This is the type of scene that I would miss without a telephoto lens. It was a bright, sunny day, but as well as whisps of high-altitude cloud, there was a haze in the air which meant the landscape became layered as it fell to the distance. This is a relatively mundane scene, but the layering provided by the mist makes it into something much more interesting, and the farm is placed so it doesn’t become too obscured, I think.
I did wonder about cropping out a lot of the sky and going for a more panoramic frame, but in the end decided against it – I quite like the way the distant wind turbine protrudes into the emptiness.
All three of today’s pictures were taken while walking along a narrow lane that led me out of Whitwell and towards the main road (the A619, or Clinthill Lane) and from there, back to where I’d parked my car in the layby in front of Whitwell Woods. The weather was fine and I had to remove my fleece long before I reached the road.
I like the middle shot the best. The power pole almost feels like it’s beckoning me closer, and then point the way I need to go.
One of the landmarks near Whitwell is Steetley Dolomite, a large quarry and refining plant to the south of the village. The large chimney can be seen from some distance and, even when the rest of the works is obscured by the low hills in the area, the top of the chimney is often still visible.
The two shots below were taken from the same spot, with my stabilised Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens earning its keep.
A mini selection of buildings I found interesting when wandering around Whitwell. The first building contains apartments but was originally a pub named The Boot and Shoe.
Again, the semi-stand development worked well for these shots.
A few weeks back I shot a roll of Agfa APX 100 during a trip to Lincoln. It was only as I went to rewind the roll of film after shooting all 36 frames that I realised I hadn’t set the ISO dial when I loaded the camera, and that the meter had been set to 400asa for every shot.
If I had been shooting Ilford HP5+ of something, I would have just push procesed the film -something I have done with good success in the past – and, indeed, I thought this would be my plan for the APX 100 too. Unfortunately, there is much less data available on push processing this particular film stock, at least beyond a one stop push to 200asa.
Asking around for advice resulted in a number of recommendations for stand or semi-stand development and, after looking into this further, I decided the semi-stand approach might be the best approach. However, as this would be the first time I’d ever attempted this method of developing film, and as I had an idea there would be some shots from my Lincoln trip that would be worth keeping, I decided that I would have a trial run on another roll of film first.
So, a week after visiting Lincoln, I took a shorter trip to the village of Whitwell and shot another roll of APX 100 at 400asa so I could test out semi-stand developing.
I have two developers to hand at present – Ilford DD-X, and Agfa Rodinal. As there was far more information available on performing semi-stand development with Rodinal, I opted for that. It also has the advantage of being much cheaper than DD-X. My research suggested that a 1+100 solution would be the best option, with a couple of extra millilitres of developer added to compensate for the push processing , so I made up a mixture of 500ml water, with 7ml of Rodinal (again, based on research online). This is more developer than I would need for a single roll of 35mm film, but I wasn’t sure how much extra developer to add to 300ml to compensate for the push as the online advice had stated a 500ml volume of water.
I’d also read that a pre-wash would be a good idea for semi-stand, so before adding the developer I gave it a soak in 20° water for 5 minutes, agitating it for a couple of minutes. I’m not sure if the agitation was necessary at all, but I didn’t think it would hurt.
After emptying the pre-wash water, I added the developer and agitated the developing tank with inversions for 1 minute. I then gave it a tap on the counter and left it to stand undisturbed for the next 30 minutes. After this first half an hour I gave it another single firm inversion, another firm tap on the counter to remove any air bubbles, and then let it stand for a further 30 minutes.
At the end of the hour I emptied the developer, used 20° water as a stop bath for 1 minute, and then a further 5 minutes in the fixer. After this I washed the negatives in tap water using the Ilford method, soaked them for a couple of minutes in a wetting agent solution, spun the reel in a salad spinner to remove most of the water, and then hung them to dry for 3 hours.
I was very happy to see nice looking negatives as I removed the film from the reels. They maybe looked slightly thin, but nothing to cause great concern and I was able to get results I was happy with when scanning and post processing the photographs.
The final results are pretty good, I think. There’s maybe a little more grain than there would have been had I shot and developed the film at 100asa, but it’s nothing I’m concerned about, and the images are sharp, have good contrast, and the highlights and shadows contain plenty of detail.
I don’t think I’ll use semi-stand development all the time, but I will certainly use it again in some situations. I’m already curious about shooting a single roll of film at different exposure settings, for instance, and I have a roll of Fompan 400 that I plan on shooting with my Holga sometime soon which I might develop as semi-stand.
I spotted these trees backlit by the autumn sunshine after dropping my son of at work. I don’t tend to take my camera out when doing this, but on this occasion I had a few frames of film still waiting to be shot so had it with me on the off-chance.
Something good that happened today…
Nothing particularly good happened. Nothing particularly bad happened. It’s been an average day.
I sometimes (often!) struggle to find something to write in this slot on the blog, especially if my mood is low – the things I use are often trivial – but in reality I have so much to be thankful for and, while I’m often unhappy about all manner of things, I am grateful for what I have. It’s good for me to recognise this.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Early November in Sheffield, and the Christmas stalls were already present but not yet quite ready for the public, so they were still locked away by fences (in a festive shade of red, at least).
I like how the girl in the first picture is, at first glance, dressed in what looks like a Santa coat.
Something good that happened today…
I watched the second episode of the new period drama, A Thousand Blows, which started airing on Disney+ this afternoon. I watched the first episode last night and it quickly caught my attention and drew me in. It’s a fictional period drama that is based on actual characters in the underworld of Victorian London, following two new migrants, Hezekiah and Alec from Jamaica and how they become embroiled up in the escapades of The Forty Elephants, a real-life female criminal gang, and also bare-fist boxing (with a muscular Stephen Graham portraying boxer “Sugar” Goodson. It’s from Steven Knight, the man behind Peaky Blinders, and is similarly violent, but the characters are interesting, they are portrayed well by the cast, and the story has its hooks in me. Hopefully it will keep it up through the full six episodes.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
In a perfect demonstration of the finger-on-the-pulse, timely nature of my blog, today’s pictures are of last year’s Remembrance event at Barker’s Pool in Sheffield which I photographed while I was in town on the 10th November. It was very busy and not really possible to get a good viewpoint amongst the crowds, but I particularly like the picture of the poppy seller, and the Kodak Ultramax has produced some nicely vibrant colours.
Something good that happened today…
I had planned to drive to Lincoln today but a poor night’s sleep meant I didn’t get up in time. Instead I drove into Sheffield city centre and then took a long hike up towards the Woodseats area before dropping down to Abbeydale Road and back into town again, where I wandered around further.
My plan was to try and finish off the remaining frames from the roll of Ilford HP5+ that I started shooting last weekend, but also (if possible) to finish the Kodak Gold that was loaded in the Kodak H35N half-frame camera that I received at Christmas from my generous Secret Santa. In the end, I achieved both goals and now have the HP5+ to develop, while the Gold has been posted off (along with a previously exposed roll of Lomo CN400) for processing at a lab. I’m not sure if there are any prize winners from the H35N as it was the first roll I’ve shot with it, so it was a bit of a test, but fingers crossed.
The walk was a good one and I recorded over 13,000 steps, so I treated myself to a latte and a (rather large) cinnamon bun in a cafe. I felt I’d earned the treat so it was very pleasant to take the weight off my feet for a while and enjoy the coffee and bun.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I’m feeling pretty down today and was going to post this with no words at all, but that felt petty and childish. So the fact I’m making myself do so is a good thing, I guess, and better than being completely deflated.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Steel City Snapper photography 