Morning

Cyclist

Times Square

Kodak 160VC, Canon New F-1, Canon FD 28mm f/2.8, and yes with the ridiculously heavy motor drive too.

Sometimes I wish I were shooting with a 24mm on a real 35mm camera.  But other times, I was like oh the 24mm is just too "wide" for that shot.  You know I am just hopelessly good at coming up with lame excuses.

I got this roll of 135mm film developed some lab closeby.  It wasn't a good experience.  The fact that I used that lab knowing full well they kind of don't give a fuck of the negative is testimony to how lack of principle I am.  This was my third roll of film done there and might very well be my last roll.  In theory, any mini-lab can do a decent C41 development, that's if they take pride in what they do.  In practice, it's like nobody gives a fuck even some so called pro lab.  I got my film ripped and they had the ball to deny it.  Again, you got what you paid for if you are lucky.

I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous but I really find digital images too clean to look almost dull and lifeless.  I cannot believe I said that.  At the same time I hate to scan the images knowing it's really hit or miss to get a clean scan with no dust at all.  ICE is not 100% and plus there is no ICE with the software that I use.  So it's a pain to scan.

UPDATE 11/5/2010
I have received tons of emails regarding how I scanned what I scanned.  If it's a good scan, it's because of me and myself.  Nobody helped me in that department.  OKAY there is some online who selflessly shares his knowledge and thoughts on scanning.  And one of them is Mr. Wayne Fulton who operates a website called very humbly Scanning Basics 101 or www.scantips.com which I find to be most helpful though I don't understand most of them but it got me started.  I shall take all the blames for all the ugliness you see here, it's absolutely not a reflection of Mr. Fulton's fine website.  No guilty by association.

UPDATE 11/5/2010
I don't know how the heck I removed the picture hyperlink.  Crap.

Horsey

School

Kodak 160VC shot using a Canon F-1, 28mm f/2.8. Scanned at 2400dpi.

Random Shots

Double the trouble.

It's a pain to get rid of the dust.  The negative wasn't exactly clean to begin with.  The entire roll was uncut, which was kind of OKAY (or even preferred if you know they just chop it off somewhere), unsleeved which was not, and stuffed into an envelope.  I wonder if she wore a  pair of lint free gloves to handle the negatives.  I know I didn't but I expect she does.  Oh well, I deserve it as I was too lazy to find a "good" developer.  I might as well shoot exclusively in black and white.  Tank developed by myself and so I got nobody to blame about but myself.  I, me and myself take all the credits and all the blames.

First Day of School

First day of school, that's if I remember correctly. The top one is scanned by yours truly. I think the more they do with the scan the worse they do. If they were to leave it alone, it will be so much better. The film soft gradation is gone when they boost the contrast and (over)sharpen the file. It just butchers the film.

 

42nd Street

Gyro Corner

Kodak 160VC.  Nikon FE.  Nikkor 28mm f/2

 The bottom one is scanned by myself using the sucky Epson Perfection V500 Photo.  It's straight from the scanner, well except to scale it to the smallish 1818 width to match the paid scanned file from some operation in midtown.
I can understand how I can do such a sloppy job but I just can't understand why people who got paid can do such a sloppy job, am I expecting too much?  I look at the negative, they just chop it off somewhere and stuff them in one single sleeve, all 36 exposures in one single sleeve.  If it's really you got what you paid for then I don't know how much I have to pay in order to get a modicum degree of professionalism and anal retentiveness from these operators.

Just Another Morning

The Reader

Midtown Oasis