I used to think black and white was boring, but last Saturday at Letchworth State Park, the fog made everything look like a moody painting. I had some Tri-X in my Canon and the shots came out way better than my color ones. Anyone else find certain weather makes black and white the only choice?
I was out shooting at the county fair and the shutter on my K1000 just locked up tight after the 3rd frame. Opened it up in my truck and saw the foam cushion around the mirror had turned into sticky goo and jammed everything. Has anyone here had luck cleaning out that old foam without messing up the mirror alignment?
I was at a photo meetup in Portland last month and this older guy named Dave saw me struggling with curling film on my flatbed scanner. He pulled a binder clip out of his bag, clipped it to the edge of the film holder, and it kept the negative pressed flat against the glass. No more newton rings or blurry spots, just clean scans every time. Has anyone else tried random hardware store stuff to solve film problems?
Turns out I left the lens cap on. Has anyone else done something this dumb with their gear?
I was in the middle of the bride's bouquet toss in a park in Portland and my Canon AE-1 just locked up solid. I had to pop the back open in a dark closet to gently coax the spool back, then lost 3 shots of the sequence but salvaged the rest of the roll.
I used to think black and white film was just for people who couldn't afford color or wanted to look artsy without any real skill. My buddy Jake kept lending me his Ilford HP5 rolls but I always gave them back. Then last month I found a bulk roll of Kodak Tri-X at a thrift store for like $8 and figured why not give it a shot. I shot a whole roll of just shadows and textures around my neighborhood in Portland - chain link fences, wet pavement, tree bark up close. When I developed it myself in some old D-76 I had sitting around, the grain and contrast blew my mind. Now I'm kinda hooked on the way it forces you to think about light differently. Has anyone else totally flipped on a type of film they swore they'd never shoot?
I ran some tests after reading a 2019 article on Casual Photophile that compared Portra 400 to Fuji Pro 400H side by side. Turns out Pro 400H actually has way better skin tone separation in mixed lighting, which I never would have guessed after years of just grabbing the Kodak every time. Anyone else here dump Fuji after they killed off Pro 400H, or did you switch to something else?
I was at the Portland Saturday Market last month and my shoulder bag slipped off, dumping a roll of Portra 400 right into a muddy puddle. I fished it out and dried it off best I could, then developed it anyway expecting nothing. The water damage created these weird streaks across the image of this old brick building that actually look amazing, like a faded painting. Has anyone else accidentally ruined film and ended up liking the result better?
I sent my K1000 to a guy I found online for a full CLA. He said he'd clean the shutter and replace light seals. Cost me $200 including shipping. When I got it back, the shutter sounded off and my first roll had light leaks on every frame. I think he just sprayed some lube in there and called it done. Now I gotta send it to a proper shop and pay again. Has anyone else gotten burned by a cheap camera repair person?
Last month I took my old Pentax Spotmatic out for a walk around downtown Austin, just messing around with some expired Portra 400 I found in a thrift store. Developed it myself in my bathroom and every single frame was sharp, well exposed, and the colors had this weird dreamy look I've never seen before. I'm not even that good at metering by eye, so I have no idea how I pulled it off. Has anyone else had one of those magical rolls where everything just clicked for no reason?