Markag

Would you consider selling your spot attachment — I lost mine?

User ID

It fell to its appropriate fate ... obscurity.

User ID

Maybe as executor he signs them ???

BebuLamar

I don't know but I think he run the Ansel Adams Gallery for some time.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Interesting. If one follows the guide lines for the strict analysis of Parametrics laid down for accurate speed testing of Kodak films almost all of the traditional MQ* developers/films will yield an EI (exposure index) of twice the state film speed from Kodak. This makes perfect sense as there is a traditional master speed rating by Kodak to underate all B&W films by one stop (this follows the logic that with any amateur film, it is better to have a film exposed by one stop to the greater for better negative shadow density). I'm not making this up, Kodak marketing confirmed this, just like the reciprocity** index for almost all B&W and most color negative films and many color transparency film is 1/50 second.

* Reciprocity Index is the shutter speed at which a film is to be exposed for 'normal' environmental conditions (see Revers Swartchild Effect).

** MQ stands for Metol/Quinone (from hydroquinone, a developing agent in the combination for a type of developer) and reflects the 'old' standard developer used for developing films and papers.

It is important to note a rather obscure bit of information that was involved with Eastman Kodak and it's development of films and papers that were light sensitive. Edwan Mees took control of the Eastman Kodak Company after the death of George Eastman. Mees was a cut throat scientist who was in control of the scientific and engineering portion of Kodak. Towards the close of World War Two he was in complete control of Kodak. One of his great achievements was the creation of a new and radical new product Kodak High Speed Infared Films. To create this film he had been developing a totally new technology for ALL light sensitive materials. These films were slowly introduced as "T Grain Tecnology" materials. These completely departed from any and all traditional light sensitive materials.

By the early 1950's the Ektachrome line was on line to be converted to the new technology. The huge advertising firm centered in Clevland was being supplied by Kodak for all of its Extachrome needs as sheet films, including the processing chemicals and equipment so that the practical testing of the materials could be properly assessed.

Most of all the information about Kodaks T Grain Technolgy materials is not understood. T-Grain films processed in its developer RS Developer (a highly concentrated liquid developer) is intended and best used with both MQ films of any manufacturer, and any and all T Grain films of the B&W type from Kodak or any other manufacturer, when processed following the Kodak guide lines. This is a must replenish and properly conditioned developer that is regarded as an infinity developer (meaning, when properly replenished with RS Developer stocks) the developer will NEVER 'wear' out. BUT the initial developer must be pre-conditioned for use. Once in this state traditional developing techniques may be used, such as dip and dunk and small canister hand processing. The regulation is to be an inversion style of 30 second intervals, 78F, and a duration of 8 minutes. In this fashion any and all B&W films can be processed together at the same time with the exception of Kodak HS Infared films which require the same parameters but an immersion of 11 minute duration. This includes all sizes of sheet films in stainless steel processing hangers.

I ran such a line for over 6 years using every B&W film with out failure to any (including Eastern European and Agfa products and all Liford B&W films), the other outcome was that all produced maximum film speeds with reduced grain and fog events).

gwilliams6

Well deserved, just beautiful.

Cheers

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I attended an Ansil Adams workshop in the late 1960s and a studied all his books. I also studio many articles and books are written by Minor White. All very intriguing, interesting a somewhat complex. My problem was, however, that I am not a fine-art photograher, per se! Meaning, in my work, I don't always have the time to precisely treat each negative in an individual and precise manner- not to even to think about special printing techniques. So, I had to devise a few simple adaptations of the system to apply in practical situations.

The first step was to under understand the charismatic curve of the film and the degree of intrinsic latitude. In the portrat studio, it was simple, expose for the shadows and print down for the highlights. Basically exposes fill light and varied the power or distance of the main light to establish various ratios. Black and white roll film emulsions such as Verichrome Pan, and Tri-X, processed in soft-working developers such as D-76 1:1 worked well. Sheet film sic as Tri-X, Royal Pan, Portrat Pan, and Tri-X works well in DK50 1:1 or Pyro. Printing on diffusion or cold-light enlarging on a #2 or #3 Paper such as Medelast, Ektalure, Opal, or Kodabromide yielded good print- type depeng on the image tone desired.

The same exposure method was compatible with most (C-41) color-negative films.

In my industrial work where there was very high contrast available light became problematic was simple overexposure and underdevelopment, pre-soaking before development, helped reduce contrast and prevented streaking. A machine in a dark factory with a nearby sunlit exterior could be "compressed" showing the full detail of a truck, outside, conveying material to the machine. The Overexpose and the underdeveloped system works well with E-6 Transparency films when reproducing artwork. Slight underexposure and force processing of E-6 emulsions yielded cleaner whites in high-key fashion work. Filtration was required to correct colr for extended or reduced development times.

It was fun when I had time to do less "deadline" work to incorporate the complete Zone system and assign specific grayscale tones. I believe the original zone system was devised for traditional black-and-white film photography. There were a few advanced workers who introduced similar applications colr photography, Notibly, there was the ChromaZone photography system. I don't sincerely believe that it is directly applicable to digital photography. In monochromatic work, I can revitalize the grayscale and produce a "panchromatic or orthochromatic-like" rendition utilizing filters or some internal camera adjustments and follow through in post-processing. Shoot slig to the right or left and tweak in post, usually do the job. Bracketing helps in difficult situations.

gwilliams6

Those were great Olympus SLR cameras, many pros used them. I have used about every brand and model of SLR, DSLR and mirrorless over the five decades of my career.

One of the standout cameras I owned was the Canon F1 SLR, its camera meter had three meter patterns; center-weighted average metering, selective-area metering, and spot metering.

I used my two Canon F1 when I covered the war in Nicaragua in 1987 between the Contras and Sandinistas. The F1 worked flawlessly under the worst tropical jungle and mountainous war conditions., covered with dirt and mud .

One was loaded with Tri-X B&W film, the other was loaded with Fujicolor ASA 100 film. Our coverage was instrumental in the US Senate cutting off all aid to the Contras, and the long bloody war that had cost many innocent civilians their lives, ended. Our coverage won many awards and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

I used the F1's excellent spot meter the most under harsh lighting conditions of intense light and shadow. Out of respect for the victims, I will only share a couple of the non-gory photos, but I witnessed and photographed some horrible acts and their human tragedies.

1) A mother out in the Nicaragua countryside stands guard over her children in her humble shack of a home. Many innocent civilians were attacked and killed in their homes by the raiding Contras (yes supported by the USA). She flies the flag of the Sandinistas whom she supports while her husband is away as a soldier with the Sandinistas fighting.

2) A Sandinista special forces soldier, barely 17, takes a short breather as we all trek through the jungles and mountains on the look for the Contras. Yes the Sandinistas allowed me and my reporter to be imbedded with their special forces, amazing. Our newspaper the Philadelphia Inquirer also had a reporter-photographer team imbedded with the Contras crossing into Nicaragua from Honduras. We covered both sides of the story, but concluded that if the US stopped funding the Contras who were the former deaths squads of the Somoza dictatorship, the war would end. The US Senate agreed and over President Reagan's objections the Contra aid ended ,and the war ended.

3) Trekking through the jungles below and then climbing up and over the mountains on the Nicaragua/Honduras border with a unit of the Sandinistas Special Forces on the look for the Contras. We did find them.

There were no vehicles for transport in the jungles, everything was on foot for weeks for the soldiers and the reporter and this photographer.

From darker foliage in shadow to bright sunlight in the same frame, it was a great place for the zone system, but there wasn't time for that unfortunately. The Canon F1 spot meter nailed the exposures, I just needed to know where to point it.

BTW, I still have one of those Canon F1 SLRs, still kept in working order. I use it when teaching my university 35mm B&W film course. Still have a few lenses to go with it.

Cheers and best to you.

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rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Some very powerful photographs here, gwilliams.
--Bob

gwilliams6

Thanks Bob.

Many of my other shots from there are heartbreaking, and not really appropriate to share here in UHH. But they were published over several days in my newspaper, and the US Senate saw them before moving to end all financial support for the Contras. Pennsylvania's two brave GOP US Senators at the time, John Heinz and Arlen Spector led the Senate debate using our story and photographs that ultimately led to the ending of the war.

If nothing else, soldiers that we met on both sides of the conflict, and civilians we met in Nicaragua were going to have a chance to stay alive, in part for our efforts. That made it all worth it. Photojournalism can be a powerful tool.

Cheers and best to you,

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Excellent and touching work. I had the privilege of knowing another well known war correspondent - David Douglass Duncan, who I met in the PIO darkroom in DaNang - your work reminds me of his.

The beauty of the F1 is that it’s a mechanical camera and will work in the worst conditions when a modern electronic camera might not. I still have my F1n - it’s a solid pro workhorse. Lots to be said for those “mechanical” cameras - they might need a battery for the meter, but would work fine even without one.

gwilliams6

Duncan is a legend. Thanks for any reference to my work, that humbles me. One of my mentors was David Kennerly, another Vietnam photojournalist. I was a White House photo intern under Kennerly during the Ford administration for the shortest time in history, as the WH budget got cut three weeks into my internship and I was cut, LOL. But we have stayed friends. BTW, thank you for your service.

As an Executive Board Member of the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) I had the chance to know and learn from many of the great war photographers. I reached out to a few of them for advice in the days before I went to Nicaragua.

One of my best friends was the late Joe Rosenthal, who you all know made the famous Iwo Jima photograph. At the 50th NPPA annual convention, held in D.C. that year ,Joe was honored by all the Marine Corps military brass in a huge ceremony at the Iwo Jima Memorial, based on his photograph, in Arlington, Va., with a host of troops, top generals and the Marine Corps band. Joe was in tears, as he was the man of honor. I also sadly know too many war photographers that lost their lives doing their important work. They all were inspirations to me in my work and in my teaching.

Yes loved that the F1 could work without its battery, so rugged and it just worked, no matter what.

Cheers and best to you.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

I remember a story Ansel told at one of the open meetings of the Friends of Photography held at the Sunset Center in Carmel California. He truly was a wonderful friend and fellow of all photographers. His story was about being open to new ideas and techniques.

He was leading a workshop on the use of zone system and the practical application of making pre exposure for a negative to enhance shadow detail. Polaroid was supporting the WS and provided Type 55P/M 4X5 film packets. Basically, the process in a nut shell was to expose sheets of the Type 55 P/N with the camera out of focus, to a certain exposure duration, with the lens wide open to an 18% gray card. Things were moving along when a late comer arrived with his camera gear and a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee he was sipping.

He asked one of the other students what was the procedure and went off sipping his coffee.

Some time later Adams found the guy off by himself having finished his coffee and doing a rather curious thing. He had set up his camera, focused it and set the exposure with his light meter and had made a first image with out a pre exposure that was out on a log. As Ansel watched him, he opened the lens several f stops, cocked the camera shutter with a sheet of Polaroid pulled ready for exposure, but first he held the empty Styrofoam cup directly over the lens and tripped the shutter. He then reset the lens to the working f stop and made the second exposure. He then developed the image.

As he reviewed his results Ansel approached him as he stood there looking at the print and examining the negative. He looked up at Ansel and said that it needed another stop of light for the pre-exposure and then did exactly that.

Ansel then told us at our gathering, that he had everyone gather around to see what the tardy guy was doing. He then told everyone after the guy demonstrated what he was doing, and Ansel told everyone to discard what they were doing and go get a Styrofoam cup to do the guys technique, because it was a much better approach to doing pre-exposure of a negative.

It is one of my found memories of meetings with Ansel at the Sunset Center meetings!

I'm sorry to say that the Friends of Photography and Ansel are no longer with us.

gwilliams6

Thanks for sharing this, Cheers

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Yes I also had a hand held that had spot as an option (L shaped). I think it is in a box of old film gear somewhere in the house or garage.