Vanishing Point

Kiev 60 Arsat 150mm f2.8 Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M plus Salt - An eery trip into light and shadow, this track trails off into oblivion. The late afternoon sun casting shadows made this shot for me.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Around the Bend

Kiev 60 Arsat 150mm f2.8 Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M plus Salt - This is the kind of building I always dreamed of having a studio in, old, urban and big. I love the way the tracks bend around the rear of this structures.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Under The Bridge

Kiev 60 Arsat 150mm f2.8 Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M plus Salt - The supports of the Lynchburg Expressway Bridge that crosses the railroad tracks and the James River. An interesting mix of symmetry and chaos.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Ivy Guardian

Kiev 60 Arsat 80mm f2.8 Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M plus Salt - Two columns of Ivy stand guard over this door, with crossed arms barring entrance.

Caffenol always seems to bring a vintage looking tonal range, great for subjects like this.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Spray Paint Gospel

Kiev 60 Arsat 80mm f2.8 Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M plus Salt - A section of graffiti painted on the side of the Piedmont Flour Mill grain silos in downtown Lynchburg VA. The silos are a favored canvas for graffiti artists in the area.

Caffenol Recipe:
1 liter Water
54 grams Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
16 grams Vitamin C granules
40 Grams of Instant caffeinated instant coffee
20 gram iodized table salt
Add ingredients in order given, stirring in between until fully dissolved. Use immediately and discard.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Caffenol Concoction - Caffenol premix from Labeauratoire

For those of you wanting to try Caffenol or Coffee Developer for black and white film, but do not want to track down all the ingredients, this is the product for you. Caffenol Concoction is a premixed packet of Caffenol that allows you to just add water and go.

For those of you wanting and easy entry into the world coffee developers purchase information can be found here: http://www.labeauratoire.com/caffenol/cc.html

Caffenol Cookbook

For those of you interested in developing film with instant coffee check out the site: The Caffenol Cook Book. A great starring point for all things coffee and film.

Savory Caffenol and Color Film

Kiev 60 Arsat 80mm f2.8 Fujifilm Pro 400H  NPH Caffenol-C-M plus 20g Table Salt - I could not resist the afternoon light coming through my office window and illuminating these chains... This high key subject was a good chance to develop some C-41 Process color film in Caffenol. I decided to go with the savory flavor of Caffenol, with a little salt in the mix, the recipe is as follows;
1 liter Water
54 grams Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
16 grams Vitamin C granules
40 Grams of Instant caffeinated instant coffee
20 gram iodized table salt
Add ingredients in order given, stirring in between until fully dissolved. Use immediately and discard.

Development time 20 minutes with agitation for the 1st minute and then 3 inversions each minute after.

The Caffenol/Color film did a nice job of stopping the highlights from getting blown out, due to caffenol's base fogging and staining. The negatives were a little denser than a would have liked, a 15 minute development time may have been more appropriate. We will see next time.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Desert Ghosts

 Adox Golf Cassar 75mm f4.5 Ilford FP4 Plus Caffenol-C-M OK so they are not ghost, I continue to fight the battle of the bellows pins first mentioned in my post Of Pin Holes, Electrical Tape and The Big Ass Peach. I enjoy using the Adox Golf so much I refuse to retire it to a shelf as a display only camera. I want this one as a shooter. The effect in this case, if not desired, was certainly interesting, resembling spirits past roaming a desolate landscape. Time for more work with the flashlight and electrical tape.

More Desert Caffenol

Adox Golf Cassar 75mm f4.5 Ilford FP4 Plus Caffenol-C-M - Another shot from my trip to the Sonoran Desert, being a life long East Coaster, the desert landscape seems more like Mars than the United States. Unfortunately, the short nature of my business trip did not allow the time to truly explore this alien land, but getting one roll in was enough for now...

After Desert Coffee

Adox Golf 75mm f4.5 Cassar Lens Ilford FP4 Plus Cafenol-C-M - A shot from the Sonoran Desert just outside of Phoenix in Carefree AZ.. The combination of Ilford FP4 Plus and Caffenol-C-M, did an outstanding job controlling the contrast if the desert mid-day sun. Despite battling bellow pin hole issues, I love shooting with my Adox Golf, it remains my favorite pocket medium format camera.
Scanned using an Epson V500 Photo using Epsons OEM Software.

A Pinch of Salt

Nikon FE2 Micro-Nikkor 55mm f2.8 Orwo UN54 Caffenol-C-M +20g Iodized Salt - Probably one of the few good uses for Instant coffee is developing film, my adventures with Caffenol continue. This is a variation of the Caffenol-C-M recipe found here. My normal Caffenol-C-M mix is as follow:

Start with 1 Liter of water
Add 54g of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, Stir until dissolved.
Add 16g of Vitamin C Power, Stir until dissolved.
Add 40g of instant coffee (in this case Original Maxwell House), Stir until dissolved.

I usually let the mix stand for 10 to 15 minutes before use to allow any small are bubbles to escape.
A good starting point for for developing time is 15 minutes at 68℉ for an ISO 100 film, with constant agitation for the 1st minute and then 3 inversions every minute there after.

For this image I added 20g of iodized table salt to the mix to act of a restrainer. This helps reduce base fogging and streaking that can be a problems with the normal Caffenol-C-M mix. The addition of the salt worked well with Orwo UN54 resulting in minimal base fogging and great overall contrast. Shadow detail is also outstanding as you can see.
Scanned with a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III using Silverfast 6.6.2r5 Software

Herco Imperial 620 Snap Shot Camera

Herco Imperial 620 Snap Shot Camera FujiFilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M -  A failed experiment of sorts, but with some interesting results. The Herco Imperial is designed to use 620 film. Those of you who have ever done it, know the re-spooling a 120 roll onto a 620 spool can be tricky and time consuming. I always seem to have issues getting the anchor tape to reattach, or worse, tear the paper backing when peeling the tape in the 1st place. The Kodak Brownie Hawkeye will use 120 film without issue as long as you use a 620 take up spool. I was hoping the same would be true for this little box camera.

The 120 feed spool, did fit, it was a little tight but seemed to be ok. I was able to mount the back and advance the film to the 1st frame. The advance knob seemed tight and there were some concerning "crinkling" noise coming from inside the camera, but what the hell, at this point, I am committed. I managed to get 4 shots off and give myself a blister on my thumb trying to turn the tight advance knob, before the film would go no further. I had to unload the film in the dark and roll it the rests of the way onto the take up spool by hand. More cause for concern came while loading the film onto the reel for developing, the edges of the portion of the film that was exposed, felt very similar to the edges of a lasagna noodle. I was able to get the roll loaded, but not without a little more force that I normally like to exert on a roll of film.

I developed the roll and proceeded to scan the negatives. Two samples of which you can see above. The stress on the film causes it to ripple on the film plane causing some interesting distortion. If you look closely you can see the fountain rim around the Dough Boy Monument looks like it caves in on the right side and the stairs on the second image seem to have a wave in them. Not a complete disaster, but next time I will make the effort to re-spool.

Another Caffeinated Box Camera

Ansco Shur Shot FujiFilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M - Caffenol and Box cameras are a match made in heaven. This is the view from Monument Terrace looking down towards the the James River in Lynchburg Virginia. Remove the modern cars and your could almost believe this was 1950 not 2012...

Shooter's Block

Heat me lazy. Life gets in the way. I work too much. The Dog ate my Neopan and the Cat drank my Rodinal. All valid excuses for the fact my shooting mind looks like the image above. Ok, so the dog and cat think is not true, but the others are dead on. In the end, they are just excuses. I just need to clear my mind and move forward. The Virginia heat has chased me out of my attic studio for the summer, but the sun is shining, my flashes work and the flowers are blooming, so that is still just an excuse...

I think shooter's, as with writer's block, is just a problem with motivation. Ideas come, but are dismissed with little thought. Squelched for being unoriginal, too simplistic or any other number of lame excuses artists and creative types come up with for not doing the work the love. We blame muses, society, the man, anything to cover our lack of motivation. Any excuse not to take the simple, unoriginal idea and turn it into something simple but original, or fail trying.... Failure, the greatest excuse of all. The main reason not to try at all....

Bullshit.

Above image - Agfa Ansco B2 Shur-Shot Regular FujFilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M - What happens when you forget to advance the film on a box camera.

Caffeinated Box Camera exposure no. 6

Agfa Ansco B2 Shur-Shot Regular FujFilm Neopan Acros 100 Caffenol-C-M - Something about caffenol and vintage cameras just works. Shot with the Shur-Shot discussed in my previous post and developed with caffenol-c-m, this a a repeat of a previous subject with a different feel.

Caffeinated Angel

Minolta Hi-Matic 7s 45mm f1.8 Rokkor P-F Lens FujiFilm NeopanSS 100 Caffenol-C-M - More caffenol experimentation, this time with Fuji NeopanSS. 15 minute development time at 68°F, agitation constant for the first minute and then 3 inversions every 3 minutes there after. I am using water for stop bath and Arista Standard Fixer to fix. Since I am using an acid hardening fixer instead of the recommended Alkaline Fixers from most sites, I may be losing some of the desired staining from the coffee. All in all though, the tone gradation is excellent and the base fogging I am getting seems to a plus. Scanned with a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III, using Silverfast SE Plus 6.6.

CAFFENOL!!!

Kiev 6c Arsat 45mm f3.5 Kodak T-Max 400 Caffenol-C-M - Developing film with Instant Coffee?  Somethings you just have to try to believe. I first heard of Caffenol about a year ago and finally got around to trying it. Basic starting points can be found here Caffenol-C-M, recipe. The mix is pretty straight forward:
1 litre water
54 grams washing-soda
16 grams vitamin-C
40 grams coffee
Add the ingredients in the order listed above with constant stirring. Fully dissolve all of one ingredient before adding the next. I mixed with water around 70˚F and all  mixed without much trouble. After adding coffee it is suggested you let the mix stand to 5 minutes to let the bubbles disperse and the coffee fully dissolve. I stirred once more before use. Just a warning the smell is not pleasant, image an full ashtray with a cup of coffee poured into it. I shot the T-Max 400 at 100 as Caffenol-C-M is suggested for medium Fast Films. Development time was 15 minutes, but judging from the density of the negatives, 10 minutes may have been fine, but I and still more than pleases with the results.
For further information check out these sites Caffenol and caffenol.