The great news is that the old Arca Swiss 4x5 has found a new life in my hands. The bad news is that the experiments from last night, some 10+ minute exposures on HP5 filled by Full Moon came out nothing more then mediocre. BUT! if I was to go tonight and do it I would improve on the things I did not like from last night. Locations would be better screened along with bringing few things which would make my life easier in the dark of the night. but that's all night photography.

I am now going to use this for some portraits. Natural light with the 90mm lens. Hopefully some environmental ones. Others will be some reflections on American towns. I can only shoot on the weekend now due to days getting shorter. Soon I'll be leaving for work in the morning and walking out of y building in the dark of night. So the weekends are what's left. Plus, some work with the Pentax 6x7 to do as well.

Tonight a photograph from last night. Stand developed overnight in Rodinal at 1:200. Same town and both after 10pm. Next time I'll choose the location more carefully to be more in the dark. The street light and local traffic over expososed some elements of both photographs

If it was not for NYC I don't know what I would do around here. NJ is not a place of any recognition in my book. Its a vast land of everything necessary and just enough to pass. There are rich towns and poor towns, but the mentality is just the same. Baseball and BBQs. And I could not be more far that any of that crap.
Tonight ta photograph from a walk in NYC Meat Packing district. A wedding shoot taking place while a dog (the ring bearer) waited for his turn to pose. And shortly after the first photograph he did. I'm planning to photograph this same region with the 4x5 camera in the next few weeks.

A great news for Poland today. Despite a 6 hour lag I have been following the elections to the minute. I could not be more happy. Donald Tusk has won. He is among my favorite politicians. Not only Polish but my personal tracking of world politics. In this group is Tony Blair and the american Colin Powell. Powel had disappeared from American political scene because what he believed in was pure and human good but the candidacy which originally supported him failed to support his vision.
i have watched Donald Tusk in the two televised elections in the last week. I read about his campaign for some time now. His voice is mine. I am Proud that the Polish government now has a prime minister I am absolutely sure of and incredibly proud of. Donald Tusk is my answer to transforming Poland where I can return and make better.

Even after so many rolls developed in Rodinal I came across technical setbacks recently. A few rolls pushed 2 stops of Tri-x gave me very weak negatives. So I have been stubborn to find some alternatives. I found one recently while surfing the net which is called Stand developing method. Basically the developer is diluted to 1:100 or 1:200 and once the roll is in the can all agitation takes place in the first 30 seconds to 1 minute. The tank then sits for an hour (or two hours based on the dilution). What this supposedly does is develops a fuller negative. Because the amount of developer is so small it does not over develops the negative but simply dies while developing the film. I read somewhere where a guy left a roll in the can overnight and still got some useful negatives.

I do not know how this will work for me. As I am writing this I have a roll I did this morning. A typical suburban life and scenes. In one of the shots I found a very plain house with two cars as the standard for what suburbia is supposed to look like. Then there was a garage sale, then some apartment buildings on the edge of woods (over development of suburbia) and a photograph of a real-estate sight now overgrown in tall grass. All this on a roll of 12 is souping right now in Rodinal at 1:200 dilution for 2 hours. Some 50 minutes still left.

For now a photograph from the old rollei of a different sight but still of New Jersey. A plant (incinerator I think) that I see from a train everyday on my way to the finical area of Jersey City.

I took out the old Rolli I have, a camera made in the early 1950s, and ran a roll of tri-x in it. I am making progress in figuring out why my previous pushed processed rolls were disappointments. But I need to do some more rolls to know for sure.

Tonight, a quick hand held shot of 1/25th motion blurred photograph from the Rolli on the commute home. Tri-x pushed in Rodinal to 1600 at 71F 22min.

I have started to be more conscious of photographing my commute. The idea here is that being in the same trend of everyday I am trying to see a pattern of consistency with the photographs I take along the way. My answer lately to the question of type of work that I photograph is social documentary. I am a big fan of Magnum organization. I'd like to find more of the elements found in those photographers work in my work.
With plenty of gear in my possession the only thing left to do is to photograph. Despite a recent setback of pushing Tri-x to ISO 6400 and getting less then acceptable results, has not deterred me from experimenting some more. Since most of my work is done in the evening (after dayjob hours) and weekends I am trying to find a discipline of processing pushed rolls that I can somewhat relay on. One of the specific locations I am concentrating on is NYC. Everyone has done it and thats the best part about it. I want to be there photographing to see how I see it. I am interested what my interpretation, opportunity, and the decisive moment will be. Outside of that I do not know what to think of these surroundings. I am much often unsettled around here. I am thinking more often of leaving and that would mean Europe.
Photograph from a commute as mentioned before. This is the tonal quality I am after.