01.29.10
Posted in Art at 8:45 pm by Administrator
I saw the German 1927 silent film Metropolis by director Fritz Lang at the Film Noir event hosted at Paper Tiger last night. I have to say what I liked most about the movie were the visuals, probably because the story has been recycled several thousand times over the past 80 years. The visuals, on the other hand, are something you don’t see outside that era of film. The dark ring constantly vignetting the screen, and the contrasty lighting with all these elaborate mechanical sets. It’s almost like the technilogical limitations with which they were working contributed some unique aspect to the style of the film. Above is a screen grab from the beginning of the film, drones on their way to and from their hellish 10 hour work days. I love the symmetry.
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01.28.10
Posted in Literature at 8:23 pm by Administrator
Historian Howard Zinn, and author J.D. Salinger both passed away yesterday 1/27/2010. Frankly I didn’t know Salinger was still alive, but Howard Zinn was still an active and outspoken guy. I had just looked up his speaking tours a few days ago in hopes of seeing him speak. He was a pretty important figure in a great number of social movements. I am sure he will be missed.
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01.25.10
Posted in Art at 6:54 pm by Administrator
Just got my most recent rolls for my squares project back from the lab, and boy are they terrible. After shooting a roll of ektar 100 during a very dismal wind storm, I decided that I would like to see the film cross processed. The most common form of cross processing, is running slide or transparancy film through negative film chemistry, resulting in punchy contrast and a strange color cast.
If you go the other way and run C41 film through E6(Slide Film) Chemistry you will get the strange color cast, but everything will be underexposed and flat. To compensate for this they recommend asking the lab to push the film by 2 or 3 stops. Above is the only usable image I got from my most recent roll.
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01.24.10
Posted in Science at 5:44 pm by Administrator
Nitrogen gas (N2) makes up about 80 percent of the chemical cocktail we call air. Its colorless, odorless, relatively unreactive, and emotionally distant. But it’s these very properties that make nitrogen itself so useful.
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01.13.10
Posted in Art at 4:26 am by Administrator
In a direct comparison the Canon 1.4 that came on my Canon FT from goodwill was not only significantly less sharp than the canonett, but almost toylike. The depth of field is significantly more narrow as I had expected, but where the focus lies has a complete lack of clarity. I really miss my canonett. It is just a smaller smarter and sharper camera. I will be purchasing another in the not too distant future.
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01.07.10
Posted in Art at 8:36 pm by Administrator
I have been lamenting over the recent parting with my much loved canonett QL-19 rangefinder. This left me with no 35mm besides my wildly unpredictable Kodak Retina. I came across this Canon FT QL at goodwill a few days ago for 10$. The curtain travel timing is off at the higher speeds (above 250th), but with the 1.4 lens I will probably use it as a low light camera anyways, shooting at the lower shutterspeeds indoors. I just loaded it with some XP2, and if there are no light leaks I am all set. I will post some stuff from my first roll when I get it. I still miss my canonett.
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