#CameraChallenge April 2023 - Textures

 With the success of the March #CameraChallenge Jason Avery asked the film photography community on Twitter if we would like another one in April. Of course we said yes. The theme was to be Textures and we could use any camera we wanted which freed everyone up to take their pick of their collection.

I chose to use Ilford FP4 metered with my Gossen Trisix at 100 iso in my FED 2 with Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens. However, two things would derail my best plans. For the first half of the week it was persisting down with rain as Storm Noa rolled across the UK, the second half of the week saw me laid low with a rotten case of Lurgi and I slept for most of it.

It wasn't a complete bust as I managed a couple of hours on Saturday morning, capturing various textures in my garden. Fences are always good for texture, as are wooden doors and brick walls. I managed to shoot half a roll of FP4 with my FED 2 before I was exhausted and got back in bed.

Sadly that's as far as I got and ended the week with half a roll left in my camera. The next question was do I finish the roll or do I snip the exposed film from my camera? Either way was a perfectly acceptable way forward, but as the weather was steadily improving through week two of the challenge, I decided to finish my film and get some much needed fresh air and exercise.

Ilford FP4 is always great on sunny days, it was built to excell in those conditions and a sunny Tuesday afternoon gave me the chance to get out, even if I wasn't going far, my garden was again all I could manage. The sunshine illuminates the other side of my garden in the afternoon so I made the most of my fence which is part wood, part concrete panels and posts. This gave me great textures to play with and meant I had done a lap of my garden, yay me!

I know I was late finishing my film, but I needed to do it just to hoist a finger at the lurgi that laid me up. I developed it later that day in HC110 1+63 dilution H for 11 minutes at 20 ceclcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. FP4 is a high contrast film and going long with dilution H tamed that contrast to even out the tonal range and makes it more pleasing to my eye. I could see that I had a good roll to choose from for the challenge and, after scanning it with my trusty ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner, I tidied it up with a few minimal adjustments in Affinity Photo 2.

Here's some of my favourite photos taken for the #CameraChallenge and I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I had big plans for this challenge, but I think I got some decent textures from my garden without overthinking it. Sometimes the challenge we have as photographers is to do what we can with the limitations placed upon us. I chose a camera and lens with no built in automation and a 1950's light meter that works off a selenium cell, no batteries required. Nature chose stinking weather and a stinking cold for me to work with. I hope you enjoy them.

Textures - Ilford FP4 - FED 2 

Using Expired Kodak Ultra 400 35mm Colour Film

 In Autumn 2022 my friend Sid gave me a couple of Pentax cameras that belonged to a relative that had passed away. In one of the camera bags was a roll of Kodak Ultra 400 that expired in 2006 and, as it was autumn, I decided to give it a whirl and see what I could get from it. It was my birthday weekend and I was heading out and about to finish a roll of Agent Shadow in my Olympus OM-2, so I popped the Kodak Ultra in my bag and toddled off around my local countryside. You can read about my roll of Agent Shadow here Getting Back On Track With Agent Shadow

I was half way around my walk when I finished my Agent Shadow and loaded my Kodak Ultra 400 into my OM-2. I set the speed to 100 asa to allow for the ravages of time on the light sensitive emulsion and decided to use the Auto setting. My Olympus OM-2 has an excellent automatic setting which allows me to set the aperture on my lens and the camera chooses the appropriate shutter speed. I set off looking for autumn colours.

I didn't have to look very far as the Beech trees on the spoil heap were still holding onto their brown leaves as Autumn made way for winter. I was glad to be out in the sunshine and took a few photo's of them. I made my way to the field where the horses spent the summer and saw the trees around the edges were showing glorious orange and gold hues as they gave their last display of the year. Autumn is always the most colourful season.

I crossed the stile into the Corn Field and sadly had missed the harvest, which was a shame as I was hoping to photograph the Farmer in action, gathering his crop. I still managed a few shots trying to follow leading lines that crossed the field where the corn had been growing straight and tall a couple of weeks earlier. I also tried a few shots of the various trees and hedges as I made my way through the field looking for compositions.

It pays to have your eyes and mind open as I found some hoof prints made by a Deer earlier that day. The local Deer hide in the woodland during the day, but do visit the fields at sunrise and sunset foraging for food. It's a magical sight for the folks who have been fortunate enough to see these shy creatures, nature puts on a show for us if you're willing to be patient. I left the corn field and finished my film whilst making my way down the farm road. I had enjoyed a nice afternoon of autumn film photography and headed off home.

I developed my film  a few months later. I wanted to build a bit of a queue so I wasn't just developing one film in my Cinestill Cs41 home developing kit. Processing colour film doesn't take long and I soon had a few rolls hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it using my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and It took a couple of tweaks using the auto settings in Affinity Photo 2 and a quick clean up of dust spots and scratches to make them presentable.

I'm quite pleased with how this roll of expired colour film has turned out. It was 16 years out of date and I have no idea how long the film had been in the camera bag I found it in, but it turned out pretty decent, if a little grainy which I expected. Here's a few photos from my 16+ year old expired roll of Kodak Ultra 400 and I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Kodak Ultra 400 expired 2006

Photography Therapy - Autumn 2022

 It's been 6 months since I said my final farewell to my Dad and I have recently developed 2 rolls of Kodak ColorPlus I shot between my Dad's death and his funeral in late 2022. I have often spoken of using my photography to help me heal from a stoke and other physical ills over the last few years, but it turns out it helps with grief too.

On the day I shot these photographs I was in a daze emotionally, but a sunny afternoon presented itself and I loaded a roll of ColorPlus into my Nikon F801s, put another in my camera bag and headed into town. I had no particular plan, just a need to be outside with my camera and my thoughts.

I needed a walk to think about anything but my role in my Dad's funeral as it had made my mind a muddled mess and I didn't want to do a half arsed job of his Eulogy. I was visiting familiar locations around town, just happy to be taking photos with no real direction in mind for what I wanted from the day. I was about half way through my first roll when I realised I had been taking a lot of photos in portrait orientation rather than landscape, so I figured I would carry on and see what happened.

Shooting in portrait orientation is hard for me, my back injury restricts the range of movement I have in my arms and my stroke robbed me of my balance which is why I use a walking stick. I have learned to rotate my camera to the right rather than the usual left when switching to portrait. This means I have my shutter at the bottom which is much more comfortable for me. Rotating to the left with my shutter at the top puts my weight on my weakest side and I have taken a tumble or two over the years, so I switched my technique.

Portrait mode meant I had to look for different compositions, to change how I looked at the town centre, I could single out individual buildings or get the whole Cenotaph in frame with the Parish Church. I could get closer to those buildings too rather than having to move way back and still miss the roof out. 

I was at Wigan Parish Church when I had to load a fresh film and I was beginning to enjoy myself. I explored the Arch and managed to get my self down near the floor without falling over to photograph The Old Courts using the arch as a frame. I also explored familiar compositions of the Church Tower before finishing my film and heading off home for my tea.

I put my film in the fridge when i got home and had planned on developing it, but that got delayed until March 2023 when I finally got around to developing it. Leaving it so long brought back memories of the day and it was a happy day to be honest. I didn't realise it at the time, but I was at peace that day. I knew everything was going to be ok.

I developed my Kodak ColorPlus with a Cinestill Cs41 kit, I scanned them with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the photos with Affinity Photo 2. Here's a few of my favourites from my 2 rolls of Kodak ColorPlus 200. You will have seen a few of these compositions in B&W recently, but this was the day I began to explore those compositions so you're seeing the start of that process last rather than first. I have placed them and more from both rolls in albums on Flickr you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.

Nikon F801s - ColorPlus pt 1
Nikon F801s - ColorPlus pt 2

Frugal Film Project 2023 - March

March came by quickly! It doesn't seem like 3 months since we started this years Frugal Film Project and I actually shot this months roll of Kentmere 400 in the first half of the March. It makes a change from waiting until the last minute and I even had a plan. I have spent a lot of time exploring the local farm roads, footpaths and nature trails this year and I am beginning to struggle to find new stuff, so I decided to check out what is further afield.

My usual route only covered a small amount of the footpaths in the area and I wanted to go further afield and see where a couple of them went. I checked out a route on a popular mapping site and decided to give it a shot and see what I could find on route. I loaded a rol of kentmere 400 into my Agfa Isolette 1 and headed out on a day that wasn't persisting down with rain or snow.

It's said that March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb and that adage held up this year. March began with horrid weather that alternated between rain and snow and kept me indoors most of the time. I did manage to get out on a few days where it was dry, but overcast, and wasn't really conducive to great photos. I couldn't wait around for a sunny day and took my chances when I could. On this walk I also had my OM-1 loaded with Double X with me too in case I found anything worthy of adding to my submissions for a project I am involved with. I will speak more on that in the coming weeks.

The nature trails don't just go through the local woodland, they also skirt the north east side of the spoil heap left over from the Mining in the area that ended in the 1950's. Several of the nature trails follow the path of the railways that serviced the mines and this was one of them. It just runs straight for a couple of miles into Standish, a town in the north of Wigan Borough. I didn't walk the whole length of the path, just a portion of it that skirted the spoil heap.

I found a few compositions as I wandered along the path, but the light was challenging my skills. I was glad to have my Gossen Trisix light meter with me so I could at least try to get my photos exposed as best as I could with a camera that has four shutter speeds. 1/25th, 1/50th, 1/200th and Bulb. Where it lacks in shutter speeds it more than compensates with f/stops ranging from F/4.5 to f/32.

I was enjoying my walk along paths I haven't explored and I couldn't help but notice the age of the main farm road I wandered along, there's a part where it cuts into the hill it descends with the fields higher on either side, a sure sign this particular farm road has been well used for a very long time. There was also a few gnarly trees to photograph and passing ramblers saying hello as they made their way aong this well trodden path. In my youth I could have walked along these paths all day, but after a while fatigue started to advance it's grip on me and I couldn't wait to get home and rest after I finished my roll of film.

I developed my film a couple of days later in Kodak HC-110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and hung it to dry for a few hours in my bathroom. I liked what I saw but managed to have one blank frame! I must have wound the film on twice as fatigue set in near the end of the roll, but the rest of my film was nicely exposed given the challenging dark cold dull and gloomy conditions. I digitised my film with my Nikon D610 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm macro lens and processed the photos with Affinity Photo 2.

The challenging conditions show up in this months roll of Kentmere 400, but by and large the exposure latitude of the film brought out what was described by a member of the Frugal Film Project facebook group as a "Sleepy Hollow" vibe. I will take that as it does look like I went back in time on a few of my photos and maybe you could imagine a headless horseman marauding along the lanes, much like the character in the films. Thank you Sacha.

Here's a few of my photos from this moths Frugal Film Project roll of Kentmere 400, you can decide for yourself if you think Sacha has got it right or maybe you see something else. Me? I see a tired Grav who took three days to recover from his walk, but it was worth it. As always I have placed these photos and a few more in my Frugal Film Project album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2023