Autumn is a special time for photographers of all genres. It doesn't matter if you shoot film or digital, large format or 35mm, a pro Mirrorless or the camera on your smartphone, Autumn is the time for colour photography. My favourite colour film is of course Kodak ColorPlus 200, a 35mm film with nicely saturated colours that shine in spring and autumn each year.
My cameras of choice were my Minolta X-700 with Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 wide angle, my Minolta Dynax 505si with Minolta AF 35-70mm, my Olympus 35RC and my Nikon F801s with AF Nikkor 24-120mm f3.5-5.6 D. I started with my Minolta X-700, I loaded it with Kodak ColorPlus and headed off around the farms to see the colourful display that was beginning to show.
After the long hot summer of 2022 here in the UK the trees had begun to shed very early. I was a bit puzzled by it until I looked up the effect a hot dry summer has on trees. I learned that trees shed leaves at the very end of their branches when water is scarce as a natural survival strategy.
It makes perfect sense of course, water rises up through a tree to get to the ends of the branches to grow the tree. Less water = less growth and a false autumn ensues. Shedding the outer layers is the same as we do in the hot weather, the trees just miss out the trip to the seaside.
The autumnal colours in my local woodland was beginning to make it's presence known a couple of days later as I loaded my next roll into my Olympus 35RC. The green foliage gradually turned to various shades of yellow, orange and brown. The Sycamore and Maple trees were yet to show their full colours, but it was looking quite promising for a colourful end to the year. I soon finished my roll of film and headed home.
I had to wait a day or two before I could shoot my next roll of ColorPlus in my Minolta Dynax 505si Super. A bright afternoon around Mesnes Park where the Maples were a riotous red hue amongst the yellow and orange Sycamores as autumn really started to glow with colour. I really enjoy watching the seasons change in the Park.
Finally I got to use my Nikon F801s. I hadn't used my Nikon F801s for quite a while as I had been spending a lot of time learning to use my Goodman Zone during 2022. The automation my F801s has and indeed what my other chosen cameras have, was a welcome way of taking a lot of thought out of my photography. I could look at a composition, use aperture or shutter priority and just think about framing the shot.
I shot 2 rolls of film with my Nikon F801s around the local farms. Sadly it was the last of the colour I saw in 2022 as a combination of crap weather and mourning my Dad saw me stay home a lot. I was happy to have these four rolls and planned on developing them when I had a few more to make mixing another Cinestill CS41 kit worthwhile.
That developing session came in the second week of February 2023 and my second batch of chemicals was as decent as my first. Consistency is always the key to having good chemistry to develop with. Cinestill's 2 bath system comes in powder form, just mix with water at the right temperature until the powder dissolves, it's easy peasy. Keeping the chemicals at the right temperature is just as easy by letting them stand in hot water and allowing the heat to exchange between the water and your bottles before you use them. Its magic!
After hanging to dry overnight I scanned my Kodak ColorPlus with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the images with Affinity Photo 2 to remove any dust spots and scratches. On the whole I am quite pleased with how they turned out. Here's a few of my Autumn photos and as always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Autumn 2022
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