When I approach a large change in life I begin to wax nostalgic about good things from times long past. A big change is coming in a few months and this time around the subject of my nostalgia is: my central american year. For every person you see below, there are ten more who were in the story behind the picture, for every smile caught by camera there were twenty more when the camera was put away…
It really, really really is a sad thing that E6 processing is such a thorn in the derrière. The dynamic range baffles me, every time I see it; totally baffled. Like, what?! How?? Alas, it is pretty, and that’s good enough for me.
Dad here, he’s such a Shutterbug. Mom? Same.
Gee, I wonder where I got it from.
I broke down and touched up the contrast on a few pictures; worth it? Still not sure, but I’m leaning yes.
I forgot my developing notebook, so I’ll get the nitty-gritties on the films and developing on here in a few days. Sparse details: Ilford HP5+ and TX400, mostly, pushed to 1600. All run through my F3HP, shot through an e series 35.
On cameras: I’m thinkin’ I may have to abort operation dave-saves-up-for-three-years-and-buys-a-M6/35-setup, and then start a new operation, likely to be titled dave-saves-for-a-year-and-buys-a-X100. Digital? DIGITAL? Well…yeah, I think so. Hmm. But have you SEEN that thing? Seriously, what a neat camera.
First tries: street photography and push processing. Conclusion: I’m in love. With both. Oh but wait you might say, that’s not a good conclusion, dave–it’s a love triangle! You need a last chapter to resolve things! What do? To that I say nothing, only give a clue: I fidget with my shirt sleeve. Like I’m trying to get you to think that I’m trying to get you to think that there’s an ace there; probably no ace there, huh? But oh I may have an ace, yes I may have one where you never thought an ace would be. In my sock.
Anyways, next up: try pushing film that’s actually made to be pushed. I fear that good places for street photography may be hard to find up here–I need to figure something out to deal with this issue. Anchorage, maybe? That’s a long drive to take pictures.
End-note about street photography: man, I took a LOT of shots, and not many of them turned out nice. Like, this: there’s a reason this post only has two pictures. That bugs me. And it set off a little spark. I hate to let something get the best of me, especially an abstract thing like “street photography” (what DOES that mean, anyways?). No good.
Nitty gritty:
Body/lens: F3HP /e-series 35/2.5
1st shot: Ilford HP5+ @ 1600, Ilfosol 3 1+9, 19min, one inversion each minute with three 3min water baths (@6, 11, and 16 min)
2nd shot: Kodak Tri-X 400 @ 1600, Ilfosol 3 1+9, 15min, one inversion each minute with two 3min water baths (@6 and 11min)
Yup. Title pretty much says it all. By the way, all film, Nikon F3 (HP edition) with an e series 35, no post-dev processing. Yes, that is actually how the colors came out. Neat, yeah?
Ilford XP2 Super. I like this film a lot, but it just doesn’t have the nice grain and tone of the HP5+.
All except for the beer-and-chips shot are from a day a few weeks ago when we spent the summer day helping Alicia get started painting her and Jon’s house (while Jon was on a business trip in Alaska–surprise Jon!). Don’t get me wrong, we did stay well nourished and hydrated while painting. A watermelon fight also took place, but I didn’t get any pictures of it; turns out it’s difficult to get good action portraits while dodging flying pieces of watermelon.
Here are some more color shots–same old color film, same real nice slightly reddish vintage tones. I saved one roll of it for a special occasion, and I’m going to buy some film this week to sock away for a few years down the road. Nikon F3, e-series 50mm; no photoshopping or cropping.
