Shooting Kudzu - developed from Kudzu

Kudzu, the weed that ate the South- 2023 image

One of the wonderful aspects of film photography is the ability to develop your film in the way you choose.  Maybe you are strictly a one-developer for all films kind of person, or maybe you use a variety of developers, and choose depending on the film being used.  Or, maybe, you are one of those renegades that think using a non-traditional developer such as instant coffee is the way into enlightenment.  Some photographers eschew traditional photo chemistry for different reasons, but the most common reason is the lower impact on the environment.  But another reason is just to see what works, and if it’s more environmentally friendly, all the better. That’s the charm of using film -- there is no single path, and you can choose whatever gives you the results you desire.  

I’ll admit that for many years, I stuck with traditional developers, as I wanted results that I could depend upon, and I mostly still do. That’s not a bad thing.  If you are accustomed to the results that you get from D-76, Rodinal, or XTOL, or whatever favorite developer, that’s backed by many years of use and predictable outcomes, that’s what you’ll use.  Developers made from coffee? Nah!  How about botanicals? Nah!  Who wants to trust their film to some sketchy home-brewed concoction?  Well, the avant-garde photographers and experimenters would like a word.  Don’t be tied into the clutches of Kodak, Ilford, or those chemistry peddlers!  Create your own developer from whatever the hell you want!

Orwo NP55, developed in Caffenol, 2019

Okay, the last sentence was a little much, but to create your own developer isn’t just throwing jelly at a wall to see what sticks.  You need to be able to transform that latent image into a negative, and to do that requires a few components.  I am not going to go into the complex photochemistry developers, but the main purpose of the developer is to turn the silver halides in the latent image into metallic silver, which will appear as a darker grain in the gelatin matrix of the film. When properly developed, areas that did not receive any light will be clear, and areas that received light will be in various shades of gray to black.  Typically, that action is done by by the developing agent, and traditionally, that agent is phenidone, hydroquinone, or metol.  The addition of an accelerator to provide a higher pH, such as borax, sodium carbonate, or sodium hydroxide keeps the developing environment basic to enable the developer to work without depletion before the halides are fully affected. However, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) is also a developer,  but one that is not very strong, unless combined with another developing agent.  It’s also the least toxic developing agent.  A restraining agent is also used to avoid too aggressive development which results in fog.  That’s often Potassium bromide or Potassium iodide, but not all developers need them.

Are you confused yet?  To replace a commercial developer with a home-brew of less toxicity, you need a chemical that acts somewhat like phenidone, or that of a tanning or staining developer, such as Pyrogallol or Pyrocatechin.  Here is where things get interesting. Minute amounts of catechin are found in green tea.  If tea might work, what about coffee?  Its super power is caffeic acid.  Well, that works, but what about plants with green leaves?  So, you see where this is heading.  The problem is that we don’t know up front, what different plant chemistries are in relation to film developing.  But, given the penchant for experimentation, people have found materials that work as well as typical developers, but also with their unique characteristics.  Coffee, beer, wine, urine, tea, and various herbs have been used to make developers.  On their own, they can’t develop film, because the accelerator and ascorbic acid are needed.

So, on our mission to create a developer, we need:

• Some extract from organic material that contains catechins,  caffeic acid, or polyphenols
• Sodium carbonate for the accelerator
• Vitamin C to work with the organic material as the developer.
• maybe a restrainer - Iodized table salt 

You have probably heard of Caffenol as a developer, and there are numerous recipes for it. Caffenol works well, but has a few drawbacks, one being the expense of instant coffee, and the foul odor it has can be a real turnoff for some.  I have used caffenol a number of times and it is certainly a reliable developer that can be used for film and paper, but it does also stain the emulsion.  If you don't already have the ingredients, you can buy some pre-mixed from the Film Photography Project store. I have blogged about Caffenol several times, and it's a good developer if you want to try it out.  There are developer recipes that use green tea, and more recently, some photographers have gravitated to experimenting with locally-sourced herbs and leaves that can act as developing agents in concert with the above materials.  

In the past year, I have seen some very good results from Beatrice Thornton, a photographer based in California.  Her experiments with commonly available leafy plants to act as the basis for developers are quite impressive. (https://www.beatricevictoria.com/writingandreviews) Her work was in the back of my mind when I started working on a project with the invasive Kudzu vine.  My premise was to take photographs of Kudzu and use the Kudzu leaves to develop the film.  I had absolutely no idea if that would actually work, but I figured that I might at least get some thin negatives, if anything.

Riverside Drive, Aug. 2023, Leica M2, SHD 100 film

On June 14, I took a little drive along the French Broad River near Asheville, and found a spot with plenty of Kudzu growing along the roadside.  I took some photos of the Kudzu, and picked enough leaves to fill a plastic grocery sack.  I then went to some other places that I knew I would find plenty of photogenic Kudzu, and a few worked out, because I was also shooting with two cameras - my Nikon FM3A with Eastman 5231 (expired) for the film to be developed in the Kudzu. My Nikon F was loaded with Kodak HIE IR film (expired 2007), so I needed the leaves to be in strong sunlight.  

After I returned home, I put some of the Kudzu leaves into a 1 quart stainless pan and nearly filled it, making sure that I ripped the leaves into smaller pieces to facilitate the process of extracting whatever botanicals I might get.  I then poured enough boiling water to fill the pot and cover the leaves, and let it sit covered for about 5 hours.  

Making the developer

I poured the strained yellowish liquid into a plastic container and ended up with 1 liter of extract.  To make the developer, I did the following:

1000 ml of Kudzu extract

6 Tablespoons of Sodium Carbonate

2 Tablespoons of Vitamin C (crushed in a pestle from tablets)

1/4 teaspoon of Iodized Salt (restrainer) 

The temperature of the liquid at this point was 24°C, and because it was getting late, I decided to go ahead and use it at that temp.  With the addition of the other ingredients, the solution was a darker color.

I put the Eastman 5231 in a 500 ml developing tank, and filled the tank with the developer. I decided on a time of 16 minutes, with 3 inversions every 30 seconds.  I really had no guide here, as I was just extrapolating from a caffenol recipe and the 24°C temperature.  I used a water stop as usual, and then 8 minutes in fixer, and the typical Ilford wash technique.

When I took the reel out of the tank, and unrolled the film, I was thrilled to see that I had negatives!  The emulsion was definitely stained by the developer, but what I could see looked quite good.  The next morning, I scanned the negatives on my Epson V700 scanner at 3200 dpi. The scans came out quite good with just some minimal tweaking afterwards.  

As you can see, these look like any other negative processed in typical chemistry, but with a yellowish tint to the emulsion.  Upon closer inspection, I think that if I had gone with 14 or 15 minutes, the negatives might be perfect, but as you can see from the following images, the results are very good.  If I were to do this at 20°C, I would estimate the time at 20 minutes.  For high-ISO films, you could add a teaspoon of iodized salt or even omit it, but I have not tested it for those films yet.  The Eastman 5231 is a silver-rich emulsion with an ISO of 80 (it’s expired film).

The beginning of the roll.  On US23 near Dillsboro, NC

The source of the Kudzu leaves

slowly enveloping

The same truck shown from 2023 just a few days ago

reach for the sky

young shoots

At the end of the roll in my yard. Hosta flowers

Final thoughts on Kudzu developer

What drove me to this was the “what if?” without worrying about failure.  While I had no preconceived idea of the result, I did know that others have used various botanical extracts to develop film.  So, I figured that I might get something.  I didn’t know what the quality of the results would be, so I am very pleased with what I got.  The experiment has taught me to trust my instincts, and to try out the unusual for a change.  It also shows that Kudzu can be used for something!  So, don’t be afraid to give this a try.  

I can't stress this enough...

WARNING - If you are unsure of what vining plant you are pulling leaves from, please take the time to know the difference between Poison Ivy and Kudzu!  That applies to any plant that you might harvest to make a concoction with.  Know your plants before you start picking anything.

I am not responsible for your mistakes.

The Adox Golf 63S - a 6x6 folder

The Adox Golf 63S

To use a folding medium format camera seems anachronistic today, but there was a time when folding cameras were pretty much standard, unless you wanted a box camera.  However, by the end of the 1950s, folding cameras were coming to an end, as 35mm became more popular, and medium format was becoming the domain of professionals.  Zeiss-Ikon and other European manufacturers would soon succumb to the onslaught of Japanese-made cameras, which were just becoming popular in the world of 35mm. Today, a folding medium-format camera in good condition generally does not command the prices that are being asked for Hasselblads and so forth, for a variety of reasons.

Voigtlander Bessa 6x4.5

Ansco Speedex, a bottom-tier 6x6 folder

This Welta has 6x6 and 6x4.5 masks

Folding 120 cameras generally do not have fast lenses, lack lens interchangeability, and viewfinders do not give a precise framing of the subject.  Most of the old folders do not have meters or rangefinder focusing.  Square-format folders also tend to be less common than  6x9 and 6x4.5 folders. However, it’s certainly possible to get excellent images from these folders, so long as they work properly, don’t have light leaks in the bellows, and you use good techniques.  

Why folding medium format?

The absolute genius of folding cameras is that they generally have a self-erecting lens standard, and the collapsible bellows allows the camera to be lighter and far more compact than a rigid-bodied camera.  You typically push a button and the camera unfolds, sort of like a Transformer, although the transformation is only into a camera.  I should add that in most instances, folding cameras are relatively simple and do not have interchangeable lenses. Only a few models have built-in rangefinders, and most have scale focusing.  Early Kodak folders  usually featured only  6x9 cm negatives, with the exception of the Vest Pocket Kodaks which used 127 film.  Having a folding medium-format (typically 120 and 620 roll film) camera allows one to put a camera capable of using a large negative into a coat pocket.  The folding bellows retracts into the camera body, which also protects the lens and bellows from dirt and pointy objects.  The most obvious reason to use one of these cameras is due to the larger negative, as well as the separation of the subject from the background that you get at larger apertures. 

The Ricoh Six can do 6x6 and 6x4.5

The reality today is that most of these folding cameras are now 70 years old or more, and their bellows are often in sad condition if they have been left to the environment.  Shutters and focusing helicals may be in need of cleaning, lubrication and adjustment (CLA).  If the cameras take 620 film, then that involves respooling 120 film onto 620 spools. 

This Kodak Duo Six-20 folder does 6x4.5 on 620 film

With that in mind, I was really surprised to find an Adox Golf 6x6 folder in mint condition, with everything working properly, and no haze or fungus.  A big plus is that the camera uses 120 film.  

A roll of Tmax 100 for the next outing

Adox made the series of Golf medium format folding cameras from about 1955-1959, and all are 6x6 folders, and the variations mostly center around the lens used, shutter speeds, and self-timer present or absence. All share:

• double-exposure prevention
• front dial with apertures and shutter speeds
• red window on rear for aligning frame numbers
• simple reverse Galiliean viewfinder
• scale focus

The 63S model, as shown here, features B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 and 1/200 sec shutter speeds, a f/6.3 maximum aperture for the 75mm Adoxar lens, with f/22 minimum aperture, self-timer, and PC flash contact.  The Pronto shutter is known to be reliable and operates without lubrication being necessary.   A push of a button on the top left of the camera opens the front panel and the bellows locks into place as you pull the bed down.  Everything is manual, and there are no electronics, light meter, or hot-flash shoe.  The fully intact bellows, easily adjusted focus ring, and clear lens meant that this camera was ready for a test.   I loaded a roll of Fomapan 100 and over the course of a couple of weeks, I shot the roll, and reloaded it with a roll of Lomo Color 100.  

Using this camera is easy for me, as I've used all sorts of film cameras for 50 years.  The focus scale is in meters, and goes from 1meter to infinity.  I saw a YouTube video where the user said the red numbers were for feet.  Wrong.  The red numbers indicate the depth of field for each aperture!  This is especially important in a scale focus camera.  It's a very minimalist design, and once you advance the film and cock the shutter, you are ready to make an exposure.  If you get one of the tiny shoe-mounted light meters, you only need to guesstimate the distance to the subject. 

The Adox Golf may seem very similar to the Agfa/Ansco 6x6 Isolette/Speedex folding cameras, and in general, it is.  However, it does not have the litany of problems associated with the frozen helical grease and sticky bellows of the Isolettes.  

The beauty of these folders, whether 6x4.5, 6x6, or 6x9, is that they take up little space when collapsed.   There are a lot of models other than the Adox Golf to choose from, and having such a compact 6x6 camera (it takes up even less space than a Holga) means that it can pretty much go anywhere with you. If you are looking for something even better – a Zeiss-Ikon Super Ikonta with rangefinder focus is very desirable, but the cheaper Zeiss-Ikon Nettar 515/516 with scale focus is quite nice.  The Franka-Werke Solida 6x6 folders are also quite nice, if you can find one.  The German Balda company had a bewildering array of cameras named Baldax, Baldexette, and so forth, that are 6x6 folders.  Japan's Mamiya-6 folding cameras from the 1940s to late 1950s are definitely among the best 6x6 folders produced. 

Back to the Golf...

While this is an easy camera to operate, you can find the manual at Butkus.org.  All these different folding cameras can be a bit confusing to someone unaccustomed with using a red-window camera with the lens/shutter controls around  the lens.  Learning to guestimate distance is a good skill to have, too.  Once you have found a 6x6 folding camera that works well, hang on to it!  The simplicity and compactness of these cameras make them ideal for trips.  

Results from Roll 1. I shot this in Asheville and Raleigh, NC.  Overall, happy with the results.