35mm · Film photography · Photography

How the clocks and bus timetables changing aided my film development

Here in the UK, at 2am this morning, the time switched over from British Summer Time at 2am this morning. This means that, for most people, you put you clocks back an hour before going to bed on the Saturday evening and benefit from an hour longer in bed. Unless, that is, you forget.

This morning I awoke at 9am, which is pretty late for me. During the week my alarm usually goes off before 7am and so, even when I have the opportunity for a lie-in at the weekend, I still tend to wake around 8am or so. So 9am was a particularly good night’s sleep, I thought at the time.

My wife had already gotten up before I woke and I could hear her downstairs in the kitchen, preparing some meals (and yelling at the cats, who were making a mischief of themselves). Glancing at my phone I was saddened to hear of the passing of Matthew Perry, the actor most famous for his portrayal of Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends. We are fans of Friends in our house and, while I don’t tend to watch it purposefully any more these days, my wife and one of my sons have it on regularly, so it’s part of the fabric of the place, which made news of his death more poignant.

As my dad visits on Sunday mornings, I got myself out of bed, made some breakfast, and got ready for his arrival. When he was about ten minutes later than usual I wondered if something was amiss as, although he sometimes misses the bus and doesn’t come, he always calls me to le me know. Glancing at my watch showed that is was just gone 9:50am, so I looked at my phone to see if he had sent a message or I had a missed call and was confused as to why my phone’s clock said it was an hour earlier than I though. I even went so far as to check the time settings to see if something was set incorrectly. And then I realised what had happened and the reason my dad wasn’t here yet…

And then, about 45 minutes later my dad did call to let me know that the bus timetable had altered and he had missed the bus!

What this meant was that I now had an extra hour or so of free time this morning. I’d already planned on developing some sheets of large format film but now, I thought, now I might also be able to develop a roll of 35mm film too! I rarely develop more than one set of negatives on a single day unless they can be developed at the same time in the same tank, so this was an unusual thing for me (and, I think, a first!).

So, the end result was that I got both sets of developing done and dusted, which I’m happy about. I don’t particularly enjoy developing film. I find it to be a chore, even if I listen to music or podcasts while doing it, so having the second lot out of my hair is a nice feeling.

Today’s photo wasn’t developed by me (as I haven’t yet dipped my toe in the waters of C41 development), it was done by a lab, and shows a fancy yacht moored at the harbour in Malaga. It was another of those photos I caught at golden hour, and the colours have rendered very nicely.

Tatoosh

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Colorplus . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 19 August 2023.

35mm · Digital · Film photography · Photography

Golden hour at the Port of Malaga

It’s quite unusual for me to make photographs during golden hour. Most of the time I either need to get ready for work in the morning, or I’m too tired to bother with going out in the evening. So it’s only when I’m on a holiday or something that I tend to take advantage of the soft, warm light it presents.

My wife and I had been out for something to eat in one of the harbour-side restaurants, and the sun was setting when we finished our meal, so I managed to get a few pictures. I also took a digital shot of this same scene which, if I’m honest, I prefer to the film version (traitor!). You can see this at the bottom of the post.

Harbour scene

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Colorplus . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Here’s the digital version, shot with my Ricoh GR III.

Port of Malaga at golden hour

Taken 19 August 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

On the beach

The hotel we stayed in in Malaga was very nice, but it was a city centre place and didn’t have any sort of outdoor relaxation options such as a pool or terrace, not even room balconies, so when we weren’t out, the only place to sit (other than in the bar or reception area) was the room.

City breaks are great, but sometimes it’s nice to just chill with a book or newspaper or something in a relaxing location. As a result, we toyed with the idea of going to the beach one day and hiring a couple of sun loungers and a beach umbrella. Unfortunately, all the umbrellas on the part of the beach nearest to us (and maybe the entire beach for all I know) were fixed into the sand with canopies made of palm fronds (as can be seen in the second picture below). While these are fine to an extent, they are limited by the movement of the sun and also of the position of fellow beach users, both of which will result in times when you’re unable to make use of the shade. As the temperature was in the mid thirties while we were there, and as my skin fries like bacon given half a chance, we decided to forgo the idea.

I still took these couple of pictures of the beach one evening though.

Evening at the beach
Gateway to the sea

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Colorplus . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 19 August 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Warship

The ship shown in today’s post is the German navy corvette, Oldenburg, moored at Malaga.

I know little of naval vessels and had to look this one up online to make an identification, but it is of the K130 Braunschweig class and was launched in Hamburg in 2007. The ship is 292 feet in length, displaces 1,840 tonnes, and has a speed of 26 knots. She carries a crew of 65. Info courtesy of Wikipedia. 🙂

Warship

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Colorplus . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 19 August 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Three views of Malaga lighthouse

A trio of pictures of the lighthouse at the port of Malaga. The fist was shot on Kodak Gold (and had turned out quite grainy for some reason), the latter two on Kodak Colorplus.

Lighthouse

The lighthouse is named La Farola, a unique name as most Spanish lighthouses are called El Faro, using the usual maculine gender. El Faro translated to “the lighthouse”, although Google Translate seems to think “La Farola” translates to “the streetlight” – not sure if there’s a lost-in-translation thing going on there…

Golden hour lighthouse

It was originally built in 1817, but has been modified several times since then, including to repair damage suffered during the Spanish Civil War. I believe you can enter the building and enjoy the views from the top, although we didn’t while we were there.

Illumination

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold and Kodak Colorplus . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 18 and 19 August 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A guy in the street with a trombone

While sat on a bus at some traffic lights, I was surprised to see this guy walk into the middle of the road and start playing his trombone at the traffic. I managed to get a quick photo – maybe not the best picture ever, but at least I caught the moment for posterity. 🙂

Just a guy in the street with a trombone

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 18 August 2023.