Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Recommended reading

Jim Grey
10 comments on Recommended reading
1 minute

💻 Maple trees are out to get us all. So says J. Carter, anyway. Read Maple Conspiracy

Broad Ripple Brewpub
Kodak Brownie Starmatic, Kodak Portra 160, 2012

💻 Do you ever beat yourself up for not doing the things you want to do? Stop it, says Johanna Rothman. Adopt a growth mindset and be kind to yourself! Read When Are You Kind to Yourself and When Are You Not?

💻 When you say you don’t have time for something, it’s likely you actually don’t have the attention to give. So says Jason Fried, who explains. Read The difference between time and attention

📷 Here are all the photos submitted after the last 127 Day, which was July 12. 29 photographs made with 127 cameras. One of them is mine! Read 127 Day Exhibition – the 12th of July, 2021

📷 Alex Luyckx puts the new medium-format Eastman Double-X film through its paces. Read Re-Discovering Double X

📷 James Tocchio reviews the 35mm Graflex Graphic 35 — a very different kind of camera from what Graflex normally produced. Read Graflex Graphic 35 Review – Made for These Pages

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Comments

10 responses to “Recommended reading”

  1. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    If Double XX is anything like the Super Double XX sheet film of my youth, it’d be a winner. It was one of Kodak’s longest “scale” films, and in college, because of this, we used it for separation negs when we were making color dye transfers. I always wondered why Kodak didn’t have a 120 roll film version when sheet film was still available, which it did at one time; but I was told by the tech reps that the granularity was no different than Tri-X. Too bad because the scale certainly was! I’d be tempted to try a few rolls of this in 120 if I was currently processing my own stuff!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      XX is a motion picture stock, so it’s probably not related to Super XX. Or so I’d guess!

      Reply
      1. Andy Umbo Avatar
        Andy Umbo

        Further research says that if anything, Double XX movie film actually has a compressed scale and looks “flat”, so that the contrast it gains when it’s “printed” onto projection stock looks “normal”. My actually movie shooting buds say that you can also shoot it at different asa/iso speeds, and push and pull processing to control contrast, and many people who elect to shoot it for movies experiment with this before committing to a certain asa/processing configuration. But in essence, you are correct, probably not even close to the old Super Double XX, which had a huge and straight “curve” with very little heel and toe.

        Reply
  2. DougD Avatar
    DougD

    Oh, I thought my maple tree was just out to drive me crazy. Leaves, pollen, keys all falling at different times of the year, and I’m sure that someday it’s going to drop a huge branch on the VW during a windstorm. Grrrr….

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I personally like maples, we had a gorgeous red one in the front yard when I was a kid. Where I live now it’s mostly ashes, or was until the Emerald Ash Borer killed most of them.

      Reply
    2. Jerome (EarthSunFilm) Avatar
      Jerome (EarthSunFilm)

      My wife told she saw a maple tree loaded with seed pods this morning. It’s just around the corner from our house. Well, that explains the November saplings…

      Reply
      1. Jim Grey Avatar
        Jim Grey

        They’re coming for you. For sure.

        Reply
  3. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    What’s with the red splotch in your chosen photo? I assume some kind of film or camera defect but you chose this photo anyway for some reason.

    I certainly agree with the limited attention I’m willing to give some things, and it seems I shouldn’t beat myself up over it. :)

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I’ve never known for sure. The camera is light tight. The film was custom – cut down from 120 and spooled onto 127 spindles. Perhaps it was a “manufacturing” defect.

      Reply
      1. Andy Umbo Avatar
        Andy Umbo

        As they say in art college: “It’s “art” now!”

        Reply

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