Weekly Exposure is back strong after a week off.
If this is your first time here, thanks. If not, thanks too.
This is a weekly series (for now) where I share interesting topics from my analog photography adventures.
Here we go.
Infinite City
My personal muse is Mexico City and its streets that gift photographic moments at every corner. If you have quick eyes and fast hands, you take home good loot.
Since there’s no date that doesn’t arrive or deadline that isn’t met, the time came to face my fear of heights to photograph the infinite city. Because yeah, nobody knows where the city begins or ends. It’s a metropolis like no other.
So knowing that vertigo was going to wreak havoc on me, I took the elevator to the sky, and thirty-eight floors later, the glass-mirrored observation deck of the Torre Latinoamericana welcomed me.
Torre Latinoamericana was once the tallest building in Latin America, completed in 1956 and reaching about 182 m in height, including its antenna.
Truth is, even though I was dying inside, after developing the images, I can say it was worth it. So without further ado, here are the photos from a perspective I’ve never posted online before.
These are the things you do for your photo friends, haha.
Maybe this is my favorite one.
Infinite City: The Gear
- Film: Rollei Paul & Reinhold 640 ISO (shot at 1250)
- Camera: Nikon F3
- Lens: Vöigtlander ƒ/2 40mm Ultron
- Developer (home): HC-110 Dilution A (inky blacks)
- Scanner (home): Plustek 8100
I really loved the photos. I’ve been printing some of them on my Canon Selphy CP1500 and I love them, they look like great postcards.
And also, thanks to everyone who encouraged me to use it instead of leaving it in a drawer or abandoning it. The Nikon F3 is a beast. Heavy, but the power flows through your hands.
Darkroom Got Handsome
This year (which actually started in March, when analog photography called me back), I’ve developed just over 60 rolls. All at home, including medium format. And while I love it and enjoy it, now that I’m doing push processing more often, the times extend, and essentially, it starts becoming tedious when you have several pending rolls. Those who develop at home surely understand me.
Enter PIRA Darkroom Helper
After developing four rolls in a single sitting, I decided to look online for options that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg (cough, AGO, cough).
To my great surprise, I found an option made in Mexico by Daniel, a Mexican mechatronics engineer. He dedicated 30 months to perfecting the product. If this isn’t passion, then tell me what is.
After some back and forth with Dani, where I expressed some doubts, I decided to take the leap and get the product. Mexico is a country whose manufacturing quality is world-class, so I’m sure this product will be a game changer in my darkroom.
If you want to check it out, go to https://darkroomhelper.pira.mx/.
Dani does international shipping. If you live in the USA, it’s really fast.
Once I test it with some rolls, I’ll do a full review.
Bobinquick Junior 35 mm Bulk Film Loader
I’m sick of the difficulty getting Double-X or Tri-X rolls. Every day more scarce and expensive. And since I don’t like complaining without proposing solutions, I decided to get a Bulk Film Loader to buy cans and have my favorite films for longer.
Now I just need to get the cans, which are equally scarce, haha.
If not, we’ll always have Fomapan 200, an underdog film that’s good, nice, and cheap.
Wish me luck, I’ve never done this before, but I know it’ll be fine. I don’t think it’s more complicated than developing, which I also learned this year.
Light the night
I love night photos that hint at what’s happening instead of showing the complete scene. However, I always felt limited by not having continuous light, so I got myself a couple of lights to see what I can do. I have some self-portraits in mind to start with, but something will come up. I’ll keep you posted on my adventures.
New WebApp by FILM RICK: Darkroom Timer
I don’t want to give too many details for now since I’m still in testing phase, but eventually, my career as a Systems Engineer was going to meet my passion for analog photography.
One of the things that frustrates me when I’m developing is having to use my iPhone timer. The problem is that the bastard starts turning off mid-countdown, and I have to be touching the screen mid-agitation so it doesn’t turn off.
Yes, I could set it to never turn off, but I know I’ll forget to reconfigure it when I finish developing.
So I told myself: how the hell do we solve this drama?
And that’s how Darkroom Timer was born.
Coming soon, amigos.
The essence is this: you set the developing, stop bath, and fixer times, and once you start, you only have to focus on handling the chemicals.
Yes, I could’ve bought a physical timer, but that’s not all.
Do you always use the same developing formula every time?
I don’t.
Depending on the push I want and the temperature, there are always variations. On top of that, some films prefer agitation to inversion. It’s chaos if you’re not careful (unless I’m the careless one).
Therefore, one of the features it will have is the ability to save and reuse formulas, so you don’t have to be searching through your notes for “what were the times for XYZ film.”
It offers more features, but they’re still in development. I consider it to be the Swiss Army knife of the Darkroom.
I hope to launch a beta within two weeks, and I’d love it if my friends felt like trying it out.
Inspiration of the Week: Juan Rulfo
Juan Nepomuceno Rulfo Vizcaíno (1916-1986) is my personal god. Among his works are two of the most acclaimed books in universal literature.
One of them is Pedro Páramo and the other is El Llano en Llamas. Both have translations in every language in the world.
You’ll know that when I found out he was also a prolific photographer, I was blown away. This week I was flipping through his book 100 Photographs by Juan Rulfo again, which portrays the rural atmosphere (among several topics) of Mexico in that era (1950s or so), and I loved it. His composition skills and ability to capture the essence of the scenes in front of him are incredible.
If you dare to read his books (they’re short), and pair it with his photography, your level of immersion will be absolute.
I wish more people knew about Juancito’s photographic side, because he doesn’t lack worldwide fame as a writer. This is my grain of salt so that his skills with the camera are as recognized as his skills with paper and pen.
Weekly Is Becoming Bi-Weekly Exposure
I love working on this series. However, I’m on many projects right now, and I would rather not rush it just for the sake of it, so I will be switching this series to biweekly frequency.
See you in issue #5.
Phew! This was a very long one. Hopefully, it was entertaining at least.
More on FILM RICK…
If you’d like to see more of my work, check my portfolio. I warn you that you might fall in love with Mexico City.
If you wonder why the hell someone shoots analog, check my most popular post.