C&C on latest roll of black and white

[tmyprod]

A handful of shots from my most recent roll of black and white film.

Camera: Olympus XA
Film: Arista EDU Ultra B&W 100 iso
Developed at Capitol Hill 60-Min Photo Express (despite the goofy name they're one of the better specialty film shops in Seattle)

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

 

[Derrel]

I'm really diggin' that empty frame outside the building in #4...that shot really,really has appeal to me, probably because I have not 'seen it' a zillion times before, like I have say shots #1 and #3. In fact, I do not think I have ever seen an empty picture frame outside of a building before, so #4 to me is new and different and very pleasing to look at. I love the way the hanging wire is just all, well, hanging wire-like! Good shooting with that uber-compact clamshell XA. Such a cool pocket camera design!

 

[Arch]

I think you've done well here, i especially like the first two :thumbup:

 

[flea77]

Nice shots. I like 1, 3, 6 & 7.

Allan

 

[KenC]

I second the comments about #4, and #6 is an interesting composition with some impact. Good city photography!

 

[Alpha]

The exposures are good. The compositions are good, if not transformative. They're boring. Maybe that's why. Step it up. You've obviously got some talent. But I've seen these same photographs a thousand times shot by a thousand different people.

 

[white]

3, 4, & 6 are very good. Wonderful compositions.

The criticism people make about seeing a particular photo hundreds or thousands of times is silly, I think. You spotted a good composition and you made a picture.

Before you can set the world on fire with your brilliant photography skills, you have to train your eye. And that is what I see you doing here.

Well done!

 

[ifi]

I liked 1, 3, 4 and 6. Very cool :thumbsup:

 

[Early]

Your contrast is a killer. Almost no mid tones.

 

[nchips1]

Your contrast is a killer.

I can totally dig this.

 

[dak1b]

first few pics at pike place market?

1) crop right dark side out
2) ok
3) does the left building look slightly crooked? could just be me.
4) could use some cropping
5) cool outside building shot
6) like thee lines of the structures.
7) i would of like to see the whole person sitting against the wall or nobody..but i guess it gives a little mystery to the image.
8) cool

I just ordered my first film camera ae-1 program. excited to shoot film! nice work
8)

 

[kkamin]

I love #3. The buildings feel like the inverse of each other, even though they are not. It is very graphic but it still has a nice gradation of tone which adds a richness to the image. The lines within the image are very dynamic and exciting but at the same time orderly and contained. Very engaging for me.

I agree with someone else that the contrast is too extreme. A lot of the images don't really support that graphic, contrasty look imo. I don't mind the blown highlights as much as the black shadows. I really want to see into the shadows a little bit more. I think you can keep the low key look but really pull some depth out of the images by getting more quarter tones and half tones.

 

[Alpha]

The criticism people make about seeing a particular photo hundreds or thousands of times is silly, I think. You spotted a good composition and you made a picture.

Oh my god...I can just feel the awesome power of the creative juices! They're flowing out of my monitor!

 

[Azriel]

great shots, lovely contrast.

 

[tmyprod]

Thanks for the wide range of responses.

As for the really high contrast, this was only the second roll of black and white film I've shot (and my first roll of 100iso b&w or color) so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I personally like the high contrast look, but I agree it dosen't necessarily for all the shots.

A note about my XA: as you may or may not know, the XA is an apature priority only (you select the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed) The thing about my camera is that the meter that tells you what the shutter is going to be is broken, so I don't ever know exactly what the shutter will be (I've got a rough idea based on the aperture, iso, and lighting condition, but I can't know for certain). This wouldn't be that notable, except, I don't know how the XA measures the light level (spot, average, brightest), so, some of the shots can be a real gamble (#2).

Here's a little bit of info on each image.

#1
As some of you guessed this was taken in Pike's Place Market in Seattle. My mom was in town and we had been doing touristy things all day and while wandering through the market, she saw some postcards and I remarked that I could do that. So #1 is my attempt to recreate some of the b&w postcards there.

#2
This one actually came out pretty close to what I had in mind (the guy walking into a bright light). I would have liked some more detail on the crowd and had the running kid a little further to the right, but I'm just nit-picking at this point.

#3
I have a few different versions of this taken on a few different cameras. The first version was taken a few years ago on a little P&S and ended up being used as the background element on my film school portfolio stuff (DVD case, DVD menu, cards, etc). I recently got around to recreating it with my D5000, and like I wanted to from the beginning, on b&w film.

#4
I don't know if I got the proportions just right, but I wanted the same amount of sidewalk and wall in the photo as in the frame.

#5
Didn't really have a story or "artistic" reason behind this, I took a picture of a street sign.

#6
Here I was trying to highlight the differences between the brick styles.

#7
I was trying to get a longer exposure on this one to have the escalator be blur. I'll likely reshoot this one to get a longer exposure and a bunch of people on the escalator as well. Also, I didn't even notice the dude's legs until dak1b pointed it out.

#8
Wanted to see how the camera/film responded to the buildings in clouds/rain. This was the only one I cropped as I accidentally got some of my umbrella in the frame.