After several months, I finally finished a roll of film I had loaded in my Mamiya. Loaded with Kodak TRI-X 400, I shot this roll at 1600. I wanted to experiment with pushing TRI-X a couple of stops. I started out with the goal of shooting all frames at night, but I jumped on an opportunity to shoot a vacant house. Therefore, I shot the remaining frames during the day. I figured this would be a good test to see how pushing TRI-X to 1600 would render subjects in low light. Thus, my first of two blog posts from this roll of film will be about the vacant house. My next post will showcase the night shots.
‘Dark Interpretations’ not only refers to the literal dark nature of these photographs, but it also refers to the subject matter. These photos may appear a bit creepy to some. That’s my one sentence disclaimer. Also my wife grabbed some shots with her phone. While these phone pictures are not film shots, they do go along with the creepy subject matter. I will credit her in the captions.
Let’s start with the exterior. These outside shots were actually taken after I finished up from inside. It was a cloudy day. The sun was on the horizon and the light was fading fast. These first three shots have that scary feeling of the Myer’s house from the movie Halloween or the Amityville house from the Amityville Horror movie. If you look hard enough, you might see the silhouette of an old woman rocking in a chair in one of the upstairs windows like in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, Psycho. Ok, I have to confess, I am a scary movie junkie. I blame it on my mom for letting me watch some of the old classic black and white scary films with her when I was a kid.
Mamiya 645 1000s / 55mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Mamiya 645 1000s / 55mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Mamiya 645 1000s / 55mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Before we get to the attic where I spent most of my time, here are the first 3 interior shots.
Mamiya 645 1000s / 55mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Mamiya 645 1000s / 55mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Mamiya 645 1000s / 55mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
If you could not tell the age of the house from the previous shots, this next shot of the electrical wiring should provide some hints. They don’t make ’em like they used to.
Mamiya 645 1000s / 80mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Ok, this is where things turn a bit creepy. As you saw from the electrical wiring, things were a bit dark in the attic. There were only 4 windows on 3 sides supplying light from the overcast sky. The attic was full of clothes, toys-mainly dolls, newspapers, magazines, furniture, books, boxes and the list goes on.
Mamiya 645 1000s / 80mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Mamiya 645 1000s / 80mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
Mamiya 645 1000s / 80mm f2.8 / Kodak TRI-X 400 @1600 / The FINDLab
The remaining pictures were taken by my wife with her cell phone.
Photo by Amy – HTC One M8 Android Cell Phone
Photo by Amy – HTC One M8 Android Cell Phone
Photo by Amy – HTC One M8 Android Cell Phone
Photo by Amy – HTC One M8 Android Cell Phone
Photo by Amy – HTC One M8 Android Cell Phone
What is it about dolls that’s creepy? My wife had no problem capturing these photos of the dolls, but she would watch a slasher movie before she would watch a scary movie with dolls. Go figure. Anyway, we had a great time touring and photographing this old house. If I had the time, I could make a day out of creating photographs in and around this house. TRI-X at 1600 looks great in medium format! I won’t hesitate to push this film if needed. I will have to give it a try in 35mm. I would love to hear your experiences with pushing TRI-X. I hope you enjoyed the photos and I hope they were not too creepy. Thanks for stopping by! Before I go, I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures from this venture made by my wife. It shows one of the owner’s of the house sifting through lost treasures in the attic.
Photo by Amy – HTC One M8 Android Cell Phone
Photos Best Viewed In Lightbox Below!
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10 Responses
Another nice set.
Thank you!! I appreciate you stopping by!
This is real?!
OMG. This DOES look scary. The electrical wiring looks like a film still. 🙂
You must have spent a lot of time there, since you were there in the darkness, too.
I like it how you mix medias: your film & your wife’s “android”. I should/might label them, too! When I am on a walk with my partner, he also takes pictures with his android. The quality is far from being poor.
In 2017 I wish to spend more time here on your, I wish to explore your postings, all of them! Recently I ran out of leisure time. This shall pass 🙂
best wishes and all the best for 2017!
Paula
Thanks for stopping by Paula! That electrical wiring is one of my favorite shots. My wife and I were probably only in the house for about 3 hours. We could have spent the entire day in that house!
You are right. Photos from today’s phones can be very good. I would say the only limitation is the person taking the picture.
I hope to spend more time on the blogs I follow as well and that includes yours! I’ve gotten behind lately, but I am going to try to stay current in the new year. I hope you and yours have an awesome 2017!
I enjoyed your images. I just picked up a Mamiya 645 Pro and am waiting to shoot my first roll of B&W. If you shoot this film at a much higher ISO than it is, would you end up under exposing everything, severely? Do you have to make up for it in the processing? (one quick question on the camera lenses A&M lever, when the A is covered by the switch and the M is showing is it set on A or is it set on M). Probably seems like a dumb question, but the manual is very confusing on this point. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your images. Thanks.
Thank you for your comment! As far as I’m concerned, there are no dumb questions. Your lens is in the mode of whatever letter you see. If you can see the letter “A”, you are in the “A” mode. “A” is typically what is used most often as it keeps the aperture at it’s maximum opening to let in the most light.
You are correct. If I was to shoot a 400 film at 1600 and process it at 400, my exposures would be dark. When I do this, I instruct the lab to “push” the roll 2 stops. The lab will then process the roll at 1600 instead of 400.
I love my 645 1000s! It’s a fun camera to use. I love the images that I get out of this camera. I will have to check out your images from your new 645 Pro! Thanks for stopping by!
Great shots. Loved the ones by your wife with her phone camera.
Thank you! She has a DSLR that she hardly uses. I guess the best camera is the one you have with you. Thanks for reading!
[…] a very old home. The images turned out great! You can read about that adventure and see the photos here. Today’s blog is about the night shots I made on this same roll. Before we get to the […]
[…] This scene was taken in the attic of an abandon house. Dolls and doll parts were found all over the attic. Read the story behind this picture at Shuttering Thru Life. […]