Richard Vanek - Black and White Photography

In a past weekend I have developed last roll exposed in Sweden, I believe there is some good shot. It was also my first experience with TMX in LC29.
I have also print first two prints for sale. I print them on Photo Rag paper. They look very good even the quality of negative wasn't any excellent.

First two prints Leaving Gamla Stan and Wharf -23C are sold. Customer is very satisfied.

Yesterday I have refilled again cartridge with MIS UT inks. This time it was first time I refilled cartridge which was already filled before. Getting all foam out was a quite difficult. Under-pressure in cartridge created by pooling 60cc syringe was quite strong. So it was difficult to hold cartridge in one hand together with top of syringe and pull air out by the other hand. Hopefully it will be working.
I have also organize last roll I scanned. There is one quite nice shot. Hopefully this weekend I can bring it on web and maybe develop next roll.

I have updated last roll page with four photos. Not all of them will go to galery page, but this roll is last roll from Stockholm, so I thought few more will be good.

I have printed two shots today I never printed before. One is Charle's cat. I thing I need to do little bit more work on it. It is nice image with lot of shadow details. Print I am getting is bit muddy. I believe I have to do little bit more detail dodging and burning to get the right balance.
The other shot I did is Tourists from Japan. This one is great, you can see a lot of details in dark parts of the print. Even women sitting on right side in shadow. Unfortunately posing man is not sharp. Well I guess you can't get everything, but anyway I would like to have it better.
After these last experience I believe I need to do more systematic work on my procedure and develop rolls immediately after exposure to get good feedback and being able to improve. I definitely need to improve exposure settings.

I have refined Charle's cat picture to perfection. It is very good now. So it seems to be that each picture requires its own time and things shoudn't be hurried up. It looks very good now. It is another print for friend, this time as a gift.

Well well, it is very early morning and I have a problem. After refilling cartridge I need to reset chip on it and that reseter I have bought from MIS doesn't work. I have tried on original Epson cartridge doesb't work either. When I opened it, I can see a lot of rust around copper contacts. Maybe batteries are gone. But what I now. What to do now? I have sent e-mail to MIS and will see. Pity as I need finished my portfolio until end of September.
Another bad experience. I am going for weekend to Prague and I wanted to shoot some low light stuff with Ilford Delta 3200. I have order from Wolt.nl few rolls for some nice prices. They claim, they sent it week ago. Nothing arrives until today!!! I am leaving Friday!

All things are turning well. Yestreday I have received my order of Ilford Delta 3200 and day before that I have got following reply from MIS:
"We will go ahead and ship out a new SK168 for you today. Would you please return the bad one so we can take a look at it so this does not happen again."
Great! So if you ever going to buy inks buy it from MIS.

I am leaving to Prague now, see you Monday!

I shooted in Prague 5 Ilford Delta 3200 and few Delta 400 @ 800. Will see soon how they turn out. I am planning to developed them in DD-X.
This weekend was for me as fast movie. Friday everyday live stopped and was replaced by fast froward movie and come back again Sunday afternoon. Time in between was filled with new people, new things and new experiences in high speed. Like a dream.
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And now at 22:00 first film is drying. After so many confusing information how to developed Delta 3200 I just did it according Ilford itself. Negative looks good. I will see for sure, after scan and print. Based on that I am going to develop following four Deltas 3200.

First roll from Prague wedding is scanned. Well two shots are quite OK, but I believe next roll I am going to develop little bit longer. This first I soup for 9:30 according to Ilford.
Just finished with next roll this time for 11:00min. Let's wait for scan, but I have feeling that I am coming to that what others were saying if you exposed 3200 develop as 6400. Because I am scanning not printing directly I was for little less dense negatives, so that's why I went for 11:00 minutes this time. After scanning this second roll I will decide if I should go for final 12:30 as it is suggested by Ilford for 6400ASA.

No! I need a break today, I am so tired. Every day I developed one roll. I was planning to do two today and last two Friday, but I need a break. I just scanned the third roll. There are some nice shots R.S. from evening before your day. Only focusing seems to be a problem in such a low light situation. And 3200 ASA film is not what I was after I believe. Well Sometimes there is no choice. Will see how those 3200 ASA negatives prints. I still need to wait for new Chip reseter from MIS as the previous one was damaged.

Last two Ilford Delta 3200 are drying, now I did after very long time two rolls in the same time. They look OK. Tomorrow I'll scan them and develop last two Delta 400 @ 800 and maybe next week I will get my cartridge chip reseter and will be able to print.
I shoudn't forget that Saturday next week I need to have few pictures ready for presentation.

All seven rolls from wedding in Prague is developed, three are preview scanned, the rest I will do in few next days.
We have got nice sunny days here, it is like summer come back. Very nice.

IMPORTANT
Thanks to bureaucracy of Slovak domain registration procedure, existence of my piskoftak.sk domain is in danger. Please note down IP address if something happens after 1. October. Our IP address is and stay to be 212.71.128.81. I am trying to register new domain name richard-vanek.com or piskoftak.com and keep piskoftak.sk domain existing, but you know fighting against wind mills is rarely successful. And .com domain is much cheaper than .sk domain.

UPDATE
Whatever is going to happen after 1th October with piskoftak.sk is not really important. Why? Well piskoftak.com is active and live now!!!

Just try http://piskoftak.com/

I have a few new things to mentioned here:
First, I am adding photos I exposed in Prague on wedding of my friends. Those pictures are mainly for them to look at. It will stay on site for about two weeks and than I will keep only very very few of them. Separate gallery will be than removed as well.
Second, my chip reseter from MIS arrived Saturday and my printer is working again so I can print.
Third, I developed Foma Creative 200 (T200) which was exposed by B. as one of her first try outs with her new Canon eos30. I developed it in Ilfotec LC29 in dilution 1:29 for 5:30. Results of developing are quite good. Maybe half minute more would add some more for standard enlarger but for scanner it is enough. I also bought 10 rolls of this film, so I will try it as well. Remember that I did try Fomapan 400 at Sweden, but it was very dark base and quite some grain. This T200 looks like better option.

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The title doesn't say much, but this was shot, and now you will understand the title, night before my friend get married

Do you see the girl in back?

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Yesterday evening, I was quite long awake. Couldn't really sleep and was thinking about that photography I am doing. You know, I really feel after this weekend that I am not doing what I would like. My negatives do not have quality I would like, my exposure could be much better. And scanning, well, I really think I can improve much more there.
At the end, after I saw few photos of other on the Inet, I was also doubting the subject of my photos. I should really go closer to people and think more before pushing shutter. I believe I need to clean the side and show only few, the best, shots and start again.
So my Prague friends & Co. take a look at those wedding pictures as they going away soooooon.