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menagerie-of-monsters · 2 years

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I'm Mallory Dunlin, an avid reader and writer of monster romance. I talk about the things I'm writing, alongside a rotating collection of eclectic interests. Scroll long enough and you might be graced by a picture of Moon or Dawn, my borzoi.

As I hope anyone who picks up my books can tell, I'm queer, neurodivergent, and fascinated by the interplay of identity and society. My novels are dark fantasy romances, where the world can be brutal, but love wins the day. Most explore trauma, recovery, and the healing power of accepting others as they are.

What I'm working on: a fae enemies-to-lovers arranged marriage romance with Hades/Persephone vibes

Catalog below the cut!

Monsters of Faery

Modern-day fantasy, primarily set in Faery

CAPTURED BY THE FAE BEAST: Leah expects to die after a backcountry climbing accident. When a monstrous fae prince rescues her instead, claiming to be her soulmate, she strikes a bargain: a year and a day in his company in exchange for freedom at the end of it. But the Beast of Phazikai is more than his bloody reputation suggests, and there's far more at stake than her heart.

IN THE CLAWS OF THE RAVEN PRINCE: All deals with the fae have a twist, and when Lilly makes hers, she finds herself with a sword instead of a pen. But fate steps in when she faces the half-fae, half-manticore Chimera on the field—and discovers that the greatest enemy of Stag Court is her soulmate.

CLAIMED BY THE FLAME OF FAERY: To save her father's life from the vengeful half-dragon Duke of Nyx Shaeras, Isabela offers herself as his life-debt servant. Weathering his arrogance and pique, she starts to see the man beneath the dragonfire—but the secrets he's keeping might destroy their chances of happiness forever.

TAMING THE WILD HUNT: (novella) A deadly encounter with the Wild Hunt leaves an art thief trapped in the deep wilds of Faery—with a hellhound who won't leave her side and a Hunter who wants far more than merely her life.

Echoes of the Void

High fantasy with Renaissance-level technology

THE GARDENER AND THE WATER-HORSE: Fleeing from an abusive wizard, Safira takes refuge at one of the remote, sorcerous Spires. Though she's wary of beautiful, dangerous men, she strikes up a friendship with the water-horse of the caldera lake surrounding the island, and finds herself in deeper waters than she expected.

THE SORCERESS AND THE INCUBUS: The sorceress Rain has spent the past decade struggling to protect the world from meteors falling from the broken sky. She summons a familiar to help - and is answered by an incubus shapeshifter. As time runs out for the world, the two must learn to work together in order to save everyone from a fate only they can prevent.

THE CHANGELING AND THE DRAGON: A human woman raised by unseelie fae escapes death at the hands of slavers, only to end up in life-debt to a part-dragon sorcerer and his full-dragon cousin. Sersha knows she'll be his slave for life. After all, a regular mortal can't hope to save a sorcerer... or can she?

Standalones

HOW TO SLAY A DRAGON: Novella; originally part of the I am the Fire anthology and available for free on Bookfunnel. A dragonslayer finds more than she bargained for when a contract to kill a beast leads her to half-dragon prince driven out of the dragonlands to his mother's kingdom.

#author introduction #writeblr #bookblr #indie publishing #writers of tumblr #monster romance #fantasy romance

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starswift-borzoi · 1 year

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Echo still waiting on her forever home. #borzoi #russianwolfhound #doglover #doglife #sighthoundsofinstagram #borzoiofinstagram #borzoisofinstagram #purebreddogsofinstagram #dogsofinstagram #starswift #starswiftborzoi https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp5_KmAu3uL/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#borzoi #russianwolfhound #doglover #doglife #sighthoundsofinstagram #borzoiofinstagram #borzoisofinstagram #purebreddogsofinstagram #dogsofinstagram #starswift #starswiftborzoi

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goddamnwebcomics · 1 year

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I like two things in this page, first, Borzoi and Beryl’s convo has NOTHING to do with what Matt and Cydnee are talking about, proving that not every page focusing on two scenes needs to echo everything. And second, Matt’s expression to Cydnee’s genocidal fantasies. He’s probably screaming “STUPID BITCH OUR PR IS ALREADY SIX FEET UNDER YOU’LL MAKE EVERYTHING WORSE” inside his head.

#gene catlow

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mustela28nivalis · 10 months

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Nicknames for borzois

From time immemorial, it has been customary for borzois to give nicknames that carry a certain semantic and emotional load. These traditions continue to this day. True, the “theme” of nicknames has changed significantly over time.

Since past centuries, the speed, vigilance and dexterity of these dogs have traditionally been reflected in the nicknames of borzois: Bystryy(fast), Veter(wind), Veterok(breeze), Vikhr'(whirlwind), Zorkyy(sharp-sighted), Krylat(winged), Lovkiy(dexterous), Polyot(flight), Prytkiy(quick), Bystra(female version of fast), Lyotka(flying), Krylatka(female version of winged), Provorka(agile), Pul'ka(bullet), Rezva(frisky), Shustra(nimble).

The nicknames given by the names of birds echo this theme: Berkut(golden eagle), Krechet(gyrfalcon), Korshun(kite), Sokol(falcon), Oryol(eagle), Strepet(little bustard), Golubka(female pigeon), Ptashka(birdie), Chayka(gull).

One of the indispensable qualities of the old Russian borzois - anger towards the beast - was reflected in the nicknames: Zver'(beast), Zlobach(vicious), Lyutyy(fierce), Svirep(ferocious), Lyutaya(female version of fierce), Tiranka(female tyrant).

A very peculiar approach of ancient hunters to the names of borzois is visible in the use of imperative verbs: Dogonyay(catch up), Doyezzhay(reach),Zamechay(notice), Nakryvay(cover), Porazhay(hit), Primechay(take notice), Raskiday(scatter), Sokrushay(crush), Khvatay(grab). Thus, hope was expressed for the future outstanding qualities of the dog.

Often the nickname was supposed to reflect the prowess and courage of the dog, which, of course, does not give the beast a descent during the persecution: Karay(punish), Katay(ride), Obizhay(offend), Nalyot(raid), Pobedim(win), Udaloy(daring), Shvyrok(throw), Nalyotka(female version of raid), Otvaga(courage), Raskida(female version of scatter), Slava(glory), Udalaya(female version of daring).

Oriental nicknames have always been quite popular with Russian borzois: Abrek(is a North Caucasian term used for a lone North Caucasian warrior living a partisan lifestyle outside power and law and fighting for a just cause), Agakhan(is a title held by the Imām of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias), Alan(In honor of a nomadic tribe in Asia), Anchar(antiaris), Bulat( 1)male name of Persian origin, which was borrowed by the Turkic peoples. The etymological meaning of the name is "steel". From the Turks, the name Bulat came to Rus', where it was used before the spread of Christianity. 2) is a type of steel alloy known in Russia from medieval times), Kuchum(was the last Khan of Siberia who ruled from 1563 to 1598), Lezgin(In honor of the Dagestan people, one of the indigenous people of the Caucasus), Nayan(was a prince of the Borjigin royal family of the Mongol Empire), Sultan, Turkmen(are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia), Shaitan, Gulji(Presumably a goat), Fatma(Arabian woman name).This partly indirectly confirms the hypothesis of the eastern route of penetration of sighthounds into Russia. Well, after quite a lot of oriental sighthounds were brought in the 19th century, as already noted, the number of such nicknames naturally increased.

Many nicknames displayed character traits, one might say, desirable for a borzoi: Azarnoy(venturous), Nakhal(smart aleck), Razboy(robbery), Retivyy(mettled), Smelyy(brave), Buyana(brawl), Zadira(bully), Nagla(Insolent), Plutovka(cheat), Shel'ma(rogue), Shalun'ya(naughty). And this approach is understandable and traditional.

However, among modern nicknames, characteristics that are not very desirable for a greyhound began to appear more and more often: Dikar'(savage), Dobryak(kindley), Dikarka( female version of savage), Laska(caress), Nedotroga(touchy), Tikhonya(cuiet).Of course, the owners have always cherished and protected their dogs.

And an indicator of this attitude are the nicknames that emphasize the value of the dog: Bestsen(priceless), Dorogoy(dear), Podar(gift), Lyubim(loved), Serdechnyy (hearty), Yakhont(one of the obsolete names for the red and blue jewelry minerals corundum), Almazka(diamond), Biryuza(turquoise), Brasletka(bracelet), Nagrada(award), Serebryanka(silver), Yashma(jasper).

The spectacular appearance of sighthounds, especially Russian borzois with their luxurious coat, impresses even the inexperienced. And it is not for nothing that a fairly large number of nicknames, both in the past and now, emphasize this beauty. Here are just a few of them: Krasavchik(handsome), Ladnyy(fine), Prigozhay(comely), Blyostka(Glitter), Divnaya(marvelous), Igrushka(toy), Krasa(beauty), Krasotka(beauty).

In our times, nicknames taken from the names of plants of our homeland have become widespread among borzois: Bagul'nik(Labrador tea), Klyon(Maple), Kovyl'(feather grass), Lyutik(buttercup), Shalfey(sage), Beryozka(Birch), Yolka(Christmas tree), Kalina(guelder rose), Medunitsa(lungwort), Melissa(lemon balm).

As well as lakes, rivers and other geographical names of Russia: Baikal, Valdai, Don, Sayan, Angara, Volga, Katun.

Borzois, like some other domestic breeds of hunting dogs, often have nicknames that reflect natural phenomena: Grom(thunder), Iney(hoarfrost), Rassvet(dawn), Tuman(fog), Volna(wave), Groza(thunderstorm), Dymka(mist), Metel'(blizzard), Purga(snowstorm).

It can be seen under the impression that the Russian nobility was engaged in hunting with borzois in past centuries, a lot is now found among borzois and "titled persons": Barin, Knyaz', Sudar', Tsarevich, Tsar, Boyarynya, Grafinya(Countess), Knyazhna, Printsessa(Princess).

Borzois are considered an ancient Russian breed, the personification of old times. And, probably, the appearance of nicknames that came from legends, fairy tales and from the names of historical figures is connected with this: Berendey, Yermak, Kudiyar, Leshiy, Orlov, Sadko, Bylina, Skazka, Snegurochka.

#borzoi #russian wolfhound #interesting #fact #sighthound #Russian greyhound

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scrapyard-gizmo · 2 years

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(image source)

image id and audio transcript under the cut

[Image ID: A screenshot of a Borzoi dog with white fur looking into the camera, its head tilted, while it stands on a backyard porch. Overlaid on the image is text in all caps that reads: We are not “born to die”, does a book begin just to finish? Does a song open with a beautiful chord purely to end? Yes, we are born with the inevitable fate of death, but that is merely the final act of the play. We are born to love, be joyous, to move, learn, cry, and feel. We are in fact born to live. /END ID]

[Audio Transcript: The audio is a voice-over of the text in the image, done in an exaggerated and dramatic voice. The voice also has reverb added, as well as an additional echo on the final word, “Live.” The music track “But The Earth Refused to Die” by Toby Fox plays for the entire duration of the audio.]

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laur-rants · 28 days

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Pup went and got her QC this weekend (Qualified courser). Chased that lure like she's been doing it her whole life. She ruuns in her first ever open tomorrow, and again in the next weekend. I couldn't be more proud of her; please enjoy this video of full on lure coursing!

#dogs #dog sports #lure coursing #borzoi #sighthound #echo the borzoi #starswift borzoi #my dogs #i feel like a mom at a track meet lol #going and running with others #getting a ribbon #seeing others #tents #its all the same vibe #sports dont change no matter what it is #anyway enjoy my little rocket :)#still just a puppy but looking great

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theborzoiarebackintown · 1 year

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If you don't mind my asking, how much is it to do the echos/holters? Is it the sort of thing that's only covered if your pet has had a prior event?

Well there are a few different ways you can do this health testing! The most expensive way is going through a cardiologist, that’s gonna be probably a few k depending on where you live and all you need done.

Breeders and show people are most likely going to be doing echos at health clinics, which are typically set up by breed clubs or kennel clubs in conjuncture with shows. Prices will also depend on where you are, but echos at health clinics seem to be around $200-$400 around here.

The BCOA tries to offer most of the breed specific health testing during the borzoi national, and that’s where I did Margo and Charlie’s initial echos this past spring. I got a discount for being a BCOA member and I think it was $170 each, this was in TX.

Holters are a little different, and at this point aren’t typically included in health clinics as it’s a 24 hr or longer test. Holter monitors themselves cost roughly 1.2k give or take, and probably another couple hundred for the vest and monitor holder to protect it while in use. The BCOA offers holter monitor rentals to members and it’s not too expensive, but I thankfully have a few friends who own their own and are willing to let me use their’s. To actually get the holter analyzed and read, it’s $40 through Alba.

Echos should be done a minimum of every year a breeding is planned. I plan to test Margo annually if at all possible, and she would not be bred without an echo within that year. I don’t plan on echoing Charlie again until probably 8 or 9 unless his holters start showing issues, since he’s neutered and has all indications of a good heart. He will be echoed yearly, and at this point Margo will continue to be holtered every 6 months. If she continues to test with no doubles or triples I may go to once a year in the future.

And since we’re talking about all that, let’s also not forget the other breed specific health testing! Thyroid should be tested at least every few years imo, and I’d like to see it within a year of breeding. Eyes should be tested every few years also, imo, more if you’re in higher altitude. Margo’s lines have a smattering of pannus so she’ll be tested more frequently and definitely within a year of any breedings.

All puppies should be tested for DM if not cleared by parentage, but this only needs done once.

Now, aside from DM, the frequency of health testing may change depending on what issues may be common in your lines or if any issues are found. I would say the above is a bare minimum you should expect from ANY borzoi breeder, and depending on pedigrees I may need more to consider them responsible.

Another thing to consider, a breeder can do all the appropriate health testing at all times but it doesn’t mean anything if they continue to breed dogs that aren’t testing well, or are not working to breed away from their existing issues. There doesn’t exist a line of borzoi without SOME health issue, so it’s important to understand pedigrees and know what you’re getting into.

#dogblr #petblr #text post #dog health testing #borzoi #sighthounds #there are a few litters on the ground right now I wouldn’t touch #but what does a good echo even matter when the stud’s litter mate died of sudden death #and thus far the familial link has proved consistent #and scary #honestly no clue how new people are supposed to navigate all this #it’s worth it I promise #but it’s a lot lol #oh you were just asking about cost?#how about I write you a novel instead

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loneberry · 2 years

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they have escaped the weight of darkness

Lisitsa the little wolf dog with wise eyes is waiting by the door, at the bottom of the dimly lit staircase. She knows that the museum is about to close, that it is time for her walk.

As I’m leaving the museum, I hear Valuska’s voice coming from the Borzoi Kabinet Theater, the sound of Vig Mihály’s beautiful piano music, from the opening scene of Béla Tarr’s Werkmeister Harmonies. I peak into the curtains. The music is playing over 3D footage of a plain in Wyoming, the place my father first landed when he immigrated from Taiwan to the United States. Could not place the music at first, that song I love so dearly, what song are you? But then Valuska’s soliloquy resumes, he is talking about the eclipse of the sun, how the people watched, wondering if the sky would fall in on them.

unexpectedly … within a few minutes … the air about us cools … Can you feel it? … The sky darkens … and then … grows perfectly black! Guard dogs howl! The frightened rabbit flattens itself against the grass! Herds of deer are startled into a mad stampede! And in this terrible and incomprehensible twilight … even the birds (‘The birds!’ cried Valuska, in rapture, throwing his arms up to the sky, his ample postman’s cloak flapping open like bat’s wings) … ‘the very birds are confused and settle on their nests! And then … silence … And every living thing is still … and we too, for whole minutes, are incapable of speech … Are the hills on the march? Will heaven fall in on us? Will earth open under our feet and swallow us? We cannot tell. It is a total eclipse of the sun.

But then the sun returns—life is breathed back into the world.

But... but no need to fear. It's not over. For across the sun's glowing sphere, slowly, the Moon swims away. And the sun once again bursts forth, and to the Earth slowly there comes again light, and warmth again floods the Earth. Deep emotion pierces everyone. They have escaped the weight of darkness

Mr. Hagelmayer: That's enough! Out of here, you tubs of beer!

János Valuska: But Mr. Hagelmayer. It's still not over.

A line from Cixous echoes in my head: she sees, she is once again turned toward the inaccessible sun.

I did not bring my notes about the museum to the cafe, knowing how easily I am led astray by wonder, so I must draw on my memories of the monastery reflected in the water, the rose engine, the white moths bursting out of the bottomless urn whose diminutive outer appearance conceals the impossible scale of its interior. Somewhere the night-flying white moths billow forth, they are the dead taking leave of this earth. Woolf: she is to finally let the last great moth in. Shall I consider you an entomologist of the spirit world?

I remember my dream:

Would I die? Now in the church a sensitive pothead improvises a requiem. Thousands of murmuring moths fly in and die on the floor.

Do you hear me?

There’s the diorama of the living room with the mirror covered with the yellow sheet. In the miniature room of the dying, it is night. Outside a storm rages. Lightning outside makes the window flicker.

WG Sebald: it was customary, in a home where there had been a death, to drape black mourning ribbons over all the mirrors and all canvasses depicting landscapes or people or the fruits of the field, so that the soul, as it left the body, would not be distracted on its final journey, either by a reflection of itself or by a last glimpse of the land now being lost forever

Sometimes when I hear a great roar, I feel the world careening toward disaster, something inside me is turning, as cold and constant as the orbit of celestial bodies, a mechanical model of the movement of the planets, observed beneath glass. I think about the ashes of my grandfather, sitting in my parents’ bathroom, which my father never brought to scatter in Taiwan, as my grandfather requested. My father never went back. This must be it, I won’t ever go back to mainland China, as I always thought I would. I feel the world careening, just as I felt it leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. My heart still breaks thinking about Ukraine. Did I, perhaps, take the equilibrium of weather and geopolitics for granted? The supply of semiconductors. Now I know: the world cannot be counted on to continue.

That’s the world of the dead, isn’t it? Says the YouTube woman. Come rejoin the world of the living, she says. We’re not boring, I promise.

There are things I cannot mourn. But sometimes the clouds appear to me in the shape of the Garganta del Diablo, the Devil’s throat waterfall of Iguazú Falls, between Brazil and Argentina. The preoccupations of my imagination are reflected everywhere in the world: the shot of Katia touching the yellow sulfur in the film Fire of Love (on the same day I had typed the note: “Flowers of sulfur: It is known as flores sulphuris by apothecaries in older scientific works”), Maurice floating on a dinghy in a lake of sulfuric acid, the way you retreat into the mysteries of nature out of disillusionment with the world of the living. I bike along The Strand, between Venice and Santa Monica Pier, listening to Gillian Welch’s I Dream a Highway. The music algorithm must know something of my preoccupations, I think, with dreams, with sunflowers. There’s a peace that descends that feels like a premonition of death. I’m calmer now. Is it peace or resignation? I remember reading Alix Cléo Roubaud’s diary over a decade ago, remembered the equanimity of her last entries, right before her untimely death from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 31. There’s a peace that eases you into acceptance of your absence. Listening to the song, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean, I am drafting my will. Give all my assets to my little brother, etch my books onto stone and metal, deposit me in the sea. Sometimes when I hear a great roar, I see the hour of my death. Every sunset I have ever seen will flash in my head. Beams of light are coming through a v-shaped opening in the clouds. River of lava, the memory of every volcano I have ever seen: hiking Mount Pelée in Martinique with Joohyun and Doc. Did I see a second of footage in Fire of Love of the sparkling black volcanic ash beach of Grand'Rivière? I remember Vesuvius, how I went as a teen and saw the petrified people of Pompeii, how I returned a decade later with a lover and came home with a lava rock shaped like an egg. We hike to the summit for a view of the mouth.

This is where the mind goes.

Who knows why some are comforted by a confrontation with nature’s magnificent forces, two lovers dying instantly in a 1800 degree cloud of roaring pyroclastic, holding each other, a watch eternally frozen at the moment of their obliteration.

Why do I cry so easily now? Claustrophobia in the crowd of tourists on the pier, the water at night, the whirling lights on the Ferris wheel. Back on the bike trail, through my music I hear the screams of the people on the rollercoaster in the distance. There’s the leaden horizon, the black syrup of the night ocean. Aim the arrow of your focus, this being-toward-death.

There are people for whom coincidence has a special status. Dreamers.

How strange, given her cleverness, that she mistakes the world seen through wound-colored glasses for meaning that is immanent in the world, as though she were the “receiver” of externally produced signs and not the producer of the “meaning” of indifferent bits of data. Perception is hallucinatory. The constellation is not a picture.

There are people for whom coincidence has a special status.

#death #the dead #museum of jurassic technology #dreams #literature #woolf #virginia woolf #wg sebald #sebald #bela tarr #film #fire of love #alix cleo roubaud #hélène cixous #memory

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matmarrash · 5 months

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Harman Phoenix 200 - A Funky-Fresh Color Film Made in the UK

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New Film, Who Dis?

It’s been a long time since I’ve decided to do a blog post documenting my experiences with a film, but I think this is a very worthy occasion. Just yesterday, December 1st, 2023, Harman Photo over in the UK launched their very first color film! That’s right, the folks that have brought us some of the film photography staples of HP5+, Multigrade Papers, Delta, XP2, and more are entering the color arena. Harman Phoenix 200 is a color negative, C-41 process film that’s unlike any fresh film I’ve ever shot.

Harman was kind enough to send out a little care package containing a slew of marketing knickknacks and most importantly two rolls of this new film. They provided a few notes for pre-launch users of the film like: ISO, where to process, suggested ISO range, and throughout their introduction letter kept mentioning that this is an experimental film. Users were to expect: high contrast in most lighting situations, heavy grain even when well-exposed, unique color rendering, and halation in the brightest highlight areas. At the time of testing, I wasn’t working with the depth of information that is out there now on this film like the official datasheet. Without much more to go on than that, I loaded up my trusty old Pentax K1000 with 50mm f/2 lens and headed out to a local park with Laur and our new Borzoi puppy, Echo.

For the entirety of this first roll of film, I still had no idea what the results would look like, even from other photographers! I wasn’t trying to take any crazy chances, so I shot this 200 ISO film at box speed, checking my Reveni Labs Incident Light Meter in between shots to make sure I wasn’t going too far over/under. I was also playing it safer than normal in terms of lighting, trying as much as possible to include some direct daylight in each shot. November afternoons don’t last long in Ohio, so the direct, blue sky sun quickly turned to an even, pastel sky during our mile-long hike at the park.

I didn’t manage to shoot all 36 exposures in that short hike, so with the remaining dozen or so shots I took a jog around downtown Columbus, OH the following afternoon. This time I was really aiming for as many direct sun compositions as possible to see how the film handled a standard 5-stop dynamic range scene as close to the color balance as possible. For many of the brightly lit scenes shot this way, I employed the use of my Promaster HGX 2-8 stop Variable ND filter to knock down the exposure to the limited shutter speed range of my K1000. Time to send off my test roll to The Darkroom, the official Harman Photo lab for the USA.

A Tale of Two Films

Not even 48 hours after receiving my order, The Darkroom had already processed, scanned, and uploaded my order to their online system for preview. I was excited, to say the least, that is until I took a look at the scans. Nearly every single shot had crunchy grain, crazy contrast, and an extreme orange + teal dual tone color cast. And if the main subject matter was even partially backlit, goodbye to those highlights (the worst three off of those scans shown below).

My initial excitement quickly faded to an uneasy stomach and mild anxiety as I waited for the negatives to arrive back from California. It was at this point that I started reaching out to other film shooters I knew that might also be testing out Harman 200. A few replied back with some quick examples and one even sent me some of their personal tips and tricks. Faith hadn’t fully been restored, but I was no longer losing sleep over the lab scans and waiting to see what the negatives had in store.

Only two days after leaving The Darkroom, a FedEx package was on my doorstep with my test film and to my surprise, THE NEGATIVES WERE PURPLE! Harman had mentioned “a surprise” that they didn’t want to spoil, but this was not something I was anticipating. Of course those automated lab scans were going to look weird, the film base didn’t even have the standard orange masking layer that helps with the daylight color balance! It was back to the drawing board with scanning my first roll, and below are the three very different renditions of the same exact negative.

This also serves as a cautionary tale those of you sending this out to a lab. Make sure the lab you’re using knows about Phoenix 200 and some of its quirks. There is full scanning compensation data available on Harman’s website as well as the official datasheet for photographers.

The first scan is what The Darkroom sent out for preview. the second scan was done with my Epson V700 scanner in “Auto Correct”, and the third scan was with manual inversion. To manually invert the negative, it’s a pretty drawn-out process for a single frame, but gives you access to the full range the film has to offer. On a scanner like the V700, you have to go into the Configuration menu of Professional Mode and Disable Color Correction and also scan color negatives as Color Positive. From there, the positive scan is manually inverted using Adjustment Curves and Camera RAW Filters in Photoshop.

Was all of the extra effort worth it? If you like and of the photographs in the gallery at the top of this blog post, or any of the cooler-to-neutral looking photos in the galleries below, I’d say it’s worth it! Personally, my favorite look is somewhere between Epson’s Auto Color setting and the expired Ektachrome look of the manually inverted negatives. Sometimes the super-retro vibes of the warm + cyan look can work, but other times I’d like to see some more fleshed out blues, reds, and greens.

To the Studio!

By this time in my limited film test, I was a bit more hopeful about Harman Phoenix 200, but still wanted to try it out in a more controlled environment. With only a few days until the December 1st launch date, I called up my buddy Tariq Tarey to see if he was up for a quick studio shoot. If you’re not familiar with Tariq’s work, you should be. He’s an absolute master of portraiture, and his technical skill with light and cameras is only outdone by his charming personality.

Knowing a bit more about the contrasty nature of Phoenix 200 firsthand, I gave Tariq the heads-up that we would need to be working with a very tight lighting ratio. I suggested something close to a 1:1 ratio, meaning that the key/main light and any fill light hitting the subject was to be at the same intensity. With modern films and/or digital cameras this look often feels “flat” and sometimes even boring. Harman’s experimental color film managed to eek some drama out of an ordinarily lit scene.

Pictured above you can see the results of a simple 5-shot bracket with the Sekonic Exposure Profile Target. Metered for the box speed of ISO 200, the shots are in order of Exposure Values: -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2. Now I can see why Harman kept mentioning that this wasn’t a film meant for pushing! This film packs some contrast, even in flat light with a simple greyscale chart. There were two big surprises in this test. First off was the blown highlights; only the EV -1 and -2 had highlights that weren’t showing significant magenta halation; this film has a mild anti-halation layer compared to other color films on the market. The second surprise was that the EV 0 exposure, essentially ISO 200, looked more like one would expect from an underexposed chart (looks about 2/3 stop under IMO). Overall I found the colors rather pleasing in the overexposed charts (essentially ISO 50 & 100), so I’d recommend rating Harman Phoenix 200 somewhere around ISO 100 - 125. This feels like a film that would pull process well, so more testing to do on that front when I purchase some more.

But enough about grey boxes and a still life, how does this higher contrast film translate to a sitting subject in the studio? Well Tariq and I had the better part of 24 exposures to mess around with in that same lighting setup, and we each tried a few poses with each other as the model. That light coming in from camera-left in the portraits is only 1/2 stop over the the key light, something big to keep in mind when working with subjects with deep-set eyes (like yours truly!). Fill, fill, fill. If you’re shooting portraits with this film, do it in dead-even light and bring that bounce card or fill light in annoying close to make sure you get something in those shadows. Phoenix 200 is about as forgiving in the shadows as expired slide film, meaning if it’s not there at the time of exposure, the only thing that will be there after processing is grain.

Closing Thoughts

Phoenix 200 is everything Harman said it would be in their FAQ sent out to testers, I just wish they would have sent out more data (more film wouldn’t have hurt either!). Thanks to a great contact in the industry, I was able to obtain a digital copy of the film’s datasheet < 24 hours before launch day and releasing an overview video on the subject. My personal gripes with Harman’s marketing aside, this is a film that I is going to be polarizing. Within the first day of launch there are already reports of retailers worldwide already running out of stock, while online many are flocking to the comments section to rail on the fact that this film isn’t God’s gift to photography. There’s no way that a brand new color film (made in just this past year!) is going to beat the nearly 100 year lead that Kodak has perfected over countless iterations. And to be perfectly honest, we don’t need another Portra. If we want something unique, and if the film community truly wants innovation, THIS is how it starts.

If you’d like to pick up a few rolls to support the industry in a positive direction, I’d recommend checking out your local camera shop, wherever Ilford and Harman products are sold. For the convenience of shopping online, there’s no better place I know of than The Film Photography Store. My buddy Michael Raso over at The Film Photography Project is offering a special discount of $1 off of each roll of Harman Phoenix 200 color film that you order. Simply use coupon code “LFF” during checkout; the deal ends December 15th, 2023.

Thanks for stopping by the blog, if you liked this little write-up and would like to check out more, be sure to head over to the YT channel for more film photography content. And if you’d like to support what you see here, head over to the galleries and snag a print or two.

#harman photo #phoenix film #phoenix 200 #c41 #color film #color negative #k1000 #pentax #mat marrash #tariq tarey #columbus

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dustedmagazine · 1 year

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Borzoi — Neither the One nor the Other, but a Mockery of Both (12XU)

Neither The One Nor The Other, But A Mockery Of Both by Borzoi

For some folks, the precious stylistic antics of Borzoi — bathed in several layers of glib allusivity, by turns satiric and snarky — render the band a cultural synecdoche for their home city of Austin, TX: tech savvy, southern-fried-hipster, at once arch and half-baked (or maybe fully baked, har har…). “Hero’s Theme,” the opening tune on the band’s new EP, is almost too on the nose, with its chiptune anachronisms and its overdriven production, kicked over into the red and recalling deep-cut skronksters Times New Viking or Propeller-period GBV at their most rocked out. Somehow, someway, Neither the One nor the Other, but a Mockery of Both has a saving grace for those of us who are very, very tired of all the winking and wincingly self-aware raillery. The songs are good.

We might note that even when the band’s songcraft is at its strongest, some glimmer of schtick emerges. Check out record closer “Can’t Resist,” which commences with a quotation of the famous, epical opening chord of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” It’s just about too clever: have we been fooled, again? The band messes around for another minute, combining the cock-rock-meets-street-tough antics of the Men, c. Leave Home, with the textures of the very early Wire. That’s a winning synthesis, and Borzoi has the good sense to run with it, only breaking stride at the song’s climax when a degree of desperation cuts in. It sort of sounds like they mean it.

That’s the trick, and also the lingering problem with Borzoi. On their previous LP A Prayer for War (2018), the surface-level semiotics were even more irritating: the album art’s postmodern dayglo rendition of Dada collage (like Peter Max doing a pastiche of Max Ernst), song titles like “Sunday at Hirohito’s” and “Lizard Men of the Third Reich.” It’s all a bit much. As long ago as 1993, David Foster Wallace questioned the relative utility of such excessive ironizing — and no one could wield irony as incisively as Wallace.

Borzoi can’t, and don’t. But they can write and play good punk songs. “Frac Daddy” comes on with menacing thrums and eventually crackles in tense angles. The song is also allusive; you’ll hear a bit of Sonic Youth in the guitars, and a whole lot more of Sic Alps. Luckily those echoes don’t distract from “Frac Daddy’s” burn and build. It would be interesting to hear what the band could come up with if they directed less energy into the overt displays of wit and more into the music itself.

Jonathan Shaw

#borzoi #neither the one nor the other but a mockery of both #12XU #jonathan shaw #album review #dusted magazine #punk #austin

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