Churros, ice cream, and bouncy slides

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve been very happy with the photos I’ve taken with this expired (in 2008) Kodak Plus-X. I bought it several years ago, five rolls in a pro-pack, and stored it in the freezer. Being conscious that it’s a stock that’s no longer available, it was another film in my stash that I was saving for “special occasions”, but I’m fighting against that urge to store such film for occasions that never seem to arise and instead just shoot the stuff.

Plus-X is quite nice, but I’d probably get a very similar look by using Ilford FP4+, so while I now have none of it left, it’s not something that I will miss too much.

Something good that happened today…

Today was my first day back at work, which I wasn’t looking forward to after a couple of week’s off over Christmas, coupled with the loss of a number of colleagues who all left the business at the end of December. The good thing is that it hasn’t been a bad day at all. I took the advice that you should try to ease yourself back into work gently, and spent the day catching up on emails, and also pulling together a to do list. The list got up to about fifteen items, some small and easy to achieve, others that will require more work, and a couple that are projects that I’d like to kick off. I managed to clear a number of the low-hanging items from the list, so I finished the day with a sense that I had achieved something.

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Plus-X (expired January 2008 and shot at 100asa). Adox Rodinal 1+50 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 21 September 2024

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Anyone for ice-cream?

October 13, 2020October 13, 2020 fishyfisharcade8 Comments

When I spotted the couple in the distance when I framed this shot, I knew they would be out of focus because I’d set a wide aperture to give the giant ice-cream cone some seperation from the rest of the scene, but liked how they would fill a gap in the frame.

What I didn’t really notice – partly due to making sure I had focus on the ice-cream, but also because I had to be quick as I was in a queue and about to be served my own, normal-sized ice-cream – was that the man’s top was the same shade of pink as the “strawberry” swirl in the foreground cone, and his female companion’s top a similar colour to the blue flavour (whatever that might be). A nice little piece of synchronicity. 🙂

Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 11 September 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Ice cream

September 19, 2019September 19, 2019 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

The ice cream stand on Mablethorpe promenade. It has a satisfyingly wide range of choices, including those oyster-shell wafers filled with soft-serve that always look really nice, but which I’ve never once had in my entire time on this Earth. I did buy an ice cream, a 99, but it was from another shop.

Also in shot is a ubiquitous seaside sight – the giant ice cream cone! 🙂

Anyway, the lady in the photo’s stripey top has come out nicely on the Double-X. Although the blacks look pretty deep, there’s still detail in there when you look closely.

Sadly, this was the last of my Secret Santa supply of this film, so I’ll need to buy some more.

Olympus 35RC & Eastman Double-X.

Taken on 13 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Greco Brothers

July 30, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

One of my odd shots of nothing much in particular or, as I see it, a beautiful image of a box of ice-cream cones. I seem to have a penchant for this kind of ephemera. Most people would just pass it by but I like to think that, sometime in the future, it will provide a small piece of social history. Plus I like it as a photograph too. There’s no accounting for my taste!

The Olympus 35 RC has rendered the detail wonderfully. If I look at the full resolution scan I can read the writing on the British Standards kitemark at the bottom right of the window.

Olympus 35 RC & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 21 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Hotdog

March 8, 2019 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

Every trip I make to a seaside town I invariably come back with a shot of some piece of street furniture advertising typical fare for the location. Sometimes it’s a huge ice-cream, occasionally a donut, and this time a hotdog AND an ice-cream. If anyone has been with this blog for a while, or has looked at my older posts, you may recall another photo of this same fella from 2017.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.

Taken on 20 February 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A little family outing

June 25, 2017 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Back at the start of the month it was my wife’s birthday, and we decided we’d go for ice-creams at a place that opened recently at the edge of the town centre. Our eldest was away on the day in question, but we dragged the younger two along with us (much to their protestations at being separated from games consoles and PCs!).

Rather than go straight for the ice-creams, we decided to take a bit of a stroll first and the shots featured in this post are what I managed to grab while we walked.

#1 – This was taken close to where we parked the car. It was only after around five shots that I realised that the camera (a Nikon F70) was set to 100 ASA instead of DX mode. As I had a roll of 400 ASA Ilford HP5+ in the camera, I suspected a bunch of overexposed shots, but they all came out surprisingly well.

#2 – The film speed now correctly set, we wandered up to Weston Park Museum where we had some coffees and soft drinks, before looking around the museum. Even with the HP5+ it was still too dim for most shots, but I took quite a few family pics, and also one or two exhibit photos, such as these mugs…

#3 – …and this set of scales, part of an exhibit on how we used to live.

#4 – After the museum, we strolled through the park itself, where I took this shot of the nearby Sheffield University Arts Tower.

#5 – A little further on, and close to the old Henderson’s Relish factory, I took another shot of the brass bottle installations that have been recently added to the area. I took other shots of these and you can see a few in another recent post.

#6 – We were getting closer to the ice-cream parlour now, but I took another couple of shots before we got there. This one of the Somme Barracks building, which dates back to 1907…

#7 – …and this shot of some balconies on a much more recent apartment building.

#8 – The ice-creams were great and I polished off this tasty cherry sundae. Yum!

#9 – I took a final shot on the way back to the car of these curious hooks on the side of the Somme Barracks building.

And, finally, here are a couple of bonus pics from the end of the roll.

#10 – The only apple in the fruit bowl that still had a stalk attached.

#11 – And a fly outside on the double-glazing (shot with a macro lens).

Apart from the family photos, there were a number of other pretty decent shots from the walk, but I’ve not gotten around to uploading them as yet, so they may (or may not) pop up on here at some point in the future.

One thing is for sure though, this was the roll of film that showed me how great HP5+ is. My prior uses (on 35mm at least) had all been slightly dull and lacking in contrast and texture, but I think it’s safe to say (as I think I have before) that this was down to operator failure. 🙂