Brian Beker

FP400 is weird for me, BTW — I didn’t like it and couldn’t get it box speed in D-76, D-23, HC-110, Pyrocat-HD or Rodinal witout it looking like hell. In T-Max dev, it absolutely shines. That combo has made it one of my favorite films of all time.

This is stunning.

Hey, Tomasz - I might have found a solution for that. *Might*, because I have not tested enough, but… try water stop, no acid, very vigorous, cocktail shake during three rinses over 1 minute, then fix in TF-4, constant agitation 2M. So far, doing this, the black spots (on pos) are gone.

It used to be one of the best, along with Plus-X, but the reformulated stuff Kodak calls Tri-X now, which has no relation to the Tri-X of old, is just another middling low silver stock — but at least we get to pay extra for the name.

Far out, Chad! Wow.

Don’t worry. The Supreme Court will reinstate it along with a determination that they erred in the immunity decision as soon as a Dem gets elected.

Oh. My. God. This is pure Stalinism, the equivalent of refusing to issue internal passports. Unfuckingbelievable evil.

A photograph of a New Delhi school bus, which is a cabin on the back of a three-wheel push bike. The driver leans into trying to get the load of boys moving, while the leg and shoe of the last boy to board is dangling from the back.

Just making the school bus in New Delhi — printed in the kitchen sink darkroom tonight on Ilford fiber based paper, selenium toned.

#streetphotography #filmphotography #photography #India

That is terrific.

It's just the beginning. It’s going to be awful when half of all photos are AI and humanity gives up once having had a brain. In America the dumbing down ain’t even started yet and already it brought us trump. Bleak.

Somehow, it’s been blowing and looks ferocious, but we only ended up getting at most five inches! Tremendous stroke of luck. I’m working on the pictures I took today of poor little Pokling not enjoying it and will post them later...

Future presidential material

A little black bakelite film developing tank

A little box with three razor blades used to cut Minox film

Film takes a little effort and practice to cut and load yourself but it’s easy and developing is a piece of cake in one of these. Daylight loading, no dark room or bag necessary and it uses a tiny amount of chemistry. Instead of $20/roll for film, cost becomes something like a buck, film and dev

A black and white photograph of a snow covered stream, the only water a black pool in the foreground; the rest of the rocks are covered with sunshine and shadows on them

The stream outside

IIIf, 50 Elmar, FP400

#filmphotography #photography #landscape

Nce that Conway is anti-trump and anti-maga. But New Yorkers who mistake his candidacy as anything other than a republican wolf in sheep’s clothing are nuts. Conway would support continuation of low to zero taxes for the wealthy and the creation of more billionaires at the expense of everyone else.

It totally does.

I see a lot of comments where people say they just love grain, which is fine, but I’m with St. Ansel when it comes to grain: if you want it, great, but having it forced on you sucks. Controlling grain has been a goal of photographers since the beginning. And when grain is controlled, so is contrast.

For me, too, but using that old f/3.5 lens or my 90 f/4 in shady woods it helps, and I’m not opposed to grain — as long as it’s controllable, which it isn’t with something like Rodinal, which just seems to make a point of making grain look like sand. But, yeah, especially in sunny snow, 400 is tough

You know where to find me, can always give it to you then. I just posted the recipe to you. Super easy, fast, would work on the road, no stop bath, reusable chems and looks really good (despite BlueSky’s muddying of images—all the detail is there in the neg).

… the film, which seems to be a problem with FP films.

The temp turned out to be 23-4°C. I haven’’t tried pushing it to 800 with this, but when I do I’ll start at 9 minutes. But for box, this dev scheme works great. Shadows, highs — it’s all there

This is going to sound crazy, but… I ran a test roll to check my IIIf after I tinkered with it. Didn’t care about the film, 2AM, wanted togo fast, so, no prewet, didn’t check dev temp, pulled 7 mins out of thin air, 5 secs/30 ag. PERFECT. And, water stop, aggressive shaking, and zero flecking on...

A black and white photograph of a dog walking on a snowy back road in the Vermont woods

Little Pokey Beker Beker, Jr., Jr. taking a walk in the snowstorm today in Vermont.

IIIf, 50 Elmar, FP400

#photography #filmphotography #dogs

And, by the way, a liter bottle of T-Max dev will handle all of a 100 foot bulk load.

FP-100, on the other hand, really, really likes a push to 200 in HC-110. Looks better at 200 than box. But FP400 just seems to be a completely different animal.

When I first started shooting FP400 I thought it was junk. I ran it through D-76, D-23, HC-110, Rodinal, Pyrocat-HD in every way I could think of, and all of it looked awful, and none of it got anywhere close to box speed. I put it through T-Max dev on a whim. With that it looks great. Today:

Snowy Vermont today as seen with a Leica IIIf with its original 50mm f/3.5 Elmar that just turned 75, and it’s still one of the best lenses I have, every bit as good as a Summicron, though slower, but hey.

Fomapan 400

#photography #filmphotography #dogs

Yeah, but FP 400 is truly a superb 400 speed film. Back in the real Tri-X days I might have chosen FP400 over it had it been available. The only thing about the FP is that I can only make it shine when developed in T-Max dev. Also the only dev that gets box speed out of it. I don’t know why.

Unfortunately that ship has sailed. The closest thing to it now is Foma 400, which beats the hell out of the new Tri-X, which is nothing at all like the old Tri-X. I bought a bulk load of the new stuff last year and couldn’t even finish it I disliked it so much.

A black and white photograph of a gentleman with tousled hair lying prone on the grass where he has been napping beside a large, round cistern and surrounded by foliage and trees.

The afternoon napper.

M6/50SM, Tri-X

#filmphotography #photography #streetphotography #Nepal

A black and white photograph showing a crowd watching the preparation of a festival chariot in Nepal. To the right is the crowd. To the left are four men climbing the curved prow of the large chariot to pass to the topmost man religious items for placement in a small platform at the top.

Preparation of the festival chariot for Rato Machindranath Jatra in Lalitpur

Nikon F/50mm Nikkor-H, Tri-X

#filmphotography #streetphotography #photography #Nepal

A black and white photograph of a little girl in a long and dirty dress playing on a swing hanging from a big tree

Girl on a backyard swing.

M6/50SM, Tri-X

#photography #streetphotography #filmphotography