One of my Flickr friends, who uses the Flickr handle nano_burger, likes to experiment with film. And like me, he’s played with GAF Aerial 70mm sprocketed film – the same type of film that was used in the 1960’s and 1970’s for sky-view photography. That film is long gone, but you can still find canisters of it on eBay now and again.
I’ve shot a few things now and again with the film, but I haven’t for a while. Then, after we corresponded through our various flickr accounts, he offered to send me some of his GAF Aerial stock. And sure enough, he was a man of his word. A short time later, Mike the Mailman dropped off a package at my doorstep – a package that contained a full canister (and a black vinyl bagful) of GAF Aerial film.
Chuck is happy. Chuck wants to play.
On Friday morning, after wrapping some of the 70mm film into a 616-paper-backed spool, I took a few test shots in downtown Albany. The camera of choice? My old, durable AGFA Chief box camera.
Granted, I would have preferred a sunny day – the GAF Aerial film has an ISO sensitivity of about 80 when it’s fresh, and probably about 50 when it’s 40+ years old – so I tried an experiment. I would set the Chief’s shutter on “I” (instant) for one shot, then wind the film and shoot the same subject with the shutter on “B” (bulb).
Yeah, it was a crummy, overcast day. But you start your experiments with what you have, and then go from there. I took a few shots, then dropped the film off at McGreevy Pro Lab. Yes, McGreevy can develop GAF Aerial film. They’re that good.
Here was the best of the “B” shots, and this involved resting my camera on a ledge while I held the shutter open for at least a second.
Decent. Would have liked the cars to stop moving… but I guess I can’t have everything.
I then tried taking a few “I” shots, but nothing really came through. Grumble. Groan. I can’t do this in cloudy weather, not with the “Instant” setting. I guess I’ll just have to try this again some other time when it’s sunny.
You know what?
Just for a lark…
Let’s scan in one of these images. I want to see what I’m working with in this film.
Wow. It’s a rippling, undulating effect, right on the film itself!! I could crop this down to just the building alone, but for now I’ll leave it with the swirls.
Okay, this is different than the stuff that came out of my Revolog prepared film stock. Those swirls – those blends and folds and ripples that are in the film stock – came from 40+ years of film deterioration. Still, it was the same strip of film that allowed me to get that tack-sharp photo of the SUNY Administrative building at the beginning of this blog post. Same film stock. Maybe two shots apart.
And I looked at nano_burger’s Flickr gallery of his own GAF Aerial shots… yep, that swirly swirl is on his pictures as well. He cuts his 70mm film to smaller lengths, so that he can use it in 120 and 35mm shooters. It makes the swirls in his pictures more defined.
But me, if I have the film already in 70mm stock, then I’ll use it in 70mm stock, and maybe shoot another roll in my AGFA Chief, or maybe in my AGFA Clipper Special f/6.3 camera –
Oh my Lord in holy heaven, an idea just popped into my head.
If this film has THIS kind of distortion in it…
What if I used some of this film…
For…
Oh man, oh man, I’ve got to slow down. I’ve got to figure out how to do this. This is going to be a really, really, REALLY good idea. If it works.
Trust me. I’m counting on it working.
So this week I’m going to try a different photo experiment. And if THAT one works… it will build on what you see above. Then I can do “the big one.”
And the earliest I could even conceive of creating “the big one” with this film would be two weeks from now. And if I plan on doing this … then EVERYTHING has to come together as one exact endeavor.
This might be a fun little project…
And even though I’ll most likely be too late to enter something from this experiment into this year’s “competition season” of photo entries… That doesn’t mean I can’t save this in the file for next year’s shows.
Man, I love when stuff like this inspires creating a concept even more magical than I ever imagined.
Just wait and see.
Chuck The Writer 
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