Been here in Grenaa these last few days and surprised by the amazing quantity of daylight this time of year. I’m about to go to bed (it’s 10:30pm) and outside it looks like it’s 7:00pm. Weird but nice for photography. I think I burned a roll and a half of tri-x pushed at 1600 and a kodak color from the XA. I’m going to leave it at that for the little newcomer. I still need to know if the focus works, and my gut feeling is that it doesn’t. More to come on that. Keeping my fingers crossed.
The picture above came out way better than how it looked live.
Somewhere between Martina Franca and Grottaglie – June 2016
I’m extremely excited but i really can’t talk about it now. And i won’t until i get something official. I’ll start with one change right now… I will commit to capitalizing my “I”s and to be a little more considerate of the grammatical mess that my blog has been up to this point.
I just want to say this though. These last 4 years have been tough, kind of a purgatory is how I’ve always seen it. Hopefully the next step is around the corner. I don’t want to be too optimistic because I know where it’s led me in the past… But it doesn’t hurt to have good thoughts.
Not much came out of this Munich trip. Some more doubts in general… a good m42 lens, and probably some good pictures. I’ve just developed a single roll so really don’t know that either.
This is one good example of how overexposing film works and how many stops you can actually cover. I’ve been reading around of how flexible film is, so i’ve recently started to lay on the high side of the light meter. In this case the camera was metered for the ground but i saw the wrapped sign which was kind of interesting. Without changing setting i aimed up and took the shot. I knew it was not going to be good once developed but i figured i’d use the opportunity to test what i was reading. Here’s how it was right after i scanned it.
As scanned
I’m sure i could of post processed it a little better, but i think this shows a little bit of the benefit of overexposing. When less light comes in, the chemicals on the film don’t react, so there’s basically no information to recuperate when you underexpose. More light coming on the film enables the reaction even more. While excessively overexposing can get to the point where it’s detrimental and there is actual loss of information, you’re still going to be able to get more info than from a film in which the chemicals have not reacted at all.
Not the best but definitely not the worst. I woke up unexpectedly early at 7:00am and figured i’d slowly start the my day with a good breakfast and a long shower. No running today, considering i went yesterday and plan to go tomorrow. Last night before going to bed i discovered the antique market it was not in Taranto, but rather on my street. Go figure…. Anyways, that was not all good news as there’s always the same shit over here. Confirmed, breezed through it while getting to the car and headed for the Exhibition in Taranto. Which was small but pretty cool (here’s the link to the festival).
Been working tonight on a few pictures from the same day the picture above was taken. Getting steady on the look i want and trying to apply it to all. It was shot on Rollei Retro 400S. Nice film, pretty clean and contrasty with low grain. I’m not sure i’ll continue to use it for long though, as i have to run it in the tank for 15 mins, which is kind of a drag. In summer it’s really hard to keep the temperature at 20C. Plus i don’t know how long it’s gonna stay around. Although it is quite cheap…. 4 euros i think i paid for it. Now that i think about it maybe i will invest more money in it… Maybe it’s going to be my winter film.
Going into a Sunday morning with high hopes of getting a lot of things done. Will follow up to see how that goes. Wake up early – Flea Market – Photography exhibition. Should be done by 11. Not putting a run in like i initially thought. That would be too much.
These last two evenings i’ve been completely absorbed by the development process of the two Rollei Retro 400S development. One 2-hour session yesterday to load the two films in the same canister a get all the chemicals just about right. As i discovered it’s really hard when you need them at 20 and the room temperature is 26. Plus the development time is 15 minutes so lots of time for them to get warmer…. Anyway, just when i was about ready to pour them in, one last check at the temperature and i dropped the thermometer on the ground…. It didn’t break, but i did get some air bubbles in it. After about another hour i managed to fix it, but it was late and i had to meet up with my colleagues for dinner. Fast forward to tonight, i don’t trust the thermometer anymore so i bought a digital one. Get the chemicals just right again and after some prayers the rolls came out just fine. Dinner, tired, going to bed. They look pretty good… tomorrow i’ll know and post some pictures.
I fucked the thermometer today. Dropped it. My bad. Now I have two exposed rolls sitting in the tank waiting to be developed.
Thermometer appears to be ok but I’ll buy a new one anyway tomorrow and develop the shit out of those rolls!!
Duck yeah! (yes. Duck.) Stay strong! Work!
Frankie 