Early Failures

     Shooting my Graflex was a pleasant experience, and it was growing more and more so. I was learning the theories behind tilt and shifting lenses for a variety of effects. Eric was continuing being his helpful self in guiding me along the process. Developing was still being a little bit of a hassle as I struggled with scanning the much larger negative. In all though my new camera worked marvelously and I marveled at how those dapper reporters of yesteryear carried and used these larger instruments to document the world around them. I also enjoyed the minimalist aspect of shooting this camera. I had but one lens! An Optar 135mm 4.7 lens. Not carrying a bag full of lenses was in many ways liberating and it is something I now do on a more regular basis with my 35mm's.
     Yet, in all of this a problem was developing. My little Graflex Optar was of course old and it had seen much use and then little use. It began to stick on me when I tripped the shutter. It was only occasionally and I thought little of it. I had a Bronica lens that did me that way and it freed itself up after some use. So I prescribed more work for it to do. I doubt you'd want me as your physician. "You feel sick? You need to sweat it out, go give me 10 laps around the clinic! That'll do the trick!"
     Well obviously, since you are reading about failures, it didn't.
     I decided that the next few places I'd take my new friend were some of my regular haunts, Oaklands Historic House Museum and Stones River National Battlefield. These are some of the most beautiful locations in my home town and I was anxious to capture them on 4x5 film. I first went to Stones River, or just "the battlefield" as we call it locally. I found a nice paved path that moved in a straight line away from the tour area and was encircled by trees and bordered with "snake rail" fences. I was excited to try some tilt effects and set up my shot. I went through the motions of preparing the camera and fiddled with the tilt mechanism until I got the desired effect of adjusting the focal place closer along the plane of the ground. An effect not possible with traditional 35mm and digital lenses. I locked my focus. Everything was set. I depressed the plunger of my release.
    "Tick." This wasn't the usual double "click-click" I normally hear. I looked at my optics and I was disgusted that the shutter was stuck open. I pushed the release arm the rest of the way with my finger. And slightly aggravated I reset to shoot it again. I did and once again it was just a "tick." But the shutter was closed this time, so I figured it took. It didn't. That ended up being a blank negative, with no exposure. The first did record an image however.

"What's Wrong?" Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic, Optar 135mm (stuck open), Kodak Portra 400

     Yep, that's my ugly mug trying to figure out what went wrong. The straight lines weren't caused by the stuck shutter. That's something else. More on that later.
     Thinking that I had only wasted one sheet I moved on to the other location I wanted to go and photograph. I nice open spot with two cannons and ammo carriages near the main visitor center.
This time I clicked the shutter many times to be certain it was working properly. It was, so I readied the camera and made two exposures. The first once again didn't open properly and I got a negative with no image. The second did take and I was happy that I knew I had at least one shot, if I did everything correctly. I had done everything correctly hadn't I?
     Well, I got home and prepared to develop. I used my darkbag and made the "tacos" to fit in my tank. But something was wrong. The funnel of the tank didn't feel like it had locked properly but it felt secure, so I assumed it was and put the lid on. As long as you have the tank funnel and spindle connected in the tank it is light tight. Opened the lid to do a pre-wash and I heard a rattle. I looked and I saw film emulsion in the hole where the spindle was supposed to be, it wasn't secure. I quickly put the lid back on but I knew it was too late. I opened it back up in the dark bag and resealed everything. I decided to develop anyway, there was a chance that one made it. Turns out, they didn't.
     As a result my cannon shot looked like you are going back into time through a portal.

Portra 400, Shot through a temporal displacement field (yeah that's it)

     This is one of those "happy accidents" as Bob Ross would say. It was a "failure" that turned interesting. I was happy to see my tilting would have been successful. This is the care one must take. My lens issues put the first damper on my excitement. I should have sent it off then, but I was still confident it would work itself free of it's issues. Indeed my next shoot went without a hitch. But it was a problem that would continue to plague me all the rest of the year until I finally had to do something about it. This episode was very frustrating in what I was hoping to accomplish. As I couldn't blame it on equipment failure but also my own carelessness.
     In photography, you are going to make errors. That's normal, and it's fine. It's part of the journey. So in your own work don't get frustrated if you miss a shot, or get the light wrong or botch a composition. Learn from those mistakes. It's easy to be bothered, but turn it into a determination to learn and correct them.

As the painter Bob Ross once said, "We don't make mistakes. Just happy accidents."

Thanks for reading and until next time, search for beauty and creativity in the great world around us.

Bobby