Richard Vanek - Black and White Photography

Today didn't start well, I have took by accident car keys with me to work and my wife needs a car to get to her job. So I need to cycle back and again to work.
I was hoping that was a last bad thing. But when I call to Benq service center for making appointment to repair my scanner, they told me that this service case number I have is not valid. Reason is that scanner I have is out of warranties (what the person knew when I was registering it) and BenQ do not service Acer scanners out of warranty. But BenQ took over Acer scanners about two-three years ago.
So I called Acer where they inform me that they do not do any business or repair to their former scanners. But they gave me a number to their contractor who does service for them. There I find out that they do not repair scanners and they never did.
So I called back BenQ and they refuse to repair my scanner even they produce exactly the same one. They suggest that I can buy new one!

So f...!!!

I have found yesterday little simple trick how to convince my scanner to do batch scanning again. I do normally preview scans of complete roll. That is my input, something like contact prints. Those are low resolution scans of each frame so I get something like 900x600 pixels picture. I was doing it from whatever reason always at full resolution of the scanner 2700dpi and than downsize picture to 1/4. Now I do scan at 1/4 of resolution (simple :-) and have it faster, maybe with less quality (for this use it is unimportant) but faster. And the most important my scanner works in batch in this resolution perfectly so I do whole roll something like in 20 minutes including time for changing negative stripes. I must say it is good again to see my photographs and things working!

I have found out that my film supplier is not carrying anymore my favorite lower sensitivity film Kodak 125PX. So I start search where I can find cheap. I have found place but it is little more expensive. Than I start thinking that maybe I can use different one, which is cheap. But hey I was doing my film round earlier and I was trying out Fuji Acros, Ilford FP4+, Foma 100 and few more. This way it goes in my mind for few past days. In the same time I was developing films and scanning. Yesterday I scanned some Kodak 125PX I had shot back in Slovakia and Portugal. Suddenly my question was answered: I will pay more for Kodak 125PX! I have so nice shots from it I just can't leave it. It is great, I think, and you will see it tomorrow.

I was with car in service today and as I was expecting to wait one or two hours I took camera with me. Instead of irritating people in service I went walking around. Again after few month I went without any special goal with camera in my hand. I wasn't expecting much and I thing I didn't get anything extra. While I was walking like that and taking picture of things which catch my eye it felt good. When I am back home now I am wondering if this is really the right think. I believe not I need to have little more concrete direction and goal when I want to make pictures.

I have print and put on web two new pictures. One is from Portugal the other one from Slovakia. The later is one of the few shots from last developed roll which convinced me to keep using Kodak 125PX.

This picture has great tone scale and atmosphere. I like it very much. I took it with bunch of other shots while our kids where eating ice cream and waiting for castle entrance last summer. This is a one of the shots I did on Kodak 125PX which convince me about this film as my final choice for lower sensitive film.

Walking in Portugal around different castles and ruins I find once this girl walking on edge of rampart.

One can see that is weekend and I have little more time for my photography. I had print few more photos and put next two on-line. As well I have developed so far four rolls and I hope I can make next four this evening.

I am happy when I found kids doing what we use to do when I was small. As I was living in town it wasn't that easy and that nice, but here on this small village kids still play in river and they have a lot of fun with it. In summer day while walking with my son we found these children playing with small cars.

While walking in the small streets of small town in Portugal I suddenly saw this dog. It was standing at the edge of the roof observing street. I did few shots and than turn right and found out old guy looking from window to the dog. I guess there both were in kind of speechless discussion.

Yesterday I have shot that kind of pictures I did last time maybe 15 years ago. I did few act shots, more like immediate inspiration when I saw Viera fixing her hair at bed. I just took camera and place Neopan 1600 in. Than few minutes after I had roll full :-). The same yesterday evening I developed it. Simple observation says that shooting at 800 and developing for 12 minutes (10 min 1 x inversion, 2 min no inversions) is giving quite useful negatives. Let's wait for final scanning.
Of course this wasn't plan and light wasn't any optimal and as well background. Maybe some will be nice I am curious.

It seems like I have only two choices, either repair my scanner myself or buy a new one. With repairing it myself I am not much confident. It seems like the problem is kind of mechanical. Maybe dust somewhere on some position sensors or anywhere else. With buying a new one (I would love to buy Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400) it is difficult as it is little over my budget in this moment. So if I can't repair it I need to make some extra money. Maybe that is a good push for me to start selling some prints again.

We have been visiting our friends in Belgium and I have shot few rolls of Fuji Neopan 400 with flash on my Nikon F80. It is kind of continuation of experiments. I like rear sync and slow speed together with underexposing of the flash by half stop. I like effects which are created by this technique. I have to make it better, but I believe there will be few interesting shots on those two rolls from this weekend. Well at least I hope.

I also shot Neopan 1600 at 1600 and this is also little tryout as I never did 1600 with Aculux 2.

Again longer break, Hm time fly. One important news is that I decided and ordered Minolta DImage scan elite 5400 scanner. My Acer Scanwit 2720s is working only with original software and even than have certain problems. Anybody interested in this thing? Let me know.
I am really looking forward to the new scanner as I hope it will remove my biggest trouble and I finally will be able to publish new photos as well as print.

Today morning when I was biking to work I was thinking how much different it was when I come to work about twenty years ago. That time it was my first job. Just before going to university. I was walking fro about 25 minutes there across nice small streets and last part across big open space where circus use to be in summer. All the way to work I was thinking how to solve certain problem from yesterday. With a help of my dreams I always found solution or at least possible variant to try. It was a great time and life was exciting, every day new things to discover.

When I have got Olympus OM-2n I was happy I could again shoot from very close and compose precisely. Back light on this picture is what I like and look of the boy as well. That Sunday cold morning when I was walking in our village I start taking picture of small details on kids playgrounds. I loved the winter sharp light with long shadows.

When I was a child I looked at everything from very close. I felt all the small details. I still remember the feeling: when I climbed the rope on early morning when grass was still wet after the night.

I have just received my new Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 scanner.

From what I observe so far I can say following:

• Installation no problem
• Is very fast
• It is quite noise comparing to Acer Scanwit I had before
• The holder for negatives is great, perfect!
• Works perfectly with vuescan

I will write more so far I am happy I can scan again it is working well. I do some preview scans of my last developed rolls. I need to do some other things for tomorrow so full power resolution I will try probably in weekend

We are leaving for few days to have some relaxing time. I did few scans in weekend with Minolta 5400 at highest resolution and also with using grain dissolver. Scanner is fast and scans look good. Produced files are huge. I wish I had a time to print something from those scans but was quite busy with other things.

I have put one new picture on-line. I am trying to print it as well but it doesn't turn very well. Maybe I will challenge my new scanner for it. I did use scan from my old Acer Scanwit for print.

When I take pictures of known subject I try to find new angle of view or some interesting light. And then something interesting appears on its own without me even thinking about it. In this case I was surprised by heart on back of this girl's shoe. Pity I didn't manage to have focus more precise on the shoe itself.