David Shoots Film

Yesterday’s post was very therapeutic. If you like these Kodachromes, please click back to the previous couple of posts, and definitely make sure to click the photos to see them larger on flickr. I scan them at a ridiculously high resolution with my Nikon Coolscan 9000, so these little 500-pixel-wide images don’t do them justice. It’s especially interesting to look at the grain on some of those taken in lower light.

Governor's Island. Leica MP, 35mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 64

Blue sky and clouds. Two things Kodachrome is particularly good at munching on. Yummy.

Canon EOS 1V, forgotten lens (probably 35mm), Kodachrome 64

I love every color in this photograph. I used the word “autumnal” in a very literal way yesterday (describing the palette created by dead leaves), and I will use it again today: autumnal tones here. These browned reds, the corrosion on the neck of the bike and the fenders, the gold of the padlock and pale gold of the heavy chains… and that’s before we even make it back to the bricks.

Cute attack. Yashica T4, Kodachrome 64

Of course, Kodachrome was also a very handy snapshot film. I was careful to just shoot it and not be precious with it (I always bought back from Dwayne’s as much fresh film as I had just sent in, until they ran out), whether for quick shots of my kid or street stuff or anything else.

Leica MP, 35mm Summicron, Kodachrome 200

If it weren’t for the UPS logo (and the styling on the vehicles behind), this could have been shot in the 1950s. I wish I had shot more of the 200 speed Kodachrome. It has a different feel to it that I’m having trouble putting my finger on.

Yellow leaves. Leica M4, 35mm Summicron, Kodachrome 64

When your camera’s loaded with Kodachrome, anything colorful in the sun leaps out at you and practically begs to be shot. There’s such a pleasing balance between the yellow of the leaves and the somewhat grayish blue of the sky. One thing that’s always puzzled me is the common idea that Kodachromes are very saturated. They’re not. The color is definitely different from E6 process positive films, but the color is only unusual when it’s underexposed–and then it gets kind of ugly. Perhaps Kodachromes look more like printed matter, because the dyes are added in the development process and it’s more akin to a four-color printing press… or maybe not.

Playing with 'puters. Yashica Electro 35 GTN, Kodachrome 64

And here we have underexposure with levels pushed on the digital file, courtesy of Dwayne’s. It’s an interesting effect, and I think it almost works here. I scan as much of my Kodachrome as I can (in fact I don’t get the slides mounted a lot of the time in order to scan more frames at once), but when I know I’m swamped, I’ve had Dwayne’s do it. They don’t do a great job. The colors are often wild, and they automatically push levels when the image is underexposed, as they did here. I think they’re probably using an automated system that has someone okaying each exposure before it’s saved as a file but uses autolevel settings. For me the PhotoDisc is an expensive ($5) digital contact sheet, and I’ll choose which ones look like candidates for the full-on Nikon Coolscan 9000 treatment.

Abstraction. Leica MP, 35mm Summicron, Kodachrome 64

I like creating abstractions like this. Here I simply placed the hood of my 35mm Summicron against the light in an elevator. This may have been the number “2.” This looks like a black-and-white photograph tinted with yellow dye. Which it kind of is. The texture is so graspable to me.

Another reader. Leica MP, 35mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 200

As I mentioned yesterday, I love this film in the subway!

Minolta CLE, 40mm Summicron-C, Kodachrome 64

As with the above shot of yellow leaves, how could I not take this photo, knowing I had Kodachrome in the box? This photo always reminds me of the Wire song, “Vivid Riot of Red.”

One day old. Leica MP, 50mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 64

Kodachrome is a dream is soft light, too. Look at those skin tones and the way the shadows so easily and gently fall into black.

I’m going to read this later and remind myself that Kodachrome isn’t magical and that there are other color films, but at least for today, it is, and there are not.

I’m enjoying going back through Kodachrome I’ve shot over the years. I’m also breathing easier now that I’ve tracked my Priority Mail package and know it was delivered to Dwayne’s Photo this morning. That hopefully means it will get processed. According to this New York Times article, Dwayne’s is getting slammed.

Here are ten more shots.

Leica MP, 35mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 64

I don’t often shoot such slow film in the subways because there’s not a ton of light (and the light can be ugly on color film). So I braced myself against a wall and took this shot of people walking past these photographs, a temporary “installation” by the Museum of Modern Art.

Steve. Minolta CLE, 40mm Summicron-C, Kodachrome 64

There’s something so crisp about Kodachrome. I think a lot of how I think about Kodachrome has to do with the physical piece of film itself. When you hold the slide at the right angle, you can actually see the image in relief–it’s three-dimensional.

Steve Chanks. Leica MP, 35mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 64

It’s almost as if Kodachrome invented primary colors, isn’t it? Though my first thought for portraits would be something more flattering (less red) like Fujifilm’s Astia 100F, I think Kodachrome, with the right light, can render people’s skin pretty well. Underexposed, not so well–people start looking very ruddy, as they would with any color film. You just notice it more with positive film because it has so much less exposure latitude.

Minolta CLE, 40mm Summicron-C, Kodachrome 64

Photography’s often about seeing an idea and trying to fit it in a frame. I don’t think this is a spectacular image, but I wanted to show the repetition of all these white bars in the crosswalks and this bed frame. Click the photo and view it really close, and you can see the detail of the little stickers some child must have put on this bed.

The Minolta CLE was an ideal camera for shooting Kodachrome, for me. I enjoyed my photos from that camera the most, and after that the Yashica T4 (when it worked–it’s out of service now after hosing many rolls of Kodachrome).

Manhattan. Canon EOS 1V, Kodachrome 64

When you absolutely, positively, need a lot of 35mm camera in your hands, get a Canon EOS 1V. It was their last, flagship SLR (the 1-series DSLRs are based on it) and it’s a gorgeous beast. It’s lots of fun to shoot with, with crazy autofocus, bracketing, and a million other features I use once a year. Anyway, it’s one of the most reliable things I have in my life. I don’t shoot it on the street much (preferring a rangefinder), but when I do, I always enjoy it.

How about this light? I’ve mentioned before that Kodachrome “feels” more like a black-and-white film to me (and technically, that’s true), and part of it has to do with how inky black these shadows can get. Very satisfying.

The reader. Leica MP, 35mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 200

Here’s a slightly friendlier film speed for shooting in a subway station (but not by much). Kodachrome by far was my favorite film for rendering the colors of New York City. It looks real, but it also looks like it rolled around in an old Scorcese film for a while, before my time in this city. Again, the shadows do so much here. Photos like this remind me that obsessing over shadow detail isn’t always a good idea.

Canon EOS 1V, EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM, Kodachrome 64

I took this so I could keep this image. All these colorful markings atop all these white markings atop all this asphalt.

Leica MP, 35mm Summicron IV, Kodachrome 64

I took this outside Prospect Park on a walk with my family and our dear friend Ned who was visiting from San Francisco. I’m always attracted, photographically, to discarded reading materials and photographs. I think there’s a quick buzz one gets from doing the image-within-an-image thing, but there’s also a larger area to explore about something cast aside, or lost somehow. I really like how this magazine ended up bent so that you see Joe DiMaggio on a subsequent page and realize it’s more than just a photo of Monroe, but a whole article.

It’s interesting how this could essentially be a black-and-white photograph, but the warm tones given by the sun in the top right give this image a little extra energy.

Grand Army Plaza. Minolta CLE, 28mm M-Rokkor, Kodachrome 64

Those leaves, those browns. I like creating graphical photographs like this. It’s all about the shapes and colors and proportions. The lines are so crisp and the colors are so autumnal. As I write this, it’s really killing me that I can’t pop another couple of rolls of K64 out of the freezer and go outside and shoot.

Keeping cool on the moon. Un-noted camera and lens (probably Leica MP with 35mm Summicron). Kodachrome 64.

Not much to say about this photograph other than “I like it.”

Writing about these bits of Kodachrome pushes off the depression, so I may do one or more followup posts.