R.I.P. Russ Young, a great loss to so many.

 Losing a friend, keeping the faith

On November 5, I drove out to Roanoke, Virginia to meet up with Russell Young.  We had planned this for some time, and he was excited to be able to show me his new home, having moved from his farm in Floyd.  I was eagerly anticipating the weekend, since I last visited him in Floyd in May, when I dropped off a carton of our joint publication “Below the Firmament and The Heavens. An Exploration of Floyd, County, Virginia.”  I was a little worried though, as he had not answered my texts or phone call earlier in the week.  That wasn’t like him, but I figured that he would contact me if he was ill.  When I arrived at his house, I at first thought that perhaps I’d written it down wrong, as I did not see his truck in the driveway, but two other vehicles that I didn’t recognize.  With some trepidation, I walked up to the house and knew it was his, because of the SW-themed decor in the window.  The leaves were piled up except around the doorway, and as I knocked, the door opened immediately. There stood his neighbor Clay, from Floyd who I recognized.  Russ’ cousin was also there.  I immediately knew something was wrong, and when I asked if Russ was in the hospital, I heard words that I did not expect. “Russ died this morning in the hospital.”

Died.  That’s all I heard.  It turns out that Russ was bringing one more load of belongings to his new house from the old along US 221, a winding, hilly road, where he’d had an accident. He did not survive his injuries in the hospital.  I was dumbstruck with the news, and it was if I had lost an older brother.  Russ, that wonderful story-teller, expert in so many arcane things, always with a good laugh and terrible puns, one of the most knowledgeable photographers, and most generous with his time and knowledge, gone. A link to some of the greats of the SW photography scene and teacher of many, gone.  A cat-lover who would drive his sick cat 40 miles at night to a vet and find that it still had another life left, gone.  A humane person with an extraordinary sense of decency and honor, gone.  My friend, gone. 

Russ with his last cat, Jack. 2025.

Due to Russ’ varied interests and long history, he had a large circle of friends. To be included that circle was an honor.  I know that going out in the field with him made me a better photographer. His stories made me a better listener, and boy, did I ever learn new things from him.  Just going out to have a meal with him at a Floyd restaurant was an experience in seeing how connected he was with the locals, and he always had a twinkle in his eye for the waitresses. I know he tipped well.  I think he could charm a snake out of its skin.

Russ, in front of one of his favorite haunts.  2024.

Russ was born in Owensboro, Kentucky on Oct. 11, 1949. He was an only child, and his stories of growing up there could be applied to many people in Appalachia. He was ambidextrous and could write with both hands at the same time until a Catholic nun broke his left hand. He worked in his grandfather’s meat-packing business and developed a work ethic that was pretty typical for the time and place.  One story of his that stood out was the hauling of cowhides from the storage area of the slaughterhouse to waiting rail cars.  I’m pretty sure that those work experiences encouraged him to gravitate towards studying hard in school.  Those of you that knew Russ have probably heard the same stories and can corroborate what I have written.

Staying at the guest house below his studio was a joy. 2025.

Russ probably owned more brass pictorialist lenses than anyone in the world. These are just a few. 2025

Goofing around in the studio. 2025.

2025

My favorite stories from Russ were those pertaining to his time in New Mexico in the 1970s, especially in Santa Fe.  He was a young photographer, and was able to meet with some notable people whose names are familiar to many - Laura Gilpin, Georgia O’Keefe, Beaumont Newhall, Brett Weston, Alan Ross, Willard Van Dyke, Eliot Porter, and probably many others.  Some of the lore about Ansel Adams is probably not publishable, but may be known by a few of those that knew him well.   Russ’ stories about Beaumont Newhall are certainly more widely known. It was an eye-opening time for Russ, as he was being employed by the New Mexico Education Dept. as a statistician, and spending any free time photographing.  I imagine being in that mix of artists and the SW scenery really set Russ’ ever-inquisitive mind soaring. It would just be a few years later that he would relocate to Texas and pursue a Master’s degree in Photohistory at UT Austin.  One of his students at Austin has been one of my contacts, before I even knew about Russ - Liz Potter, whose photography in SW Texas is very inspiring.  

Dinner with Russ was always entertaining. Carrying on a conversation and cooking simultaneously can be hazardous. 2024. 

Russ was proud of his Appalachian upbringing, as well as his Scottish heritage. He could be at ease in denim bib overalls, and I suspect wore a kilt well, too.  His time in Scotland was very precious to him, and his resulting PhD dissertation on Pictorialism from St. Andrews University is a good source of information ( The Soft-focus Lens and Anglo-American Pictorialism, 2007) for anyone researching pictorialism.  I am surprised that he never published it in book form.

 Russ was able to move easily among different groups of people and  because of his genuinely good demeanor, I can’t imagine anyone disliking him.  He knew that wearing those bib overalls in the backroads of Floyd county made him look like he belonged there, and got a pass as just another old farmer with a camera out driving around.   Had he engaged with anyone, Russ could quickly gauge his audience and if they were local, probably knew more about their relatives than they did.  He enjoyed genealogical research, and one evening with his skills he told me a lot about my own ancestry. 

Russ knew everyone in every dining spot in Floyd. 2025.

Russ always had a camera on the dash. 2025.

Russ was very active in the Floyd community, and especially with the Floyd Center for the Arts.  For a number of years, his Appalachian Center for Photography was located there, and that is precisely how I became aware of him.  I saw a blurb somewhere for the Appalachian Center for Photography, and I wondered who would have the audacity to have such a place in a town that I had never heard of.  So, I think I must have emailed him, or he emailed me, I don’t recall the exact sequence, but my first visit to Russ’ place was in March 2024, and I stayed at the Pine Tavern Lodge at the E edge of town. By the end of my 3-day visit, we felt as if we had known each other for years.  Strange how that can happen.   Russ sent me a card after, and it started:

“My new, old friend,
How indeed, have we not met before? Explanation: self-preservation by The Universe. So much in common. It was truly wonderful to meet you. And even more, to share shooting time with you — The only way to know another visual artist. Thank you for the privilege. …
... Come back in the summer and see a different world. —Russ.”

I think Russ had it wrong. It was my privilege to shoot with him!  Anyhow, if you had an interaction with Russ, it was always worthwhile. I don’t know if he learned much from me, but I certainly learned a lot from him.

Russ with an apple for Jenny.  Feb. 2026.

Russ, poring over our joint venture. May, 2026.

Another mutual contact that I met in person because of Russ, is Eben Ostby of Glasgow, Va.  Eben had collaborated with me on several zine projects, and I had known him via Flickr for a long time. The three of us went out shooting one afternoon, and it was a great deal of fun. 

Russ, near Rocky Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway, March, 2024.

And here is the second part of the story - Keeping the Faith.  What I mean is that as a visual artist, to keep doing what I love, and to impart that knowledge that I have to others. It’s not necessary to be lecturing, or gatekeeping over others, but to be open to new ideas, and to pass along the joy of photography and of seeing the photographic potential of just about anything.  Encouraging a younger generation to pursue photography as a means of self-expression and also as a communicative tool.  To not worry about failing, but to use those mistakes as a learning experience and to grow from there. Keeping The Faith means going out and doing what I love, and not worrying about anyone else’s opinions.  I photograph for myself, and if others enjoy seeing my work, it’s a bonus.  

I’ll never be the Renaissance Man that Russell was, and I’ll never be the the authority on lenses.  How that man had so many adventures and experiences in one life time is beyond me. But he lived that life honestly, with passion, with inquisitiveness, and with grace.  I hope to do the same in my remaining years.

You can find Russ' obituary (written by him) here. 

We had stopped along the road to photograph a little creek. 2025.

The creek, 2025

Working with Russ on our book of Floyd County photographs was a lot of fun.  He had well over a decade's worth of images, while I had only a half-dozen visits.    I could not have done any of it without his taking me to all the places that he'd already explored.  We wrangled over the text a bit, but he always had a good instinct for phrasing.  I thought of the title, and he felt it was perfect for the area.  I wanted his name to go first, but he wouldn't hear of it. 

I think this might be the only publication with so many images from Russ, and I am very proud to have worked with him.

Russ had an extraordinary assemblage of cameras and lenses. Feb. 2025. 

These trees in front of the guest house were always a good subject.

I can see why Russ enjoyed his farm. It was always photogenic.

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway, March, 2026.

Russ knew all the best places.  I'll miss traveling the dirt roads with him.

The Holga 120 Pan

As you might be aware, I have been making panoramic images on film for quite a while, and some of my earliest efforts were made using toy cameras such as the Holga 135 Pan and 35mm adapter for a Holga 120N ( link).  I later purchased a Holga Ultrawide 120 pinhole camera, and after several years, sold it for more than I paid for it.  While it worked pretty well, I wanted something other than a pinhole camera.  That model was discontinued, and now there is a Holga 120 Pan, a 6x12 pano camera with a 90mm lens.  The Holga 120 Pan is much improved over the original pinhole camera, and other than being panoramic, it works like any other Holga 120 series camera.  

The Holga 120 Pan features two flash hot shoes along with the bubble level on the top deck.  The viewfinder gives an approximation of what the field of view will be on film.  Of course, there is the standard Holga focus zones represented by icons, a 90mm lens with two apertures  (f/11 and f/8?), 1/100 sec shutter speed (Normal) and B.  Two tripod sockets are situated on the bottom.  One is located where the regular Holga cameras have them - on the shutter assembly, and one centered on the back film chamber.

 My Holga 120 Pan also came with a mask insert for using 35mm, which I may try doing someday.  A 24 x 108 mm negative is rather intriguing.    

I’ve seen where some photographers have modified the Holga 120 Pan so that they can mount a 90mm 4x5 lens  for better images.  That’s on my list of things to do at a later date.  For now, I will use the camera just as it is.  

So far, I have shot one roll of film with it, and am pleased with my results.  It’s definitely the cheapest entry into medium-format panoramas!  If you are thinking of buying one, they are just under $100.  Remember to use the film window in the back at numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 to get 6 frames per roll of 120 film.  

The following images were shot on Ultrafine Extreme 400 (Kentmere 400), developed in D-76, and scanned on my Epson V700. 

HARMAN PHOENIX 125 - One roll review

 

I was recently given a couple of rolls of Harman Phoenix 125 color film to evaluate - one roll of 120, and 1 of 35mm.  This review is about the roll of 35mm, which is what I shoot the most.

Some History
Back in late 2023, Harman launched their Phoenix color film, and called it “experimental” which was an appropriate move, since the film had some issues with dynamic range and depending on the lighting, the colors could be quite saturated.  The other problem was with scanning.  The film was (and still is) on a clear acetate base, much like slide film.  Scan quality varied considerably, but I found that scanning the film as a positive and then inverting gave me much better and consistent results.

Phoenix II was released in July, 2025, and Harman purportedly fixed some of the deficiencies in the original Phoenix film.  Improved grain, shadow and highlight retention and improved contrast were touted features of the new film.

With less fanfare, we now have Harman Phoenix 125.  

From the Harman website:
“HARMAN Phoenix 125 retains the same characteristics that you loved (or hated) about the original Phoenix 200 but with a new speed of 125 to reflect how you told us you shoot it.

High contrast and strong, visible grain are just some of its unique traits that help to produce characterful, unmistakeably analogue, results unlike any other colour film.

With a DX coded cassette (IN 35mm), and a box speed of ISO 125, It performs best in good, consistent light and on brighter days or when shooting into the light there is also a possibility of halation.

It delivers punchy, vibrant colours although they react differently to different scanners and settings. Getting the exposure right will certainly help to get the best results so we suggest metering for the mid tones to retain shadow or highlight detail (over or under exposure is not Phoenix’s friend)! 

Part of the fun of shooting film is expecting the unexpected and this film delivers exactly that from its uniquely coloured negatives to chance encounters with occasional coating anomalies. Hold back your expectations and enjoy the experience!”

It’s great that Harman acknowledges the peculiarities of Phoenix 125.  Is it just a rebranded Phoenix II at ISO 125 instead of 200, or did they also tweak the emulsion?  I don’t know the answer to that, but given what I do know, I think it’s fair to shoot it as an ISO 125 film and see where that takes me.

I loaded the roll into my very trusty Vivitar V2000 K-mount SLR. This is a camera that’s been on long road trips and has consistently produced good results.  I used a Pentax 50/1.7 and 28/3.5 lens for the roll, that I shot in one day on an outing to Black Mountain, NC.  Sunny to partly cloudy conditions.
 

I dropped the exposed roll off at Ball Photo in Asheville to get it developed, and then scanned the negatives at home on my Epson V700. Scanned as positives and then inverted in Corel PaintShop Pro, and applied any other minor adjustments.

The clear base looks a lot more like the original Phoenix

Overall, I think these are the best results that I have achieved from the Phoenix films. I would say that the colors are more muted, and the reds tend to be more orange-ish. The halation is still there, and some may like it.  However, the grain seems better, and the shadow detail has improved.  It’s not designed to be the “Kodak Gold Killer” as it’s a quite different emulsion, but it does now offer a reasonable and more likeable result.  I think that Phoenix 125 certainly deserves a look, and as more people shoot it, we’ll see more opinions about this film. Harman definitely has listened to users of its products and as they get more feedback and experience with making a color emulsion, we shall possibly see some more tweaks in the months ahead.  

Making color film isn’t a simple process, and in this day of digital, we ought to appreciate Harman’s dedication to the process.  I’m ordering some more Phoenix 125.

I have a plan... a Domiplan

 Back to the Beginning and fixing a Meyer-Optik Domiplan lens

  My very first SLR was an Exa 1A with a Meyer-Optik 50mmf/2.8 Domiplan lens. It’s the only lens that I used with that camera, which I had for about a decade.  As a beginner, I was just happy to have a real camera, and that Domiplan lens served me well - and I had no reason nor the resources to acquire another lens.  I’ve written here before about my early years with the Exa 1a.  It’s not a camera that I would ever recommend to anyone, let alone a beginner.  But in 1973, it is what I had.   I’m sure that if a Pentax Spotmatic been my first SLR, I would have been really over the moon with it.  

If you have been following along for the past couple of years, you would know that I am working on a book about M42 cameras and lenses with emphasis on the Pentax Spotmatic series. I previously shot a Domiplan lens with an M42 body in 2013. Over the years, I have acquired a number of M42 mount Meyer-Optik Domiplan lenses and wanted to use them, but every single one of them had a non-working aperture, forever stuck wide-open at the very modest f/2.8.  That seems to be the major problem with that lens.  I found that I still had two examples of the lens, and I really wanted to see how it performed for me now, over 50 years since I received the Exa 1a.  

Two Domiplan lenses apart. Both were fixed.

So, I did what everyone else does, and looked for repair videos on YouTube! I have two lenses, so at least one of them should be repairable, right? Some of the “repair” videos made me cringe, but two sources stood out as being excellent (this one and this video).  After about 4 hours of working on it, I now have a fully functional Domiplan lens.  The two most frustrating aspects of the reassembly are obviously reattaching the six aperture blades, and the part that controls the aperture pin.  Once I got that done, I was really happy.  The problem with the Domiplan lenses are that over time, oil and grease cause the aperture blades to stick together, and the focus helical also becomes harder to turn.  So, using lighter fluid to degrease the aperture blades the the surrounding parts was an essential part of the fix.

Are Domiplan lenses THAT special?  Not necessarily, but the lens is a Cooke triplet based on a 1883 design by Taylor in the UK.  It is 3 elements in three groups, an inexpensive, yet very workable design also in other lenses.  Meyer-Optik Gorlitz produced the Domiplan and the Trioplan lenses with that formula.  

The Domiplan was the very basic, cheapest lens used on Exakta and Praktika cameras, all in East Germany.  Noted for its “bubble bokeh”, the Domiplan is not a fast lens at a maximum f/2.8 aperture, though it does stop down to f/22.  The complaint with this lens is the “automatic aperture”  design where the aperture actuation pin is depressed only when the lever inside the camera pushes against it at the time of the exposure.  The lens remains wide-open , no matter what aperture has been selected, until the moment of exposure. That makes focusing easier, of course.  It also makes it very difficult to adapt the lens to any other camera that does not have a way to depress the aperture pin, so you digital folks adapting the lens are generally stuck at shooting it wide-open.  Most lenses from that period have an Auto/Manual switch at the base of the lens so you can use them in stop-down mode.   Not this lens, though. 

However, since I am using an M-42 SLR body with this lens, it’s not a problem.  I can use the stop-down metering function that will activate the aperture pin, and allow me to meter the scene, and then just focus wide-open and make the exposure. Right now, I am using a Chinon CS-4 SLR that works well with this lens.  And that’s my goal - to shoot with this lens and see how it performs in a much better camera than that Exa 1a. 

Well, I shot a roll of Lucky 400 color film, and while doing so, I realized that I messed the alignment of the helicoid up and could not focus at infinity, which was one of the warnings in taking the lens apart.  However, I simply shot at f/16 or f/22 to address that when necessary. 

I still have a second Domiplan lens, and after cleaning THAT one, I reassembled the lens, and the aperture blades and focus helical work perfectly.  I’ll try shooting with that one at a later date. Anyhow, this post is about the results from lens #1.  I dropped off my roll of the exposed Lucy 400 at Ball Photo, and they developed the film.  I scanned the film with my Epson V700.

Here are some examples from that roll of film:

I'll try the second lens with b&w film and will post those later.

All photos below taken at the Asheville Botanical Gardens

A good example of the "bubble bokeh"

not as sharp at wider apertures, less infinity focus

When stopped down, no "bubbles"