A photo I took on a walk around Eckington just before Christmas.
Shortly before I took this photo, a day or so prior (it might even have been the evening before) one of my sons went to a birthday party held at a cricket club that is located about half a mile up the road on the left in this picture. It was extremely foggy on the evening – pretty much a wall of blankness in front of the car as soon as the streetlights were left behind. While I love fog as a weather condition where photography is concerned, I’m definitely less inclined towards it when it comes to night driving…
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
I’m posting another photo from the roll of expired Tri-X Pan today. Again, it’s a scene form the Derbyshire County Council complex on the hillside at Matlock.
I’ve got a good few day’s worth of blog posts left in this roll yet, but I finished scanning the last of the frames today. And boy am I glad.
I had about a half-dozen rolls of the batch of film which I picked up from someone online. I don’t mind expired black and white film as it usually gives good results still, even decades past expiry, and this Tri-X Pan (produced before the “Pan” bit was dropped from the name) is no exception. Yes, it’s not perfect, and I have to make some compensation at the exposure or development stage, but on the whole the photos look nice.
One problem I’ve had with this roll has been a lot of marks on the negatives. At first I thought these were drying marks, but on closer inspection I don’t think they are. They have a different look to any drying marks I’ve seen on other rolls and I suspect the film has become compromised in some form, either because of its age, or possibly in my use of it. However, these marks have only appeared on this most recent roll, with no signs of similar defects on others that I’ve shot from the same batch. On the whole, they can be cloned out in Photoshop to an acceptable level too.
The main issue with this film though is it’s tendency to curl when removed from the cannister. It’s curly when loading it onto the spools for development, but upon drying it becomes so very much worse. It’s almost aggressive in it’s curliness. Letting it slip for a fraction of a second results in it springing into itself either as a neat, tightly rolled cylinder of film or, sometimes – particularly when I was cutting the roll into strips for storage – a messy viper’s-nest tangle of coils.
Getting the cut strips into the negative hoder for my Plustek scanner took a great deal of effort and an even bigger helping of frustration. In the end I had to don some cotton gloves as there was no way to set it in the holders without physically gripping both sides of the negatives and, even then, it was still extremely difficult to get them correctly aligned. I had a number of choice words to say as I attempted this, none of which are suitable for repeating here.
But now they’re all scanned, for better or worse, and I am glad of that. I’m not sure if I have any more of this particular batch of film left. There might be a roll in the freezer somewhere (I really need to carry out a stock-check on what I have in there!), but I’m kinda hoping there isnt. I think I’d rather pay the price of a brand new roll of Tri-X!
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
So, it’s another quick post today. I did have some stuff I was going to write about, but my eldest came round to visit and I now don’t have time. I shall endeavour to do it tomorrow instead.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Another photo of the Derbyshire County Council complex at Matlock. There’s a very dark and moody look to the whole set, a combination, I think, of the metering on the XA3 trying to find the right exposure between scenes that consist of dark buildings and trees and much brighter foggy skies, and also my use of this roll of almost 20-years expired Tri-X Pan. Pushing the film a stop (while shooting at the 400asa box speed) to compensate for its age has also increased the contrast and grain. It’s a look I’m not unhappy with though.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
The dome in the background of this picture is part of the Derbyshire County Council buildings in Matlock. They stand on the hillside above the town centre and there is some interesting architecture present. The photos on the blog in the coming days will show more views of the place.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
The photo today shows a scene in the centre of Matlock that I snapped when we visited the Christmas market last month. I liked the way the far street rose up the hill into the distance, the wet road catching the dull light nicely. The building and the tree frame the shot, and the couple and the lamppost add some interest. At the upper left can be seen a clock tower. That was close to where we had parked our car and there will be more photos of that building to come over the next few days.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
I have to pick one of my sons up from college today, so I won’t have time to write the blog later (well, I will, but I’ll probably want to do other stuff instead :)). So today it’s a quick and somewhat random post with a picture of the back of the bowling green pavillion that featured in testerday’s post. It was the ripples on the water and the birds on the roof that caught my eye but it’s not much of a shot if I’m honest. Look at me, treating you all with such treasures! 😀
The truth is that I’ve still got most of this roll of film still to scan and am limited on shots to pick until I get on with that. The roll also seems to have some sort of marks on a lot of the frames. At first I thought they were drying marks, but they don’t really correspond to other drying marks I’ve seen. I’m now wondering if it’s something else – maybe I didn’t let the film defrost before loading it and caused condensation or something? Or perhaps it’s just an artefact of the film being almost twenty-years past it’s use-by date. Luckily I’ve been able to photoshop out the worst of it, including this photo.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
The weekend befoe Christmas, we went to visit a Christmas market in the town of Matlock – about a half-hour’s drive away. My eldest and his girlfriend came along and, despite it being a somewhat gloomy day (with heavy fog on the hills), and the market not being as big as we expected, we had a nice few hours wandering around, topped off with some takeaway fish and chips.
I took my XA3 in my coat pocket and managed to grab a number of pictures in the misty winter conditions, including this one of the bowling green in the park where the market was taking place. No-one was out playng bowls on the day.
I remember Crown Green Bowls being a regular fixture on TV when I was younger, although I never had any interest in it, but I’m not sure if it’s still shown these days – maybe on a dedicated sports channel I suppose? I’ve only played the game (which you can find described here) on a few occasions and, as I and my friends were young and foolish at the time, I recall it mainly involved us mischieviously larking about trying to collide with other player’s bowls in the middle of the green than playing it properly.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Beside the Don Valley Centertainment complex – which houses a multiplex, bowling alley & arcade, kid’s play area, and a selction of restaurants – are industrial streets. This is the east-end of the city where, in it’s industial heyday, the bulk of the steel industry resided. There are still steelworks in the area, and more as you head down river towards Tinsley and Templeborough, but much of it has now become history.
I’m not sure what the building in today’s picture used to house – I’m sure my dad would know, and I’ll ask him next time I see him – but it’s now the home of a scaffolding hire and sales business.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
I made this picture back in late November I think – it’s on a roll that was shot over the space of a few weeks with my Olympus XA3, which I’d been keeping in my coat pocket. It was taken from the car-park across the road from these buildings on the day I went into town for one of my attempts to get my laptop rebuilt. I was heading towards the stairwell when I noticed the shot and liked the way the buildings stoof against the sky with the central tower flanked by the smaller buildings on either side.
The film was a roll of expired Tri-X dating back to around 2003. I’ve shot a few rolls of this and found that it likes an extra stop of exposure. For the previous rolls I just exposed it at 200asa and then developed it normally, but as the weather was a little gloomy on the day this roll was loaded, I decided to keep the extra stop of speed and push it a stop in development instead. I’m quite happy with the results. The grain is quite pronounced, but I’m not afraid of a bit of grain.
The worst thing about this film is how much the negatives curl when developed. Not only do they coil up like a spring, there is also heavy bow to the film along its full length. This made cutting and sleeving the negatives troublesome, but this was not nearly as problematic as trying to get them into the negative holder to be scanned. The Plustek holders are pretty good at keeping negatives flat – I doubt I would have gotten anywhere with my Epson holders – but you still need to get them in and aligned before it can be closed to hold them in place. Somehow I managed it though, although I’ve only scanned two strips so far.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X Pan (expired 2003 – shot at box speed and pushed a stop in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Steel City Snapper photography 