Friday, October 11, 2024

Sleepy Mornings

 Street photography in early mornings is different, you see different sorts of people, which I like to categorise as: 

  • Early delivery workers 
  • Early store/shop openers 
  • I need to get this chore done before I go to work people 
  • Runners and early sports people
  • Fully ready to work but office is not open so I'll have breakfast people. 
  • Passed out drunks (mostly on weekends) 

You can guess what this person categorised as. 



Photography: H.Bugra Ergil 
Camera: Mamiya RZ67 Pro II + Mamiya Sekor Z 180mm
Film: Ilford HP5+ shot at 1600
Processed in Kodak HC110 
Scanned with Epson Perfection V750 Pro

Monday, September 30, 2024

GoSee №2.1

 


Photography: Bugra Ergil
Model: Rhiannon Ishmael - Self Casted

Camera: Pentax 67II + SMC 105mm 2.4
Film: Ilford HP5+
Processed in Kodak HC110
Scanned with Epson Perfection V750 Pro

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Istanbul Eminönü

Very common thing to photograph when you are traveling or on the streets with BW film in your camera. 

Pigeons and Kids

Photography Bugra Ergil

Camera: Pentax 67 MkII + SMC 105mm f2.4
Film: Kodak TMax 400 shot at box speed
Processed in Ilford DD-X
Scanned in Epson Perfection V750 Pro

Friday, July 26, 2024

State of Photography in 2024 and Future

 Ever since post pandemic I have taken more and more post production, darkroom, printing, enlarging, and colour proofing jobs and the amount of photography I did has taken a back seat in my work life. Even back then before the pandemic I have taken my Digital camera out of my camera bag and went in full analog as a working professional photographer. It was and still is a shock for most of my clients to hear that I shoot film and I have to also explain to them by film I mean negative film and not movie film like on Hollywood. I still tell them vast majority of my work that the work they saw and liked and hired me for are actually analog and they hired me for that reason and they wanted to have photos like I had in my previous work or  in portfolio, but they got too comfortable with seeing things as they are shot and too comfortable with having option of 1500+ photos to chose from. 

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Equipment Care and Auto Focus Re-Calibration

 Sundays are usually cleaning days. This Sunday the flat was pretty clean to start with and my girlfriend finished the cleaning while I was exercising. So after taking her to my local pub for sunday roast, I decided to clean my lenses,  Nikon camera bodies and re-calibrate autofocus on my Nikon D800. 


Calibrating lens is something that you can do only in Digital SLR cameras and maybe mirrorless but I don't know about them since to this date I have not used mirrorless camera because big bulk of my work is shot on medium format film and I keep a digital camera for the fast turnover or small budget shoots. 

In future posts I'll be writing more about lens calibration. 

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Testing light and environment

 Next project I am working on is with my classmate Carolina. We are both graduates of LCF class of  2013 and both of us had to learn to climb before we learned how to run. Maybe that's why despite not agreeing in creative direction all the time we still get along and understand each other. 

In projects where lots of creatives will be getting together to create a body of work, the photographer shouldn't disappoint. This is why I would like to go to the location before the shoot and get some tests to see the rough idea of the frame and observe the environment. In doing so, I will be prepared with scenarios where the shooting conditions changes, I now know the direction of the sun and how it will be setting, the areas that will be covered in shadow and how big of a diffuser will be needed if we need one. 

I shoot the backdrop or something alike the backdrop we'll be using with a colour chart to see how the colours will be showing, I also shoot several frames in Kodak Portra 400 and Gold 200 to see how they work with this type of set but they are in the lab. 
The cat invasion of the set.


Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Shoes

Sometimes I see something that has a story and take a photo of it. I call it wasting film some call it street photography and others call it art. Why do I call it wasting film? There is a story behind this shoes and how they got dirty, the story of the person wearing them, the story of how they get here, but in the medium of street photography it's just one or two photo snapped and move on the next one. Entire photoshoot or documentary project is not happening. We are just left out with our imagination.  

Photography by Bugra Ergil    Shot on Mamiya RZ67 Pro II + 110mm f2.8 + Trix Shot at 1600

  • "Momma always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they're going, where they've been." —Forrest Gump

Monday, July 15, 2024

Historical Photograph Moment

 With the advancing technology we are seeing more and more video based media. Instagram reels, TikTok,  YouTube shorts, infinite scrolling of media consumption changed our lives for better or worse. Among those video based media, photography and other art forms started to take backseat in the algorithm, but every now and then an unforeseen event unfolds and despite the videos and different angle coverage, a photograph speaks the loudest. 

Photo by: Evan Vucci 

An assassination attempt which drew blood on a ex-president who is also running as presidential candidate  for next American election is very rare thing to see and just as rare to photograph. This event alone will bring more media and attention to all future Trump rallies. 

This photo has already been published in majority of the newspapers around the world, very soon it will be published in the Time Magazine, probably will make the next issues cover and sooner or later you will be able to buy high quality prints on Magnum photos or other websites. Evan Vucci will be forever know as the photographer who captured this moment. 

Friday, July 12, 2024

Pride - London - 2024

 I have been going to Pride in London once every couple years. In the beginning of my studies at London College of Fashion I could't go since it clashed with my Family planned holidays. Don't forget I grow up without my family since I was 13 and my sister went to University in America in her early 20's, which meant that every holiday opportunity was utilised and planned with my family. I was just around 24 I told my family that I can't just spend whole summer on the sea because I'm working now. Now looking back at it, I feel I was soo privileged to be able to spend my summers in that way. 

Moving back to Pride. It was just as packed as 2018 pride which was my last time before this time. In comparison to my first time there to last time. It is a lot more tame and less wild but also so much more advertisement happening in it. 


Packed pride: Shot with F6 + 24-70mm f2.8 Kodak Gold 






 



Thursday, July 11, 2024

Agitation test

 When processing Black and white negative film, there are many developers and film. Often times people overlook the agitation methods. When seeking for the correct way to process film I came across multiple recommendation by film and developer makers and even communities. 

Kodak recommends 30 sec continues agitation then 5 second agitation every 30 seconds whereas Ilford suggests 15 to 30 seconds continues agitation then 5 to 10 second every minute. Then again on the inside of the Ilford film box It states that 10 seconds continues agitation then 10 second agitation intervals every minute, same goes for Kentmere films. 

So I decided to test some theories my self. Although I would not consider these very scientific test since I used Expired film roll and the light was chancing from f2.2 to f2.5 which I adjusted with shutter speed. I wanted to test what happens if over agitate. 

These tests were never in my plans, I was actually testing the light sealing on my cameras and film magazine/backs. Then I told my self why not shoot 2 of these quick test set up I made in my kitchen and see. These tests gave me a rough idea about the over agitation of BW negative film. 

I don't know if I will shoot more test like these since film isn't cheep and processing them individually to isolate them is time consuming but if I do, I'll post it my findings here in my blog and write about it in reddit to get approvals of random internet strangers to feel good about my findings. 


30 seconds then 5 seconds every 30 seconds
30 seconds then 5 seconds every 30 seconds interval 

In the photo above I agitated for 30 seconds then again for 5 seconds every 30 seconds. Considered to be normal or one of the acceptable methods. This Produced close to accurate results both in test photo and also in rest of the roll it is apparent that the film was expired in a non gracious way (out of fridge). 


60 seconds then 30 seconds every 30 second interval 

On this photo above, I agitated the film for 1 minute then 30 seconds every 30 second intervals. It is noticeably more grainy and the shadows/blacks are loosing more detail than the previous photo. 

Kodak Tri-x 400 shot at box speed and processed in Kodak Hc-110 


Tuesday, July 9, 2024

On the Street - One

 So sometimes I like to walk around with a camera and ask random Cool Stylish people if I can photograph them. I'll post them more often in here with new title called On the street. Old fashion blog readers will get the title. 


Nikon D800 + 50mm f1.4
Photography Bugra Ergil 


Monday, July 8, 2024

The Unseen - 6

 I was moving files around and making them make more sense in my hard drives and came across this shoot. I noticed that, the scans were very very very large in file size and colour was very off. I can see that I just wanted to scan them highest resolution as possible but pay little attention to colour. So I decided to scan them again in 3200DPI and focus bit more on the colour. I don't know where the colours went off but rescans colour was off too. Still it was more salvageble when compared to the originals. I think it was either the Colour of the flash used in the shoot or the chemistry accuracy in the Lab was off. I managed to get the colours to where I want them in this photo. 


 Mamiya RZ67 ProII + 127mm 3.8
Kodak Portra 160
Scanned with Epson V750
Team: 
Photographer: Bugra Ergil (ME)
Stylist: Zoe Springer
Makeup Artist: Maria Vez
Hair Stylist: Elettra Guggeri 
Model: Freya J Duffy @Premier

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

GoSee №1.4


Photographer: Bugra Ergil 
Model: Jemilla King self casted

Camera: Pentax 67II + SMC 105mm 2.4
Film Ilford HP5+ shot at box speed
Processed in Kodak HC110 (b)
Scanned with Epson Perfection V750 Pro

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Where have I been all these years?

I don't think there is a veteran reader left to read this and understand or care about my absence but I think I owe an explanation to the blog I created in my early university years. 

This blog dates back to 2009 starting with my experiments and classes in LCF. Looking back at my early posts I can see that I was terrible and knew nothing, to now that I can see that I have come long way but still there is much to learn. 

In 2018, my colleague and friend Carolina told me that there are some potential big name projects that we can shoulder together and turn them in to a continues client over time. Undertaking 3 to 6 shoots every month once we settle in and establish ourself. The task was simple enough that two people can undertake it without additional need of a team and if the environment was under control, only one Photographer could get the job done. Initially we didn't charge them too high since we were also starting this type of photography relatively new and we weren't thought this at school either, but we quickly learned adapted and developed a workflow and raised our price to what was agreeable to us and the clients. Over the years we did commercial shoots in Harrods, Selfridges, Heathrow Airpot Terminal 5, Manchester Exchange Square, The Trafford Center, Sloan Street, Regents Street and the Old Bond Street. During these years we had pandemic and even somehow managed to work during the pandemic, though the payments were so slow that we didn't get paid until the pandemic was over and the world was coming to normalisation period after Covid-19. We thought that our hard work, dedication, professionalism and adaptability would be rewarded. How wrong were we! After 4 years we learn that was not the case.

In May 2021 while cycling I got hit by a pickup truck. Which put me out of commission for about 12 weeks. You can see my journey after the crash in these Instagram posts: Post 1 & Post 2. I can't thank my best friends Jing and Linda enough for their help. Surviving bike crash involving a Ford pickup truck is one thing but that happening in Covid pandemic times in a Bank-holiday Sunday is next level inconvenience. 

Later in 2021 I was introduced to Andy, he needed someone to handle 4x5 large format negatives in the darkroom, more precisely process them in Deep Tanks via dip and dunk method, on occasion I'd do 35mm and medium formats but that was rare. Thanks to this connection I'd also get to play in C41 chemistry again and learn bit more about Black and White developers like their unique characteristics and even home brewing them, although my understanding of home brewing B&W developers started this year in 2024. 
In 2021-2022, due to COVID restrictions, factory shutdowns, workforce reductions, and the Evergreen Suez Canal incident, fresh photographic chemistry and professional Kodak colour film became scarce and expensive. Shooting unpaid work in colour negative film and processing it became a significantly larger expense than in 2017. Consequently, after 2021, I shifted my focus to post-production, processing, and digital shoots. I couldn't post about the processing work due to NDAs, and I didn't enjoy digital work, which diminished my interest in blogging.

In late March 2023, Andy disappeared, and by the end of 2023, I learned why. I will not reveal his personal information here, but his disappearance affected the one enjoyable work environment I had: processing negatives. This also halted my access to free processing, adding more costs to an already expensive analog shooting process.

The post-COVID years have been challenging for my family and me. Since mid-2023, life has been particularly difficult. Despite my efforts to mask my sadness and turmoil, my girlfriend Samantha noticed and, being a great communicator, helped me by listening and encouraging me to help myself.

Moving forward, I will dedicate more time and resources to analog photography. I have already recovered a backlog of negatives and photos that I have yet to publish on my blog and portfolio. Some photoshoots are moving into the pre-production phase. I hope these efforts will rebalance my work-life in a direction I enjoy. Fingers crossed, by 2026, I aim to pursue a master's degree in photography, thirteen years after graduating from UAL-LCF in Fashion Photography. I want to delve deeper into darkroom techniques and work in ways digital photographers cannot. Learning digital photography gets easier every day, while mastering analog and darkroom techniques is becoming increasingly challenging.

Monday, June 10, 2024

Pentax 67 II

Let's talk about the workhorse in the room. 

I got my first Pentax 6X7 in 2014 from Mr.Cad in London and after one month of using it I went back in the shop and told them "I want you to notify me immediately if you receive a Pentax 67 II" and left my phone number. 

Asahi Pentax 6x7 worked just fine but the problem I had with it was slowing me down a bit. 
The body lacked the grip in comparison to new version and the version I had didn't have meter. Although I use lightmeter in all my analog shoots, there are times that I would like to depend on cameras meter too when time is short. However I knew that any version of Pentax 67 was there to stay in my kit. So several months after I gave my phone number to Mr.Cad I got a phone from them telling me a body in Excellent condition was available there and I Just dropped everything I was doing and dashed there. I part exchanged my Existing camera with the new version and since that day it's been happy shooting for me. 




I knew the camera was not in unused condition and also it was not in Mint+ or Excellent +++ or some on top of a list of some other camera condition ration but it worked and it didn't look too bad and I knew this would be my go to field camera which is to stay. Wont be selling or part exchanging this camera. 

So since last 10 years, I have been using Mamiya RZ67 Pro II and Pentax 67II as my medium format film cameras. Studio and Field I am covered for 6x7 the ideal format.  
In the I'm not there shoot, I asked a friend of mine who also had a Pentax 67II to lend me his camera so I could shoot Colour with one then swap for Black & White with other camera. 

One thing I didn't know about Pentax 67II was that in Aperture priority mode, it has greater shutter speed control (which you can't control). What do I mean by that? The shutter speed on the dial goes up by a stop from 4 sec to 1/1000 sec, but the aperture priority mode would go half stops giving you just little bit more accurate exposure on some scenarios and to be honest I didn't know about this until I shot the Mechanic shoot. Though I  swapped to Nikon F6 in order to get better story from the shoot. 

What I like about Pentax 67 II? 
  • It is 6x7 medium format SLR camera
  • Unlike Mamiya RZ or RB 67 system, while focusing you wont need to adjust exposure depending on focusing distance. 
  • The body resembles modern-day SLR or DSLR
  • Backwards compatible lenses with older pentax 67 version. 
  • Same camera can shoot both 120 and 220 film (if 220 makes a comeback at all) 
  • The focusing prism is beautiful and easy to manual focus. 
  • Aperture priority mode has shutter speed half stops. 
  • Battery that lasts for years. 

Sunday, June 9, 2024

GoSee №1.3



 

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (me)
Model: Jemilla King self casted
Camera: Pentax 67II + SMC 105mm 2.4
Film Ilford HP5+ shot at box speed
Processed in Kodak HC110 (b)
Scanned with Epson Perfection V750 Pro

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Moyin - I'm not there.

Final image of the edit I done in last post. Gotta say I love Kodak Portra 800, favourite colour film, only downside is hard to find and more expensive than others. 

Camera: Pentax 67 II + Pentax SMC 105mm 2.4
Film: Kodak Portra 800 shot at Box speed
Processed in Kodak Flexicolour C-41
Scanned in Epson Perfection V750 Pro
Team: 
Photography: Bugra Ergil (me)
Styling: Lenita Visan
Makeup: Jess Sumer
Hair: Yumi Noh
Model: Moyin @First

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Adjusting RGB Levels on scanned negative film

 


I made blogpost about this back in 2013 and this is still my workflow when I'm shooting analog. This can be done with nearly all scanner soft wears that allow you to turn auto adjustments off. 

In a nutshell: While scanning negatives, the scanner software usually performs or attempts to perform this step for you. However, the software interprets the image in 1s and 0s, so the black or white out-of-frame areas can confuse the scanner software and result in inconsistent colours. This method simply adjusts the RGB levels on the histogram to the correct positions, removing software error from the equation.


Monday, June 3, 2024

Deep Earth By G.Binsky - Nº.3

 

Photography Bugra E & Carolina M
Model: Anna W

Camera: Pentax 67 II + SMC 105mm 2.4
Film: Kodak Portra 400
Processed in Kodak Flexicolor C-41
Scanned with Epson Perfection V750

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Deep Earth By G.Binsky - Nº.2

After I edited the images for the client, I started to edit some for my Print Portfolio however during the time I was editing them I deiced to do update my Mac, and somehow my desktop without my approval, decided to sync to apple cloud which is just dumb because there is not enough space to cover all the PSB and TIFF files I was keeping on my Desktop. The automation decided to remove the files that can't be placed in cloud and place in the cloud that doesn't have space, so in less than a minute all the photos were gone, not in desk top not in cloud, there were just empty folders in the could server. Fast forward to 2024 Latest cloud update, I found a way to recover the photos and I still don't know how I did it. Since 2019 pandemic happened I got hit by pickup truck bought a Flat etc... another reason for blog post which I'll be actually writing. 


Photography Bugra E & Carolina M
Model: Vanessa 

Camera: Pentax 67 II + SMC 105mm 2.4
Film: Kodak Portra 400
Processed in Kodak Flexicolor C-41
Scanned with Epson Perfection V750