The film project, an update

The plan was simple. Get out and expose a roll of film every week throughout 2026. I was thinking black and white, mostly long exposures, done along the rivers. Something moving, something still, because that's the secret sauce for long exposures. Develop the film 2 rolls at a time, since the Black, White, and Green developer does two rolls on a batch.

If you do the math that comes out to 52 rolls of film in a year, or 416 photos. Yes, 8 photos a roll, using a Fujica GW690 first generation. This is a completely manual camera. No batteries, no exposure meter, no autofocus, no auto load or rewind, no computer interpreting the scene for you. You can read about the first year with the camera here. 

I'm not sure how many rolls I've put through the camera since I bought it about 4 years ago, but guess it's a bit less than 100. I suppose if I really had to I could pull out the storage binders and count. Another time, maybe. What I really like about carrying it around is the conversations I have with other people about it, and film photography in general. One guy recognized it in the dark at 10 feet as I was working the Spolumbos scene below.

I'm getting better at setting focus and exposure, so I don't ruin a lot of shots that way. I was hoping to end up with 400 in focus, well exposed photos of something. From there, edit down to the ones where that something is interesting, and then take them into the darkroom and do some prints. 

So during the ramble with Sean last weekend he asked how it was going, since the year is half over. (How can that be?) Well, if I was on track I'd have about 26 rolls of film developed. In fact, roll 13 went into the camera during that ramble, and there's a couple frames left. I really should get out and expose them.

So technically speaking I'm at half my target. But that's all it was, a target. I could take the camera out and expose the last frames in a few minutes, but what would that get me? I'm at least trying to get interesting photos that have something in common, with the idea they'll go in a book or series of prints. I'd rather end the year with 200 photos that make me think about which are good and belong together, than have 400 where I can eliminate 200 right off without needing to think about it. I don't mind spending some money on film and developer, but I don't want to waste it.

Which films, you ask? Mostly Delta 100 or Acros II. I started with Acros when I bought the camera, but then I couldn't get it for a while so I switched to Delta 100. I like how both look. The big advantage for Delta 100 in home developing is that it dries flat. Acros is better for long exposure work because reciprocity failure isn't as much of an issue. I've got a page in my notebook with reciprocity compensation times for Delta 100, and I mostly have the workflow nailed down.

To wit, find a scene that captures my attention. I suppose I should unpack that a bit. Something about the light, or the composition, or the subject tells me that might be a good photo. Reflections almost always catch my eye. It's hard to describe, I just know it when I see it. 

Then the fun starts. Set up the camera, check composition through the viewfinder. I usually have to find something vertical to get the focus right because it's a rangefinder. I've sometimes used zone focusing. Then it's exposure. I mostly use the Viewfinder app on my phone because it gives me frame lines for that lens, and compensates for the yellow and ND filters. It does not give the reciprocity compensation, hence the notebook. Advance the film, do a last check of the composition, focus, lens settings for shutter and aperture, hope the light hasn't changed dramatically, set the countdown timer on the phone, click the shutter and phone, and wait for however long is needed. It might be 10 seconds, or 5 minutes, but is usually around 1 minute. Cover the lens with a hat, and move shutter speed from T to something else, then back again. For whatever reason, the lens makes a quiet, satisfying click doing this, where a normal exposure is a fairly loud ping.

So what images have been captured in the last little while? Here's a sampler. All of these grabbed my eye. Some of them have been blogged on my personal blog so regular readers might remember seeing them before. If you'd like to become a regular reader and want me to add you to the blog notification list so you don't miss anything, either comment below, or send an email to keith@nucleus.com.

1. From a walk along the Bow near downtown.

2. Coming out of Fish Creek during an evening walk.

3. Another part of Fish Creek.

4. Highway 22 over the Bow River.

5. Coming out of a darkroom exhibit in Crawlspace. I worked the exposure on this very carefully, wanting the building front lit by the floodlights, some texture in the road, and the rest dark.

6. During a walk in the Inglewood bird sanctuary. It actually is a long exposure because I was too lazy to take the ND filter off the camera.

7. Fish Creek between bridge 2 and 3 during the rains earlier this year.

8. The Bow River underneath Glenmore trail.

The two noir detectives

There's two stories here, the one that actually happened, and the one in my imagination.

The actual story starts here with some almost abstract images done in B&W. Those grew out of some images Michelle had seen. That was a really fun session. Our friend Antje was there during a video call to review the photos, and wanted in on the action. 

From there I started thinking about other dark and shadowy images, plus watching The Maltese Falcon, and that's what led to the noir detective look. Both loved the idea, and we started playing with it. My first thoughts were to start by playing with light, going from the high contrast abstract images in those first three blog posts, and working towards portraits with more conventional lighting, sort of channeling Karsh or Beaton. I'd done lots of photos of Michelle, so I knew a portrait would be easy. The hard part is choosing which emotions for her to show the camera. I'd taken lots of photos of Antje in the course of various activities, but never an actual posed portrait, so I didn't know how that would go.

Telling Michelle a story helps her get in the mood and project an emotion for the camera. We've done this with some of our other sessions. Our Black, White, and Red session here is an example, and that leads to others. 

Here's the story my imagination produced.

So these two tough detectives walk into my photo studio. At first I was terrified, thinking someone had hired them to investigate me to within an inch of my life. The senior one said she had just hired a new partner, since something unspeakable happened to her last one, and don’t ask. She had been convinced she needed photos of them to create a website. The boss was old school, tough as nails, and cynical because she had seen it all. To her, photos were what brought down the dirty rotten scoundrel who had cheated on his wife. She had never really thought about photos of herself. The other was younger, trying to present a more modern image to the profession, while bringing a bit of a twist on what she saw as the tired old look. I could tell she’d been around the block a few times, but hadn’t found a body in the gutter. They wanted to choose from a variety of photos, some B&W, some colour. I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t use a cigarette or anything to do with booze as a prop, and don't ask why. Her look gave me a chill so I didn't. I worked hard, trying to get photos that projected the image they wanted. I asked to think of various events in her career, and the memory showed on her face. She shared a few war stories, and the improbable tale of how she had met her new partner. Once I got the lighting set up, and a few trial photos taken, they could see I knew what I was doing and started to relax. Some black coffee and chocolate chip cookies later and we were all buddies. 

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These are the sorts of images that one can spend forever editing, tweaking the various sliders and selectively editing portions of the photo. We wanted the shadows and contrast to create a mood. They did not want their skin edited to look like a teenager. After all, nobody wants to hire a teenage detective.

There more of the behind the scenes and some of the portraits will show up on my other blog. If you'd like to be notified of blog updates, please email me keith @ nucleus dot com, and ask to be put on my mailing list or leave a comment here. I post to this blog only when I've got a project I want to show. The personal blog gets updated much more often.