One Day Challenge

 The idea is to think of an image, shoot it, develop the roll and make a print in a single day.  This weekend I did just that with a roll of 120, my Mamiya C220 and a Calla Lily that was growing in my front yard.  

I had seen the flower earlier in the week, for those who do not know, this type of Lily gives a flower that lasts about a week.  The plant then continues to offer Lilys for several weeks after that.  So I noticed the first bloom and waited to have a couple very nice ones opened.  Saturday was the day of reckoning. 

I had envisioned a close up of the Lily flower so I needed a camera or lens that could give me a close up.  The Mamiya C220 is one of my favorite cameras for this kind of a shot.  I can focus very close to the object, the 120 film gives me a great deal of detail and the camera is not too unwieldy.  

From past experience, I knew that the metering of this flower was going to be a challenge. You need to spot meter well inside the flower in order to get detail in the highlights.  This was a special challenge because this particular Lily sits in a dark corner of the yard.  The contrast was going to be high and I needed to keep detail in both the dark and the white.  I had a cloudy day and took advantage of the perfect time to capture the shot.

I selected Ilford Delta 100 Pro, one of my favorite low grain film.  This film developed in D76 or ID-11 gives a wonderful tonal range with some potential contrast without becoming overpowering.  If I compare it to HP-5, the Delta 100 has a great deal less contrast but still gives you the option to bring out more using filters.  For this image I wanted something soft yet keeping the details in the whites and blacks.

The Set Up

The image using my iPhone.

I chose an Exposure Index of 80 as compared to the box speed of 100.  I developed it normally as if I had exposed it at 100.  I believe this gives me a more even exposure, and if lighting permits, I shoot at 80.

The set up was simple, I put the C220 on my tripod and got up close.  I took a spot meter reading on the inside of the flower.  I wanted a good depth of field to ensure that everything was in focus, and I wanted to be able to tell that the background was actually leaves.  I did not want it to appear as if I took the picture with a backdrop in a studio.  I wanted that garden look to be there, even if just hinted at.  So I selected f/8 and took my reading. I took three shots, to bracket the image. 

• EI 80 f/8 & 1/15sec
• EI 80 f/8 & ⅛ sec
• EI 80 f/8 & 1/30 sec

I ended up going with the ⅛ of a second as the negative appeared to give me more detail in the white flower area. 

Through Ground Glass

I framed the image to ensure that I had some leaves in the background.  The image above was shot through the viewfinder using my iPhone.  The trick with up close images on the C220 is to watch the framing.  Since it is a TLR as you get closer you begin to suffer parallax.  

Here is the final print.  The detail in the flower is clear, the background is still visible and I managed to keep the detail in the shadows as well as the flower petal.  The framing is what I wanted and the light is exactly how I imagined.  The grain of the Ilford Delta 100 allowed me to zoom in for the right crop given the 8x10 paper size.  

The overall project came out better that I had hoped.