I already posted some digital photos of trees in the fog that I took on this day, and now here are the film versions (they aren’t all the same trees, I don’t think). The second one is my favourite.
I developed my first roll of film today in what feels like ages, although it probably hasn’t been that long. Definitely a few weeks though. It was a roll of Fomapan 400 from my bulk roll. Because I was a little generous with the bulk-loader (42 clicks worth, I think), and also due to shooting it with my tiny Olympus XA-3, I ended up with 41 full frames – a record for me. I haven’t scanned any yet, but the negatives look ok and I hopefully haven’t scratched them like I have in the past.
Nikon F80 and Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D on Tri-X Pan Kodak Tri-X Pan (likely expired sometime in the 1990s) @125asa Ilfotec DD-X. 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Today, I decided to roll up my sleeves and develop three rolls of black-and-white 120 film which I’ve recently shot. I had two rolls of Kodak Tri-X, and a single roll of expired Kodak Tmax 100 to process.
I have two developing tanks, a small one which will take two rolls of 135 film, or a single roll of 120, and a larger tank that will double the amount of film I can develop, so the Tmax went in the small tank, and the Tri-X in the larger one. My plan was to develop all three rolls using Ilfotec DD-X, but I realised when making up the solution for the two rolls of Tri-X that there would not be enough left for the other roll.
Not to worry, I thought, I’ll develop it in Rodinal instead. I’ve not developed Tmax 100 in Rodinal before, but expected it might look nice given it’s a fine grained 100asa film. So, after completing the Tri-X, I started to get myself prepared to develop the Tmax – the usual stuff: getting the water to the right temperature, making sure I had all the necessary bits and bobs required (including drying stuff I’d just used with the Tri-X). Then I encountered a problem…
I couldn’t get the top off my bottle of Rodinal. It has a safety cap which requires downward pressure while turning in order to remove it but, today, no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t come loose. It just rotated and clicked annoyingly. At one point I was using so much downward force that the bottle started to collapse in on itself! After five minutes of fruitless effort, I gave up on the enterprise, and decided that I would have to force open the bottle and store it in a different bottle. As I don’t have another suitable bottle (I’d assumed the bottle it came in would be fine) I ordered a brown glass medicine bottle from eBay, and I’ll re-home the developer when it arrives.
Later in the afternoon I searched online to see if anyone else had encountered similar problems and I found a recent Reddit thread describing the exact same issue. A few people had managed to remove the stuck cap with pliers or a wrench, so I’ll give that a try. The consensus seems to be that the developer crystalises in the safety mechanism of the cap, causing it to get stuck and no longer function properly.
Anyway, both rolls of Tri-X came out fine (although I did manage to drop one of them on the bathroom floor when taking it off the reel, coating it with bits of dust and a strand of hair, and necessitating me re-washing it).
No Rodinal was used in the development of the two pictures below. Perhaps that was for the best.
I went for a long drive (for me, at least) today. I had the opportunity to buy an Epson V850 Pro scanner for a very good price and, rather than have it shipped, I agreed with the seller to meet up and collect in person. As he lives right down on the south coast, and I’m in Yorkshire, halfway up the country, we met at a service station in Oxfordshire, which was a little over 2 hours each way for me. I took the opportunity to listen to podcasts during the journey, and the time passed quickly as a result.
The scanner is now set up and will replace the Epson V700 I’ve used for the last few years. The V700 is still in full working order but, given the recent news that Epson may be cutting manufacture of it’s film scanners, I decided to future-proof myself with a more recent model.
I’ve already scanned a roll of 120 film this afternoon to put it through it’s paces and the results are good. One thing I’m not sure about are the film holders that come with the V850. These have anti-newton inserts to hold the film flat, which is a good thing, I thought. However, what it also means is that it’s quite easy for dust to get between the film and the inserts where it can’t be removed with an air blower, resulting in marks on the scan. I guess I could be extra cautious to remove any dust each time, but this is some extra faff I’d rather avoid (I don’t really have issues with dust when scanning with other methods). Luckily, the V700 film holders can also be used with the V850, so I think I will keep hold of those and use them instead (unless I get a particularly curly strip of negatives!).
Today’s picture was scanned on the V700 a couple of months back. A fencepost gradually being colonised by ivy. You can already see the hopeful feelers reaching out for the next piece of real estate.
The spread of ivy on this tree gives it a strange, unbalanced, top-heavy appearance. It stands within easy eyesight of a road I travel sometimes and I’ve thought about photographing it on more than one occasion while driving past, but this was the first time I’ve done so.
This telephone box at Shireoaks is slowly being engulfed by ivy. Perhaps it wants to make a call?
It was slightly awkward to make the shot as, firstly the sun disappeared behind the largest cloud in the sky, and then a guy in a van pulled up behind our car and asked if we could move as we were blocking a gate (although there were no signs or markings stating that this wasn’t allowed – it wasn’t a gate that vehicles could pass through, and it could be easily entered be people). As a result I had to grab the shot pretty quickly as soon as the light re-appeared.
As we approach the end of the year – and decade – I’ve been wondering about a favourite shots of the year post or something along those lines, so I expect that will be the subject of a post in the coming week. I’ve also been pondering some project ideas for the coming year – two of which I’ve already started, although it’s really early days yet and they could fizzle out just as easily as they began, so I’ll wait until there’s something worthwhile developing (pun fully intended) before I make any posts about them.
In terms of new photos, I have a roll of XP2 that shot recently that’s been scanned and I’ll start to upload from, plus a currently unscanned roll of Tmax 400 that I put through the Holga last week. I’ve also shot a roll of HP5+ today, and plan on shooting more film during the fortnight I’m on leave, so there will be a batch of new stuff to see soon, but as the labs I use are now closed for the holidays, I’ll not tbe getting anything developed until the start of the new year now.
For today then, here’s some ivy on a tree trunk that I photographed in Boston Spa last weekend.
Perhaps not concrete, more stone and cement, but this encroaching ivy is making a good job of claiming this cottage. The side door has already been blocked and the window will not be far behind.
Steel City Snapper photography 