Since I posted about my film stash the other day, it has now grown from 168 rolls to 189 rolls! I did mention in that post that I had 15 rolls on their way to me but, as I was also given the opportunity to buy some more, I did…
It’s all colour 120 format film: 10 rolls of Ektar, 5 rolls of Portra 160, 3 rolls of Ektachrome E100, 2 rolls of Portra 400, and a single roll of Velvia 50. It was also all better than half-price (although some of it is just past expiry), which was why I bought it despite knowing how much film I already have.
Most of it will be frozen and not used until next summer comes around, but I hope to be able to shoot some of it this autumn if favourable weather and free time align. We shall see, I guess.
Today’s picture used the sum total of zero frames from my stash, being a digital photo, but I quite like the cluttered double-exposure-style image that was visible both through, and reflected in, a bar window. My shadow self is in there too! 🙂
I have another of my “Walk With a Camera” posts coming soon, but I haven’t put virtual pen to ink yet, and I don’t plan on rushing it today. I’ve been out mist of the day, firstly seeing The Fall Guy at the cinema with my wife, and then’ when I got home, on a shortish walk to Rother Valley Country Park to test a new lens I’ve bought.
I’ve bought a Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens that will fit my Nikon F80. I think it will be a good choice for when I go on future hikes as it should give me a lot of versatility. The F80 can make use of the image stabilisation on the lens (although I’ve found, slightly annoyingly, that only with a half-press of the shutter, and not with my preferred back-button focusing method). This should prove useful when using the longer focal lengths.
A zoom like this is never going to beat a prime, but as it’ll be used with 35mm film – probably 400asa – then I’m hoping any noticeable shortcomings will be minimal. I only took two shots with it today – all that remained on the roll already in the camera – but they’re at 200mm and 300mm, so should give me some idea of what I can expect when zoomed in. I’ll try the wide angle end on the next roll. I’ll give my thoughts and post some pictures once I’ve gotten them developed and scanned.
Anyway, in lieu of a film photograph today, here’s a digital shot from my trip to Malaga last summer. It’s been hot and humid here in the UK today, so it brought back memories of Spain.
I took a half day off work as I knew the weather was nice for once, and it was one of the only chances I had to try and photograph some autumn colour. So after lunch I headed out to Padley Gorge in the Peak District with the Chamonix large format camera and a bunch of film with the intent of shooting some of the Kodak Ektar that I have, and which I had four sheets loaded in film holders.
I found a nice scene with a backlit oak tree, so set everything up, carefully checked my focus and the camera settings and then took the shot. I then headed a little further down the gorge to try and find the next one. By this time, the light was low enough that a lot of the area was already in shadow, so I looked to photograph a clump of autumnal leaves on a sapling which were illuminated in a shaft of sunlight. It was a slightly tricky shot to focus, requiring some tilt to get everything sharp. After setting up the shot and feeling relatively confident about the sharpness, I went to meter the scene and then noticed with dismay that my meter was set to ISO400. This meant the first shot was two stops underexposed. This was very frustrating and, to be honest, set the ball rolling for the rest of the afternoon’s disappointment.
As I’d already wasted one expensive sheet of colour film I was now even more conscious of the need to not waste any of the remaining three sheets on sub-par images, especially given the fact I’d have to send them away for developing at notable cost, so I binned the shot of the leaves and decided to move elsewhere for something better. I was now in the wrong frame of mind though – everything I considered seemed like it wasn’t worth the effort (or cost) – and so I set up and then dismissed several shots while the sun sank lower in the sky. Eventually (and now in a pretty bad mood) I just said to myself “f**k it” and packed everything away and came home.
I was seething in the car all the way back because a) the weather and light was beautiful and I had been unable to take advantage of something I rarely get the chance to, and b) I wasted an afternoon’s off work for the privilege. I saw several beautifully lit scenes on the way home which, had I had a smaller format camera with me, I could have photographed, but I just had to drive past them all.
The weather looks good again tomorrow, and I’m going to have another attempt at capturing autumn colour, but I’ll be taking some medium format gear this time to make sure I actually capture something on film. I expect the same locations will be much busier tomorrow, unfortunately.
Anyone else have “one of those days”?
The pictures shared today are a few older digital shots from previous visits to the same area. You can see why I’m disappointed to come away empty handed….
Steel City Snapper photography 