Using Film

 

Film… do you remember?  Yeah, film. The stuff encased in a cassette that you put in a camera, expose, and then have it developed in a lab.  Analog, not digital.  You use a camera to take a picture, not a cellphone.  And you have to wait till it is developed to see what you captured. 

I have a number of old film cameras in my collection which I used to use back in the pre-digital days.  They sit on a shelf in my office; a small fridge is stuffed with unexposed film.  I occasionally look at both and think, mmm maybe I should go back to doing some film work.

The other day, I just happened to see a You-tuber discussing using a film camera to make some interesting images.  He was a Noblex panorama camera; a rotating-lens pano camera in both medium format and 35mm models. 

I had a poor-man’s rotating-lens pano camera, a Zenit Horizon 202, 35mm camera which I bought twenty years ago to take wedding photos which would be different than the usual images which were normally given to the bride.  I especially liked the images taken at the beach, the bride’s veil flowing behind as she and her groom strolled the beach.

Shortly after buying the Horizon, digital photography began sweeping the photo world and all the great film cameras were being shelved.  Including all of mine. 

The Horizon has a fixed 28mm f2.8 lens; there is no focus to deal with as it is set to infinity.  This can be a problem if you are shooting a subject close-up.  The only way to deal with minimum focus is to set the aperture at various f-stops which will allow you different depths of field.  F16 will yield a minimum of three feet to infinity focus.   There are six shutter speeds on the camera.  So, it is truly a manual camera.

So early this week I went out with the Horizon, went to the Oceanside, California pier and shot three rolls:  two black and white, one color.  I had the images processed and scanned at North Coast Photographic Services in Carlsbad, CA. 

Several things:  I used a hand-held light meter to make exposure readings to strive for some accuracy.  Remember, there is no digital screen to review your work.  Due to the cost of film and processing, you don’t take “lots of images” of the same subject to get the best one; you find the subject, you decide on composition, and you make the exposure. 

Secondly, the “horizon” must be level if you want a decent image.  There is a bubble level built into the viewfinder to help level the camera.  It really helps your compositions.  (Of course, you can break the rule for a unique image.)  Also, there are some banding issues and artifacts which occur to the film, including some “light leaks,” which can be worked on in Photoshop.

On a roll of 35mm film, if you remember back to those days, you have a rectangle of 24mm x 36mm on the film surface.  With the Horizon pano camera, the image is twice as wide and uses “two rectangles” of space for one image.  (NOTE:  If you have a lab process your film make sure you tell them not to cut it in strips as it may cut through a pano image!!)

I love doing “street photography,” looking a images of ordinary things happening around me.  Here are some samples from my photo shoot (I plan on using the camera more in the next few weeks):

Carlsbad Raceway

There they were, aged remnants of the competition, standing like old soldiers waiting their final resting places, to be remembered only by those who experienced the thrill of the race.

 

 At an earlier time, it was a manly pursuit of personal pleasure, speeding down a narrow asphalt drag-strip in a speeding contraption, passing adoring fans at the 1/8^th mile pole, toward the finish line, trying to shave off a second or two from their personal best time. 

And it was a place for motocross racers riding over the humps and hills, digging into the dusty curves like surfers riding a difficult wave toward their own triumphs, as the dirt swirled up like a mini dust storm from waves of bikes chasing each other, like dueling hummingbirds, now had long laid down and covered the evidence of what had been.

But now there was an eerie quiet where fans once cheered, where the sound of roaring engines came to life, where the smell of gasoline, nitro-methane fumes, and hot oil wafted over the crowd, and rubber tires screeched against the hot pavement propelling pride to the checkered flag. 

A hand-painted sign at the entrance of the old racetrack reminded fans that it was now closed. Chains and locks prevented passage.  The ticket booth with its “Stop” sign would no longer be in command of the crowd.  Even the snack shack leaned against time, empty and out of sweets, and tall, swaying weeds were the only spectators poking up through the crumbling bleachers. 

 

 

Discarded rubber tires were stacked on the track like tombstones to remind drivers that the “end” was near.   The control tower, long abandoned, stood tall above it all like a lone sentinel watching over his province.  And a rusting van advertised the “Carlsbad Raceway” in faded letters, hidden in tall grass where no passerby would see it.

 

No longer are sleepy Sunday mornings interrupted by the sounds of excitement and fun, of mechanically engineered rumbles and reverberations, and a loud speaker barking out the results.   The covenants which nearby homeowners were required to sign, alerting them to raceway impact issues, no longer applied.  

It is all quiet now, save for the hum of the increased traffic which flows steadily along the airport road, situated above the remains of a past vestige, racing toward new destinations.  The ruins of the old raceway are long gone, replaced by cold, hard concrete and shiny shimmering glass with the symmetry of planned development.  It is progress, they said.

Now, all that’s left is a modern postmark which incorporates a bygone era with a new direction.  It is a sign near the site of the old asphalt track which announces:  Carlsbad Raceway Business Park.

 

  Author's note:  These images were taken in Aug/2008 by the author who used a Rolleicord and Holga film cameras.  The Dragstrip and Motocross divisions of the Carlsbad, CA raceway ceased operations in 2004.