Eric Patrick McCormack Photography

Pushing the Limits of 35mm

These images are from Montana where most of my family gathered for the Christmas holiday. I brought my Leica M7 and several rolls of film. I had just learned about Efke 25 film and was excited to give it a try with some sweeping Montana landscapes. I brought with me my borrowed 35mm Leitz lens. This particular lens is perfect for the “Big Sky State”.

I usually well almost exclusively shoot Kodak film Tri-X being the staple choice for black and white photography. After trolling around Flickr I discovered Efke and with that Rodinal developer and stand developing. The following images here I shot with Efke and processed in Rodinal 1:100 dilution and stand developed for 1 hour. My first go around with Rodinal and stand developing was less than optimal.See this post. I am pretty happy with my results this time around.

While in Montana I ran into another photographer who said he would shoot large format. Now those cameras will produce amazing negatives.

Well I when I purchased my Leica I knew that I wanted a camera that was light and mobile.So I have a camera with amazing glass and can produce beautiful images. I just wanted to shoot atypical photographs with my Leica that being landscapes.

I was fortunate enough to grab some time and roll around the area close to where we were staying in Manhattan, MT. I hope you enjoy my photos.

Mysterious Temptress

I have always been sort of reticent to cross process my film. The colors are never true but they can produce very interesting results. If you are purist with color than cross processing will be uncomfortable for you.

That may not be a bad thing. Pushing yourself into uncomfortable territory is sometimes a very good place to be and you may grow creatively from it. I have not done a lot of cross processing but personally I prefer shooting chrome and processing the film in C-41 chemistry. I just prefer the look of slide film going the way of the negative.

Outside of the extreme color shift, one of the side effects that occurs is grain. There will appear more grain in your crossed processed film. If you are adamantly opposed to film grain than this may not me your thing. But again I think that the results may outweigh the negatives.

If you are a film photographer I urge you to give it a try, experiment is that not what life is all about. Experimentation and living?

Here is another example of cross processed film:

 

Please view more crossed processed film on my Flickr page.