rorbocobra

CHEMICAL I

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2Raleigh by Train

My buddy and I decided to take an entire day just to ride a train from High Point (NC) to Raleigh (NC) and shoot a couple rolls of film in the streets before catching the evening train back home.

First Roll (Ilford HP5+, Leica M7 w Summilux 50)

Set #1 - On the Train

The train

The Film

Passenger

Lift

Raleigh

Attendant

Set #2 - Streets + Lunch

Woman

Park

Bike

Prayer

Sitting

Sky

Crossing

Waiting

Transit Station

Coffee

Josh

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Coffee + Tri.X

This.  

This is Anchor Coffee.  

Yep.  

That’s it.

Actually, let’s back up a little bit.

There we go.  It’s a shiny new 5 kilo Ambex, sitting under a window in an old brick warehouse.  Now, let’s back up a little more.

Wow, this place is kinda creepy.  But, I kinda like it.  

Hello...  Anyone home??

The guy with the glasses, that’s Payton.  I used to hang out with him between classes in college, but that was a long time ago.  I hadn’t seen him in 13 years.  Of the people we meet, we never know who we will meet again, and who will fall into the depths of the most inaccessible corners or our minds.

Payton had fallen pretty far back, but from time to time I would see his name mentioned on Facebook.  I found out that he was part of a startup coffee roaster, located in a sorry excuse for a town, North Wilkesboro, NC.  I sent him my address, and to my surprise, 8oz of lightly roasted Ethiopian Harar showed up in my mailbox THE NEXT DAY.

I messaged him and asked if I could pay a visit to witness some roasting.  

He said yes.  

End of boring story.  

Time for coffee.

When I first arrived, I couldn’t even find the door.  Turns out it’s not a front door.  It’s a back door.  Sweet.

First, I was introduced to the 3 member team:

Greg - Greg is the coffee guy (Thus the beard).  He’s the force driving the team to pursue a great roast.  Greg has been passionately brewing coffee for a long time, and even started roasting 8 lb at a time in a massive smoldering drum over his gas grill.

Payton - Yeah, we know Payton.  He’s the charismatic sales manager, which is a good fit for the guy.  Oh, he’s also a clown on the side.  Maybe he practices in that creepy corner with the abandoned chair...

Nate - Nate never liked coffee.  He only drank two cups his entire life before joining Greg and Payton.  But Nate did study chemistry in college, and that brings me to this next image.

Science!!  Nate figured out a way to store cold brewed coffee in a pressurized Nitrogen immersion.  Nitrogen is inert, meaning the brewed coffee can be stored indefinitely without spoiling.  It also has the added benefit of allowing it to be served on tap, complete with visually dramatic “beer like” foaming and cascading.  The taste is also dramatic, with the nitrogen bubbles awakening your palate to the complexities which properly roasted coffee has to offer.

This cold brew was a single origin Guatemalan, which is exactly what we were roasting today.  I grabbed my camera.  “Is that a Leica?” asked Greg.  “Why yes” I replied.  “I have a Voigtlander” he said.  “What film do you shoot?” I asked.  “Mostly Tri.X and TMAX” he said.  It just so happened, those are the two film stocks I had selected to bring with me.  We swapped cameras for a bit, and Greg actually took the first shot in this post.  Neat.

Greg, dropping the green beans into the drum.

Payton, waiting for that magical first crack.

“The Trier”  I love the symmetry between man and machine here.

Obligatory cooling tray action shot.

Checking the temp by touch.

Nate, packaging the freshly roasted beans for the local farmer’s market.

I hung around for a while.  Long enough to chat with the guys about coffee, and talk vintage camera technique with Greg.  I also saw a lot of local folks stop by, simply out of curiosity.  I have no idea how they found the place, but it’s good to see interest in such a small town.

This is a small company with big potential.  The Nitrogen cold brew alone is enough to seriously change the NC coffee scene.

That’s all for now, but soon I hope to post some brew photos and tasting notes on the Ethiopian.

If you are interested in learning more, you can visit their website.

http://anchorcoffeeco.com

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How to color balance a picture of a horse

This horse head is pretty washed out.  The image can be improved by adjusting the contrast of the red, green, and blue color channels.

I am using photoshop elements, but you can use most any image editing software.

First, I make a new levels adjustment layer.  It doesn't have to be a new layer.  You could simply do a levels adjustment on the actual image, but adding it as a layer gives you the freedom to make changes later.

By default, the adjustment layer applies to all of the RBG image data.  Use the drop down box to select a single color channel.  I chose red.  Use the outer sliders (left and right) to bracket the histogram as shown.

Next, do the green channel.

Then the blue.

Go back and make slight adjustments to the middle slider on each color channel in order to achieve the color balance which suits your personal taste.  I went for a reddish look to bring out the pleasing colors of the horse skin.

Make some final brightness and contrast adjustments to make the image "pop."

There is no right or wrong way to master a horse head.  A more neutral color profile might look like this.

Happy mastering!

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Spice

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Pseudo happy

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Humans at Market

- In a people city

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Homosapiens at market -High Point NC -Leica CL -ILFORD HP5+

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Good Morning Press Pot

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FILM

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Seriousness in Down Town Winston Salem

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The Erasure

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Under the Needle - Seattle, WA

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Seattle in July

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35mm film scans from my first roll of film processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab. Colors are spot on, but scans are constantly overexposed. 1) Upper image from RPL. Lower image corrected to recover highlights 2) Left image from RPL. Right image corrected to reduce brightness and restore mid tones.

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yeah I read that post ahaha. I tried with wax/parchment paper but it didn't turn out too well. I'll try with a lighter, less fibrous paper. I'm trying to scan 35mm film. I've been buying color 200speed fujifilm. At home I have an HP C4240 all in one printer but my school has CanoScan 8800F scanners that are much higher quality. It's supposed to be able to scan film but they tossed the film tray since no ever asked to use it. They also have Photoshop. I'm not sure what 48bit tiff is =/

I can't find much info on your scanner. Are you using the HP software to scan the film? What software are you using to edit the images? I'll just throw this out there! I bought the epson v600 and it came bundled with photoshop elements for $160 brand new. As far as the film holder is concerned, I don't use one. I think it's nearly impossible to use without wrinkling the film or getting dust everywhere. Like I said before, I use two pads of sticky notes to hold the film in place below the light source. Ex, if the sticky note pad is 1/4 inch thick, I slide the film in between the sheets about half way through the stack, meaning I have a 1/8 inch gap above and below the film. You could try this at your school. Make sure to turn every exposure/sharpness adjustment "off" on your scanning software and export the image as a 48 bit or it might be labeled as 16 bit TIFF. Open in Photoshop and as a quick check you can invert the image and run auto levels and auto color and auto sharpen. It should look pretty fantastic. Let me know if I need to be more specific on anything.