Hasselblad Helpers

Who buys a single roll of 120 film any more?

Oh, you did? Well I guess there's always one, but did it come in an individual box? Probably not. There seems to be a severe shortage these days of individually boxed single rolls of film. It is cheaper for camera stores and most of us to buy pro packs of 5 rolls. The problem is that this usually means there are no tear-off tabs to stick in the holder on the back of yer Back to remind you what film is in the camera.

Consider this PDF a service to the film photography community. I call it a "Hasselblad Helper" although may be compatible with other 120 and/or 35mm cameras. The good quality tabs were extracted from official PDFs, the less quality ones were traced from scans. The Ektar one is just plain shitty. Apologies for that. At least it's the same as the emulsion. Also there's no Velvia 50 as I couldn't find a suitable box. Soz.

You might have magical powers of memory magic and always remember by way of some mnemonic device which back contains what film, but if you've ever shot a roll of Provia 100F thinking you were shooting Tri-X 400, you make sure you tab your back correctly.

Download the Hasselblad Helper here.

It's Hip to be Square

Yes, that's a Kodak coaster

A little while ago I bought a Hasselblad 503cx after an initial foray into medium format courtesy of James Ruff. Unfortunately I didn't have the funds for a lens and even though I attempted to purchase a single Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 from whatever 500 kit I came across, none seller was willing to separate lens and body lest the other get lonely.

Eventually I came across a BGN grade 80mm C T* on KEH.com and I bit the bullet. And what a delicious bullet it was, none of that licorice shit, just good old-fashioned West German know-how.

Notwithstanding its BGN grading, it is a beautiful lens free from optical imperfections and showing very little wear on the barrel. I can even see the white shutter speeds and red exposure values inked on the front ring. Obviously Carl Zeiss was having a bit of trouble with the engraver during the entirety of the C T* production, perfectly willing to engrave the aperture values but unable to do the same with the shutter values.

Still, the whole thing is wonderfully over-engineered and still leaves me wondering who the hell thought the union of the shutter speed and the aperture as one was a good idea. I don't think I've ever used it the way it is engineered. If you don't know what I'm talking about, when you set an aperture value and shutter speed, the two and then linked when you rotate the rings. You change the values separately by pushing on a little silver tab and then moving the ring. It's designed so you can change your depth of field while keeping the same exposure value. I'm sure someone on Whirlpool will have some idea why...no I joke. They only have an idea about every item except the one you're asking about. LOLs. JKS. Film is totes rad. Pentax is better than Nikon etc.

But I digress. It's a beautiful piece of kit. Now I just have to work out how the hell I'm going to scan the negatives, considering I gunned for a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED instead of its bigger 120-capable brother, the Coolscan 9000ED back in 2009. Even though I consider them brothers, they don't particularly look alike. It's as if they came from different times, different fathers perhaps. Same colour skin, different features. For today's discerning photographer (aren't we all?) Plustek offers the very nice Opticfilm 120 at a reasonable price...

A big thanks to James and Chris Zissiadis (urbanlight) for stoking my medium format fire until I got my shit together.

Short Shadows; Long Days

Photography can be a frustrating hobby at the best of times. Motivation to get out and take images ebbs and flows. The harsh Australian summer sun makes for the perfect photo mood-killer. Where the northerly winter sun makes it presence felt from a distance, casting long shadows all day, the summer sun is as subtle as an American tourist visiting China. While shadow play is one of my favourite photographic games, summer effectively kills it, leaving me to think about annoying things like composition.

Daytime shadows look like they've been rendered by a Nintendo 64, leaving people looking like NPCs in Goldeneye 007 - a vague hint of a darkened circle underneath their feet standing in for a more complex shadow.

Trent Parke seems to somehow make a living out of harsh Australia light. Good luck to him.

Sure, there are sometimes longish shadows, but they are usually a feature of diminishing light between 7-8:30am or 6-7pm. Then the mosquitoes come out.

Still, I'm told it's "nice" weather.

Bring on winter.

Photo of the Year

Now comes that time of year when those who have been lacking in probity and/or accomplishment promise to make a concerted effort not to lack probity and/or accomplishment at the arbitrary ticking over of a man-made construct, only to revert to lacking probity and/or accomplishment after the passage of a few man-made hours.

2012 could be made into 2013 with the clever stroke of a pen; 2014 holds no such joys for scribblers.

Handy People I

Images from an ongoing project. See more at Handy People.

Photographs of people almost unknowingly and subconsciously using their mobile phones on the street will at some point be entirely unremarkable. Until that day, here are a few images from the everyday experience.

I am an art (and so can you)

You might have seen this facile semi-graphical maxim kicking around on everything from tea towels to Facebook covers +1 likes from me to Limited Edition Giclée Fine Art Prints® available in the gift shop (visit our Etsy pop-up store).

The above equation (which I've re-created using a bespoke digital imaging process) implies the act of creating art is simply in the doing. It implies merit (I could do that, therefore I will do that ∴ art). It also implies modern art is nothing more than doing a simple thing someone else hasn't already done, or perhaps taking something existing and labelling it "art".

Holden Closure Blamed on Dodgy Accounting

General Motors Holden is set to close its Australian car production arm after dramatically underestimating the number of cars it had sold.

It is understood Holden executives used a method that counted vehicle production and sales only once cars were on the road. It is believed trained car counters stood on major freeway overpasses tallying the number of Holden badges they saw. This method is not used anywhere else in the automotive world with Holden accounting officer Marcus Carmaker describing this method as a "uniquely Australian innovation".

This alleged disparity between the number of cars actually produced and sold and the number of cars recorded sold is believed to have occurred when Holden's actuaries did not include Commodores that had had their Holden badges removed and replaced with Chevrolet ones.

"We're very embarrassed that our biggest fans have actually killed Holden in Australia," Mr. Carmaker said. But even with the forecast 2017 plant closure Mr Carmaker remains upbeat, "I plan on buying up every surplus Holden badge in existence so I can rebadge the 2018 Chevrolet Impala as a Holden."