The film photography community on Twitter is alive and well and Jason Avery, the man behind #filmfeb #filmjune and #filmtober, decided to put a challenge together to encourage film photographers to give street photography a try using a camera costing no more than £20/$20 during the month of March 2023. It's a format I am familiar with and I decided why the heck not. This was to be a three week challenge; week one we shoot our film, week two we develop our film and week three we share our results.
Normally for a challenge such as this I would purchase a camera, but having bought several new toys recently I decided to use a camera I already own that satisfied the price requirement. I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5 into my long neglected Pentax SP1000 with Helios 44m-4 lens, which cost me the princely sum of £20 back in 2017 and headed out for an afternoon of film fun.
Street photography is not a skill that everyone can do and those who can could still have qualms about it. This is where your choice of lens can make all the difference. I love to use a 28mm lens when I explore the back alleys, but narrow back streets are not where the Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2 lens is useful. It likes wide thoroughfares, such as a busy shopping street, where I could stand back and use the 58mm focal length to bring things to me.
The limitation of my SP1000 is the lack of a light meter. I can usually sunny 16 with the best, but it's late winter-early spring here in Wigan and "sunny" is the guy who owns the takeaway down the road. The challenge mentioned nothing about accessories, so I brought my Gossen Trisix light meter along and used that to give me a chance of making the best of a grey day.
I enjoyed using my Pentax SP1000, It was good to hear its reassuring Pentax "Clunk!" again. I was able to stand back and observe as people went about their business or sat chatting whilst enjoying a coffee with friends. I could also get closer in to the demolition works going on at The Galleries without having to stand right up against the gates. I was enjoying myself and all too quickly, or so it seemed, my camera let me know I had finished my roll of film and I headed home.
The following week I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 in Kodak HC-110 1+63 dilution H for 11 minutes to bring the best from a film shot on an overcast day and hung it to dry in my bathroom overnight. I scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the images over the course of the following few days with Affinity Photo 2. Going long in development with dilution H helped a lot with this film. The gentle approach tamed the contrast and gave me rich blacks without losing much detail in the shadows.
It's now week three so here's a few of my photos from the one roll of film I managed to shoot for the March #CameraChallenge. If you fancy joining in Jason Avery's challenges you can find him using #CameraChallenge #filmfeb #filmjune or #filmtober over on Twitter. I had planned on shooting more film, but I'm happy with the results from my single roll and I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
£20 #camerachallenge
Beltin shots Grav. The HC110 H certainly did the trick for you. 😏👍
ReplyDeleteCheers Keith. If in doubt about development, go gentle and long.
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