This big boat of an Oldsmobile made for a pretty nice picture. I think the touch of corrosion on the bonnet (hood) adds to it.
I think that this is a Cutlass, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
EDIT: The owner of the car has discovered my blog post and contacted me to let me know that the car is actually an Oldsmobile Ninety Eight, which was the flagship model. I did speak with him on the day I took the picture and he told me that the corrosion on the bonnet was on his list of things to sort out, and he’s re-confirmed that, along with a few stats on the vehicle, namely that it has a 425 cubic inch engine, which means it is a 7000cc V8 engine. Around town it manages 8MPG, and 13.7MPG on the motorway.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008 and shot at 100asa). Adox Rodinal 1+50 13mins @ 20°.
It’s been a while since the last one of these posts, but with a shorter gap than before – 7 months this time, as opposed to the 17 month gap between the last two Expiriment posts.
This time, the subject was a roll of Kodak Vericolor HC which had expired in 1992. I have no idea of the entire provenance of the film before I got it, although it’s been in my freezer for about three years now.
Kodak describes Vericolor HC as follows:
KODAK VERICOLOR HC Professional Film This improved color negative film has greater sharpness and finer grain than KODAK VERICOLOR II Commercial Film, Type S. This film is ideal for commercial illustration, industrial applications, low-level aerial photography, environmental portraiture, and other applications that call for increased contrast. It may also be used for any copy work that needs increased contrast, and for outdoor portraiture under low-contrast lighting conditions, such as on cloudy days or in deep shade.
FEATURES • Extremely fine grain, extremely high sharpness, and high resolving power • Built-in dye mask • Balanced for exposure by daylight, blue flash, or electronic flash • Designed for processing in Process C-41 chemicals
BENEFITS • Produces excellent-quality high-contrast prints even with a high degree of enlargement • Makes excellent-quality color reproduction possible without supplementary masking • Allows exposures from 1/ 10 second to 1/10,000 second without filters • Can be processed with KODACOLOR and other KODAK VERICOLOR Films
I took a different approach when shooting this time. Usually I only have a single roll of a particular expired film and tend to take a chance and shoot the whole roll with the same settings, without any bracketing. This going-for-bust approach risks disaster if I misjudge the settings, but the reward is a full set of different images if it works well, rather than a curtailed set of identical compositions taken at different shutter speeds.
This time though, I decided to take the cautious apoproach. The primary reason for this being that I have an entire pro-pack of the film so using one roll as a sacrifice would mean I can shoot the other four knowing what settings will work well. In order to still maximise the number of different compositions, I chose to shoot the roll with my Bronica ETRSi, which gives me 15 shots per roll of 120 film. I decided to shoot each composition at three settings, allowing me five different compositions from the roll.
I didn’t see any point in shooting any of the shots at box speed, so planned on shooting each composition at one, two, and three stops of overexposure. As the film is rated at a box speed of 100asa, I chose to set my light meter to 64asa as a baseline, take a reading for the composition, and then shoot two additional frames with an increase of one stop of exposure for each. That was the plan, at least…
This plan worked ok for the first shot, and the results can be seen below, withe the first image shot at the settings given for 64asa, and the following two images with a stop more exposure over the previous one:
Fot this first shot, the results were all good. The middle image (effectively shot at 32asa) is the one I prefer. The first doesn’t show any major issues with underexposure, although the sky is a bit deeper, and the third, while clearly brighter, is still very acceptable (and I would have been perfectly happy with it if I didn’t have the others to compare it to).
The results were similar for these shots of a willow tree:
Again, the middle image is the best exposed, I think.
The next six shots had an issue – not only did I tamper with the process by changing lenses, I also managed to somehow mess up the metering – shooting each shot at box speed, then one and two stops over for both these compositions. While this was an error, it just means that the best exposed image is now number three, with the fist shot in each sequence being at actual box speed for the film. It clearly shows problems rated at box speed in terms of underexposure.
—
For the final composition I realised my error and got back on track. The middle shot again being the best exposed.
Beyond the issues with underexposure and some small spotty defects in the emulsion, the results are pretty outstanding for a film that expired over thirty years ago. The colours still look very nice too.
I feel confident that, if I meter for 32asa, that I can expect pretty good results from the remaining four rolls I have, although I’ll perhaps overexpose a little more in dim conditions.
Overall outcome: Success!
Expiriment #6 coming soon (I do actually have some more expired film I’ve shot recently, so this might actually be true)…
Bronica ETRS1, Kodak Vericolor HC (expired 1992). Shot bracketed and lab developed for box speed.Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 11 November 2024
I’ve uploaded the images above directly to my blog, but if you want to see the ones with the best exposure at higher resolution, they can be found here on my Flickr account.
I don’t often photograph cars from the side, usually because there’s always something else in the way or the lens isn’t wide enough to fit it all in. But I had the chance to do so with this Austin 7 (which I think is a Ruby Saloon from 1936).
I’ve just managed to squeeze it into the frame (and I’d normally leave a little more space) but I think the shape of the car lends itself to this tight framing.
I like the way the guy is framed through the window. You can also see me in a reflected selfie. 🙂
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008 and shot at 100asa). Adox Rodinal 1+50 13mins @ 20°.
I’ve been suffering from insomnia for the past few days. My natural tendency towards anxiety has been triggered by the news of my son’s apprenticeship not being converted into a full time role.
I’ve suffered from insomnia in the past, that time triggered by anxiety too. I don’t have any difficulty falling asleep – in fact I could probably close my eyes and drift off from the early evening onward – and while I am asleep, it is undisturbed. The problem tends to come about in the middle of the night, usually because I need to get up to use the toilet. Once I get back into bed, I find it very difficult to get back to sleep. I’ll try for a while, starting by just closing my eyes and hoping I’ll drop off, but then I’ll feel the need to fidget. Each change of position will feel good, but after awhile I’ll have the urge to move again. After a couple of rounds of this I might try some breathing exercises, or some mental equivalents of counting sheep, but sooner or later it will become apparent that my efforts are futile and I will resort to reading my Kindle.
Reading is sometimes enough to get me back to sleep again, but not always, and sometimes I end up just lying there in the dark, eyes closed, hoping for unconsciousness to return. I try to avoid looking at the clock as I think this is counter-productive and makes things worse, but the downside of that is that I don’t know whether it’s 1:30am with a good chance that I will get back to sleep for a few hours, or it’s 6:00am and I have less than an hour until my alarm goes off.
I think sometimes I fall back asleep without realising it. This is more noticeable at the weekend where I have the chance to sleep in. I’ll be awake in darkness and the next time I open my eyes it will be light, proving that I had slept. It’s more difficult to tell on work days though, when it is still dark when the alarm goes off.
I figure I must be getting at least a few good hours of sleep as otherwise I would be a complete wreck during the daytime. As it is I’m still able to function at work and complete other tasks around the place, so I guess I can’t be awake all night, even though it sometimes feels that way.
I expect that the insomnia will subside once I have a better idea of my son’s next steps, but at the moment we’re giving him a little space and letting him keep us informed, as this is what he’s requested. Hopefully he will fill us in later in the week and we can get on with supporting and encouraging him and his plans and just being there for him. For now though, even though I’m confident of his ability to find another good role somewhere, the uncertainty of what is happening keeps me awake thanks to my frustrating anxiety brain. I wish I could mute the part of my mind that does the over-thinking.
Here’s another shot of the AMC Rambler.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008 and shot at 100asa). Adox Rodinal 1+50 13mins @ 20°.
Back to work for everyone today, although I’ve found it quite hard to focus on things, wondering how my son was getting on during his first day back after receiving his bad news on Friday.
He’s told us that he doesn’t really want to talk about the situation at the moment as it keeps dragging it all to the surface. I can understand this, and I don’t want to upset him by keeping on at him. At the same time I’ve asked that he keeps us informed on what’s happening. We want to support him and are here for him 100%, whether that’s offering advice and support, or just being there to listen.
While he hasn’t told us much about his day, he has said that he’s going to spend some time this week in a couple of other areas of the company where he works which have vacancies. I don’t think either job appeals to him very much (and one in particular he definitely doesn’t want to do), but it may be a stepping stone while he looks for something better suited to his abilities and aspirations.
I wish I had some sort of magic dad-wand that I could wave and make everything ok. The thought of him being unhappy breaks my heart.
Here’s another random American car…
Fujica GW690 & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I feel like I’ve spent much of the weekend looking at job vacancies for my son – he hasn’t asked me to, but as his dad, it’s my natural desire to help him as much as I can. He will need to get his CV updated before he can apply for any of them though, which he will hopefully do this week – his colleagues have said they will help him with this and also coach him on interview techniques.
It’s quite a positive sign that there are a number of vacancies in the local area that look like they will be a good match for his experience, although some of them specify a specific qualification that he doesn’t have. I’m hopeful that this will not be too much of a hurdle as the different qualification he does have, plus his on the job experience, may be sufficient.
And, just because this is my photo blog, here’s another photograph of a classic car.
Fujica GW690 & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Following yesterday’s bad news, I’m feeling a bit low at present. Doing all you can to ensure your kids (no matter their age) are happy is a massive responsibility and driving force of being a parent, so until the current situation around my son’s future job situation is resolved I expect that I’ll likely be unhappy to some degree.
At present, there is a lot of things that are unknown, especially because it is the weekend, and I really don’t like uncertainty. Once a plan is in place to get things back on track – and most importantly of all, my son is happy – I think I’ll start to feel better. Although I’m somewhat shell-shocked about it all, I’m positive for his future and will continue to reassure him that everything will turn out ok, because I’m certain it will.
I’ll still hopefully post here each day, but there may be pictures only more often than not. As much as I love photography, it’s importance to me is as nothing compared to the welfare of my children, and it feels difficult to give it much attention right now.
In an attempt to publish something bright and cheerful, here’s a colourful red classic Cadillac.
Fujica GW690 & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
