Kodak BW400: Reutlingen winter shots…

It’s time for a big RANT. In Karlsruhe, at the Marktplatz, PHotoPorst offers general photo service, including negative film development.
NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
Twice I gave them a chance, twice was I failed.

  • Once, long ago, they promised to get me my negative film scanned at 6MPixel total per frame (it was their way of stating resolution, but I’m not as dumb as not to figue 6MP means ca. 2000DPI scan resulting in 2000×3000 pixel per frame). They promised TIFFs. I paid, and to my surprise I got a SINGLE CD. It was JPEGs at q=70 and at barely 1000DPI. It’s what I get from my flatbed at home. Complained, sent it back in, again got a CD, but I saw already n the lab, that it has very little data on it (you can actually guess it just looking at the CD, the recorded area looks different from a blank cd-r). Suspecting the worst I put the CD in the drive: yes, these are just repackaged JPEGs. Exactly what I got before, just contained in TIFF container witha ll the JPEG compression. Complained again, heard: `you expected 6MPIX at that price? How stupid of you, 6MPIX costs much more than that.’ EXCUSE ME?
  • Well, I gave up on them and warned people, yesterday I was put in a hopeless situation though: I needed a roll developed and I needed it badly, and it was 7pm, so only 1-hour lab could do it. I didn’t need prints, I didn’t need scans, I just needed a bath of developer. I risked. They DID develop the film. They also managed to get a gret bunch of scratches, dust, water stains and… HAIR? Whatever, looks like beard shaves anyway. I scanned the film rightaway, but after an hour of dustpicking I just bathed the whole roll in distilled water with conditioner and let it dry, it was hopeless.

But if you like such treatment, go on, use PHOTO PORST KARLSRUHE.

Whatever.
Anyway, here are few shots from this roll, mainly winter photos:
Reutlingen - winter mist

Reutlingen - small bridge in the park at Carl Diem Strasse

2006-02-21 21-03-47 8185.jpg

steps

and one snapshot portrait of Xinyi:
Xinyi - mirror shot

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Fixed the RSS issue… finally (?)

I hope the RSS feed works now. Before, whatever you did, you got always the comment feed linked. I have hacked a hard-wired code, it’s a bad hack but it works…

Please, report any problems in comments, ok?… This RSS is giving me a good headache…

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Stairs – Flektogon 4/20

Staircase shadows

Flektogon 20mm f:4. My new old lens… ๐Ÿ™‚
This is the predecessor of 2.8/20, lens optimized for aperture at the cost of distortion. The original 20/4 has almost perfect edge-to-edge rectilinear correction. The above frame was not altered geometrically in any way (well, except for plain rotation & border crop after scanning). The lowest stair steps are unsharp – they are out of DOF, the glass is sharp to the edge (of course, sharpness is better mid-field, but corner softness is not that much).
Just don’t put it on dSLR…

BTW: There’s a lot of heat as whether 2.8 or 4 is better, don’t shoot at me: I don’t care. If this lens fails me, I’ll ditch it and try something else, I won’t change a tool that works for me.

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Double birthday party :)

Doubla b-day group photo
more regular party photos: http://www.pbase.com/mareklew/double_b_day

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Wassily Kandinsky – Concerning the spiritual in Art

a beta-version of Kandinsky’s book on the basic elements of modern art is available for download. See [Link]
The book is considered essential for understanding works of visual arts…

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modern.reading – candidate

2006-02-16 01-26-16 7717.wsc.jpg

not sure about this… wide angle attracts…

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My first self developed films ;)

Well well well…
OK, I screwed. I can blame only half the fault on my camera, which is due for a light seal replacement. I guess I *gulp* am responsible for the rest ๐Ÿ™‚

A few poor flashscans (I have to get a bit more proficient at this…) of my first two rolls:

Tmax 3200 meets Xinyi ๐Ÿ™‚

well, this is where Tmax 3200 IS good – at least to me:
Xinyi drawing

This is where it’s acceptable
Xinyi drawing #2

And this is where I shall avoid using it ๐Ÿ˜›
Reutlnigen - our backyard

Tmax 400 and Karlsruhe at night:
Schloss

Platz der Grundrechte

Backyard

Well… 24mm is something one has to learn to use ๐Ÿ™‚ In a few days my Flektogon 20mm shall arrive along with a small stock of Tmax3200, we’ll see what can I learn before I run out of money ๐Ÿ˜›

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Top-Ten-List 2005 from ,,der Initiative Nachrichtenaufkl?ร‚ยคrung”

The top ten — topics ignored or hidden from public attention. Important, sometimes shocking or just VERY unpopular. See [LINKS].
Are we really such slaves of international corporations? We strive to fight against governal interference into our lives, shall we not fear the mor powerful ones first? Don’t we meet Skylla when avoiding Kharybdis?

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Growing up…

2006-02-16 23-39-27 7762.jpg
Things stiffen in their direction once they grow up…

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Fishing boats…

Fishing boats... or maybe not?
… or maybe not really.

BTW: I have removed the note about my birthday, because people suggested I just want them to notice it… ๐Ÿ˜‰

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