Closer

What did your dreams turn into?

Symmetry

The two of us

Adox CHS Art 100

Experimenting is a good thing. That is how I found my favourite film so far - Acros 100. Pity soon it will be way to grey and dark in London to use it.

I went this Friday to buy some film as I was running low and I thought I would go adventures and try something new, the only film Silverprint has in stock and I haven't tried so far was something called Adox. Cheap and cheerful, so why not try it.

And so I did.

I think the results didn't turn too well. It was already getting dark outside and on top of it was cloudy, so I had to shoot on low speeds hand-held, which led to quite a few of the shots being blurred.

I also messed up the development, which led to the non-blurred shots to get burnt areas. The thing is Adox apparently is a single layer film which makes it very sensitive to all the chemicals, unlike all the others I have used so far (mostly Acros 100, Kodak and Ilford). I normally soak the film in tap water while I am mixing the developer just to get it ready and all. However I realized something is not right when the water I poured out of the development tank was blue. I used just tap water instead of stop bath and fixed for just 4 minutes instead of the 6 I usually do. After I went read a bit more (unfortunately I was too excited to develop it to take the time to read all this in advance) turned out Rodinal (the developer I am using) gives a lot of grain with this film

Sorry for posting the same bench from the back and from the front, but this is only for illustrative purposes of my inadequacy with the Adox film. Plus I have a thing about benches!

I have one more roll and will use it next weekend with proper light and will also do some portraits to check how it behaves with those.

Coming in the next post few of the good shots.

Faceless

Marjam

My magical friend Marjam turns a year older and wiser. Happy birthday, Marjam!

I took the picture in the evening in very low light, without a flash on a Kodak 400 TX film, hence the grain and the lack of sharpness.

acros 100 - you've gotta love this film!

People look at you as though you are from another century when they see you with a film camera, it takes about an hour to develop a film, dry it and scan it, you don't know what will come out. But than you get this.

And you know you have the most fantastic hobby in the world!

This is Acros 100 - the best film I have come across so far! In Rodinal it comes super soft, no grain, wonderful tones. I just love it!

Di Lieto - final edit

So it might seem to you you have seen this before, however, this is Di Lieto's final edit. It has been indeed a painful process. Painful because I have shot a lot of stuff. Really. There are pictures I love and there are pictures that can be put together to make a lot of sense.

My story started with the bread. It was supposed to be a story about the bread. Gradually Giovanni came in, eventhough he has been extremely great, helpful and supportive I have found it extremely hard to point the camera at him and make the story about him and not about the bread. However, he is an important part of the bread story since he is the person making the bread. He is also important since he makes all those breads by hand. Really, he does. And me being who I am, I believe you leave a bit of your soul in whatever you make with your own hands.

Each time I tried to put a proper portrait of Giovanni in, I felt I need to get him out. I like having him half-hidden and half being there. This is how I know him at the moment. I think this is another reason why it was hard to take portraits of him and make the story about him. I don't just yet know what his story is and I didn't have the time to get to know him.

I have truly enjoyed the experience and I am ever grateful to Giovanni letting me and becoming my friend. I hope to be able to get the story further, because the bakery is indeed a great community place with an amazing family feel to it.

With this I am off to my three weeks of summer and home and will be back with more stories in September.

From 18% Gray

From 18% Gray

From 18% Gray

From 18% Gray

Editing

I have realized that anyone can take a good picture. Seriously. The issue is editing whatever you have shot. It is so bloody difficult.

I am so stuck on editing the Di Lieto photo project that words can't possibly describe. After deciding the story is about the bread, my tutor ever so nicely asked, can she please, see some more people on my pictures. As most of my stuff was close ups - hands, bread, flour flying around, people with their back, people hidden behind piles, people out of focus...

So I thought well, I can do this, I can point the camera in the faces of people who I barely know and who after all feel comfortable with me. Well, I now have a bunch of "pictures with people" in them.

The issue is whenever I start editing, I end up with the pictures with no people in them! I somehow want to hide the people from the bakery and I can't figure out why. I have a guess it is I feel I don't know enough about them or I just want to keep them for myself. No idea.

Altogether it is a pain!

On another note - I have now mastered the drying process! Yes! The answer was very simple - photo flo! And you simply forget about drying marks. So now I have clean negatives I can focus on other stuff, like composition for example or editing for a change!