodak’s instructions and if I had the time, I would bracket my exposures, sort of throwing a dart and hoping one of them would be right. It mostly worked.

I learned how to develop film by reading Kodak’s The Joy of Photography that I borrowed from the local public library. It had instructions on how to set up a basic darkroom. Those little instruction sheets also had information on how to develop film. Here’s Kodak’s instructions for developing Tri-X.

Image courtesy Jim Grey’s Down The Road blog

Back in 1975, many department stores had photographic departments that not only stocked cameras and film, but also darkroom equipment, chemicals and paper. I could walk from my junior high school across the playground to the Grand Way department store. Those were also the days that the person behind the counter actually knew a lot about the products they were selling. At my Grand Way, the counter was manned by Charlie. I don’t remember Charlie’s last name, but I remember that he was a professional photographer who earned extra money working at the store.

At Grand Way, with Charlie’s help, I bought a Paterson plastic developing tank, some Kodak D-76 developer, Kodak Indicator Stop Bath and Kodak Fixer. I developed my film in our basement laundry room. My parents hated the smell of stop bath. I couldn't afford an enlarger at first, but a friend’s father gave me a Kodak A-B-C Darkroom Kit that included a contact printing frame, some small 5x7 developing trays, a safelight, some very outdated Kodak Velox paper and other goodies.

Kodak ABC Home Darkroom Outfit. Photo credit: Estate Sales.org

My first prints were contact sheets of my 35mm negatives. I used a bare 60 watt incandescent bulb to expose the print, following, of course, Kodak’s instructions. I developed my contact sheets in Kodak Dektol developer. I can still remember watching the magic of an image come up on that old Kodak paper in the developing tray. That moment hooked me on processing my own film and printing my photographs in the darkroom.

Twenty years later, I would use Kodak’s Building a Home Darkroom as a guide as I put my basic carpentry and plumbing skills to the test building my dream darkroom in my first home.

Kodak’s Darkroom Data Guide was my bible when I worked in the darkroom. I exclusively printed on Kodak’s graded fiber and RC papers and eventually moved on to Kodak’s multi-grade paper using Polycontrast filters.

Obviously, the Kodak end game was to get you to buy everything photographic from them and with me, it worked, but I didn't mind. Kodak manufactured great film, paper and chemicals and they excelled at making the process easy and accessible to everyone.