So, as some of you who read this blog might have noticed, the gaps between posts has gradually gotten larger following the early flurry of activity when I first started. In an attempt to combat this and increase the rate at which I post, I’ve decided to change the way that I update the blog. Instead of posts containing multiple shots, I’m going to cut it back to posts containing a single image (although there may occasionally be multiple shots, and even some of the longer posts every now and again) with a concise description. This will hopefully allow me to post frequently and keep the stream of content moving. It also has the benefit of me being able to mix things up a bit and publish photos from different sessions and rolls as I feel like it, rather than posting a whole bunch of pictures from a single event, trip or location (unless I feel like it, of course!). I’ve got a large-ish backlog of pictures taken since I started the blog, plus a pool of other shots taken beforehand to choose from, so there should be no shortage of content at least. I’ve also started re-scanning some of my earlier photos to get better results (I’m now much more adept at using the scanner and software than I was back then), so some older shots have now become a bit more presentable than they were.

To kick things off, here’s a shot from the first roll I shot when getting back into film photography. It was shot on 23 July last year using my Olympus Trip 35 on Agfa Vista Plus 200 film and re-scanned recently on my Epson V550 flatbed. I’d bought the Trip to replace one I already had (given to me by my dad), but which doesn’t work properly anymore (the red flag doesn’t pop up to indicate bad exposure) and chose the Agfa Vista because it was available for £1 a roll at Poundland and, as this was my first foray back into film shooting in about twenty years, I didn’t want to risk a more expensive brand. The film was developed at a branch of Max Spielman and I was happy enough with the results, but I get the impression that film development is becoming a bit of a lost art at some of these high street outlets these days, and after a couple of subsequent rolls yielded very unsatisfying results, I switched to a pro-lab (Peak Imaging) for all subsequent processing and have been very happy with the results since.

This is the dam in Crookes Valley park, Sheffield, UK where I went with my wife and younger sons. The re-scan is far better than my original version (which was a scan of the actual print instead of the negative). The colours are better and more vivid, plus the image is sharper and has less cropping (the person’s legs at bottom left, and the child at mid-left were not visible in the original version at all).