It was tough to get motivated over the last couple of months, but I did manage to get out and about a time or two just to shoot some film and try to take my mind off the turmoil for a day or two. I shot four rolls of colour film for future blogs and also a B&W film for this weeks blog, Agent Shadow 400. My camera of choice was my Minolta 500si with it's 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 auto focus zoom lens that I hadn't used for a while.
I had a roll of Kodak ColorPlus in this camera and brought a roll of Agent Shadow with me just in case I used it all before my day was done. I hadn't got half way around the park before my roll of ColorPlus started to rewind. The Minolta Dynax 500si really does take all the strain out of photography with lots of automation including rewinding the film automatically. Once that was done I switched to Agent Shadow to see what it would make of a bright sunny day in early autumn.
I captured a couple of my usual compositions in the park for comparison and revisited a couple as I wandered back into the town center. I have said before that I use my photography as a means of helping my mental health and brain function after my stroke. On this day it wasn't long before my head was done after shooting half a roll of Agent Shadow and I headed home.
The good weather continued the next day and I headed out around the local farms for some more therapy. Grief is a bugger and to be honest I was probably just going through the motions with this roll of film. My compositions were my usual offerings, but that familiarity brought me back into the real world. It really did help me out as I made my way around the local trails. As ever, it seemed like I had only been out for a few minutes when my camera started to rewind my film and I headed home.
I developed my film a few days later in HC-110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and removed dust spots and scratches with Affinity Photo. As I went through them I found I had 6 keepers from the park and town centre and 6 keepers from the farms. Is this the way forward for me as a photographer to get more keepers or am I clutching at straws?
Whatever the reason I ended with a dozen shots I was happy with this week. This was a photo walk I needed after the turmoil my family has endured. Nature has a way of helping us understand the cycle of life carries on and I hope to show you more photos as soon as I develop my colour film. As always I have posted all of this weeks photos in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Minolta Dynax 500si - Agent Shadow 400
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