The Joy of Film Photography: Jupiter Lens and Black & White Film and Bokeh.

February 5, 2018

#229

Gentle reader,

My last article was the first in a series about what many consider dead and buried: Film photography. It can be seen here:

The Return of Analog: Film Photography is Returning from the Grave. 

Making images has been around since cave paintings were done by our ancient ancestors as a way to capture a moment so that it will not be lost to memory. With the proliferation of phones with cameras built-in, more photos are being made than all that were ever made in the past combined, many times over. If those that are selfies are removed, well, the number plummets. But that trend doesn't show any evidence of stopping. So many seem intent on leaving their mark from every activity of their lives to posterity. I myself, prefer to be behind the camera. A real camera, not a cell phone.

I will not go into the history of photography as that has been very well documented by others far more competent than I to do so. No, this article is a response to a question asked by a fellow FaceBook camera collector/user, "Do you have any photos made by the Jupiter lens on your Bessa?" 

This is Susan, my younger daughter.  She had gotten into digital photography by buying a Canon DSLR. We were wandering around a very old town in Virginia called Occoquan. It is perched upon a river of the same name and was founded in the 1700's. She prefers to be called Suzie and has a huge following on Flickr.

I had loaded my Voigtlander Bessa R camera with Kodak's BW400CN black and white film that is processed in regular C-41 chemicals. Many will say it is not "true" black and white film, but the evidence shows otherwise.

My wife bought me this camera when it first came out. Yes she has two sisters, but she is the youngest and most awesome. I have a bunch of M39 (some say L39) lenses for it. The first one I bought was for my Leica, a Leitz Summarit 50mm f1.5 lens.  Here is an image captured on film back then showing it mounted on the Bessa R.

Then I read that the Summarit, despite it's fast f1.5 speed was not a sharp lens. Those that are sharper that I could afford were the Soviet-made Jupiter lenses that were M39 adaptations of copies of Zeiss lenses made for the Kiev rangefinders. The Kievs being copies of  pre-WWII Contax cameras. Below is my Leica, a 1946 IIIC, that I recovered in sea-snake skin.

All these lenses, above and below are Jupiters with the exception of the Canon 100mm and Industar 50mm which is a copy of the Leitz Elmar f3.5 lens. Jupiter 3 50mm f1.5 in on the left.

Above are my two Jupiter 8 lenses. The black one is newer and I bought a Zorki 4K camera just to get the black lens. As you can see, the -8 is an f2.0 a little slower glass.

Back to black and white film. I have shot with T-Max and other traditional black and white films, but when I read about the then new C-41 process black and white, I decided to try it.

To shoot black and white film, one needs to look more at contrasts than colors. Since everything is rendered in shades of gray, one needs to imagine the scene in black and white. To not render the vertical shots too small, while composing this article, I chose to leave them full size and the horizontal shots as "Extra Large".

Being on the river, Occoquan is a boating town. This is a boat storage facility that has fallen on hard times.

Selective focus, as shown by focusing on the Texaco sign through the foliage is a fun thing to try and achieve. Were this in color, it would have a completely different feel.

Looks like they ran out of money before the roof was put on.

For those too young to know what a "snap shot" is, it is a nick name for paper photos. Before digital, the only way to view a film photo large was either pay a lot of money for a large print, or shoot slide film and project it. Most photos were printed 4" by 6" or smaller. Pre-digital and pre-smart phone, one looked at pictures either in hand or displayed in a photo album. On my 22" wide screen monitor, these "Extra Large" images are 6 1/2" wide.

Had I chosen a small aperture, say f22, which of course would have required a slow shutter speed, it would have resulted in everything from Susan's hair and outward being in focus.

I like the contrast of the different layers of bark on this tree. Much more interesting than a color photo in which the eyes might have been drawn to the river water instead.

The bridge has been around a long time and had recently been resurfaced with this decking. It connect Fairfax County to Prince William County. There is a nice park on the other side.

The waterfall is in fact freshly cleaned water from the sewage processing plant. A telephoto lens would have compressed the length of the bridge which is one of the fun things about them.

Walking back into the town, we found lots of interesting scenes to capture. 

Sailboats are so much more interesting to look at and an amazing way to travel on water.

This wooden ceiling under the 2nd story porch caught my eye. Black and white makes it more interesting. 

"What knockers!" "Sank you, Doctor." Anyone remember what movie those lines are from?

Occoquan is a tourist town, but people also live there. There has been a resurgence of building there especially on what is left undeveloped on the water. Fortunately, they are designed to compliment to original buildings such as these below.

How long ago must these steps have been built?

Virginia has a lot of stones in it's soil. We've seen stone walls bordering farms built like this that go on for MILES. I cannot image the time and effort involved in gathering, loading, transporting by horse and wagon, unloading, sorting and assembling involved. But people used what they had to do the job.

I can't recall the name of this large house atop a hill. It burned once and was rebuilt. Fortunately the stone walls are not flammable.

Isn't this an amazing window? Further down is a side view of it. Below show the "English Half-Timber" building style. Although other countries in the Old World used it too.

Another example of selective focus. Birdhouse above, people house below.

A large aperture nicely renders distracting background objects out of focus. How did they make this amazing window?

Bokeh is a word that describes the out-of-focus objects that appear as circles. Many strive to achieve this look.

Finally, another view of the magnificent stone house. I've always like the look of stone houses. There is one not too far from here that had been bought by a flipper. They removed all the stone and put up vinyl siding! Thus rendering an interesting house to just another plastic one.

I hope you enjoyed my brief look at black and white as a medium worth trying. Long before color film came out (and long after!) black and white, or sepia were the only choices.

Thanks for looking,

Scott       

February 5, 2018