TomFindahl

The 8’th of July I’m finally going back to the Philippines again with my family. It’s been 4 years since we visited the beautiful country, and our family over there. Why having the vacation the same place? Because every time is different! I also did send my photos to South Korea again this year to be part of an exhibition; The Gyeongnam International Photography Festival where I’ve been invited since 2011. It’s a great honor to be invited every year, and I even achieved to be the best photographer in 2017! It has to be hard to judge what photo that is the «best» and what is the best art. Art can be individual and, at least for me, it would be impossible for me to judge what is best in art.. The split second you capture something, and if you’re lucky, it might tell something. And that split second is never coming back. Wise quote: «The time is the same in the relative way, but you’re older» - Pink Floyd -

There’s attention about using AI in photography nowadays. The AI algorithms creates «flawless» and perfect photos in every aspect. It started with «point and shoot» all automatic cameras, making photography more available and easier task to do for most of us. Then, doing snaps with our cellphones, and now there’s AI, making it even more easy. An AI created image even won a competition! It seems like we want all «perfect» without putting in any effort to achieve it ourselves. Maybe this is mirroring todays society? Leaving us with less and less knowledge about how to create a photo. Maybe it’s just me, an old relic denying the development of everything, and living in the past?, or should we keep the knowledge of something that is real..?

It’s winter again, and too cold to use large format gear, at least for me, so I’m focusing on medium format rangefinders like the Super Ikontas and rangefinders with triplets. This summer I was lucky enough to come across a Rolleiflex T, in stellar condition. I purchased a new focus screen from Rick Oleson which made it very easy to focus. The focus screens Rick Oleson is making is amazing, almost as good as the focus screen on Mamiya RZ, and I highly recommend it. Right now I’m getting another TLR into shape, which I purchased 5 or 6 years ago, the Yashica 635 which has been totally overlooked by me. The 80mm f3.5 Yashikor lens has some character that I want to explore. Some triplets have more character than others, the 80mm Radionar f2.9 do also have a certain character but does have reasonably good control of stigmatism Shot with a Radionar 80mm f2.9 triplet: https://www.deviantart.com/tomfindahl/art/At-the-docks-XXXII-940478526

It’s starting to get warmer, and now I can handle the large format cameras and gear with ease compared to the freezing cold of winter. I feel the inspiration gets in my bones looking at the large format gear, and I can’t sit still and relax before I tried to get, at least, one good frame a week. (Or at lease what I think is one good frame, until I’ve developed it…) Hopefully it’ll be a good 6 months with a lot of shooting until the cold season starts again and force me to use lighter gear..

Monday, the new flooring was finished, tuesday the container with all my gear arrived and emptied. Wednesday, the floor moldings was finished, today, Thursday I will put all the gear and tools back into shelves...

The water pipe project is finally finished, and I'm almost done getting my darkroom back together again. I had to put all my cameras and gear in a container, stored in a different place, and actually the enlarger head is stored in the container...hmmm, was a little chaotic situation preparing for the project....

The water pipe project actually makes me go through my photos again since I had to close down my darkroom. And I "discover" photos that I did not notice when going through them after developing the film. So I'm still posting photos even I'm not able to develop a single roll...