Expired developer or something else?

Ok, this has happened to me before. Last time I sincerely thought this simply was the developer gone bad. And it really was the case. However I have no idea what is the reason of the very weird background this time...

Bad developer? Too much fixing? Something else? I have asked the question on Flickr. Let's see what will come back...

Adox CHS Art 100

After my previous misfortunes with the Adox I had a much better luck this time. As I was shipping almost illegally my photography chemicals to Dubai and had nightmares about getting jailed I decided I will only go for essential stuff - like developer and fixer. So I no longer have a stop bath, but let's face it - you can obviously live without it.

The other issue with Dubai is - it is hot. Like really! So stand development is not really an option here as temperature of the tank can easily creep up while you wait for it to be developed.

The above leaves me with the only option of going for normal development. This time I didn't presoak the film and developed it for only 6 minutes, didn't use a stop bath and actually the results turned out quite sharp - with some grain at the lower speeds and without getting burnt areas like last time.

Autumn in black and white

Late London autumn looks surprisingly good in B&W. And a Kodak 400TX is an excellent film to take it.

Patience is a virtue...

... especially when you do film photography. I haven't developed a single film in 2011 due to many different reasons, but mainly because I didn't feel like it. 

I have now stocked up on fresh developer, my Pentax mirror is no longer stuck, days are long and I have found new inspiration in the fact I will be leaving London in August to a sandier, sunnier, warmer part of the world - the Middle East and Dubai. This will most deffinately affect my film photography mostly due to the fact I am not quite certain on whether B&W chemistry is as easily available as in London and second because I am not quite sure on what is there to take pictures of. But this will show later on. 

As of now, I still have 6 more weeks in London, enough film and developer and enough energy and inspiration to get out. 

Going back to the patience bit. Here is why: 

Do you see the top left corner? Or should I rather say: do you see the lack of any image in the top left corner? Here is the story. This is the first film I developed since November and the spiral I was using felt rather sticky towards the end of rolling the film onto it, so I thought: Whatever, I'll just roll out the film and roll it around the spiral. Big mistake... The film got stuck to each other and as I also didn't presoak it the developer simply couldn't get there... So there you go. Next time - patience. It will eventually get there.  

On another note. This is Delta 100 film. Love it! And given it is currently on a summer sale price at Silverprint might get a couple of rolls for portraits this summer! 

A few more images from the same film. All taken during my resent trip to Germany and France. 

I especially love this last one. It happened because the film was stuck and wouldn't rewind properly. I have found with a few other film that for some reason the spool in the Pentax doesn't take them in as easily as the Acros or 400TX. But sometimes those faults just play nicely together! :)

"ночь, улица, фонарь..."

My Pentax has a stuck mirror, which means I haven't shot a single roll of film in the past three months. The good news is that it might be fixable.
My computer has died. Hopefully I will be able to recover my archive of digital photos. The good news is that all my negatives can always be rescanned.
This is an image I took in Soho on a walk late evening in November. It was already dark in the evening so I didn't think that anything will come out of a 100 ISO film, but there you are. Handheld, 100 ISO Acros. I love this film. As much as I love my Pentax. I am ready to marry the person who manages to fix it.

Looking into someone else's life

When you take a picture of someone do you invade there personal space? Do you steal a moment from them? Is the camera a weapon that threatens you to show you to the world in a way you wouldn't want yourself to be shown?

My Zenit Em and shooting with shallow focus

I generally shoot with a wide open lens since the Pentax is loaded most of the times with a 100 ISO film and light has been scarce as of lately in London. Despite of that you can't really say if I have been shooting with a wide open lens, unless it is a portrait. Like this one.

On the contrary the way the Helios lens on the Zenit renders the background is so much more visible.

I know both shots are different and all, but it seems like the Helios is the altogether better lens. Despite the fact that it is slightly slower compared to the Pentax-M 1.7/50 mm lens I have mounted on the Pentax.

Bottom line is, despite the fact the Zetit is double the size and weight of the Pentax, I should start carrying it around and shooting more with it.

Friends

A great brunch with wonderful friends few weeks back.

 Nadya (with a lamp growing out of her head... Sorry about this, otherwise I love the shot!)

Stephanie

Yat Wan

Let me in

I have a few upcoming posts about the photography courses I have been doing recently as well as to share some more images of autumn in London and around. In the mean time the above is an image from my first roll of Rollei 100 film.

Closer

Fashion idol

All square

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

Di Lieto - first story draft

It is now two weeks after my first to Di Lieto visit and I have shot 11 films. One came underdeveloped, three have been developed with the wrong amount of developer, four have been over developed, three came out as they should may be.

You live you learn. It has been a very exciting process, not only in terms of actually being out there and putting myself out of my comfort zone when I had to talk to strangers and be nice and make sure I am not in their way. When you watch the same process over and over you start wondering - what is there I still haven't seen in this, so where is my story, what else can I shoot, can I climb up there, where do I stand.

It has been very difficult for me to find new angles, take portraits and ensure everyone is comfortable around me. And I am not even going into all the technical stuff, like proper metering. Looks like with the Pentax which has a faster lens and altogether better meter than the Zenith is simpler to use inside, when there is not enough light.

Now the sifting through and selecting the pictures that would make it. My great friend Alyssa is so good in this. She is may be the best photo editor amongst my friends. And I am so crap in this. The editing process is as important as actually taking the pictures.

Here is my process of picking up 20-30 pictures out of 300+. I sorted them in different themes: kneading, mixing, baking, people, equipment etc. Afterwards from each group I picked up the ones I felt I like best and put them all together. Than came my brilliant house mate, who not only doubles as a model, but also now doubles as a photo editor.

This is how the draft looks.