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Though some think of those of us who are committed to film photography as anachronistic, film offers experiences that digital still can’t offer or can’t without much manipulation.

That’s not just snobbery, that’s the way it is. It’s a different medium.

While we’re all happy that film is still available, we have been losing emulsions and film sizes. That seems to be inevitable with the thirst for the quick fix that a digital camera offers.

With that said, that’s been the way it has been in photography since the beginning. Some processes replace others. We’ve had several different ways of making film and paper emulsions over the years. Some dedicated people keep the older processes alive after the general population moves on.

That’s where The Light Farm comes in. It’s tag line is: A Cooperative of Photographers – Artists, Scientists, Historians – Dedicated to the Renaissance of Handcrafted Silver Gelatin Emulsions

Just picking through some of the topics that are covered on the site are:

Paper and Coating
Digital Negatives
Kitchen Lab Emulsions
Contact Printing Paper
Printing Out Paper
Toning and Color Control
Silvergum Printing
Glass Negatives
Dry Plate Photography
Artisan Film Negatives
Odds & Ends
Literature List
Unpatented Pending
Historical Films
Galleries

For many people, currently available digital or film technology are satisfying enough.

Many others follow the quest to have total control, to have a distinct feel, to recreate the past, to preserve history, or to keep analog processes alive in a dwindling marketplace.

Lest you think this is totally impractical and that digital processes are totally eschewed, or at least incompatible with analog content, here’s an article that gives a nod to how computers and older processes can work well together. Silvergum Printing

Please excuse me, I have some more reading to do.

Here is a short video showing some very rare Edward J. Steichen Autochromes of Charlotte Spaulding that were turned over to the George Eastman House. These are very cool.

Since I’m on the topic of George Eastman House, they also have some really good resources available.

One I like is the Collections Online. Here you can see photographs by such people as Mathew Brady and Alfred Stieglitz.

Another is their podcast. The video above was one of them.

There’s a lot of other information on the eastmanhouse.org web site. Spend some time there.

Cool gift shop too. Now let’s see, do I get the Leica Christmas ornament or the Speed Graphic neck tie? Or both?

Now, I need a trip to New York so I can go check out their theater. For now, I’ll settle for the web site.

This camera collector’s site, Vieilalbum.com, is quite nice. It is run by a Frenchman named Michel.

He has a short, but hopefully growing, section of techniques that he is building such as this one on How to Change the Cover Glass of a Daguerreotype.

I thought the page of pictures of the packaging from glass plates was a very nice touch.

He also has a pictorial guide to Leica camera models. Short and sweet. I like it.

The forum looks interesting, but I need to work on my French skills.

The only difficulty I had was with viewing the photo albums. I use firefox. With it, his photo albums displayed poorly. The pictures became a continuous horizontal row of pictures that required a excessive scrolling. I pulled it up in internet explorer and the site displayed beautifully. All in all, it’s a nice site.

Daguerreotype on eBay

Leica i, ii, iii, iiic, iiif on eBay

Leica M2, M3, M4, M6, M7, MP on eBay