Kiran Bhat Photography

Velvia is special for me. Of all the color slides I have shot with, the result Velvia produces amazes me everytime. In Velvia blues, reds and greens especially stand out. It can be a little too contrasty for portraits but for landscapes it is perfect. The results are very consistent even with the home development of E-6 using rapid kits. I develop all my E-6s with using my Jobo CPE-2 either with Tetenal or Arista rapid kits (pictured below). I'll post a detailed development process soon. I don't print from my slides so I just scan them with Epson V700 and digitize. Although scanning doesn't do justice to the richness of the slides but it is acceptable, given my small investment in equipments. I feel every film photographer should experience Velvia goodness at least once!   Velvia development in progress using Jobo CPE-2 Sinar F 4x5, Horseman 6x12, Velvia 50 Mamiya RZ67 ProII, Velvia 50 Hasselblad 500C, Velvia 50 Mamiya RZ67 ProII, Velvia 50 Calumet 4x5

Some of my recent black and white landsacpes. I certainly have shot more black and white pictures than color. First two are shot using my Hasselblad 500C and other two are digital pictures shot using Olympus E-3. Delhi Metropark, Dexter Michigan - Hasselblad 500C, Carl-Zeiss 80 f/2.8, ND3 Little Sable Light House - Hasselblad 500C, Carl Zeiss 80 2.8, B+W ND110 Blue Hen Falls, Ohio - Olympus E-3, B+W ND110

Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm f/2.5 was a world war 2 era lens adopted to work with Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Camera with a focal plane shutter. I have seen this lens being used with Sinar Shutter & other third party shutters with other 4x5 cameras. Although I own a Sinar shutter, I like shooting this with Speed Graphic because it makes a beautiful, portable pair. The lens needs to be adopted to work with Speeds, the main component of this process is getting the lensboard to fit. Jo Lommen  makes lensboards to fit a couple of Speed versions, which is I what I use my Aero Ektar with. This combination when shot wide open is a bokeh machine. It creates such a dreamy look, it makes the pictures look 3 dimensional almost. Hopefully I get use this combo more in my photography.

I am not a big 35mm fan but Kodachrome was something else (I only could my hands on 135 format).It was an excellent film to use Hexanon 57mm f/1.2 + Konica T3 combo. These days I mostly shoot and develop E-6 slides. RIP Kodachrome.